Mind the Gap: Embracing the Potency of Pause in the Yoga Journey
Jan 01, 2024
When you're a Yogi, conversations often take a different turn, weaving through topics that transcend the ordinary, and delve deeply into the essence of life's progression and personal transitions. This week, during a heart-to-heart with a yoga friend, we both shared we were at the crossroads of reflection, we agreed we had both experienced a remarkable year yet sensed the need for a transformative pause and something more in 2024.
In New Zealand the whole country slows down between Christmas and the first week of January, a unique collective summer holiday at the beach, lake or river draws the kiwi's away from their homes. While everyone was embarking on their beach vacations and camping adventures, my yoga friend and I had individually made a conscious choice to stay home, to immerse ourselves in the profound magic of the gap.
In the language of Anusara Yoga, we often speak of the magic happening in the gap. It's recognised as a potent space between the end of one phase and the beginning of another. This gap, known as the Kumbhaka, holds the power of pause, where inhalation is retained before it yields to exhalation (or vice versa/both).
Our lives, much like the breath, were suspended in this magic space of gap. It is the gap—a pause— that is ripe with potential and pregnant with the promise of transformation.
Anusara Yoga teaches us to honor and play with this principle— to set our foundation and open to grace. We often encourage this exploration on the yoga mat, as we navigate the art of movement and stillness, we invite our students to delve into the pregnancy of the pause between breaths and yoga poses, to explore the vast possibilities that unfold when we mind the gap.
In first principle, set the foundation and open to grace, we emphasize the art of pausing, feeling, and allowing. We learn to tune into the moment, let go of the residue of what came before, a create space for the potential to arise out of this unique moment of pause.
In the sacred space of the gap, we become receptive to new insights, fresh information, and the birth of a new path.
So, as we collectively mind the gap during New Zealand's season of pause, let us revel in the potency of the present moment. May we set our foundation, and may we graciously welcome the transformative power of the pause, embracing the magic that unfolds in the gap between what was and what is yet to be.
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