Warrior Pose: Stay and Be Present

The sun salutations are all about flow, and they are an opportunity to connect our breath with movement in a rhythmic, dynamic, repetitive dance.

All that movement progressively gets us out of our head and into our body. In the Baptiste sequence, the repetition is pretty fast and can sometimes feel a bit chaotic. Some might say that the chaos itself is precisely the point -- we need to be able to be okay with its discomfort.

The flowing sequence often ends by opening from Warrior 1 to Warrior 2 and then holding that pose for a long count. The stillness of Warrior 2 - after the chaos of the sun salutations - has its own challenge. It's exactly here that I want to rest or flush out my tired muscles. But instead, the ask is to stay right in it, deep in a powerful stance. Physically, I want to catch my breath, while the goal is to breath fluidly and evenly.

In a larger way, this return to stillness is challenging for me because chaos, in my off-the-mat life, feels uncomfortable and stressful. And that discomfort triggers my desire to escape. When there is too much going on in my house, or the stress level heats up, or I have an especially difficult conversation with anyone -- my flight instinct kicks in. What do I do (since there’s really nowhere to flee)? Well, historically, I have looked for an activity to escape into, or a way to numb out. Sometimes it’s surfing the internet. Sometimes it’s mindless, hypnotic eating with repetitive trips to the pantry.

But as we complete the Sun Salutations and come into Warrior 2, it’s all about staying present, breathing deeply and evenly, flowing while in stillness. For me, it’s a reminder and an opportunity to practice not losing myself in the chaos and not escaping its discomfort.

Instead, it turns out there is another way. In the yoga sequence, we open into Warrior 2, a shape where we haven’t been yet: we’re grounded in our base, strong in our core, and open across our chest and arms, taking up space. Any time we open like that, we show ourselves. And showing ourselves is the very opposite of disappearing or fleeing. We stay with ourselves, breathing through whatever feelings arise, with a steady gaze, choosing to not be reactive. We choose instead to be fully present in our own strength.