Steadiness in yoga is sthira. Patanjali’s Sutra states that in all that we do we should have steadiness and ease, sthira sukham asanam.
To instil steadiness or strength in ourselves we need to put in effort. To become stronger, we need to occasionally move out of our comfort zone, go beyond our limits, face our fears and fail. All these actions help us become stronger.
In class we worked on building strength in our poses. Challenging ourselves by moving into spaces we wouldn’t normally go. Striking the balance between trying hard enough to grow but not so much that we harm ourselves. We can imagine ourselves like a tree, a strong steady trunk with branches and leaves that move with ease. With this balance of steadiness and ease our tree will not snap, we will not break.
Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes very challenging and at other times easy and smooth. We learn how to be present and flow through the ebbs and flows of life. Noticing when we need to put in more effort and when we need to ease off. When we can flow with life in this way, we can feel contentment and peace with whatever comes our way.
In class I shared with you a beautiful quote from Thich Nhat Hanh – Tree in a storm, How to fight.
“Many people don’t know how to handle their strong emotions. Our wrong perceptions can make us angry or fill us with despair. To see clearly, we must calm down. When we’re overcome by strong emotions, we’re like a tree in a storm, with its top branches and leaves swaying in the wind. But the trunk of the tree is solid, stable, and deeply rooted in the earth. When we’re caught in a storm of emotions, we can practice to be like the trunk of the tree. We don’t stay up in the high branches. We go down to the trunk and become still, not carried away by our thinking and emotions. We don’t say or do anything; we just focus all our attentions on the rise and fall of our abdomen, our trunk. This protects us from speaking in anger and say something we may regret”
