can you change your fate?
“What was done by free will today acts as the cause of what is experienced as fate tomorrow.”
— Light on Life by Robert Svoboda and Hart de Fouw, pg 29.
Here’s the tricky thing about fate, what you do today matters. Because it influences how you experience tomorrow.
Yoga wants you to make the most of your free will. This is part of skill in action. Yoga embraces the inconvenient truth that difficult, undesirable things will happen. And because of this, yoga recommends that you train - body, mind, spirit, nervous system - to make the most of whatever comes your way.
Then… rather than reaching, grasping, struggling to control or manipulate the future… or putting your head in the sand, numbing out, or shutting down…. You are centered, steady and spacious with whatever is arising. This take tremendous courage, self-awareness, and clarity.
Yoga has developed tools and techniques with a proven track record. Through practice, you develop a stronger body, more flexible mind, and resilient nervous system. Here’s an example of how that happens:
On the mat, you stretch where you’re tight, strengthen what’s weak. You breathe into discomfort. You twist and turn yourself and your world upside down. You learn to bend with strength. Fold inward with receptivity. Stay fierce (utkatasana!). Develop poise even when awkward and clumsy (hello balance poses!).
All to maintain steadiness and spaciousness when life seems twisted or turned upside down. To stay strong when you need to bend over backwards. Maintain receptivity when you need to look inward. Be courageous and clear when you set boundaries. To stay willing when you're in the ugly-duckling phase of something new - a job, a relationship, a role, a course.
This is why you practice. For skill and grace when you really need it. You exercise your free will today to influence how you handle tomorrow's fate.
The weekend workshop at Padma Studio in Fairfax, will have excellent practices and content to strengthen your free will and influence your fate. Our theme will be Sthira & Sukha: Stay Steady & Create Space.
We'll unpack Patanjali's well-known sutra: Sthira Sukham Asanam. Here's a little more about each day:
Saturday Session: Sthira: learn about your bones and how they’re the support beams of your body. You'll practice to ground through your bones and get a corresponding lift in your deep core. Expect strong standing poses and balance work.
Sunday Session: Sukha: Once you're settled in your bones, you feel more fluid with movement. Joints can do their job, superficial muscles (finally!) let go, and you can work on your webbing (connective tissue). Expect more “slidey-glidey” work, side body stretches, gentle forward folds, psoas space creation and meditation.
The 2 sessions of the workshop go hand in hand. If you can only attend one, let me know. I recommend registering asap. The sessions are filling up. Sign up on Padma Studio's website: Events at Padma
May your practice exercise your free will.
