I'm finally back in the yoga studio after a long hiatus. The pandemic was a big disruptor to my asana practice, particularly in studios where the threat of contagion seemed writ large in sweat and exhalations as people moved through the physical exertion of shapes and movements. There is the familiar rubber smell of my mat, the earthy smell of the plywood floor and the comforting aroma of incense that reminds me of the yoga shalas of my earlier years. A yoga studio can be womb like it it's embrace, comforting, known, home. The rain thunders on the corrugated iron roof, and, after a few curls and extensions of my spine, I settle down to wait for the teacher, closing my eyes to breath.
And then, the music begins, and I become intensely irritated. It adds to the annoyance I feel at the guy who crosses the room by thudding his bare feet on my yoga mat, a personal space, or the young couple that chat incessantly despite the sign that asks for quiet respect of others in this church like meditative space.
It's reasonable music, don't get me wrong. There are no words, just quiet piano. Yet I find myself enraged, wondering why modern, western yoga insists on playing music during yoga instruction. It's not my taste, not music I would choose to listen to. It's an intrusion, like watching a waterfall and someone walking past with Metallica attempting a primal roar on their tinny phone. Besides, isn't yoga meant to be about removing the distractions that clutter our lives? I feel old. In the old days, I muse, they didn't play music in yoga studios. I grew up in the Iyengar tradition with a humourless teacher that would not allow talking or laughing in the studio, and made us fold the blankets after class just so, with military precision.
It doesn't take me long to realise the irony of my consternation. Patanjali, known as the father of yoga, wrote in one of his sutras that yoga stills the 'fluctuations of the mind stuff' - all this angst about whether or not music was 'right' or not in this setting was part of why I was here, whether I was aware of that or not. Practiced as I am, I could recognise the rising and passing of thoughts and their associated feelings, and try to concentrate on my breath. The music should not matter. It was merely a distraction I could observe, and detach from. If I was irritated, that was due to my reactions, not the yoga studio itself.
Still, I long for the quiet.
Yet mid way through the class, as we build toward a strenous standing series where we shift through the warrior poses and into balancing, the joyous and heart opening sound of Baba Hanuman resound through the space and I find myself weeping. It's a particular version of it that I adore, although there are many that have the same effect. Once, in Bali, I bawled my eyes out throughout the entire class, silently weeping, joyous, open, my heart hurting and exploding as I felt myself expanding in beauteous joy. I had to speak to the instructor about it afterwards and he just smiled, saying that it's a 'powerful heart opening mantra'. Hanuman, you might know, is the monkey god who ripped open his chest to reveal Ram, the avatar of the God Vishnu, and his consort, Sita. It's a story of boundless faith and devotion and pure connection to the divine.
The repetion of 'sita ram' in mantra is powerful. It is said to balance both sides of the brain and encourage self awareness. Don't take my word for it - scientists also confirm it creates a neurolinguistic effect that calms the mind and brings focussed awareness, and can alleviate depression and anxiety. I connected to Hanuman when my father was dying. I have a heart tattoed on my forearm to remind myself to connect to all that is bigger than me. Love. Connection. The universe. We can be floored by grief and still boundless and infinitely connected.
Listening and internally chanting 'sita ram' to Baba Hanuman I feel unbound, untethered, light. It's this experience that brings me back to yoga again and again.
The Bhaktis knew it. This is a yoga tradition largely invented kirtan or chanting as a way of achieving an exhaltant, ecstatic, devotionary state of consciosuness that enables you to slip pass the bounds of the limited self. It was a practice anyone could partake in and was not simple for those in the temples but anyone on the street. Music, therefore, has been a yogic practice in some form since at least the 15th century, and perhaps the west is only just catching on to it's value in assisting yogis achieve a heightened state of awareness.
Still, it takes an accomplised yoga teacher to cue songs that assist people to feel a sense of unity and connection, the goal of yoga. In my experience it can be done insensitively and poorly. A good yoga teacher has a playlist that begins quietly and slowly, and as the asana progresses into stronger, more fluid movement, the music builds too, and then falls as one winds down to savasana, the corpse pose. A good playlist in a yoga class works with the breath and asana, rather than jars against it. Music is not there for aesthetics, but for real purpose.
