discomfort
This week we were working with the concept of dvesa (aversion).
Dvesa is the aversion towards things that produce unpleasant experiences or the avoidance of pain. We held a bridge for three minutes, each warrior posture for one, I would state the name of the posture but then stop talking.
After class, students commented “That was so hard!”, and how they were yelling at me in their heads, “I can’t do this!”, “ASHLEY, AHHH!”, “My legs are dying”, “Are we done yet?”
Hold the Pose
What made it even harder was that I was not talking during the hold. I was not allowing my voice to be a distraction from dvesa. A student commented that in order to hold the posture, they had to make slight adjustments and tweaks to their alignment to hold the pose.
If we cannot avoid the things we do not like- we suffer, even thinking about unpleasant experiences produces suffering. So much of what my students were suffering from today was the fact that we were not moving to distract our bodies from acknowledging the adjustments their physical body needed, I was not talking to distract their minds from listening to their own thoughts. When we have a difficult experience, the worst part is that we are afraid of repeating it, so we reject the people, the places, the thoughts associated with that experience assuming they will pain us again.
Guess what? We still had to do the other side.
Today, I invite you into the discomfort. Breathe into and through it. The pain creates the opportunity for release. The release creates opportunity for space. The space creates opportunity for clarity. The clarity creates opportunity for growth.
During savasana, I invited them to feel into their heart space. What are the moments in life that our heart is holding onto far longer than one minute? I asked them to think about the global world, what are you holding on to? Our county, what are you holding on to? Our community, what are you holding on to? Our home and family, what are you holding on to? Our thoughts, what are you holding on to?
I can guarantee, we are holding these thought patterns, fears and need for distractions about these larger issues FAR longer than one minute. A posture may have been physically exhausting for our one minute hold, but we hold in our hearts thoughts for hours, days or even years. Acknowledge what you are holding and how exhausting that is to your emotional and spiritual bodies.
I invite you to hold only what is necessary and breathe today.
This Week’s A Door Within:
Can I physically hold a three minute plank? (Try it! See how your body responds.)
What patterns do I hold in my heart far longer than one minute?
How does this discomfort create pain in my body?
♥Ashley
