Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I am "exploring" my hips, and eight other words that yogis use to express agony

While most people in the world like to express their pain openly -thereby perhaps eliciting some sympathy or maybe even a back-rub, these are the phrases that yogis use to express the "excruciating -oh my god i wanna die or throw up- agony", we often feel during a "deep" (meaning deeply painful) practice.

I am really "feeling it" in my hips (meaning feeling the agony)
I am really "working into" the stiffness in my hips ( working into the posture for more agony)
There is " a lot of opening" in my hips ( moving past initial agony to reach deeper levels of agony)

From the teacher's point of view, this translates into instructions like:

Just breathe into your hips ( breath into the agony)
Try and relax into the posture (relax into the agony)
Practice and all is coming ( keep practicing and eventually you will achieve all the agony)
Samadi ( finally moving past the agony into a state of peace)

Is it denial or positive thinking? You decide.


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