Sun Salutations: Accessing Flow

It’s said that the yoga poses - asanas - were originally created to prepare our bodies to sit in meditation.

Most of us have not come anywhere close to the enlightenment necessary to sit still, breathe, and calm our mind. The poses, though, are accessible portals to the present moment. When we feel our muscles working hard, it is not really possible for our mind to get stuck in the clutter of the past or in anxiety about the future. The poses provide the scaffolding and support for a here-and-now experience.

And in the first few minutes of a yoga practice, we have tools to help us come into the space and time of the present moment. We settle into Child’s Pose. We ground our feet and hands, feeling our way into our bodies in Downward Facing Dog. Next, perhaps we take a forward fold -- still with our eyes down to our mats. We take baby steps toward coming up to standing and taking our place on our mat, in community.

It is here that we begin the sun salutation sequence, which is all about moving and accessing a feeling of flow. It's an opportunity to connect breath and movement. To begin to experience yourself. How does it feel to inhale and reach up? How does it feel to exhale and bow low? We just move. Each on our own mat.

For me, the sun salutations are a way of breaking through obstructions, blockages. What do I let obstruct me? This is the sequence where I really feel it. Sometimes, I can't seem to catch that flow of breath and movement - instead, it is like feeling heavy, trying to flow through molasses. From food, if I’ve eaten too recently or too much. Or just a sign that I am depleted. As we take a set of sun salutations, it's a chance to get rid of the stuckness and come into the flow. Breathe and move.

A few years ago, I committed to a daily practice of yoga. At first, the yoga had profound impact on my days - not just because I was moving my body in ways that made me strong and limber, but more so. Yoga is an ancient system designed to promote greater wellbeing. And part of its premise is that creating physical alignment in your body creates spiritual alignment in your life. And I found this to be true. After a physical practice, that flow and equanimity would stay with me, and it would remind me how I feel when I am being my best self. It made me want to align my values and my actions.

About halfway through the year, let's just say I stopped being in alignment. I wasn’t doing anything especially mindfully -- rushing to yoga and rushing home, shoveling food while standing at the counter. Old habits started to creep in. Numbing through eating, scrolling the internet. Being at the studio was becoming a bit more social than zen. I found myself gossiping on my mat before class started. Out of balance.

And then I was given a gigantic sign. A tear in my cartilage between two ribs that made me have to give up yoga for a month. A tear, right front and center. Right at my heart.

I healed, and also realized it was time to shake things up a bit. The break from the physical practice was the opportunity I needed to get right to the thick of yoga.

Being in a flow is being in the sweet spot, engaged with what ignites us, awake. Sun salutations are about getting energy and breath unstuck, trusting the process, and unfurling ourselves out of contraction, into alignment and openness.

Our body reminds us how to be in the flow of the moment. And how to be at home in our bodies. I encourage you to let the sun salutations invite you into the journey.