Seeking Stillness – Yoga and Sailing
December 18, 2008
If you are a Facebook Friend of mine then you probably already know that I recently started doing yoga. I’ve being trying several different kinds and this week I’ve been doing Bikram Yoga Dupont. I had been doing another style of yoga at Pure Prana Studios.
At Prana there is a good opportunity to think while doing the positions. You have to focus on your body – but you can drill into an idea a little bit too. (Of course this could mean I’m not doing it right) At Bikram… um… there is no thinking. There is a lot of sweating and grunting and heavy breathing.
Like I said I trying different kinds and so far they all have value and I don’t have any favorites. Today my instructor was a little tank of a woman who I would dub the delightful drill sargent. She wasn’t taking no shit and wasn’t going to let any of us cheat. Including the new people (like me) who were clearly struggling.
While she probed us to stretch harder she mentioned that the difference between new yogis and experienced yogis is generally how quickly they can get to stillness in their positions. Newbies tend to need to “do something” in order to feel like they are doing the position correct. In fact the better way to do the position is to get into the right place and be still. Small adjustments.
Well in the midst of my human pretzel making this hit me like a ton of bricks. This idea of stillness is very often in play on the sailboat racing course. Inexperience racers will often feel like the need to do something in order to improve their position or win a race. They are frenetic. Tacking and jibing to chase every little thing. The experienced racers always move with purpose. They get to their positions and are still. They determine where the strategic advantage is, get into a position to get to it first, and then go.
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