Breathing Yoga

Yoga, a once been regarded as a spiritual and eastern practice had now become one of the famous and sought after practices of the modern world. And with it came and created new forms of movement practices, whether we choose to admit it or not.

Once sought after for enlightenment has now become a platform for a plethora of promise and benefits. People from all walks of life glorify and swear that this practice is a cure-for-all pill. You have got back ache, you do yoga. You have got so much things in mind, you do yoga. And even perhaps the most absurd reasonings - practicing because of a toothache, a busted knee, a depression, a weight loss solution, a way to be fit, to sweat and the list goes on and on.

And yes, some of those are true. I can’t deny the potency of this practice because this really helped me a lot in my dark days and it still does. But I don’t think that this ends here. Yoga is not the answer to everything. Yoga, as we know it, is a key to your tool box. A key that can unlock your potential to manage and to be able to confront the ugly side of your life, which we consciously shove to the side and bury within us.

This dark side won’t go away regardless of how many vinyasa or yin classes we do. Chaturangas and downward dogs are just not going to cut it. This dark side won’t be drowned by the numerous Lululemon tights and yoga gear we own. Neither will the countless workshops we do. We will continue to be where we are if we don’t live the practice.

Living the practice is the hardest bit, hey. It is what happens after we roll our mats again and we get back in our lives, our daily grind. There is something about the practice that makes us feel so good, most of the time. There’s so much teachings on our mats, almost overflowing. So much golden nuggets of the practice. Simply, just the ability to consciously breathe is such a gift to us all.

The very essence of the practice for me is the endless ability to excavate, to unbury and to continuously and consciously deal with the realness of what happens as I practice. What comes up. What doesn’t come up. Why I choose to ignore. Why I choose to deal. Essentially, what I would take with me after the physical asana practice.

The asana practice is not the same as parking your car or going to the toilet. You don’t want your shit there when you come back. One, it’s gross and second, it’s denial. I think the reason why breathing is deeply rooted with the yoga practice is because you cannot not do one or the other. It is a package deal. The magic lies when these two are executed symbiotically. And it transcends beyond the postures and it starts unlocking the mind.

And yes, you can choose to let that end there. OR, you have the chance to take it with you and sprinkle it in your daily grind. We need to breathe the practice to make the necessary shifts happen. We have to live it. As simple as committing to your breath is a huge step in dealing in an argument at work or at home. And trust me, this baby step is what you need.

So the next time you come out of the yoga class, check and see if you are parking your car or going to the toilet. And note that your experience of the practice can be more than that.

We breathe. We do yoga. And the practice is to breathe yoga for as long as you can. So you can live it.

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