It is not an exaggeration for me to say that without yoga I would never have completed a novel.
It is also not an exaggeration for me to say that without yoga I would never have begun a novel -- much less stuck with the process, had the patience, displayed the perseverance necessary to reaching the stage I am now at.
I have been doing various types of yoga for about 12 years now.
Besides helping me develop into the prose writer I want to be, it has opened the doorway through which I walk to find poems -- those wild and elusive creatures that can hang from trees just as easily as show up under the couch.
Yoga has helped me also to recover from chronic depression and anxiety. It has helped me to find a pathway to peace and beyond -- to, dare I say, happiness.
Recently, I rediscovered dancing, and this also would not have happened without yoga.
Just this past weekend, two other miracles in my book: I have begun to sketch again, and the lyrics for a song came to me while I was drifting into a lovely nap. I have not written lyrics (as opposed to poems) since I was twenty-two, and they are quite welcome in this house, thank you very much.
What is all of this about?
It's about the fruits of the practice of stillness. Whether you want to access this stillness through meditation or through asana, the fruits are the same.
We finally get to a place where we can clearly hear ourselves. Call this what you will -- God, the Universe, our own Divinity. We can hear it clearly only when we stand in the eye of the storm that is our thoughts, this loud culture, expectations, obligations, whatever it is making all the noise.
As Cope talks about, we are layered. Think of this for yourself in an individual, micro way or as a metaphor for the whole of this existence in a collective, macro way. Either way, it's the same thing.
We are layered, and "underlying it all is the ananda-maya-kosah, or sheath of bliss -- the subtle, interior blueprint upon which all human psycho-mental structures are built."
The Sheath of Bliss.
The blueprint upon which you and I and all of this is built.
Think of this as your binary coding, in which lies the essence of who you are.
Tap into this and you eventually come to the sweetest result of all -- how to stand up off the mat or the cushion and live your essence minute to minute, sweet action to sweet action, moment to moment.
Tap into this and you realize how inane, how trivial, how silly most of our desires really are when compared to the deepest desire of all -- to express ourselves as we truly are while we are in this physical manifestation. Each of us a unique expression wanting to only express that fact.
Tap into this and you realize why material gains always feel empty after a short while.
It is in the action of expressing our unique selves, in the process (as usual), that we are the conduits through which bliss enters this world.
Funny enough, my next small purchase to support this burgeoning, awakening, wild, eccentric, unique self that is only me? Tap shoes, of course.
(Photo: Handmade Gelato at Barbara's, Erie; Photo & Text Credit: Christine C. Reed, blisschick.net, 2009)
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8 comments:
Funny that i should come here after deciding ~finally~ today to start in a yoga group X;-)
LOVED this post. Really resonated with it. Stillness is the answer for me as well, my connection, my bridge to the All-That-Is. I meditate, and circumnavigate into and out of a regular yoga practice, but always meditate. It is what moves me.
Thanks for this lovely post. And congrats on the novel. I'm almost finished with my first book--nonficiton.
I love yoga for the same reasons. In fact, I just did my lunchtime yoga class today and felt wonderful. It's relaxing, makes the rest of my work day so peaceful and completely calorie-free. Can't beat that.
what a great post. i'm still working on my book ~ congrats on yours.
wow...tap shoes. I want a coin belt. Keep on going blisschick. You always inspire me.
Tapping into Bliss! :) I love that.
You are the first tap dancer I have known. Cool! :)
It's great to hear that the fruits of yoga practice are so much creativity! and I think too, BlissChick, that you don't really believe that you can dispense with yoga / meditation altogether, otherwise why read Stephen Cope? I was inspired by this to roll out my yoga mat (why do I consider that such a chore?) and do my 'Yoga in Bed' DVD, morning sequence.
Oh, no, Ellen! My point has NEVER been anywhere close to "dispense with yoga and meditation." My god -- I would barely be sane without them.
My point is that, I think, we can broaden what we consider yoga and meditation in our lives, that many more things get us to the same place.
(Still shivering at the very thought of getting rid of yoga...oh my...)
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