Calming the storm
Imagine a hurricane wreaking havoc in your area. Would you run outside to try to stop it? Try as you might, you know you have no control over the weather. So you ride out storm with perhaps provisions and shelter and wait for it to pass. As with everything in life change is inevitable and the once stormy sky eventually gives way to sun and calm. This remembrance of impermanence in nature can serve to remind us of the impermanence of all other things in life particularly our thoughts, emotions and feelings. The trick is in remembering and also inviting curiosity as a way to become interested in this ‘inner weather’ as a way to navigate life more skillfully.
“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.”
- Timber Hawkeye, Buddhist Boot Camp
This is where the practice of yoga can play a role. The sticky yoga mat can become a laboratory of sorts to move your physical body, breathe intentionally and notice your mind as a way to feel more grounded and centered with the marriage of body, breath and mind to bring about calm and gain access to deeper layers of yourself in order to engage in life more skillfully.
We begin with the most obvious, usually the most tangible which is our physical bodies. This is where the asana or poses of yoga come into play. Through movement the door to understanding and recognizing our internal weather begins to crack open as sensations are felt. As noted by neuroscientist and Stanford professor, Dr. Andrew Huberman, “The body is a powerful entry point to stabilize the mind. You can’t control the mind thinking about the mind.” Breath also takes center stage in yoga. I often tell my students that if you’re doing a bunch of yoga poses and not breathing intentionally then it’s not really yoga. The magic happens when the two work in synchronicity allowing the nervous system to enter rest and digest which then signals to the mind that it’s okay to relax. While the science is certainly prolific to support claims of movement and breath for an altered mind state one just needs to try themselves with a level of curiosity and awareness.
James Clear writes in his book, Atomic Habits, “You are much more than your conscious self.” I suppose this is the true gift of yoga: Gaining access to a quieter, calmer area that exists within each of us below our conscious selves. Too often we are yanked around by the storm of life and blame outside forces….traffic, deadlines, work, mean people, etc. Yoga asks that we turn inward and recognize that the only thing actually within our control is where we place our attention and thus how we choose to respond. Holocaust survivor Viktor Fankl astutely wrote, “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”
Personally I love to practice handstand and enjoy the flexibility that the yoga poses have afforded me, however I have come to see that the real jewel of the yoga practice is the journey inward and the opportunity it offers to see myself from the inside and to read my internal weather. The movement and breath that happens in yoga create a balmier environment that allows me to step off the mat and back into life with more ease and skillful actions, thoughts and feelings. Moving your body and breathing intentionally will leave you feeling more scattered, said no one ever. So I invite you to become more interested in the internal weather and thus create conditions for perhaps more sunshine or at the very least less reactivity. Even a hurricane can be beautiful when we’re observing it with awareness and curiosity.