Effort and Effortlessness - Pt 2

So how do we practice Sthiram Sukham Asanam?

YS 2:47 and the Mind of the Second Side

Thanks to Patanjali, he tells us in Yoga Sutra 2:47 – “Through relaxation of effort and meditation on the infinite.” Now that’s what I’m talking about, and what inspired me to do a few part series on Effort and Effortlessness.

“Relaxation in the midst of effort is a means, but it is also an end, that of dissolving all tensions.” 

---From Yoga: The First Steps, translated by Dr. Albert Franklin (my first yoga teacher. Thank you Bert, for this book and for teaching me what yoga asana practice is all about.)

So we get steady and comfortable by relaxing effort. How do we do that, “relax effort” and still do a physical practice, or even get the bills paid for that  matter?  We begin by approaching our practice consciously and eliminating extraneous effort and tension. In other words “work smarter, not harder.” Professional athletes use the least amount of effort possible to get the job done. That doesn’t mean they aren’t getting the job done. It means that they have refined their technique, focused their mind and cut out what doesn’t support the job at hand. Their choices are such that they do what it takes to get around the obstacle without taking a few extraneous laps around the field.

In yoga asana class, how many “laps around the field” are we taking in each pose? Just yesterday, I was breaking down bhujangasana (cobra pose) for the class. “Pull the chest forward, activate the triceps…” I said “if you’re not feeling you’re triceps (upper arm muscles) that’s not what we’re doing right now.” Some said that they were feeling it in the forearm. I thought to myself, “interesting.” I asked them to relax their hands. Voila! Triceps in, forearms out. And the hands were just fine during the finished product. The students had been instructed so many time to “activate the hands” that their hands were over-activated, aka tense. They had fixated on an instruction that had at one point been useful to them, and that same instruction, once mastered, was now an obstruction since now when they activated their already active hands, they were adding tension to an area that no longer needed extra a-tension (attention).

This is what I would call a mild case of “habitual efforting” in that by running the “activate the hands” instruction, they were subconsciously looking for the same feeling they had the first time they got that “aha” moment with active hands. Over time, the instruction was assimilated, and now the hands are naturally active, alive, aware. Looking for that same feeling adds tension. We see the same thing in downward facing dog. Over time the poses ceases to be a hamstring stretch and becomes a spinal extension. I see students try to get that deep hamstring opening satisfaction from a pose that will no longer give it to them without adding tension or other distortions. I say let yourself master the pose, have a moment of physical effortlessness and apply the “effort” to watching your mind during the duration of the pose.

But if I relax my effort, how will I get anything done?

Stay tuned…