There are two things that everyone experiences at some point whilst practicing yoga – pain and pleasure. Both can arise outside of the yoga class and be brought in, but equally both can be experienced as a direct result of practice. I want to look at this in class this week. In general, most people would say that pain is bad and pleasure is good, and yet I see a much more complex relationship between the two in myself and in others. Pain is something we usually try to avoid, and yet it can be a very helpful feedback mechanism. Pleasure is something we usually try to pursue, and yet it can become an addictive trap. So how do we know when pain is helpful and when pleasure is a pathway to liberation? Taking pain, for instance, there are many types of pain - it can be a result of a mechanical injury, imprecise alignment, or the felt experience of tensions that have built up in the body. It can be emotional too of course. And in all of those instances, ironically, retraction from pain is often not helpful. We may rest an injury, but it is not helpful to pretend it is not there. We may feel aversion to the effort required to release long held tension, but ignoring the tension will not make it disappear. If approached with care, pain can be a great friend, offering a doorway into greater awareness of everything that we are, and helping us through its feedback to pass beyond its limitations into release. Pleasure on the other hand, tends to be understood as a good thing par excellence. And yet notoriously fleeting, leaving us often wanting more and searching for new ways to find it. Sometimes this can even lead to its condemnation. And yet if pleasure is also seen as a feedback mechanism found within the body, it can be understood as a pathway, a way in which we can find our way back to the joy that resides eternally, that we only need to rediscover in our own hearts. Then there is less need to source pleasure elsewhere. So how to work with these two experiences within a yoga class? Awareness is key. Move the body and discover which sensations arise. If there is pain, then we can be with it to a certain degree so as to discover what we need to do in order to shift it. When we start to shift it, we feel pleasure. We can then allow ourselves to expand into that pleasure with awareness that it can be a pathway towards something deeper. This week in class, we will work with whatever people are experiencing in their own bodies. We will take a closer look at the injuries or pains that come up and work therapeutically with them through accurate alignment and support. Then when we find the pleasure, we will see whether we can get to the point of full release into it. Not as easy as it sounds, but well worth the effort!
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 20:14:50 +0000
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