Relationships of Yoga

These days I am more and more coming into the awareness of yoga as relationship. We start with the premise that everything is alive with sacred energy and so the yoga becomes about engaging consciously with what is around us. We enter into relationship with whatever is before us and a triad is born; you, me and the space between us. It is this mid-line or center space that is the doorway to deeper connection and the true yoga. The question, then, is never are we doing yoga, but how are we doing yoga?

I find myself stepping into that center and my response varies. The mid-line is always shifting and sometimes it is elusive, while other times it seems to smack me in the face. Sometimes I am patient with the process and sometimes I am frustrated because it makes no sense at all to my linear and rational mind. In either case I always find that a return to my mat makes me feel exponentially better. And this is the deeper seed of why we keep coming back. Over and over we step into relationship with the poses and the practice and we uncover more about ourselves. Yoga becomes a reflection, a mirror of what is in our hearts.

What I know about myself is that I love to laugh and that I also take things too seriously sometimes. I am clear and then completely confused. I am full of love and then frustrated to the point of anger. And to all of this yoga has taught me to say “yes.” Yoga has led me into deeper relationship with myself, where I see my contrasting emotions and the sweet space between them where I am a human being instead of a human doing. In this reflection, I see the unwavering essence that sits in the mid-line and I experience union. A glimpse, and then practice to make that revelation more frequent, more consistent.

Know that when we engage mindfully in what is before us, it helps us to see that beautiful space of the center. When we look to our own center we always have the opportunity to see ourselves with love. The center will likely be filled with contrasting emotions and maybe even conflicting feelings, and yoga would have us honor them as part of the texture of the relationship with ourselves. As Rumi said, “Go there and roam.”