Last weekend I lead a yoga workshop for skiers. Since I downhill ski, I have to admit that I initially didn’t consider snowboarding or cross country. While the physical actions are similar, they do differ, and I made some modifications. But it brought home to me once again the significance of perception.
It seems challenging in our constantly changing information world to know what is real or not. Pictures can be modified easily. Our emotions are inconstant and unpredictable. Our own bodies can tell untruths, for example, we’re ill, yet don’t feel it, or feel something and can’t find it. With perceived reality so slippery, yoga helps us return to our bodies and practice true discernment (Viveka) to go beyond our perceptions, for perceptions might differ or change, but reality doesn’t.
How can yoga reveal the current situation? When you practice, your attention turns to what you are doing so you’re mentally and physically present. You put yourself in certain postures that draw your mind more intensely to physical action. Yet you give yourself moments to observe and act, if necessary or possible, rather than attending simply to how your body feels. Your mind becomes the observer, your senses become the navigator of the action; the muscles the steering wheel.
For example, in a backbend like Upward Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana), your mind is actively absorbed to attain and sustain the pose. Some people are flexible and strong enough to push right up from the floor or even drop back onto their hands from standing. But many of us, like myself, are not. Thus, the practice of discernment helps us. When you bend backwards, the back muscles contract to elongate and support the muscles of the front body. While the feet press firmly down, the thighs move back so that the buttocks lift to the front of the body; the entire body moves in the direction of your head to open your chest. Directing the action, discerning, gives a moment to see the situation in order to make any needed adjustments (physical or mental). Your senses keep you in check to avoid injury.
Whether you do your next backbend with the aid of a chair or the arm of a couch or with no props, perceiving yourself in a different manner than usual reveals your perception of the reality.