Springtime and summer in all its abundance! A time of rebirth and blossoming all around us. Life energy flowing, first slowly, building imperceptibly, as we impatiently wait for the buds to blossom. We know the life force is rising and we want to see it in all its glory: the green, the flowers, the Earth rejoicing! How reassuring that nature is abundantly alive after such a long dormant winter, year after reassuring year. We too, are that. How long have parts of us remained dormant, just waiting to burst forth and blossom?
Yoga itself is a process of unfoldment. For centuries, one of the symbols of yoga has been the thousand petaled lotus, unfolding unfolding, unfolding; reaching deeper and deeper within. As we begin a yoga practice, the first challenge is to overcome the mental and emotional resistance to our inertia, getting our own life force flowing. We challenge the physical limitations of lack of strength and flexibility we feel after perhaps a long period of dormancy. The process of moving comfortably into and out of the poses, maintaining a consistent breathing rhythm and focusing the mind is our process of tuning into the flow of our own life energy. Patience is required, but that flow of life is as surely there within us as it is in nature’s springtime. Its our own personal springtime waiting for us to encourage our life force energy to rise and bloom into summer flower.
Just as different types of plants thrive in different conditions, so do each of us relate differently to different styles of yoga. There are as many different teaching styles as there are yoga teachers. Even those trained in the same traditions bring their own special approach to their classes. Shop around for a yoga teacher that feels nurturing to you and encourages you to unfold at your own pace, in your own way. As we master the physical challenges of yoga, we are also diving deeper into ourselves. The physical yoga is really only the beginning of opening the many layers of petals of our own personal lotus.
We, ourselves, are full of surprises. Our blossoming takes many forms, and a consistent yoga practice can be the springtime nurturing that brings hidden areas of our unfoldment into the summer sunshine. Focused and grounded in our physical form, we can integrate and balance the other areas of our lives into a blossoming of our true potential, an expression of our own powerful, peaceful, precious life paths.
Susan Winter Ward, internationally recognized yoga instructor, author, and video producer, is the creator of Yoga for the Young at Heart, a multimedia publisher which publishes an informative and inspiring collection of CDRoms, videos, audio tapes, books and television programs, as well as exciting vacation retreats. Her product line is available at: Yoga for the Young at Heart
