Releasing Judgement, a Daily Practice
Yoga Sutra 1.2 Yogaś citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ the restraint of the modifications of the mind stuff is yoga. Yoga Sutra 1.6 Pramāṇa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smṛtayaḥ [The modifications that need to be restrained] are right knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep, and memory.
This week in practice, I am working on this idea of releasing judgment, specifically around how I am showing up in my asana practice- and using that as a springboard to help me practice releasing judgment of myself and, in turn, judgment of those around me. And let me start off by saying it is, in fact, a practice, and I am feeling very very out of practice...
I think one of the most powerful things about asana practice is that we can practice and try out these incredibly heavy concepts within our body on our mats. So I am starting off by practicing releasing the judgment of myself when I enter a shape. I am definitely somebody who, on my mat, will arrive into a shape (pigeon or a forward fold) and start to let my mind run rampant:
Wow, I didn't need the bolster when I did this last week
I could definitely (and have) go deeper in the shape
I am pissed my forehead isn't touching my knee
I wish I didn't need more props when I set up on my left side...
(These are all thoughts I have had recently in my yoga practice.) It is these small thoughts that I can feel growing bigger and bigger, and before you know it, my entire practice is based around these false ideas that I am somehow not good enough to be practicing asana. Then after a couple of sessions of letting these thoughts cloud my practice and I roll my mat up after practice and take weeks or months to ever unroll the mat again... if it is that easy to happen in our movement practice imagine how easily the same thing can happen in our daily life with either small judgments of ourselves (I'm not good enough, I'm not thin enough, nothing ever goes my way) or of others.
This week, the way that we are beginning to practice releasing that judgment is by arriving in a shape and rather than allowing these judgments -positive or negative- to cloud our practice, we will simply "arrive exactly as we have arrived." We will "show up exactly as we have shown up," knowing that this is an ongoing practice of letting go of that judgmental mind to find a deeper connection to the true self, the soul, and the connection to the divine.
Like I said, this is a practice that even I struggle to find, but I work hard to ensure that I keep up this practice, knowing that practice makes permanent, and the more I release these judgments in my asana practice, the more I can release these judgments in my daily life. It is this daily practice in every moment of releasing judgment of ourselves and those around us, this seemingly small practice of yoga done multiple times a day... it is this that I believe encompasses the very base and beginning of the yoga sutras.
Yoga Sutra 1.1 Atha Yogānuśāsanam the time for yoga is now.
