Picture this. You have just settled into child’s pose and you notice your breath for the first time all day. Ah, you have made it to your yoga mat. As your breath deepens and your body relaxes, the yoga teacher announces that in today’s practice we will be working on one-legged crow pose (eka pada bakasana). What is your immediate reaction?

For many practitioners, the stream of thoughts sounds something like this: Shoot, there is no way I can land a one-legged crow. Crow pose is hard enough! I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough. This will be embarrassing. I should never have come to this class. For others, it might sound more like this: Sweet, I’ve got one-legged crow! I’ve been working on my strength and flexibility. I should record this so I can post it on Instagram. My friends will be impressed. In both cases, we have created a situation rife for mental agitation, which is indeed at odds with the kind of quality of mind we should be cultivating on our mats.

Whatever your immediate reaction to the preview of a challenging arm balance, there is a better way. It is found throughout yoga philosophy and is explained poignantly in the Bhagavad Gita, arguably the most profound of all of the spiritual texts of yoga.

The Gita is an eighteen-chapter dialogue between Lord Krishna and his student Prince Arjuna. Arjuna is facing an arduous task, literally the biggest battle of his lifetime. He seeks counsel and guidance from his friend, mentor and an iteration of the divine, Krishna. Krishna explains to Arjuna that the answer he seeks lies in the practice of yoga, which he defines as both “skill in action” and “evenness of mind.”

Krishna goes on to tell Arjuna that he must approach his work with the right mindset. He states that Arjuna is entitled to perform his work for the sake of the work only, and not for the fruits of the work. In other words, do what you are there to do, but without attachment to the results.

Why does the Bhagavad Gita extol this attitude towards our actions? The more attached we become to the results of our actions, the more turbulent our minds become. This, of course, is at odds with yoga’s mission statement of developing evenness of mind and skill in action. The answer therein lies in applying ourselves fully to the task at hand, but doing so with a modicum of detachment from the results.

In the case of Arjuna, Krishna is essentially telling him to simply get out onto the battlefield and do his best work. To apply himself fully, and to not worry, ruminate or stress about the results. This, Krishna explains, is the way to tap into the inner reservoir of peace that resides within all of us, underneath our circumstances, our conditioning and our tendency to get too caught up in the transient nature of day-to-day life. Incidentally, this quality of mind also helps us move through the world with more skill, which ultimately makes our success far more likely than it would be with a more scattered state of mind.

Taking Krishna’s admonition and applying it to our personal arm balance journey, our mission is clearer. We should approach all aspects of our asana (or physical) practice, and arm balances in particular, with a calm and steady mind. We should work diligently yet patiently to build the physical attributes required for the task. In the case of eka pada bakasana, that means strong and flexible hip flexors, a strong anterior core, the ability to balance on our hands in an asymmetrical posture and the ability to maintain a steady gaze (drishti) and breath as we move in and out of the pose. Most importantly, we should not waste our mental energy worrying about whether or not we ultimately find the full shape of the pose.

A teacher of mine once explained that the posture is simply the shape the body is in. But the real yoga is how we are — both in mind and body — as we move in and out of the shape. This perfectly captures the mindset we should cultivate in all of our arm balances.

Sindy Warren

Life Coach, Yoga Teach + Founder of Blue Tree Coaching

bluetreecoaching.net

sindy@bluetreecoaching.net