With kirtan, singing affects and encourages breath awareness so that everyone is in unison, and the pace and tempo of the music an impact the nervous system - slow breathing calms the body down. It's the same with yoga - you aren't just moving the body, but breathing as you move with the direct purpose of affecting the nervous system so that all the distractions, all the suffering, all the noise of life drops away and you, hopefully, feel a sense of harmony, unity and connection, of mind-body-breath, yes, but also to the entire universe. Lofty stuff. Kirtain and yoga practice turn off the stress response and result in something of what I was feeling half way through class - a kind of weighlessless, grace, relaxation - but also aware, and very, very present.
Sometimes too, it is a tool for turning off chatter. If the breath isn't working to do that (as it does for me, being well practiced at doing so), the music will. Awareness shifts from the self toward something else. In fact, it can help break down the self. It's the same kind of feeling that others might experience during ecstatic dance or at a rave, lost in electronica.
I am reminded that yoga is not just one thing. It's not soley throwing shapes, or meditating in stillness on a mountain top, or breathwork or singing. It's all of those things, or one of them, or a combination of any. This is how it has always been, since people first starting finding ways to connect to the divine and to realise that we are not separate - from each other, from the tiniest insect or the tallest tree. These practices impact our minds, brains and bodies - even neuroscience confirms this. I am continuously amazed how the yogis knew this before science could validate it.
In savanasana, with my breath filling my lungs and the rain chattering on the roof, under a heavy blanket infused with incense, my body melts to the floor in that familiar release. Ram Dass's voice set to music reminds us that mantra helps us get out of our minds: to repeat 'I am loving awareness' helps him get there. I can't help but smile - the irritated mind at the beginning of the class melts to the sound of his voice and the instruments as I become too, loving awareness.
Whilst I might be sometimes irritated by the choice of music in a studio and can bristle with feelings that it is an intrusion, I can also recognise it's benefits, for I have also felt them myself. Music can help me access purity, truth, boundless consciousness.
i am loving awareness
i am loving awareness
i am loving awareness
sita ram, ram, ram, sita ram.
With Love,
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Woah.... I sort of meditated alongside with you as you write this easygoing piece... I feel your distractions and I feel your need for the environment to be enveloped with silence to allow an intense swift journey through yoga. It's funny how the western world introduces another pattern instead in following the old ways.
Since I can't do my yoga thing especially when I lost my mat ...all I had to do was stay calm and relaxed when listening to a tranquility sound track on YouTube....it helps too honestly...if one could study how the body works psychologically it would be easy to know that this things has a waybit penetrates.
Lovely piece Rivers💗
I think the west has actually contributed a lot to the yoga world, in a good way, building on traditions of old. Whilst you'd never hear music in this way in an Indian yoga school, it does work and seems to be the norm. My fave yoga teacher doesn't play much music and not all the way through, but boy he know the right one to cue at the right moment!
Oh I grasped the opposite rofl...
It's all good🤗
I feel I was there but I have never been there. Nicely written 🙂
Thanks x
The visuals were spot on. Even though I don't do yoga, I get what you mean. Music has a way to ease the mind and body, and sometimes when I'm hit with anxiety, it's only music that can help me calm down as I match my breathing to the slow rhythm of the song I listen to.
Yeah that's right. These days I don't listen as much as we used to... Give me wind and birdsong... But boy it can lift a mood!
I challenge absolutely anyone to not join a yoga class after reading this. I’ve got my mat under my arm and I can hear ‘that’ perfect music in my head - not the irritating strings, the strings that made you cry. Oh, wow! 🤗❤️🥰
Ha thanks for being delightfully encouraging... I hated this piece! 💚
Yoga classes in cities around the world are going to be so busy.
You’ve opened a vista that spotlights the nature of meditative exercise and pours light onto the age-old practice so that ordinary mortals can understand the true nature and reason behind the moves. You might have cried due to your emotional experience, but, now, you have us hoping that we’ll cry, too (when we find ourselves in yoga class because of you.) Imagine that ; you’ve made us want to cry with heartfelt joy - it’s something you’re very good at. WoW
Aw thanks so much. It's that annoying emotional heart of mine that does it 😂
'oké boomer the music hater' ;))))))
Ive had some experiences with different teachers and the use of music in there and indeed, it can be an enhancement but it needs to suit the excersize and the situation.
