Contemplations on Yoga Philosophy
Each month Swami Nirmalananda (my Guru and the founder of Svaroopa® Yoga) writes a teaching article to share with our students. I share the link to the article each month and share quotes from this article at the beginning and end of each yoga class.
These articles give me a connection to Swami Nirmalananda (or Gurudevi) and her deeper understanding of yoga’s teachings. This helps me to deepen my practice and better serve my students. By passing the article along to my students, I help them create that connection and deeper understanding for themselves.
This month’s article, “What is Life”, seemed perfectly timed as I had just begun teaching the Daily Practice Theme with my students. The article asks us to contemplate: what is it to be alive? How do we become more enlivened even while turning our focus inward during yoga poses and mediation?
A paragraph that stood out to me was:
“There is an energy of aliveness that makes your body be a living body rather than the corpse it will become one day. Yoga calls this energy, “prana.” It is easy to see in a vase of fresh-cut flowers. As they lose prana, they wilt and die. When they’re full of prana, they’re fragrant and vibrantly alive. You are supposed to be, too. When you are low on prana, you’re wilting” Gurudevi Nirmalananda October 2021 Teachings Article.
This section called out to me because as I teach the Daily Practice Theme, one of the practices we focus on is our primary breathing practice Ujjayi Pranayama. When you feel like you are wilting, doing some Ujjayi breathing will fill that vase up with water again and freshen you up. Ujjayi Pranayama is such an important practice that we teach at the beginning of every Svaroopa® Yoga class. I advise clients and students who are dealing with a chronic illness, pain or injury to do 20 minutes of Ujjayi twice a day. This practice alone can help manage chronic pain. It is especially useful if you are not able to physically do any yoga poses. Maybe a private yoga therapy client can’t get up and down off the floor, I start them doing 20 minutes of Ujjayi twice a day and usually after 1 or 2 weeks they start to reduce their pain level and regain some flexibility and then I can start them with some chair poses to help give them greater release in their spine.
What if you don’t suffer from chronic pain or an illness? Is an Ujjayi practice still just as important? A resounding yes—you don’t want to be wilting. Ujjayi builds up that energy that is your life force (think Star Wars – the force is with you!). It makes your body alive and just like you have to feed your body with food, you need to feed your energetic body with prana.
Think of 20 minutes of Ujjayi as the ultimate power nap. I am not a napper, I feel if I sleep during the day I wake up not feeling refreshed but groggy and out of it. Honestly though sometimes we all get tired and still have more to do in our day. I urge you to try some Ujjayi Pranayama instead. Your breath is always with you, at home, work, traveling etc. When you feel yourself starting to wilt try taking a 20 minute breathing break! Yoga promises you will feel enlivened and refreshed when done.
