Without a steady foundation, a pose can never truly blossom or be well aligned. In every yoga pose, we must root down with every body part that is touching the ground in order to expand, grow, and create space in the body. For instance, when we stand in Tadasana, Mountain Pose, we need to root down equally with all four corners of our feet in order to stand taller and shine our heart forward with confidence. If we did the same pose with collapsed arches, a chain reaction happens in the body. Our ankles roll in, knees buckle, pelvis anteriorly arches, and so on. If someone was to come and try to push us over, we may stumble and loose our footing. But if we rooted down and stood tall, we’d be unshakable.
The same rules apply in life. If we aren’t grounded and don’t have a strong foundation, we can be easily swayed and thrown off balance. When life throws us some serious curveballs and things go haywire, the one thing we do have control over is how we deal with it. Our bodies naturally go into a fight or flight mode when we feel threatened. Our heart starts pumping faster, breathing becomes more shallow, and we get a rush of adrenaline that either causes us to act out aggressively or run away from our problems and be ridden with anxiety. However, if we allow ourselves to slow down and breathe deeply, we can calm ourselves down and make rational decisions.
When we’re on the mat, we need to both pay attention to how we react to the discomfort of certain poses and train ourselves how to work through them. Instead of forgetting to breathe, grimacing, and tensing up all of our muscles, we need to breath deeply, relax our face, and ease into the pose. Once we start to manifest a foundation for how to deal with discomfort, we can learn to become more grounded in life.
The lotus blossom is an emblematic symbol for yoga, because the lotus’ cycle of life — from seed to flower — is similar to the path of yoga. A lotus seed has to embed itself into the muddy soil at the bottom of a murky pond. It then has to take root and slowly fight its way up to the very top of the water before it can blossom open. The path along the way is hard and seemingly impossible — but the flower is determined to find the light. Once it rises to the surface, it blossoms open without looking the least bit scathed by it’s journey. The petals are pure, glistening, and radiant.
When life gets hard, breathe deeply, imagine the journey of the lotus blossom, and silently repeat the mantra, “Root down, to rise up.” Once we begin to learn how to root down when we feel like we’re being ripped up out of the soil, we can rise tall from aversion, start to find happiness, and blossom into the highest version of ourselves.
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