Beyond Rules: Embracing the Essence of Yoga as a Personal Journey

Becki, our social media guru recently sent us an email asking the Trustees about our experiences of Nauli, one of the six cleansing practices, done in the East, as preliminary activities prior to practising asana. When I followed the link through to the page she had found, I saw the article stated, “There is a rule in Yoga that each muscle should move at least once a day”. What??! When did this become a thing? Why was I not told? How do ideas like this gain ground? Who benefits from such statements?

I love my yoga. I have practised for nearly 25 years, so still a beginner in so many ways, but there is not enough pranayama in the world to keep me calm when I read such non-yogic statements wrapped up in pretty websites, tied with a bow of piety.

As a lady with encyclopaedic knowledge and one of our Trustees, June Skeggs, loves her yoga and has been practising for more than 30 years without ever experiencing or reading yoga rules. The purpose of yoga is to control the fluctuations of the mind (citta vritti nirodhah) and there are different ways or paths to achieving that. The movement part of yoga (asana) is to train the body to be steady, supple, soft and comfortable so it doesn’t disturb or distract the mind in meditation not to move 600+ muscles. What will they think up next!

There is no rule that each muscle should be used once a day and never has been. One of the joys of my yoga is that there is no wrong or right. Each of us practices in our own way to our own ability and to how we feel on the day. That sometimes means not even making it to our mat and being grateful for a few moments through the day to take a breath and be in the moment.

We already put so much pressure on ourselves to look a certain way and behave in the way that makes those around us comfortable. There are pressures of work, finding and keeping a job, being promoted, earning more money to buy more things, saving into a pension, having a bigger and better car than our neighbours, going to more exotic destinations for our holidays. All these things and so many others make our lives complicated. If we then add in made-up ‘rules’ of how we should be doing something that is supposed to help us relax, we lose the benefit of doing the yoga in the first place.

For me, yoga is about being, not doing. If I can stop and be in the moment during my day, I have done some yoga. If I make it to my mat and do a session of asana and then a meditation I have done some yoga. I often fall between the two, but am grateful that I have the knowledge of what I CAN do.

Sara Matchett, YHET Chair & Trustee & June Skeggs, YHET Trustee

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