Revive Your Heart and Mind with Yoga
- Emily Plummer
- Jul 25, 2017
- 2 min read
I try to get on the mat as much as I possibly can. Periodically, I don't even end up ON the mat. It's my floor, a friends house, the kitchen, the grass, on the porch. I start with a child's pose, and maneuver my way up from the ground to the sky. With my eyes closed, I picture myself on an actual mat, a dozen bodies around me, all breathing in sync.
“Now, on your breath in, steady your gaze and float your leg up, coming into warrior three…
”I breathe in, feeling my leg lift from the ground and I lean forward majestically….
“Emily, just make sure you steady your gaze and focus on the breath!” my instructor chuckles as she scans my posture before I fall to the ground. Definitely NOT majestic. It is a routine. Me, feeling like I’m the most elegant human in the world, but getting reminded by the universe that I’m in serious need of some practice. I guess we all have a bit of wiggle room to improve, especially when practicing yoga. We sometimes forget that yoga isn’t always the practice of the physical body. Intermittently, you have to remember the mental body. The body that gets beat up the most, worked the hardest, but also neglected the most. We don't realize all the negativity the outside world and ourselves send to the mental body. Yoga is a way to revive; heal the damage done to it. But to get to the mind, you have to go through the heart.
Your heart and your mind are connected. When you experience excitement, your mind gives you thought, and your heart gives you feeling. Scientifically, your heart races when you're excited, but when you're sad, your heart rate drops. If you ignore your mind, it results in depression, sadness. You tend to feel nothing. Your heart isn’t with you, because you ignore the mind. They are always connected in this prison of life. The connection is what gives you life. When the connection is broken, you realize the revision it made in your body is adverse.
So what does this have to do with yoga? In Sanskrit, yoga means to unite. To control, join, merge. You unite your mind and your body, and make it one. When you rest in child's pose, feel the stretch in your back, imagine your spine lengthening and release the stress you hold in your body. Don't think about the body's shape, but think about it’s spirit. Attach breathing to relaxation in your spine; this is connection. Next time you stand in mountain pose, let your arms raise overhead and lengthen your whole body, feeling the energy in your spirit. Don’t overexert, but relax and open the heart, feel the emotion being let go instead of trapping it in your mind.
When you practice yoga, you practice the connection. Even though it’s hard when you start, even though you want to compare yourself, even though you can’t find the connection at first, you will get it with time. Until you truly let go of your day, stresses, and negativity in your mind through your heart, your mat will always be there to wait for you
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