5 Life Lessons from my Yoga Mat

My encounter with Yoga happened at a time when I required a reflective pause in my life. However my reasons for pursuing it were very different. Unfortunate that in most places, Yoga is classified as a form of Health & Fitness and taught like one! Honestly enough, I joined yoga for precisely the same reasons, never knowing that I would discover that yoga is much more than breathing and postures or getting back in shape and that it would kickstart me on my spiritualistic journey towards finding myself! Here are my two-bits on what my yoga mat has taught me -literally!

1. Find your comfort in a 24"X68" space - That's all you need!

There is need and there is desire.  Am no yoga baba or a spiritual guru, but daily practise on the yoga mat teaches you to be content with just what you need.Your world is actually that small and you simply acknowledge and accept it for what it just is!

2. With two feet on the ground, explore the within and the beyond and find your peace

Reach beyond your comfort zones and find your strength that lies deep within - latent and unexplored. As you discover your own amazing strength, bring back your focus on to your feet on the mat - continue to be grounded and humble as you unleash your potential from within. 

3. Learn to walk with your hands instead of your feet!

While my close friends out there are wondering - 'Really?! You do that?!', let me quickly clarify that the 'yet-to-reach-nirvana-simpletons' like me can kick the feet in the air with the shoulders on the mat! On a serious note, the mat reminds you that you can get creative, you can go beyond the ordinary, it's all in your mind to get yourself to do things that you have never done! Just stretch beyond your self imposed limiting beliefs! Life does not crumble if you take your feet off the ground! Seriously it's that simple!!! Trust your mat, trust yourself!

4. Life begins at the beginning of the mat and ends at the foot!! Aha! Life can also begin at the end of the mat and end at the beginning! Hmm...! Read again and it will make sense!

In a polarized world, everything is dualistic, beginning vs end, happy vs sad, success vs failure! It all depends on where you are and how you see it! Your attitude is the fuel, life takes a turn for the good or the bad depending on how you see it! Let me correct that - life takes a turn to get beyond these dualities depending on where you think you are! It's your frame of reference that needs a twist!! And that my friend is the secret to nirvana! 

5.Wherever you go, the mat is still there! If you want to go beyond, take your mat along! 

It simply means that the only thing real in an illusory world is you, your thoughts, your emotions and your beliefs! The breath you take on your mat is a constant reminder that the world is within you, not outside. As long as you breath and you know you are breathing the world is real, when you are not you are either dreaming or you are no more! You are the mat and your breath is the consciousness. If you want your consciousness to expand, you have to look within not outside. What's on the mat is simply an illusion to who others think you are. Your breath is who you actually are! Your breath is the universe and ergo, you are the universe! And that's the simple truth -

Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That 

Aham Bhrahmasmi - I am Totality

Sarvam Khalv Idam Brahma - All this is Brahman-Totality!

Atman & Brahman

“Dhyana, is to remove all objects and keep the mind single pointed. On what? On the void, on emptiness. This is meditation. Those who have tried meditating, have experienced how easily the mind attaches itself to the next arising object and suddenly you are off and lost in a labyrinth of thoughts and identifications. Yoga signifies that the average man cannot meditate without adequate preparation. When you have purified body and mind and learnt to control your thoughts and senses you become more and more able to see the empty spaces between all of the phenomenon that arises in your mind. To rest in this emptiness which is like the blue sky beyond the clouds of your thoughts and to remain unidentified with them is true medittation. It is here where we gain glimpses of the freedom we are capable of experiencing.

The eighth limb, samadhi is translated as absorption, bliss, realisation and the highest consciousness or truth. It cannot be practised but arises spontaneously after extended periods of meditation. Able to observe the void within oneself, the observer finally turns around and becomes a witness of our true nature. You realise that your individual self (atman) is one with the divine self (brahman).

The union of atman and brahman is the true subject of Yoga. It is here that we attain the final freedom.”

www.8limbs.com