What's your Samskara? Wait...what's a Samskara anyway? Well, if you were taking Elizabeth Gray's "Yoga Basics" on Wednesday afternoons at Yoga Circle you'd know that Samskara is a Sanskrit word which refers to the ingrained habits, thoughts, feelings, and personal history we all carry throughout this lifetime (and maybe others?) This Samskara informs our Karma -- the "bag" in which we carry our ego-notions of who we are and how we behave. And the who we are and how we behave are mirrored back to us over and over. Do bad, get bad. Do good, get good.
Do you know that how you breathe can mediate how you feel emotionally? Nervous? Anxious? Take slow, deep "belly breaths", with a longer exhale and feel yourself relaxing. Your heart rate and blood pressure drop. In fact, how you breathe can create how you feel! Need an energetic boost? Try some Breath of Fire breathing! You'll heat up and energize in a hurry. Want to really relax and be present? Alternate Nostril Breathing may do the trick.
Of course none of it is quite that easy...in my mind, nothing about Yoga is easy, even if it's rather simple. We breathe, we move, we think, we feel. Coordinating all those to highest benefit for ourselves and others is the point. Mental, physical, and spiritual well-being are the goals.
I have been a sporadic student of Yoga and Yogic philosophy for a number of years. I've learned some Sanskrit mostly through Bhakti Yoga practices (chanting the Divine names of Deities in a Hindu-inspired practice called Kirtan). I love my asana practice at Yoga Circle, have done very limited study of Pranayama (yogic breathing) with a couple of teachers, and have studied with a meditation teacher who gave me my very own Sanskrit mantra based on my Vedic astrological chart. All of this adds up to barely, imperceptibly scratching the surface of the ancient, intricate, dense and beautiful practice of Yoga.
Elizabeth's class is introducing us to all 8 Limbs of Yoga -- how it all fits together to help us create a life of meaning, purpose, and peace. I wish I was better at remembering all she has taught us so far. I decided not to distract myself with note-taking for the most part, instead listening intently in the moment. Unfortunately, when sitting down to write this post, I find my recall lacking. I have to hear things many times to commit them to memory -- unless it's something frivolous like the lyrics to Gilligan's Island -- that's there forever after only one or two episodes.
At any rate, what I do know is that I am mesmerized by her skilled, knowledgable, and enthusiastic teaching and motivated to learn more, practice more. My at-home meditation and Pranayama practices are already more focused, and the extra class I'm attending each week with Elizabeth puts me on the mat three times instead of two at the Studio and I'm loving that! I feel stronger, more grounded -- good things! ©
Namaste, donnajurene
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