This is a public announcement that I am joining the slow-it-down movement. Its not new or revolutionary or anything, in fact its ancient.
“ One’s connection to the earth (asana) is steady (sthira) and joyful (sukham).”
There is a concept in Yoga called Sthira-Sukham-Asanam and it translates as steady, ease/joyfullness, asana (earth, presence of mind). It comes from the Yoga sutra: “One’s connection to the earth (asana) is steady (sthira) and joyful (sukham)" (ekhartyoga.com) Patanjali, and the ancient Yogis intended for Yoga to follow this principle. The practitioner follows a practice that produces a balance between effort and ease, and allows for steadiness of mind, body, and spirit. Somewhere in mainstream Yoga, and in our daily lives, it has been lost. We are been conditioned to believe that the faster we move, the harder we work, and the more we shove into our day, our to-do lists, and yes even in our Yoga practice, the better the outcome. The result is, collective stress levels higher then they have ever been. The impact stress has on our health and well-being is a whole other blog post.
I came to a point of my life and my growth process that I was finally ready to release my old patterns of putting too much on my plate and allowing myself to burn-out in order to get the job done and to be “successful”. If your like me, it may be hard to convince you that actually slowing down and applying ease into your life and your Yoga practice, will not only allow you to feel more peace & improve your mental, emotional, and physical well-being, it may actually produce a better and more efficient outcome. A little research may help you. Research shows that low force and long duration produces a “plastic, yet permanent deformation in muscle tissue”. The more vigorous your exercise program, the more you are going to engage fast-twitch fibers, while leaving the slow-twitch fibers behind. This means you burn less fat and produce more lactic acid. Slow movement is of more benefit in that is uses both the fast- and the slow-twitch fibers, thereby activating all your muscles (Structural Yoga Therapy. 117). If our physical bodies respond better to slow, steady consistent effort, then it makes complete sense that the rest of our system would as well.
Can we slow it down to then sometimes speed it up? I think, yes. What it comes down to is a sense of balance. Our Yoga practice can provide that if we allow it. Slow your practice down, feel into your pose, watch your breath, notice the sensation in your body. You may then become captivated by meditation in movement. It is here you can start to listen to your body and what it needs on any given day. The result is less force, more ease, steadiness, peace of mind, and if your like me, less anxiety. Some days you may need to move fast to sweat it out and work towards a difficult posture. Other times, slow, minimal movement, breathing exercises and some quiet mediation may be just what you need.
So join me! Slow your practice down, listen to what you truly need, not what you think you need. Apply this to your work and your relationships with yourself and others. You just may find that the outcome is more impactful that you thought. Listening to what we need is extremely nourishing to our nervous system, thus to our overall health.
Perhaps you may even end up feeling more empowered, thoughtful, and serene.
Namaste,
Amy