Yoga practitioner, Marika Cominos interviews Julie Seager, who has been participating in ‘Yoga of Stillness’ classes for 6 months. Julie Shares her experiences and the enormous benefits of connecting to her body that the Yoga of Stillness offers.
MARIKA:
Julie what keeps you coming back to Esoteric Yoga courses?
JULIE:
My experience to date has been really amazing. I have been doing Yoga of Stillness classes for 6 months now. I have noticed some subtle changes. It is a great way for me to start my busy week. It can be very calming, still and more mindful of how I am being out in the world. I feel like I am able to bring more of who I truly am to those I am interacting with.
When I am in a yoga session I allow myself to be in a space where I can have a deep connection with myself. A lot of times I find I get so busy and caught up in other things I don’t want to give myself permission to take that time and go into that deep place that you can get to. In a Yoga of Stillness session I have an hour with me where I don’t have any distractions and I can connect with my body and observe what I am feeling. I have had some really beautiful experiences listening to my body.
MARIKA:
There is no right or wrong in a Yoga of Stillness session because it’s about what your body is presenting and it’s the honesty that your body presents. You are connecting to the wisdom of the body that then feeds back to you how you have been living. That’s actually one of the things that I love about the Yoga of Stillness. It is so honest and there is no hiding in how you have been living because when you are connecting with your body it can speak quite loudly when you stop. And its not until you stop that you really get to feel what’s going on.
JULIE:
Yes, that’s happened to me too Marika.
MARIKA:
Do you want to talk a little about that?
JULIE:
There were a couple of weeks where I was really struggling. I was doing things to distract myself on purpose because I just didn’t want to be aware of what was going on in my life and what I needed to deal with. When I came to do yoga my back was hurting and telling me that I needed to listen to my body more and stop avoiding the truth of what’s going on and taking better care of myself because I had been neglectful. It was a really good wakeup call.
MARIKA:
So what did you do from there. Your body was talking to you – it doesn’t talk in words, but it talks in sensations, which it clearly was that day. What did you do with that wakeup call from the body?
JULIE:
I almost gave into it and just repositioned myself to lay down again. But then I thought no I’m going to observe this as we are always reminded in class to observe what’s going on rather than fight it or try to change it. So when my back started aching instead of fighting I just sat with it and I was able to let go and realize what was happening and what my body was telling me. And then my body was fine and everything released and I felt normal again once I just stopped trying to fight it and observe what was happening.
MARIKA:
That’s a really good point you make and is what is very powerful about the Yoga of Stillness. For most of us we have learned that if there is pain we want to make it go away and we will do something about it to go away. So there will usually be a reaction. But in that when we choose that, we don’t get to any true healing and the root cause of what’s causing it in the first place. So with Esoteric Yoga, as you say, you are encouraged to be with it, observe it, not react to it, not make it want to go away – but just observe with the wisdom of your body and surrender and let go and most importantly accept what is there and trust that the wisdom of the body will unfold it in the way that it needs to.
Time and time again participants feed back to me, and it’s my experience aswell, that they are constantly amazed at how simple it is. That when they don’t react, but just allow the observation of the pain or whatever was coming up for them that seemed unbearable when they first started to feel it, they were amazed that it would just drop away. That is a common experience that participants have in a Yoga of Stillness session.
On that day you explained did your pain go away?
JULIE:
Yes absolutely. When I was able to just be with it and observe and stop fighting it, it became so much easier. It was reflecting what I needed to do in a lot of situations in my life – for me to stop fighting the acceptance of things. To let things be and surrender and let things work themselves out.
MARIKA:
Yes when we listen to the wisdom of the body, which is what the Yoga of Stillness is offering it is very beautiful what we discover. For years I was searching outside of myself for answers not realizing the answers were in my own body.
So Julie, what is it that you enjoy or find challenging about the Yoga of Stillness?
JULIE:
The most challenging is when my mind wanders and it will do this very easily when I have not been living to my fullest. But its great to know that I am not doing anything wrong as we are gently reminded to not judge it, but just to come back to the body.
One of the things that I enjoy most about it is that I don’t have to try so hard – it just is. It’s a really nice feeling being in a space with no judgment and feeling what my body is telling me and not fighting it.
I love starting out my week with the Yoga of Stillness. When I get off track I can bring myself back to my movements that support my body by being gentle and nurturing myself. It gives me a marker that I can keep coming back to.
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