Welcoming ALL Experiences Into Your Guest House

Asana, the word used to describe the poses in yoga, means steady joy.  It's a good thing to remember when holding a pose.  There you are in the middle of a strengthening pose that is testing your endurance to the max, with your body begging you to stop, and you remember that "steady joy" is what you're engaged in (even though it doesn't feel like joy, and may not be that steady).  Remembering the purpose of holding the pose (steady joy) can help us breathe a little deeper and engage more fully in the pose.  It may cause us to wonder how steady joy can be the name for something so incredibly taxing and tiring.

Once again, our perception shapes our experience.  If I view the pose as hard and awful and something I can't wait to get out of, then asana will be much more of a mental and physical challenge.  But if I understand that the pose is simply a tool for advancing the body, mind, and spirit connection (as taught by Ganga White), it makes it easier to view my pose and its intensity as an experience in steady joy. As I welcome the intensity, the discomfort, and the effort, I begin to understand what the challenge is doing for me: enhancing strength, toning, and focus.  I realize that each challenge I face (mentally or physically) in yoga is there to teach me a lesson.  My perception on the yoga mat can be a mirror to my perception in life.

How does a pose in yoga translate into the yoga of life?  If in my practice I come to realize that I can hold a difficult pose longer than I expected, I realize that I have the capacity to sit with hard things.  If I can stay steady in the discomfort of holding a pose (which feels difficult), I start to see that I can stay steady in the discomfort of life.  Or if I find that I can actually do a pose the I thought I couldn't, I might gain a confidence to try things that I previously thought I weren't possible.

The poem "The Guest House" by Rumi illustrates this concept of welcoming what appears hard in order to allow growth.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Here's to steady joy along our path of welcoming the arrivals at our guest house of yoga and life!

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