Be Your Best in 2010.
Happy New Year, all you wonderful Being Yoga community members! Now that we have just been launched into the year 2010, we at Being Yoga encourage you to set as many worthwhile goals as you can to move your life forward in a positive direction. Along those lines, we would like to encourage you to move your yoga forward by adopting Being Yoga’s Theme of the Month, “Be Your Best in 2010,” as your specific yoga goal. Please read on:
When pondering our studio’s Theme of the Month, perhaps you might wonder, “What does it mean to ‘be your best’ in yoga?” Does it mean trying your best by forcing yourself to stretch more deeply in your postures? Does it mean pushing your hardest to hold each posture in its ideal “picture-perfect” form? Does it mean having the highest foot in Standing Bow or the deepest backbend in Camel? The answer to those questions, of course, is “no.”
“Being your best” in yoga certainly includes the idea that you perform the asanas to the best of your physical ability. However, physically ability is variable and changes from day to day. For example, your physical best on the day when you are “high energy” will be completely different than on the day when you are “low energy.” However, being aware of the fluctuations of your energy levels is part of “being your best.”
In fact, it is a deliberate awareness that truly signals that a yogi is doing his/her best. Yogis performing to the best of their ability are fully aware of the fluctuations in their energy levels but remain undistracted by them. They don’t label their performances as “good” or “bad,” but they just take note of them and continue to do their best for that day.
Similarly, Yogis do their best to be undistracted by the external circumstances around them. They take note of the temperature, the number of people in the room, whether the fans are on, whether there is someone noisy or wriggly next to them, etc., but they remain undistracted by them. Their deliberately turn their awareness onto their breath, their bodies, and the energy moving through their bodies. In other words, they deliberately focus their awareness on what’s happening within.
Performing at their best level, yogis are able to let go of habitual actions. No longer do they habitually fidget, wipe their sweat, drink water, or take bathroom breaks. Each movement is made in full consciousness of their present physical feed-back and the requirements, therefore, to move in and out of the postures with mindfulness.
Yogis performing their best have respect for others; consequently, they arrive to class on time and remain quiet and still in between the postures. They stand to one side of their mat, allowing those in back of them to have a view of themselves in the mirror, and they strive to move in synchronicity with the class by clearing their minds and responding only to the dialog. At the end of class, they allow time for savasana and exit the room with reverence for those who are still resting.
Being their best, yogis connect with “prana,” or life force, by consciously breathing deeply throughout the entire class. And, most importantly, yogis at their best strive to let go of mundane, judgmental and/or negative thoughts and to connect with the oneness consciousness—the peace and clarity within.
By “Being Your Best” in yoga, you accelerate towards the ultimate goal of yoga itself: the liberation of both body and mind so that you can be your best in life. As Paramahansa Yogananda said, “In this new year I am a new person. And I shall change my consciousness again and again until I have driven away all the darkness of ignorance and manifested the shining light of Spirit in whose image I am made.”
This year, may you Be Your Best and manifest the shining light within.