Does it feel 'right'?
This is a question I've been asking myself a lot recently. Pausing to enquire how a practice, thought, situation or decision feels, inviting a response rather than a reaction. Every thought, feeling, and experience you have, has a unique vibration that is imprinted into the physical body in the form of sensations. This invisible energy can best be understood by exploring an aspect of yoga philosophy—the gunas.
The gunas (Sanskrit for threads or qualities) are energetic forces that weave together to form the universe and everything in it. There are three gunas, each with its own unique characteristics: tamas (stability), rajas (activity), and sattva (consciousness). Understanding the gunas is important because while the challenges of our everyday lives can disturb their delicate balance, these energies create all that we are, all that we see, and all that remains unseen.
"Tamas provides our foundation; rajas gives it vitality and breath; sattva imbues it with consciousness and compassionate awareness." Linda Sparrowe
A reaction is instant, instinctive and purely emotional. It’s driven by the unconscious mind for instant gratification and a quick fix. (rajas)
Inaction is failure to do anything that might provide a solution to a problem. Also driven by the unconscious mind, seeking to avoid discomfort, focusing only on short term reward. (tamas)
A response occurs after you consider the desired outcome of the situation, the long term consequences and usually aligns with your core values. (sattva)
To respond is to take conscious action.
A conscious action feels ‘right’ but may initially feel uncomfortable because a ‘response’ is the seed of transformation. Requiring patience, space to grow and often time to process fully, transformation does not happen without the fiery quality of action.
In class for example we could witness three students all performing the same asana but the energetic quality could be different in each student, depending on their dominant Guna in that moment.
For example:
Tamas—a sense of lethargy and inattentiveness.
A student with this dominate guna would be half hearted in their asana, with a lack of alignment and engagement of the body. Not connected to the synchronicity of breath and body.
Rajas—a generous serving of exertion and competitiveness
A student with this dominant guna would be pushing themselves actively into the perceived shape, looking around at other students to see if they can hold it longer, move deeper, get a stronger bind and so on.
Sattva—clarity, mindfulness, and contentment.
A student with this dominant guna will be mindful of the teacher's cues, connected with the synchronicity of their breath and the body, mindfully working to their safe edge as they engage and align the body and what feels right.
Applying an awareness of the gunas in everything we think, do and experience will have the power to transform every aspect of our lives.
Moving through nature’s cycles, we are in the peak of summer right now and all around us nature is showing us how glorious and radiant she is. We are surrounded by light, heat and vibrant colours, Summer has a fiery energetic quality, it feels very different to winter, spring and autumn, so it would make sense to adapt our lives as the seasons change.
During summer our lives may take on a more vibrant energetic quality as we socialise more or go on holidays, making the most of the longer warmer days. However all this additional living could leave us burnout if we haven’t honoured seasonal living during winter/spring.
Or perhaps we‘re struggling to shake off the heavy lethargic qualities of winter and don’t feel vibrant enough to embrace the energy of summer.
Ritucharya A seasonal routine; accounting for the cycle of the seasons; ritucharya encourages us to adapt our personal routines to align more closely with the rhythms of the natural world, introducing practices and qualities that naturally promote balance all year long.
In order to find balance we have to ask:
Does this feel right?
What feels out of sync?
What is the play of the gunas right now?
Then employing rajas and tamas in service of sattva to bring ourselves back into balance.
What one of us needs right now, won't necessarily be the same as the next person.
What we need today, may not work tomorrow, there is no magic fix without awareness.
Trusting ourselves requires harnessing our intuition, which takes effort in our busy modern world. We've become so externally influenced and governed by our minds that listening to and acting upon our intuition can be scary.
Recently I have been mesmerised by damselflies and dragonflies when swimming and walking by the river. Radiant, beautiful, amazing creatures, I am in awe of the transformation they take. The nymph stage lasts approx. two years before their intuition leads them to climb up into the unknown. At this point a complete transformation occurs and they take flight. They only live for 6-8 weeks in their colourful, expansive stage.
I think listening and acting on our intuition only feels scary because we’re so out of practice! I can’t imagine the dragonfly or damselfly procrastinating, or spending days wondering ‘what if’. They just know when the time is right and go for it, conscious action, and wow what a transformation.
Manipura chakra (solar plexus energy) governs action and will power. It is associated with the element of FIRE, the sun and with transformation.
"It is named after the spaghetti junction of nerves known as the solar plexus, solar because they radiate out like the sun’s rays." Georgia Collergidge
Two primary nerve divisions that connect our brains with our gut converge in the area of the body associated with the Solar Plexus chakra. This two-way communication channel, known as the gut-brain axis, is known to affect our overall health, immunity, stress response, mood, memory, and thought processes.
Manipura chakra, at our solar plexus, is the seat of our intuition, our gut feelings that lead us to conscious action.
"The tenets of Ayurveda hold that we should not quench the fire of digestion with a cold drink. In much the same way, we should avoid dousing nature’s seasonal gift of fire and heat but rather, harness and absorb it in order to realize our potential." Yoga Basics
Fire is a ‘reaction’ that produces heat and light which can have positive or negative effects depending whether it’s managed or out of control. Fire can be destructive but also transformational. This could be applied to the process of self-enquiry as it depends what we do with what we find.
Inaction conversely has an inert quality to it, equally destructive but far less likely to create positive transformation and could be applied to blindly following general instructions.
We can have a tendency to place all our trust in external sources because it is easier and more comfortable than taking responsibility ourselves. Perhaps others seem more knowledgeable, experienced or enlightened, however not taking responsibility disempowers us. It might have felt right a month or a year ago but things change - it’s ok to change our practice, change our mind, change our plans, change our views.
Guidance and instruction are valuable tools, however it needs to feel right within us if it is to have the potential for transformation. Use self-enquiry to observe the play of the gunas, learn to trust gut feelings and intuition and keep asking yourself if it feels right. When it doesn't, take conscious action to realign your practice, health, situation or relationships, which will lead to a positive transformation.
For our practice this month we’ll be observing the play of the gunas whilst asking ourselves regularly if the elements of the practice feel right. I will be offering modifications and variations more often to provide opportunities for students to question what feels right, to fire up their gut brain axis and strengthen their intuition.
We’ll be practicing hip openers and expansive asanas to help release excess heat as well as practicing twists and some gentle core work to stimulate the manipura chakra at the solar plexus.
The sense of sight and the colour yellow are associated with this chakra so we’ll be using visualisations to ease us into Savasana.
Off the mat - Ayurveda tips for summer
Adjust your routine: getting up a little earlier and going to bed a little later, making the most of the longer days.
Step outside for some natural daylight as soon as you can.
Eat when your digestive fire is at its strongest, which is during lunch (mid-day)
Eat cooling foods like leafy greens, cucumber, melon and avoid hot drinks, spicy food, alcohol, caffeine, and chilies.
Any high intensity exercise, try to schedule it in the morning /evening when its cooler.
Stay hydrated with room temperature water. (avoiding hot or very cold drinks)
Moisturise daily - try coconut oil
Life is never quite the way it appears, but it is always filled with light and colour. Dragonfly can help you to see through your illusions and thus allow your own light to shine forth. Dragonfly brings the brightness of transformation and the wonder of colourful new vision.
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