Back-To-School by Samantha Leigh
As any schoolchild knows, September means ‘back-to-school.’ And as any parent knows, September means back-to-school supplies. As students are excitedly anticipating reunions with their classmates and wondering whose homerooms they will be in, parents head to the nearest Staples to buy notebooks, pencils, erasers, and more. To prepare.
Even as, for some, the days of graphing calculators are in the far, far distant past, this ‘back-to-school’ feeling remains. The haze of humid summer days fades away and there is an inherent knowledge…an intuition…an instinct of new beginnings in the fresh fall air. And when preparation meets new beginnings, well that’s when the magic happens.
In yoga, we are often striving for the next challenge, the next krama, the next pose. I, myself, have been guilty of scanning a studio’s schedule and rearranging my entire day to fit in the Level 3 Flow, all the while ignoring the Fundamentals practice that was much more conveniently timed. Quite frankly, basics can come across as boring; Level 3 is much more sexy. And yet, it is those very basics that prepare us for each advanced asana we will ever encounter. The foundation of a yoga practice is the fundamentals. Only by the strength of introductory poses can we eventually float into handstands or fly into a one-legged crow.
So, as we go ‘back-to-school’ this fall, I invite you to go back-to-basics each time you get on your mat. Become a student of yoga again, whether or not you have been practicing for a day or a decade. Rediscover every pose as if it’s the first time. Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism that means “beginner’s mind;” only when we are true beginners are we open enough to learn anything. In this state, there are few preconceptions and countless possibilities. Shoshin is the most important preparation we need. To be open. That’s how the magic happens.
Savasana Song of the Month: “Lokah Samastah” by Kevin Paris
Sequence of the Month: Surya Namaskar B
