The Camera Never Lies! Or Does It?

What you see on camera is what the person behind the lens wants you to see, this can be their perception or their reality! Then you watch the movie and you make your own conclusion on the subject, this becomes your perception or reality! And all the stuff that happens in the background leading up to the movie (prior to the story, during the story, after the story) subtly supports this perception or reality.

We can use this as a metaphor for our own yoga journey.

There is the effort to come onto the mat prior to the practice acknowledging the events prior to class, then once on our mat, we do the practice allowing ourselves to be present, pausing our thoughts, going into depth and the nuances of whatever is happening in our lives. This is our reality! When we wrap up the practice and continue with our day-to-day activities having learnt something from the yoga and coming to maybe an edited version of ourselves, deleting what is no longer necessary in our lives (people, situations, habits etc.) we can find an alternative way of dealing with the obstacles when they arise! This is our perception! It is the yoga pause (not pose!) that I would like to focus on this week. The pause is a metaphor for Meditation. When you hit pause on the screen everything freezes and the images are still. This is analogous to how we would like the mind to be… still, frozen, thinking of nothing but Spiritual Divinity. Continue on this thought and reflection occurs where we learn from life’s lessons and can become our better selves.

The Yama of Satya ties into this because in the human mind we often like to see only what we want to see, hear what we want to hear or  learn what we want to learn. From birth we are conditioned to our parents conditioning and as we grow into adults we awaken to our own reality and we naturally question things. Thus with age our wisdom grows allowing us to make sense of it all and progress further in our spiritual realm . It allows us to move away from our initial and perhaps narrow perception to a much broader, enlightened perspective. So can the camera lie or can it portray the reality of what is out there? It all depends on the eyes of the perceiver, hence why our news media manipulates stories and the movie director skilfully edits his film to impact us. Similarly, the yogi can master their practice evolving and directing it to a place where they see the full potential of the mind, body, breath and soul connection. We are all different in our human form and I remember a few years ago during a class, the teacher used to rant how poor some yoga was and occasionally threw in his personal opinion, reminding us that because he didn’t agree with it, it did not necessarily make it right or wrong…. just wrong for him that’s all. I personally  don’t like heavy metal music during yoga, some people do; I wish to cover myself when practicing yoga, some students like to go nude; I don’t like surveillance cameras in the yoga studio, some yogis do not care.  So you will see just because we have differing opinions does not mean it is right or wrong.

Go ahead and view your life through a camera lens and witness, contemplate, reflect and hit pause at least once a day. Watch what happens. Give yourself time and opportunity to move away from negative aspects of your life. Let the mind move away from a hazy, fuzzy nonsensical perception into a reality of clarity and a high definition, bright vision of yourself…. Perfectly at ease and Wide Awake!

Asana of the week

Garudasana
(Eagle pose)

Garuda is the mythological divine bird that carries Lord Vishnu (The sustainer of the Universe, the preserver). It has a striking Golden body of a man, a white face, red wings and an eagle’s beak. Eagles are admired around the world as living symbols of power, freedom, and transcendence. They have unusual eyes with very large pupils allowing them to see prey miles ahead.

This standing asana builds muscular legs, destroys Naga (dark, inferior harmful forces). It will concentrate the mind as one pointed, two eyes turn into one sharp eye bringing steadiness to the body. Psychically, Garudasana harmonises the consciousness by balancing the lunar and solar energies within the Ajna chakra (Third Eye). It increases alertness and intelligence, and makes the spirit feel aroused, vivid and awakened.

Starting off in Utkatasana (fierce/chair pose), the right leg wraps once or twice around the left leg, as we squeeze the thighs in, we lift our arms bending the elbows and wrapping the right arm underneath the left arm allowing the palms to either face each other or make a fist. This is where the shoulder opens and brings space into the stiff shoulder girdle. So, we have the right leg on top, opposite arm on top (left). Holding this pose for a while is a good idea in order to really get into the deep tissues before switching sides.

The spine remains vertical until the pose is established centrally. Then you can have the option of coming into a horizontal folding Eagle

Mantra for the week

A Pavamana Mantra
(being purified)

Om Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrytor Mamrtam Gamaya
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantihi

Lead me from Falsehood (Lie) to the Truth,
Lead from Darkness to Light,
Lead me from Death to Immortality.
Om Peace Peace Peace.