Putting the Supports in Place

I have been fortunate enough to grow up with Yoga, at first for

flexibility for dance, but as I got older it has became a lifestyle and
spiritual pursuit. I am also now a teacher of Yoga and it is a blessing to
share my gift with others. I cant tell you how many times I hear, Oh,
Im not flexible! or I am so clumsy and have terrible balance! To
which I fervently explain that this is the point, to BECOME balanced
and flexible! The people in the media doing Yoga have been doing it for
years and to expect to be able to do that is unreasonable! In the
beginning of my classes, I always start by telling my students we all
start somewhere and we all start from the same place, the beginning.
When we come through the doors for class and take our place on our
mats, we are all beginners and as we move through class we become
experts in our practice for that day. I begin with a centering exercise
during which we close our eyes and spread out feet on the mat,
rocking forward and back, side to side and then in gentle circular
motions. It is quite liberating to discover just how much surface area
you have on your feet to help support you! Many times this new
awareness during balance check can cause you to feel unbalance
(ironically) and this is because as humans we all have bad posture
habits that we dont realize until we call it into our awareness.
The end of my class always sees its students in a meditative
balance posture like Eagle, King Dancer, or Tree. I end this way for two
reasons. The first is so that they are successful. If I asked them to hold
a balance posture at the beginning of class, they wouldnt be able to
do it. The second reason is because balance as a real-life practice as
well as a yoga practice is so vitally important, that I want it to be the
take away message. Balance is essential to life on all levels in all
phases and you simply wont achieve it if you dont have the supports
in place.
So much of the worlds woes and so many of the past, present
and impending crises humanity and our planet face are a matter of
balance, or lack there of. Think about it: addiction happens when need/
desire overrides control and choice, our body health becomes
compromised when we eat too much or not enough, our financial
security is threatened when we spend too much or dont save enough
and our relationships are conceded when we work too much, care too
little or dont make time for those who support us. This imbalance most
definitely extends to the issue of sustainability because we have
completely lost our balance with the world that we live on.
Incidentally, I would like to mention that balance is not equality and I
think this is a key misconception. People look at the overwhelming
draw we make from our ecosystems reserves and assume there is no
way that we can equal out what we take. At least not without a

serious change of the status quo. I prefer the definition of balance as a

verb which says to counteract, establish equal or appropriate
PORPORTIONS of something. I see two dancers facing eachother, with
hands joined, asked to sit down at the same time with their hands still
together. With one dancer being an adult and the other a child, the
weight on either side of this is not equal but the way they are able to
counteract the weight difference through their pulling force allows 125
lbs and 45 lbs to sit down at the same time.
This adjustment of forces is just what we need to do in order to
address sustainability. We cannot equate what we take and what we
give back but we can try and also work to counteract the negative
effects. How do we achieve balance? We know our impacts and strive
to do better. Like at the beginning of my class we quiet everything and
take stock of where we are in relation to the things around us. We work
to heighten self-awareness and from this we can gain ecological
intelligence, or, as Daniel Goleman suggests, a better understanding of
how we fit into our world and how we both impact our world and how
our world impacts us (Goleman, 2009). In lieu of technology and
innovation, we have lost touch with where things come from, how they
are made, what injustices might be perpetrated in the making of
something we just have to own and what happens to things when we
get rid of them. Now, I know that the global issues of poverty, climate
change and overpopulation wont be solved by an individual but it is the
positive, attentive changes in in individuals what will swell to a global
shift in perspective, and, hopefully action. The challenges we face are
too varies, too subtle, and too complicated to be understood and
overcome by a single person (Goleman, 48) but it is through
contributions of individuals who advance that understanding and
spread it among the rest of us (49).
Through each individuals increased awareness I think we could
achieve the global intimate interconnectedness or the collected
consciousness that so many suggest would inspire greater care and a
more enthusiastic inquiry into better ecologically sustaining practices.
Do I think that yoga practice will solve the worlds problems? Not at all
but I do believe the principles of Yogic practice are a perfect example
of the type of interconnected, attuned approach we will need to
eventually survive. Yoga has grown out of Eastern religions and
spiritual/moral practices dating back 2500 years and the practices of
then are still very much applicable to now, especially to the 3 so-called
pillars of sustainability: social development, environmental protection
and economic growth (Bhagwat, 2008). The Patanjalis Ashtanga Yoga
was written as a code of conduct, include 8 limbs, 3 of which will be
familiar to you as modern yoga. These include the postures, the
breathing exercises and the meditation. The remaining 5 limbs are not
well known and are the extension of yoga most relevant here: the
ethical observances and restraints and the superconsicous to name a

few. Bhagwat breaks down each of the 8 limbs, what they meant
historically and what they could mean today if they were applied. For
example, in the yamas, or the ethical restraints, there are 5 restraints
which include nonviolence and non-progressiveness and the code
suggests how they might be applied to the social, environmental and
economic pillars of life. If we look at aparigraha, or nonprogressiveness, when applied to environmental practice it could be
taken to mean not creating status anxiety around material items that
are bad for the environment in production, usage or disposal, such as
an SUV (Bhagwat, 2008).
If ecological and sustainability scholars are calling on the power
of the individual to influence the greater population by such rules as
Goleman describes 1. Know you impacts. 2. Favor improvements. 3.
Share what you learn (Goleman, 50) then we could stand to learn a lot
from the time-tested principles of Patanjalis Ashtanga Yoga that
when put into practice, will result in a collective action leading to
sustainable development for society as a whole (Bhagwa, 19). When I
watch my students roll up their mats and bow, Namaste, to me, I see
peace and thoughtfulness in them as they leave and I think that as an
individual I have sent a ripple outward and I can only hope that this
continued practice will continue to put supports in place where we
need it.
Bhagwat, Shonil A. (2008). Yoga and Sustainability. JOY: The Journal of
Yoga, 7(1), pp 1-21. Retrieved from
www.godconsciousness.com/joy/yogaandsustain.pdf on May 2nd, 2015.
Goleman, D. (2009). Ecological intelligence (PDF), (pgs. 41-51). New
York, NY: Broadway Books.