Abby shares 4 truths that manifested spending one month in Mysore
🧠 You are capable of more than you think.
When I left for Mysore I was scared. Scared to travel alone as a young woman. Scared I was going to injure myself in practice. Scared to be away from my beloved friends and family. And for good reason. India is loud. The air quality makes deep breathing difficult. Temperatures rise into the 90’s daily and air conditioning is obsolete. It is unsafe to drink the water. Food poisoning is inevitable. There are mosquitoes everywhere (and I mean everywhere). The environment truly is a container for inner work.
Each time my 4am alarm sounded I thought to myself “there is no way I will survive today.”
And at the end of the day after making it through another 2.5 hour asana practice and subsequent hours of lecture, I lie in bed in disbelief that I accomplished everything I did.
So as much as India is a deeply challenging place to exist, it is also a constant reminder of our resiliency and power.
🦴 It’s not all about alignment.
I know this might be surprising to hear. And do not get me wrong - I am still going to correct the position of your left pinkie toe in class next week.
But I think as useful as alignment can be, it can also act as a crutch. I have spent the past year dealing with a painful back injury and the way I worked through my fear of these shapes was by studying the anatomy of the spine and the “correct” placement of my body.
In Mysore, alignment does not exist. Nobody cares how you get into the pose, as long as you can do it. When I shared with Saraswathiji that I had lots of fear surrounding deep backbending, her response was simply “You don’t be afraid. You just do.”
At first I scoffed at the advice, I was offended (hello, ego!). But the more I thought about it, the more I understood what she was saying. I think sometimes getting away from alignment and theory and into the physical body is how we overcome fear.
Instead of asking more questions what would happen if we trust the intelligence of the body and listen to its boundaries? Letting go of perfection and theory is what allowed me to take shapes I never thought I would do without debilitating pain. It is true what they said:
Asana is 99% practice and 1% theory.
🗝️ Breathing is the key.
Comfortable breathing is the key to a fruitful asana practice. I studied pranayama with 97 year old BNS Iyengar while in Mysore. The techniques he taught were simple. Retention between the inhale and the exhale. Longer exhales than inhales.
When I incorporated these techniques into my asana practice, things got more manageable. I felt in control in a way I had not before, especially during the deep backbends that come with Ashtanga’s intermediate series.
Aside from asana, breathing is what helped the folks I met deal with unimaginable circumstances in their home countries.
Taking a moment to be still and feel the air moving through the body is deeply healing and is the only constant we have in this life.
💕 There is immense power in community
No matter your background or where you come from, it seems to me that we are all seeking the same thing. I made friends from Perth, Edmonton, Panama City, London, Singapore, Tokyo, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Tulum, Wellington, Delhi, Moscow, Tehran, Montreal, Milan and more.
The more people I met, the more I realized that we are all one. We are capable of loving one another through pain and suffering. We can do hard things, especially in community.
I think that is what makes a yoga studio so special. We all come together to be present with our breath and bodies, even if the person next to you is seemingly a stranger, the connection is palpable.
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My colleague Sarah Schermerhorn summed up this month perfectly in a message she sent to me. “It feels inspiring, grounding, energizing, nourishing, humbling all at once and all from the other side of the world.” And it couldn’t be more true.
Thank you to Saraswthiji and her daughter Sharmilla for creating space in the Shala to grow in practice. Immense gratitude to Michael, Justine, Sam, Didi, Paulina and Elliott for making this trip possible. And finally, thank you to the Down Under community for allowing me to realize this dream of studying in India. You are the reason this entire journey happened and I am so excited to share more of what I learned with you in class.
