Transition and the Modern Yogi(ni)

anitya-asuci-duhka-anatmasu-nitya-suci-sukha-atma-khyatih-avidya:  Ignorance is the confusion of the temporary with the permanent, the pure with the impure, anguish with the pleasure of being, and the relative with the absolute - Patanjali: Sutra 11.5, B. Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga


"If you are doing anything big and worthwhile in life, you are going to flush up some uncomfortable feelings" - G. Hendricks, K. Ludeman, The Corporate Mystic 


"It takes a brave heart to deeply accept that everything changes" - Judith Lasater, Living Your Yoga


I ran into someone today and after I asked "how are you?" this person blurted out: "I'm in transition".  From the intonation, I got the feeling that the transition zone was perceived as a place of uncertainty and unease. A separate sphere of struggle.

As we parted, I reflected on the conversation and my first thought was,  we are always in transition or in contact with it in one way or another.  Nature is our first mirror; sunrise to sunset, waxing and waning moon, conception to pregnancy to birth, childhood to adulthood to death, seed to tree, seasons.  We witness transition on a daily basis, but when in a new phase, there is a tendency to feel lost and sometimes very worried - "when will this be over?" "how will I do it?"...we become one with the confusion of foreign circumstances instead of with an inner knowingness that 'this too, shall pass' because it is part of the whole.  Then somehow, we are prepared or we prepare ourselves, we cope, master, muster, muddle and make it.  This despite not always having the end in sight.

I see students through life transitions and feel quite privileged to witness huge transformations.  For some people, feeling lost or not at the next step of the journey, provides an opportunity to seek reconnection or new aquaintance with inner guidance.  The system of Yoga is really an awesome choice for this;  from the internal practice of meditation to the external attitudes towards self and environment.   If you are faced with the transition from marriage to divorce, job to job-seeking, breakdown to breakthrough, grief/panic/loss to equanimity, insomnia to inner rest,  finding a way to be peaceful and at ease in the wholeness of your present moment provides a clarity and inner strength, a resilience and an inner resourcefulness that anchors you.  And, let us not forget, surrender...

I know it is not always easy.  I think about this every March because here in Montreal, the crocuses and tulips start to peek through the ground which is not always fully thawed.  How hard it must be for these flowers to sprout and be colourful amidst the gray of our not always finished winter.  Yet, they push forward and it all works out.  I am sure not all of them bloom but for the most part, Nature has both the challenge and the reward of growth built in.

We kind of have to be warriors in life.  Spiritual Warriors.  This is not a reference to fighting per se, but certainly to perseverance, and determined inner strength.  Virabhadrasana (Warrior Pose) in its variations actually refers to the dialogue in the Bhagavad Gita, and is more of an ideal for the practitioner, who exhibits bravery in the battle with the universal enemy of self-ignorance (avidya), which in the Yoga system, is seen as the ultimate source of our suffering - if we only felt at one with where we are and who we are without feeling disconnected from the Source...

Ten things you can try if you are in a transition are:

1. Practise "let go and let God" - show up, do your best, let the universe do the rest...
2. Simulate - who is it or where is it you want to be?  what are the attributes you can simulate now?
3. Inhale full, exhale with the Aaahhh sound...deep sighs help to train you to hear your own voice
4. Before you go to bed at night say thank you for one thing
5. Practise listening to what you are hearing as guidance (buy kale, go to the gas station, update CV, say hello to someone, connect on Linkedin, whatever it is that comes up: witness, hear, listen and act.
6. Get out and do one new thing, movement of any kind trains your brain that you are not stuck
7. Try a relaxation practise
8. Sometimes if you are in transition, less advice is better, or just the 'right' advice...it's OK to be protective of new growth
9. Honour and accept yourself as you are where you are...there is usually a beginning, a middle and an end to each cycle before a new one starts
10. Try YOGA :-) the whole system, but for now - a little experiment, it does not have to look like the photo:

Simplified directions for Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana1) 
-stand tall and straight in Mountain Pose, legs parallel
-step one leg forward, while keeping the back leg straight, rooted through the heel, and slightly angled
-exhale and bend front leg without lunging forward
-keep spine vertical
-inhale raise arms to align with ears or where comfortable for your shoulders or just resting them
-tuck pelvis under, and by pushing into feet, feel the upper body become light and free as you reach up through fingers
-breathe steadily for about 10 breaths, comfortable in balancing with one leg forward, and the other leg back then repeat on other side...process by standing still after...

how did that feel?

Om shanty shanty shanty
Rana