Yoga in Sand

My toes spread in the sand, seeking balance in tumbling grains. My body wobbled. I sank deeper into the earth, breathed, and found my position. My gaze was straight ahead. The sand shifted beneath my feet, a living, breathing entity. It was so different than practicing yoga on a stable mat. The very foundation on which I stood shifted, as if I was in an hourglass. The sand was a mirror of my soul, reflecting back to me my innermost thoughts and emotions. Waves crashed behind me. Their sound was a soothing symphony, guiding my breath and movements. I was in tune with the rhythms of nature, my breath in sync with the ebb and flow of water. Salty sea air filled my lungs, invigorating me as I stretched my limbs. I felt sunlight on my skin. Its warmth was a reminder of the life force flowing through me. I felt the earth grounding me as I rooted down through my feet and the sun lifting me up through my crown. My body was somewhere, something else. I found asana, my body a vessel for yoga.

Find balance, even in the midst of imperfection. The imperfect asana is perfect as long as the yogi is growing and blossoming from a seed of awareness. Each asana is a practice, and through the practice of yoga, we can root ourselves in the ground with apana, or yogic gravity, and fly into euphoria with prana, or yogic energy.

The essence of yoga is the spiritual filling of the asana. The body absorbs the spirit of the warrior, the eagle, and the child. We become the asana that we embody. When you assume an asana do it with your whole heart. Fill your body with the essence of the pose. Arch your spine as a cat or a cow. Release your lumbar tension as a happy baby. Imagine you are different. Imagine the yoga is transforming you. The quality of yoga is not based on the duration, but rather the potency of focus.

Through yoga one can grow. The imperfect asana, pose, is perfect so long as the yogi is grows, blossoming from a seed of awareness. Each asana is a practice, because we are filling the space to complete it. If we can search hard to find our balance today, then it will be just waiting for us tomorrow. Practice brings balance to our fingertips, closer each time we focus on it. The asana which we tend to each day is the one which will hold our growth. Imagine it a clay pot and every day you practice more clay is added. When their pot gets bigger, a yogi has acquired deeper skills. We can root into the ground with apana, yogic gravity; we can fly into euphoria with prana, yogic energy.

Then, after shavasana, when the yogi leaves their mat, they are free. Their spirit is unhindered by the limitations of the body because they have transcended the limitations through challenging asanas. They have lifted the cage of their form. The yogi flies.

To walk with a grain of yoga in the sandy desert of your life, is to welcome growth. Bring awareness to your practice. You may furnish your grain of yogic sand to have the aura of a pearl.