Sometimes during a yoga class, when a posture feels uncomfortable, I wonder, why am I doing this? A posture can feel uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, but most of the time, discomfort is caused by trying to control it. This is where the jaw tightens, the shoulders raise, the breath stops. The idea of letting go and allowing, brings fear, doubt and, at times, stubbornness.

But it is so important that we let go, to create space. This space is crucial to us clearing the fears, doubts, programs and emotions that do not serve us. As we move through our physical yoga practice, using the breath we begin to open the muscles, deep at the cellular level, one cell at a time. And, as we do that we release what has been held in there… and, this leaves space. The space then goes from the muscles to the mind to the heart. We now have space in all levels of our being that we’ve created.

So now that we’ve spent the last hour plus creating space, what do we do with it? We fill it. Our final resting posture, Savasana means corpse pose in Sanskrit. It may sound morbid but it is, in fact, a death. A death of the old you, the you that held on to those feelings, programs, emotions, the you that held on to the need to control.

When we create space, we are letting go and Savasana gives us the chance to release it and then fill the space we created with the things we want in our life; the things we want to create; how we want to feel about ourselves. We get to choose!

We leave our old selves behind and bring in the new Self. Our bodies are constantly changing and our lives are constantly transforming. Our yoga practice is just a way to focus ourselves for a short period of time on that transformation. Eventually our yoga practice becomes our daily life and our experiences in class and life meld together.

So we don’t have to be on a mat, in a studio, moving through postures then laying on our backs to do the exchange of letting go and filling the space. It eventually becomes natural in our daily life and we can eventually do it while riding on the bus; walking the beach; or sitting at our desks at work. This is our practice, yeah it’s physical, yeah it’s even uncomfortable at times; but that’s what it takes to get to the fun part….filling the space with what we’re dreaming about.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog, please consider donating to the Bending Tree Expansion Project to help us expand our resources for living your yoga. Our goal is to help people find their strength and creativity from the inside out…meaning finding their joy and living it fearlessly, from the heart.
Thank you and Namaste, Karen