One Part of Me Is Doing Something Another Part Doesn’t Like

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There’s a very good question that comes up, often near the beginning of a new way of practice. “What if the old way is so much in me? I really like Vinyasa and astanga. Or Bikram and burpees. It feels good to me. At least most of it does. Maybe some parts not so much, maybe sometimes I’m a little injured or frazzled. Or I have some pain, some difficulty, that isn’t going away. But it works for me, I think. And I like this new way, too. So are they both ok? What if they don’t agree with each other?”

So maybe to begin, we don’t have to be very binary here. Old way or new way. As an example,

 

Strala practice moves quite a lot. Whether we’re in the yoga form, tai chi form, or qigong, we’re practicing slow, continuous movement. This helps with building grace and coordination, some ease in our bodies.

 

We get to uncover some habits that don’t work, places we get a bit stuck or disconnected. So this kind of movement is good for seeing these things about ourselves, and recreating some harmony in our whole bodies.

 

This doesn’t happen so much if we just hold a form still. And then go to the next one, and hold that still.

But, there is nothing wrong with holding forms sometimes. We do this too. And as the focus expands from endpoints, poses, into the whole of movement, the first basic elements of this exploration, like swaying, are also not a complete answer. These beginnings are often temporary techniques, along the way to finding your alignment. Moving into agreement with yourself. Eventually we each move into our stillness, with practice here.

We just don’t want forms to lead us into practicing our bad habits. So if a form has us carry excess tension and stress, maybe disconnect one part of our body from another, have one part of us doing something another part doesn’t like, or continue with the bad habits in our body that hold us back – then this form isn’t so useful.

When we practice too much the wrong things, forms that don’t work for us, it’s how we wind up with pain, injury, sometimes sickness, sometimes too much challenge, as we get older. We think it’s just how things are. But, it’s not how things need to be.

 

There’s so much of creation in how we are, more than there is in how things are. So we can remake the form.

 

This is what we’ve been doing in our Strala trainings. Remaking the yoga form, following the same path taken with forms like tai chi. A form comes out of you when you are moving well, within a certain context, a need. So the form answers the question, what do I need to accomplish now? And how can I do this in the best possible way.

 

It’s nice when whatever we practice can unmask the bad habits we have, habits that are difficult to see when we’ve done something a very long time. Sometimes with this practice, we might discover that what we think feels ok, what we think is just fine, might not be working as well as it can for us. It might explain why some things are so difficult for us, in our bodies, our minds, even after so much practice.

I think this is why exploring new forms, like tai chi or qigong, can be so helpful. If we’ve done yoga for so long, it might feel ok, we can do it. But we might also be too good here, at masking ways of moving, habits, that don’t work so well. Tai chi can help with this. It’s not as easy to hide things, so we get to see some more, about ourselves. And there’s a lot we can do, from seeing.

– by Mike

 

About Strala Yoga Training

Strala combines the movement and healing wisdom of tai chi with the form vocabularies of yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine, to help people release stress, move easily through challenge, and live radiantly inspiring lives.

It begins with a mindset, that says our best way to get where we’re going is to feel good along the way. It also works miracles for whole health, helping us to find ease in our bodies and minds, and create the right conditions both for healing and optimal performance.

In our Strala Training Courses, you learn to shape your destiny on every level that counts, from your psychology, chemistry and neurology, to your chromosomes and even gene expression. The unique set of skills you develop – for connecting with yourself and others, unblocking your energy, healing what needs healing and accomplishing challenge with ease – uncovers your ability to create the life you want, and be an inspiring leader to the people around you.

Who’s What’s and When’s of Strala Yoga Training

 

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