Keep it Simple. Do Yoga

I remember when I began to discover the power of practicing yoga asana. As a young adult, I was feeling a sense of displacement. I felt confused about the world and my place in it. Nothing seemed to fit quite right in the puzzle pieces that life had given me. From this place of a quiet desperation that cloaked my experience of the world, I came across a book called “Light on Yoga” by BKS Iyengar. I read the beginning pages and felt a deep relief, because there was a path, tools for liberation, a system that brought freedom to the body, mind and soul.

I know that sounds like a “deep” statement. And it is, but it is much more simple than we believe. I just started where I was. No mat or special clothes. Just breath, a book, more breath, and patience. I immediately felt a shift in myself. I felt happier, easier. I realized, the breath is the most available and neglected tool that we all have access to.

“Discipline” I could hear her say, my Grandmother with a thick Hungarian accent. “Discipline is so important in a successful life.” I could remember my young mind, disciplined in resistance if anything. My stubborn attitude felt this word to be tiresome and boring. I lacked the relationship to the substance of what it actually meant. I began to grow in understanding of this, as I practiced daily asana. The practice became a relationship that I looked forward to, it brought me joy and helped me to observe and accept, instead of judge and resist. This experience started with me. The discipline I found was organic and welcomed. I saw the world differently and healed something each time I practiced. To this day, it is the longest standing relationship that I have had. Through error and trials, I came back to my mat, breathing and accepting, and letting go of each posture and each new day.

Life never seemed to slow down, and I began to get carried away in the drama and obligations around me. There was a consistency, however, a thread that continued to keep me connected to something beyond my small mind, and witness the grace in every moment. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was tears and loss, fears and re-gained courage, deception and redemption, but the “discipline” of regular practice kept me sane and hopeful.

I explored different styles and teachers of yoga, loving each one for giving me a different perspective. I craved to immerse myself in practice, the questions inside of me were too big to be answered by the mundane, daily routines, or so I thought. What was the point of all of this? If everything is temporary, what is the goal as we transition through time and space?

I would go down the “rabbit-hole” so to speak, wondering how to contain these big questions in small everyday tasks. Breathing, feeling, continuing to act in the most loving action that I knew, I practiced.

Some years got lost in neglect, distracted by self- imposed priorities, and my relationship to my practice seemed like an imaginary lover in the past. But just like an old friend that you don’t talk to in years, I reconnected with my practice over and over again. Always accepting, always in love.

After the consistency of a loving relationship, we thrive in different ways. We begin to start seeing the connections we have with the natural world, the food that we ingest, the thoughts we design. We begin to be able to step back and see the bigger picture of what yoga really is.

You take a deep breath, alive and awake, you feel relaxed and settled. Feet firmly on the ground and the pressures of the world are momentarily at arms length, you feel connected. Connected to yourself and connected to the Earth. Do you know this feeling? That feeling that everything is in order, your mind is focused, and you feel peace. You feel that you visited a sacred space within yourself, and your lighter in your bones. There is nowhere to get to, except right here, at this moment.

“Yoga, plain living, High thinking.” I remember hearing a gentleman describe his experience with a yoga guru in India, and stating this with joyful recollection. Yoga is definitely a way of living, and though yoga asana is only one branch on the tree of yoga, it is a powerful tool in of itself. Often I have heard people say, “I can’t do yoga, I’m not flexible!”, which is exactly the reason this would be a beneficial practice for you. Not just because it will help you have a different relationship with your body, but because you are merely looking at the outside, and considering the gross aspect of existence, the physical.

Improving the physical aspect of the body is a positive attribute when practicing asana(yoga postures), however, the gift of a balanced perspective is something beyond value. Mind medicine, if you will. Fueling the mind with more oxygen and training your attention to be directed inward, you begin to gain an innate understanding of the world around you. Regular yoga asana practice will carry you across the threshold of those dark challenges that life brings, to a brighter awareness and acceptance of the day. A gift I wish I could give humanity.

We all experience the roller coaster of being human, some more than others. Responsibilities and emotions, tasks of daily necessity, births and deaths, injustice and pain in one form or another. Often we don’t realize in the moment of these challenges, that we have choices. Getting swept up in the experience, we either react, or use a substance to alter the experience or numb the senses. Some use exercise to relieve daily stress, some use less healthy alternatives, regardless, we often still have an overactive mind that contributes to many adverse challenges. Generally, people don’t connect ailments in the body with external factors bombarding the senses. It seems like too much responsibility. To change your habits or your diet. Yoga asana is a step to help you regain your willingness to live in balance, have a stronger mind and more conscious participation in the life that you lead.

As we start to see the patterns of our minds and the patterns of the natural world around us corresponding to each other, we gain a wisdom that is, always has been, and always will be available to us. We gain understanding that we are not dominant over the divine order of things and we could rest in who we are. Serve humanity with the gifts we have been given, and let go.

When we come to the mat to face ourselves, explore our limitations and accept where we are, we begin to show up for others in this way. When we heal our wounds and believe in a fulfilling hopeful life, we create the space for others to participate in that as well. Let’s show up for ourselves and each other, flawed and perfect.

Why listen to me? Offering my experience with openness and love, I believe, those that need each other to grow, will find what they need to know. Having gone through the spectrum of human challenges, I offer empathy and kindness, and tools for a balanced life. We tend to recognize those that savor life, and we are drawn to light. When we remember

“It is the light in the lantern which shows you the path, not the lantern.” We all must choose to shine in our own time. We take turns lighting the way.

Eventually whether your focus begins on the branches or the trunk, the tree will appear in its entirety and you could tie your hammock to it, and rest. Yoga is a journey, yoga is a process, yoga is rest. Keep it simple. Breath more. Do Yoga.

Over the years, in the practice of acceptance, and learning to sustain a sense of peace and comfort, even in turmoil. We find beauty in the mundane and the simplicity of life. If I could provide this tool for those that crave this freedom, and ignite a sense of hope in the world, this would be defined as my greatest passion. Through this vision that I call Green Yoga Project, I imagine an integrated life within sustainable, conscious communities. I offer systems of self discovery and healing including; Organic Yoga (Asana Instruction) Poetry Therapy, Permaculture, and Natural Products.

Maja McKeever 6/23/2021