We hold our past in our bodies just as surely as we hold memories of the past in our minds. Often the body is more reliable recorder of the past than our mind. Our muscles become shortened by the tension of our past.
So, as soon as something brings us on the yoga mat and we start practicing we confront our stiff bodies but also we confront our past. If we don’t rush and push and ready to listen to our body response and patiently dealing with our body feedback there always will be a space and a length developing so we can flow in a yoga posture gracefully, rather that pushing and beating ourselves there.
These moments when our mind gets so still in this transition towards the posture and stays there listening to the breath and bodily sensations are yoga! As at these moments we touch the ground, we connect and learn not only about our bodies but ourselves – our thinking and reacting patterns created in the past but still holding and catching us here and now.