The MOON

Associated with the mind.

Continuing of a 4-part series of articles about the true essence and progression of Hatha yoga (part 2/4). You can read part 1 here.

Because we live such busy lives, are constantly moving, constantly rattled by our own minds, the first step is to gradually slow down. We enter this space through the gates of our body knowledge, which is most familiar to us, before we can even start the conversation about Prana (life force, life energy).

That’s the first step - called the Moon practice!

Here we move into less poses (asana) and stay for longer. That is very uncomfortable for our “so used to action” based mind – it won’t like it! But we stay in the pose, we breathe and observe.

This is where the lower tendencies of the mind come up. May it be boredom, ego, frustration, anger, fear, whatever it is that comes up in challenging situations of our lives.

Cause you see, whatever comes up on the mat and the way we deal with it, is the same as we deal with challenging situations on a daily basis. How you do anything is how you do everything! And a busy mind is unfit for any path!

So in order to be able to change anything, we first need to learn how our operation system works. We need to know ourselves. We need to dig deeper, stay with the discomfort for some time without running away. Doing it on the mat is way safer than waiting for the discomfort to burst out in our health, jobs, family etc. Here we get an opportunity to get to know it and deal with it calmly and from a grounded base. By that, we become a much more stable human being, that’s for sure.

Apart from asanas (forward folds and twists) and steady abdominal breath, we use the help of extended exhalations, shorter breath retentions and gentle use of Mulabandha (Root lock) to receive the calmness and steadiness which the Moon offers us.

Gaining the qualities of the Moon (calmness and stability) is a necessity in our progression as it serves as a foundation on which we spiral up, therefore it has to be solid. So remember to always take the moon with you!

Stay tuned for part 3, coming soon.

Read part 1 - Hatha yoga - A systematic approach to mastering your life (part 1).