Sthira & Sukha…

Last week, the theme of our Yoga class was “Sthira & Sukha”, which really spoke deeply to me throughout the whole week of my practice. Sometimes, the themes I set turn out to be very much beneficial for my own reflection too. So I’ve decided to share here what we explored, and some more little thoughts on finding a bit of Sthira (steadiness) and Sukha (ease) in our practice and lives.

“Sthira” and “Sukha” are two Sanskrit words coming from probably one of the most well-known philosophies of Yoga; The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Patanjali being this very smart dude who brought to us 196 “sutras”, or really just tiny little sentences with lots and lots of wisdom, on how to understand the art and science of our Yoga practice. The two words, “Sthira” and “Sukha”, come from a verse in Patanjali’s sutra 2.46, which reads: “Sthira Sukham Asanam”. “Sthira” translating into “steadiness”, “to focus” or “to stay”, “Sukham” meaning “ease” or “comfort and “Asanam” referring to the asanas, or the postures within Yoga itself.

With the translation of the Sutra, what Patanjali is really saying is that the Asanas, or the postures within Yoga, should be steady, and hold a certain aspect of ease or comfort within them. What he’s asking us – is really to create a balance between being focused and sturdy within the pose, yet at the same time maintaining an easiness.

It can be very easy to convince ourselves that we must push ourselves, we must do our best, or better or else it’s not worth it. When really, the poses themselves…are actually doing the work for us. We don’t need to force anything to happen. So when we are totally steady in an asana, it means that we are steady in our minds, and with our energies – as well as just the body. And when we are at ease – there is no struggle, no forcing, no TRYING, no EGO, no “I must reach my toes and I will break my back to do it!” kind of effort. Because…..we know that’s not what it’s about.

For example, maybe I’ll be in a seated forward fold (Paschimottanasana), and perhaps usually, my head rests nicely on my knees. In my head maybe I start to think “I’ve mastered this one! I win at seated forward fold!” And then the next day, my body decides to show up my ego completely, and today I can only move a half an inch. Maybe in my mind I start to think, “well this isn’t right, I win at this one every day, what’s going on?!” Then if I try and use FORCE to get my body to meet my image in my head, I end up completely losing my SUKHA – my ease. My mind, breath and energies are flying around everywhere and I’ve also lost my Sthira – Nothing is steady. I start to move into DUKHA – which is SUKHA’s evil twin – dis-ease.

Within the practice, we can find all of this within the breath – so our breath is kind of like a little traffic light system – when we’re at ease, relaxed, our breath moves freely and easily. And when we’re TRYING, efforting, struggling, we usually can’t breathe so easy. The breath is the one constant thing – the thread between me and my body. If I lost my breath right now, me and my body would fall completely apart. So by choosing to pay attention to our breath in the asanas, we start to bring our mind and emotions into a singular focus point – our energy is in one place, it’s stable, rather than jumping all over the place – which makes us very uneasy.

I felt I understood this to a deeper level after Mindful Guernsey’s class last Saturday morning. Nicky, the teacher, asked us all where we usually go to in a pose in terms of effort on a scale of 1-10. It was so intriguing to reflect on this, to see our “inner pusher” as Nicky described – that little inside voice who always wants to do BETTER. Instead, she asked us to drop all of that, and make the internal resolution for just that day, just for that one class, to stay at a level 5 – to stop trying to make the pose “better”, to stop trying to improve and to just BE in that pose. It’s super super interesting to watch the dialogue in your own head when you decide to stop trying to do your ‘best’. It was a beautiful class, and a strong take home message to reflect on – noticing our “inner pusher” in every aspect of life, and seeing if we can……let that go! It’s definitely a challenge.

So I guess within Sthira and Sukha, we can relate to the practice of the asanas, or the reason why we twist ourselves into all these shapes and roll around on the floor, as a means to devote all of our attention and energy to nourishing a graceful and peaceful quality within ourselves – an inner steadiness and ease. And then when we choose to carry those qualities into the rest of our day, whatever happens, that’s when we start to bring our practice off the mat.

By focusing on developing a sense of Sthira and Sukha, we start to come into a place of more stillness – a JOYFUL stillness, an easiness, a comfort. Even when all the outside is moving – even in the storms and turbulence – the hurricanes and tornadoes of our emotions, our minds, of LIFE, there will be a connection – somewhere, an INNER stillness, so we can be steady, easy and a little bit more separate from all the…….shit!

All love,

Adéle x