Creating Space

Training (round 1) is over and done with, but my journey is just beginning, yeee!! I will be continuing my training with CorePowerYoga in their extensions program, which includes lectures about more fine tuning things such as music (etc) as well as furthering my knowledge of the sequence so that I can move into making my own creative classes (such as c2's). I also get the pleasure of teaching FREE community yoga classes every Sunday evening at 5:15pm at the North Boulder CorePower studio alongside my Omies! So come stretch it out. This is a great place to begin your practice if you're new and feeling vulnerable because WE ARE TOO!
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"Some changes look negative on the surface
but you will soon realize that SPACE is being created
 in your life for something new to emerge."
- Eckhart Tolle

The other day in class one of my absolute favorite instructors, Chris D, closed her class by saying "give yourself a hug of gratitude; thank yourself for the space you have created here today". While  I have heard this multiple times- this time around I really felt it. I've been struggling with the mental vs physical benefits of yoga. After going through the training process yoga had started to become more of a workout obligation and routine instead of a spiritual journey of enlightenment. But what I neglected to notice was the organic space that was being created without my conscious awareness.

Often times when things get hectic in my mind it feels like everyone on planet Earth is running a marathon in my tiny little head. What I didn't initially realize was how quiet everything gets for 60 minutes when I am planted on my mat. Although I perceived a spiritual block in my practice due to my newfound focus on the asana aspect of yoga, I've finally realized this space of calmness that's been created. While I'm adjusting where my right foot is in accordance with my left or whatever it is I'm looking at or adjusting, I realize I'm not focusing on the million other thoughts that race through my mind every second of every day.

- Space -

I've spent so much time upset at the end of yoga, some times in tears, asking myself why I haven't felt God or experienced some sort of emotional revelation. While all along I've been receiving things that I haven't been consciously accepting. When I take a step back, I notice.

From here there is more space for me to think about how to grow. What do I have to get done in order to be where I want to be? There is more space for me to understand. There is more space for me to listen in the silence.

Mental space is vital. So often as humans we act out of impulse. Whatever feels good- sounds good- looks good- at the time, is what we desire and act on. And I am the best example of this. In the past whenever someone used to make me angry, the first thing out of my mouth was the first thing that popped into my head. This was also typically the most hurtful thing I could think of. In compromising situations our brains fight to "protect" ourselves. As we grow up we learn different ways of doing so. For me, I learned I could either silence myself and get trampled on or be vicious and pretend I didn't have tender emotions in order to appear in control. Neither really worked out too well for me. I don't know how to be silent when I'm angry and my heart is too overpowering for me to ignore, plus I can't make decisions to save my life- therefore I should never be in control of anyone other than myself. With that being said, I found it hard to know exactly how to act and react in certain situations. But I've learned that you don't always have to know right away-

With that revelation I found space and time between an action and reaction- this is understanding that my fight or flight instincts and reactions are not in control of how I act.

There is space for perspective and patience. When you are busy focusing on your reply in a conversation, you are incapable of sympathizing and understanding someone else (which is what I find to be one of our prime purposes in life). If everyone's intention was to attempt to understand, wouldn't we all breathe a little easier knowing someone was trying? If we took a single breath before we replied to someone in a situation, how often would we change our reaction? I know for me it would be 98% of the time. Putting space between my impulsive actions and creating a new, healthier reaction is something I couldn't have accomplished without yoga. 

I've noticed that I've also created a lot of space around myself and for myself, which is just as important. Self love. Something I struggle with. I spend a lot more time alone, doing things with myself and for myself that I didn't before. I'll clean my room and sing and dance around with a smile or just lay in bed and look out my window, without any desire other than to exist in the present moment. I actually caught myself talking to my phone case the other day while I was trying to find it and then ended up laughing at myself. It is a space I've created to sit inside with gratitude. I won't necessarily be thinking about anything or anyone, just sitting there appreciating what I'm surrounded by. Being thankful that I have windows that show me the expanse of the sky or a big bed to sprawl out inside of. This is a sense of clarity I didn't realize I had until now.

Space of my own. 

Space is also created in your body as you begin to adjust into your practice. I recently learned that child's pose may come across as suffocating or claustrophobic to people new in their practice due to the fact that your diaphragm is limited by your thigh compression. As you practice more and more, physical space opens up in poses such as these and you begin to breathe easier. Your body adjusts to the strains you put on it and thanks you for testing its capabilities. Like I've said before, your body is always capable but it's your mind that creates limits. Through yoga there is space to know the difference.

And lastly, yoga is a space all of its own. At least for me I've noticed how individual each practice gets. This might sound weird but if you do yoga and you think back to the first or second class you took, what were you doing the whole time? Probably watching other people to see what the hell you're supposed to be doing. There's really no other option at the beginning of your practice. But as you get more comfortable a space is created around yourself on your mat for you to explore all the other avenues that yoga has to offer. Maybe it's connecting with your breath, your spirit, a higher power, or just paying attention to your physical body and listening to what it's telling you. Whatever it may be, the individual space for learning and receiving is created. This may be received consciously or completely outside of your awareness but the best part is- it's unavoidable. The control of your breath, the space between your inhales and exhales and where it takes your body, the places it challenges you and helps you is a meditation all on its own.