Yoga Is a Creative Living Practice | It Starts Now

WHAT'S GOOD | WILD SAGE YOGA | ROOT. GROW. THRIVE | 3 JAN 22

Happy new year! Here we are. At the start of another (unpredictable) future — a literal and symbolic restart, refresh, rebirth — poised with boots on the ground, peering toward the horizon with cautious hope and puffy-chested bravery (either real or imagined). As we stand at this precipice looking forward, we naturally think about how we might do better in our lives. But let’s not fool ourselves into making promises we can’t keep.

Short-term resolutions mimic, but don’t sustain, the spirit of what they really want to be — which are long-term intentions that create true transformations. Be gentle with yourself. Start slow. Simply vow to move from one now to the next. To live consciously and creatively, one breath at a time. Truly, that is something that is available to each of us. Breathe in, breathe out, and it will produce the unfathomable but nevertheless inevitable sweep of change we desire for ourselves. You don't have to believe it. But it's true. Just breathe.

I was listening to Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic,” and she was waxing poetic about Creativity, and how we are all, each of us, creative beings. It is our birthright and natural inclination to want to create, to make shit, to evolve our thoughts and ideas and systems, to come up with new solutions and ways of being and modes of expressing ourselves. These tendrils of understanding reach for and intertwine with those of yoga. Yoga is a living practice. A practice for living. A fluid and shape-changing practice of breath and movement and tradition. A practice of self-knowing and self-creation that is unique to each individual. A practice of calming the mind and embodying the whole spirit. And if that isn’t creative work, what the fuck is?

Let’s Start at the Beginning | The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Yoga is an approach to life that takes conscious practice as well as thought. It is rooted in 196 sutras, or threads of teaching, written by Patanjali (or a collective of Patanjalis) over 2,000 years ago. These threads are woven into a large and varied tapestry of understanding on how to defeat the traps of the mind to live fully, and creatively, beyond suffering.

The book itself begins with a statement of beginning, so it is fitting that as we start a new year, we take a look at the first sutra. Amidst the literature and philosophy, there are many interpretations of its meaning, but basically, it orients and sets the seeker on a path of contemplation and practice. I am certainly not a sutra scholar, but I share here simply what I am personally trying to know. And perhaps it will resonate for you somewhat in the context of beginnings and the commitments that we're thinking about making in the new year. I also encourage you to please do your own research and exploration of this and all other sutras. For now, though, I simply offer this (admittedly decontextualized but nevertheless illustrative) glimpse at Sutra 1 from Book 1 (Portion on Contemplation).

1.1 Atha yoga anushasanam.

Translations:

Now the exposition of yoga is being made.

Now yoga continues its explanation/exposition/teaching/evolution.

The teaching of yoga will now begin, as continued from previous teachings.

Now we’re diving deeper into our contemplation/learning of yoga.

Now this is yoga as I have perceived it in the natural world.

Now we’re really getting down to what yoga’s all about.

Here we go, this is it, this is yoga, ya’ll!

Every moment is now, every moment is a beginning, every moment we are beginning again, continuing our understanding and practice of yoga (life, origin, source, soul, nature, wholeness).

Ending Thoughts on Beginning

Living consciously and creatively, according to the collective offerings of Patanjali and Elizabeth Gilbert, means to show up, to begin again and again, to live and practice with INTENTION, CREATIVE ENTITLEMENT, and AUTHENTICITY.

Intention | We all want to feel better, know better, live better. Aspirations only become realities with true commitment. No one else is going to do it for you. Do it for yourself and keep at it. There is no other way.

Creative Entitlement | We are all entitled to create, shape, and manifest a path to wellness and wholeness through creative expression, including everything from art to machine building to problem solving. (We are not, however, entitled to be assholes. We can create so much more out of love than hatred.)

Authenticity | We have to be honest with ourselves and show up with genuine commitment in order to LIVE INTO the space of our intentions and LIVE UP TO the creative entitlement that is our birthright. This means showing up with honesty as well as intention. With uncompromising loyalty to ourselves, our values, and what we love.

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“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Do not disobey Eleanor.

Just do the fucking thing already. There is nothing to wait for before making something happen.

Emerge into existence.

Embody the center of your own personal gravity (Standing pranayama-vinyasa)

Be your greatest legacy.

Fuck everyone else’s fucks.

Make your sacrifices your own.

Love yourself in service to others.

Face the fear and burn down all expectations.

May we have strength to not only bear adversity, but to transform that shit into something positive.

Remember, your wound is your gift.

“The wound is the place where light enters you.” #Rumi #word #truthteller

Keep on keepin’ on! Happy new year, everyone!

Whatever this year, this future, has in store … Let the present be enough.

“A wonderful result of letting go is experiencing

each moment as being enough, just as it is.”

— Gil Fronsdal

Be prepared for challenges, and meet that shit with understanding and grace (yoga helps)

:

“Troubles tell you to regain your balance.

Difficulties and problems take you to the right path

and show you the way.”

— Wisdom of Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ram