Touch your Toes to Reach the Stars
I hate gyms. I have tried, and I have failed to motivate myself to hit the treadmill and the cross trainer. The 12 minute sprint refuses to end, my knees hurt from I am pretty sure a combination of wrong posture and wrong shoes but mostly the rabid reluctance running in my veins. Not the best view, the hottest trainer or the peppiest music has kept me in there. It was 5 years back that in an attempt to run away from the gym, I found myself with a kick-ass 55 year old fitness trainer, who trained some of us in the open air with her deep un-obey-able voice, in mostly a combination of HIIT exercises. Her fitness levels and knowledge of human anatomy were legendary, and I surprised myself by staying with her for nearly 18 months, right before she relocated to Germany. It was a bad time for me because I am very prone to falling off the wagon in the absence of in your face motivation and I was going through a hard time at work; always recipe for midnight chocolate cake innit? On her last day she mentioned I should approach R, a new Ashtanga yoga instructor here in our building just to keep myself going. And I did. We met for a short walk, here’s what that conversation looked like:
“So R, I am, you know quite fit and all, I just want to practice some meditation because I am feeling a little stressed at home and work and I have a monkey mind.”
She smiled at me and said, “Meditation is the last stage of yoga and perhaps the hardest to master, one who has no control over his body, can have no control over his mind. Come for the class tomorrow.”
The next morning, I went right up to class feeling reasonably confident that it was going to be a piece of cake. As many before me have discovered, Ashtanga Yoga particularly, is neither “a piece” nor “a cake” by any means. It also was just my luck, that on that day, none of the other beginner students showed up and the only other person practicing with R was an advanced student and her co-founder in her Yoga studio. Which of course I didn’t know about. At the end of those brutal 60 minutes, I swore I am not going back. I couldn’t, I had been the worst student in the history of yoga universe I think.
I didn’t go back. For a couple of months however I stayed on her Whatsapp student group and one morning with some mysterious inspiration I said, let me give it another shot. That was 3 years back, I have been a student on and off, more on than off and it has transformed my mind and my life. Often, I have found myself using yoga analogies at work and in life, the effects on how I eat,think and live have been truly transformative. I value what yoga has done for me psychologically, more than my improved physical well-being. Here are some lessons I carry with me through the day.
Focus on your core, not on your extremities: Many a times, in an attempt to get to the yoga postures as you see performed by your teacher, your mind signals you to “copy” the pose. You want to take the arm out, push with you hands, stretch your leg, kick off with the foot. And invariably it does not work, or sustain. Eventually, for most aasanas, you need to let it grow from the inside out, let it develop a little every day. Strengthen your inner core and let your extremities become weightless almost, to the point where you can lift your limbs and keep them in the air with the strength of your middle, the necessary foundation. I have found that so useful for personal development, when I look at a writer who’s insanely talented, I know it is not the flourish I see in this one article but the hours of preparation in strengthening the core.
Reach with your vision, look forward, and then look down: In many aasanas, it is necessary to fold over and reach. You will hear many yoga teachers say during practice, “focus on a non-moving spot”, when trying the balancing postures. When I started paying attention to this technique of looking ahead instead of looking down, even when the final posture needs you to look down, it made a tremendous difference, both to my practice and to my life. Having a point of vision (drishti), maintaining it and only when you have arrived, looking down almost in humility, was a huge lesson. It teaches you both the importance of setting your sight on something, and then being humble in success.
Touch your toes: This is my favourite, and perhaps one of the earliest lessons I learnt. In the trikonaasan, as you bend with your sides, when you begin, it is nearly impossible to bend correctly and reach your extended toe with your extended fingers. Your side hurts, your knees want to buckle, you want to bend over forwards and fold your mat and leave. However, just staying put, and telling yourself that the goal is not some ideal body size, not that day, not the class, not even the next aasana, it is just this — this moment contains your whole life. You were born in the beginning of this moment, to bend over and touch your toe, and die. I know, pretty dramatic, eh? It worked for me in my darkest hour, to revisit that feeling. No matter how onerous the project you have undertaken or how complicated the problem you face, if you can reset your mind to that moment in which your life’s purpose was not who you are or what you do, but with everyone else, to bend and touch your toes, you can get through anything. Each problem can be broken down and juxtaposed into a sequence of what I call ‘touch your toe’ moments.
Breathe: And finally, the pithiest of them all. One that I even practice with my 7 year old child and my year old dog because it works like a charm. When all hell has broken loose, and you are a flurry of emotion, even for the briefest time, close your eyes and pay attention to your breath. My teacher says, according to ancient Indic philosophy, our breaths on earth are counted. And the surest way to live a full and long life, is to remember to make each breath last.
Those are the lessons that I have taken from yoga to my personal life, and really benefitted both at work and outside. Once you open your heart and give of yourself generously on the yoga mat, your mind and body get wired to live positively. I am not one to give in to self help clap trap and if this sounds suspiciously close then I have failed in showing you how meaningful and transformative an hour on the yoga mat can be. But if this inspires you to at least give it a shot, and in that first class you find yourself unable to “do”, don’t lose heart. Just “be”. Go back. Wait for the moment where you can hear yourself talk, you will likely hear gratitude for being alive.
