by Baxter
Photo by Sarit Z Rogers of Sarit Photography
Recently I had the great pleasure of listening in to a live webinar Jivana Heyman of Accessible Yoga did recently for YogaMate.org (unfortunately, you need to be a subscriber to access the webinar) and something he said really jumped out at me as important. So I decided to ask him to expand on it a bit:Baxter: Jivana, can you speak for a moment about the role of asana in the bigger picture of the underlying goal of yoga from your perspective?
Jivana: Yes, sometimes when we adapt poses we end up with variations that don’t have much of a visual connection to the original pose, and the question is whether we’re still doing yoga. So, I like to think about what defines yoga practice in general. If you look at the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, you see that yoga practice is defined as “the effort toward steadiness of mind” (I.13 translation by Swami Satchidananda).
Asana works to steady the mind through a focus on physical sensation, breath, or drishti (gaze). If we can bring that same focus into our Accessible Yoga practice, we quickly realize that the outward appearance of a pose is not a sign of whether or not someone is practicing yoga. What’s important is the mental focus and engagement. This is why someone with quadriplegia or any kind of paralysis can still practice yoga, if they engage their mind.
Even if we don’t want to think about it, we’re all going to get sick at some time or another and eventually die. So if we only focus on the physical benefits of asana, we’re doomed to fail! But, if we focus on this larger goal to steady the mind or, you could say, to make friends with your mind, then we can experience a deeper inner connection. With a quieted mind, our internal peacefulness bubbles to the surface—even if just for a moment—and that’s why we feel so good after yoga practice.
Baxter: Jivana, thanks for your insights on this essential aspect of yoga practice.
Readers, I feel that Jivana has expressed is a core intention we need to keep in mind as we engage in yoga, regardless of our physical abilities. This can be a way of helping you assess moment by moment the effects and impacts of your physical practice of asana, especially for those of us who tend to overdue it. For me, this also ties into the cultivation of equanimity. If I am recommitting again and again to moving toward a steadiness of mind in the face of challenging circumstances on or off the mat, for me this is equanimity in action.
If you want to see Jivana in person (along with many other knowledgeable teachers) and learn more about Accessible Yoga, the next Accessible Yoga conference will take place in San Francisco, CA, October 6-8, 2017. Register here!
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