Honestlty I am better in the majority of silence as I need it to be confronted with that the intention is there and that my own thoughts are nearly not under control. But especially in yin yoga..i like it there!
Shut up, I am not a music hater!! Right place right time. I was raging at the petrol pumps today being forced to listen to Elton John though.... My ears were bleeding
Low-key Elton fan right now reading this comment
It is a sublime experience to see that good breathing in yoga connects us with total life as in the first moments. You have made me breathe like this, sitting in my chair in front of my screen. Thank you for this healthy reading, @riverflows.
Wow! Very well said. It makes me wonder how it feels like being in such. Soon if given a chance I'll try yoga. It's good for the body. Thank you for sharing this. Very articulate! 🤩
AWESOME that you are back on the yoga mat!! 😍 And yes, the MUSIC you allow into your orbit during that very sacred OPEN time, really, really matters.
Back in Chiang Mai after some days resting - have sorted in my head how to do it PROPERLY for Herbal Hive 😁 and am bursting with posts and ideas. 2 days away in nature were incredible.
Excited for you and your creative output .. easy does it tho ..
🤣🤣🤣
Still got a hacking, horrid cough and a sinus infection. But MENTALLY much better....
Good to hear!
There is so much scientific research that now confirms so many benefits from the practice 👍
It's no longer "hey-shoo-wow" stuff. It's proven... even to physically rebuild brain matter after trauma (which shrinks the Hippocampus).
I've lost my practice in the ruckus. Thanks for sharing this... a beautiful and inspiring reminder. ❤️
This was great to read. Thank you for explaining so much. I am happy that your irrational changed and that you explained why and how it did. To be honest I was wonder about that as I thought the practice of yoga should help you to blank that out. However then I thought you are human after all - I would find it irritating too. However then you took us to a place of understanding and acceptance.
I have only tried yoga at a surf camp on vacation. It was something to look forward to every morning. I do not do it now but your post reminded me to make meditation a daily practice - even in the noise…… thank you.
I am way behind on reading posts in The Ink Well, and in fact can never keep up with all of them, @riverflows. (Thank goodness I am part of a team!) But I knew I wanted to get to this one. And I am so happy I did. It resonates so much with me. While I don't practice yoga (long story), I believe in mindfulness and reconnecting with oneself, however that manifests itself for each of us. And I completely understand the emotional overwhelm you felt that one day you described, in which you wept through the entire class. In fact, it is that moment of release and outpouring of emotion through tears that I intend to capture in the post I'm about to write. Music is sometimes an amazing catalyst for that.
I hope to catch that post when it's out. Thanks for making the effort - i know how hard it is to keep up! 💚
It's out! By the way, be sure to add your link to the prompt post: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@theinkwell/creative-nonfiction-in-the-ink-well-prompt-3
And congrats on your second-place win in the weekly creative nonfiction contest!
I am loving awareness
I am loving awareness
I uh... Oops, looks like someone swallowed a bug there😅. Hehe, did you hear that part at around 2:00?
Now I don't know much about yoga, nor do I practice it in anyway but I can see, from reading this post, that you have a strong passion for the art. Reading your constructive criticism over how the art has changed over the time is quite understandable - I feel the same way too about Western Classical music, and how it has... "evolved" to modern music over the decades.
Lol, can't escape obnoxious people like that guy and the couple, they're literally everywhere! Same guys who often chew popcorn way too loudly at theatres😑
There's something Ram Dass said in there though, that left a big impression on me just now:
This is so true and profound! Sadly, many people often over look it — we don't have souls, we ARE soul and we exist because of love.
Thank you River, for making my morning more fulfilling with this relaxing, therapeutic, and spiritually uplifting post🤍.
Aw, thankyou, you are so kind, and it's a pleasure to write a piece that affects someone so, and I'm glad you listened to the Ram Dass as well.
Congratulations @riverflows!
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