surrender yoga and meditation

Our word of the day and cause for reflection is the sanskrit wrd, “ishvara pranidhana” which means surrendering to the Supreme. While this may be somewhat too mystical for the average stressful day, I get that, but there are some pretty practical connotations that you can derive. First of all, I say it pretty often, but, we need some kind of balance between doing and being, or letting go. I am all for being tenacious but at the same time, some patience, and some allowing of things to unfold is also necessary. Do your best, let G-d do the rest.

This is a great quote on this theme: “Meditation is a surrender, It is not a demand. It is not forcing existence your way. It is relaxing into the way existence wants you to be. It is a let-go” ~ Osho

I think asana is a good mirror for us. This is one reason I like to use props. We can find just the right amount of effort and ease when we know how to support ourselves in yoga poses, rather than being only effort, so that the overworked areas can release and the under worked areas can develop. In addition, the restoratives are great teachers for surrender, because they reinforce the relax and digest mechanisms rather than recruit only strength and effort. Learning to do just the right amount, and let-go just the right amount, we start to feel, I think, more balanced. When all we do is push, when we don’t get what we are pushing for, the two things that happen are, unhappiness for not ‘getting’ it, and a closed door to what we aren’t pushing for but could potentially be even better. Yes, this requires trust. More on that another time. meanwhile, check out my meditations.

surrender and yoga