In the high desert where I live rain is a welcome blessing. On a day when it had rained almost constantly throughout the day before, I took my usual morning walk about with Abby (my pup), and to my delight found the desert in bloom with unexpected color and life. This little sprite in the picture (a hedgehog cactus) was beside my outdoor practice meditation platform. In yoga class we often hear teachers say “find your full expression of the pose” or “go your into your full expression of the pose”, I say it when I teach. It’s a way to prompt students into creating and bringing forth a shape, feeling and engagement in a particular asana (posture) that is uniquely their own. Not what they think it should look like by forcing their body into doing something because it conforms to a picture in their head, or the so called “advanced version” of a posture. To me advanced posture means, finding one’s own latent potential and transforming organically from the inside out. It’s not about gripping, force or conformity. The best kind of teachers are like the rain. They help bring out what’s already inside. Guiding you to bloom as only you can within your practice. Like the hedgehog cactus, it didn’t have to force itself to BECOME anything, it’s innate potential was there all along. With the gentle nudge of rain, it opened, beautifully and naturally into a perfect singular expression of itself. I’ve been blessed throughout the years to have had the gentle nudging of “rain” from my own teachers. Who nurtured me and taught me about finding my own way to my practice. Yoga is meant to be fully embodied experienced. To be alive and fully present to whatever is inside you.
As Rumi said, “Wherever you are be the Soul of that place.” When we’re on our mats in practice or living our daily life, what can be more advanced than that. Rain or no rain. Bloom where you are.