balancing wellness

Great yoga class this morning.  My practice was very minimal this week (I have my usual excuses of being busy and traveling, but I’m ready to stop making excuses and get my act together – less talk, more action!).  But I love Sunday vinyasa at La Jolla Yoga Center with Josh Vincent and am so glad I made it today.

Josh is the newest of my favorite teachers and has an amazing presence and teaching style.  I always leave his class with new knowledge and inspiration – a sure sign of an awesome class.  Today after pushing us to perfect our full side plank, vasisthasana, he reminded us of a Hindu quote – that our practice may be poison at first, but it will soon become nectar.

(Me in vasisthasana. I’m getting there – I think I need to lift my hips more. And yes, I’m wearing my FT60 )

I found a reference to the Bhagavad Gita quote Josh was telling us about on the Atma Jyoti Ashram website.

“That which in the beginning is like poison but in the end like nectar; that happiness, born from the tranquillity of one’s own mind, is declared to be sattwic.” (Bhagavad Gita 18:37)

(Note: In Hinduism, sattva is one of the three qualities of nature (gunas); it manifests as balance, purity, calmness.)

In the beginning it is normal for spiritual practice to be boring or even annoying and upsetting. But at the end it will be all sukha: happiness and ease. For it never really is poison, but only seems so to the distorted mind-mirror of those bound in ignorance.

I’m already starting feel like my practice is a nectar, although some asanas and meditation still frustrate me. I’m searching hard for my sattvic happiness!  Happy Sunday