Flow Through Your Life With More Ease

Imagine flowing through your life with more ease, would that make you feel happy? Let’s explore some ideas and questions.

How are you feeling today? Do you recognize a sense of ease in your body? Does it feel light in your heart or warm in your belly? 

We practice yoga to dive deeper into the asana poses. In the beginning it might be all about figuring out the shapes, we put a lot of effort into the poses, and as we deepen our practice we learn to refine our alignment. Yoga philosophy always talks about the balance of effort and ease. Too much effort will make a pose feel stagnant and not allow us to breathe deeply, so we can even risk injury. Too much ease will not engage muscles and not create a feeling of connection or a sense of aliveness.

So what does optimal alignment feel like?

Your body is feeling expansive, there is a sense of grounding and a sense of lightness and flow at the same time. You feel balanced, breath can flow with ease, you feel tingling sensations or pulsating energy. When your body feels spacious, your mind is more relaxed and feels more spacious too. When you are out of alignment the practice feels tough and difficult, like a struggle.

Think of Trikonasana, Triangle pose. When your front heel is aligned with your back arch you get a great foundation to build on. If your bottom arm comes to your front shin and your top arm reaches up to the sky, you can visualize the lines of energy. You will feel your breath flowing freely if you’re in good alignment. Sometimes all you need to do is a little rotation or to back off a few inches if you’re not feeling this great flow of energy. A good teacher will guide you there, your breathe will guide you too. 

Are you living in alignment?

Now think about your life and how your yoga is a mirror of your life. When you’re feeling aligned with your vision, purpose, dreams, life seems to flow with ease. You feel uplifted and excited about life, you master challenges with grace and feel connected to yourself and the world. 

When you’re trying too hard with too much effort you’ll eventually hit a wall. You feel stuck, your body tightens, your breath doesn’t flow, you might get annoyed, frustrated, even angry. You might try to push even harder, instead of letting go and taking a different approach, or finding a new perspective. 

In my experience life has always brought me great mirrors, but I’ve not always been able to look at them. Through my practice I now have much more awareness to see the signs with clarity.

My latest practice has been checking in every day with my self, asking the question: How do I wish to feel today? Whatever my answer, for example I want to feel calm, peaceful, energized, or connected, next I will close my eyes and try to sense this feeling inside my body. What would it feel like to be calm and peaceful? Or energized and inspired?  By connecting sensations to emotions we learn to embody our yoga practice and use it as a tool, so it becomes more than just a physical practice.

In my life, when I’m in a situation or relationship with somebody and it feels very stressful, heavy, restricted, draining, I also ask myself, what is not aligned here? Why am I trying so hard to fit in or to make it happen? Where can I bring in more ease, more flow? And if I feel it’s actually not possible, can I allow myself to let it go and trust something else will show up that will be in better alignment with myself? 

Trust that when you’re living with authenticity and in alignment you’ll feel more joy and ease. There is a sense of lightness. In order to get there you might have to change a story in your head or accept a little bit of discomfort, because growth is never comfortable. But that sensation in your belly of fear, or nervousness is actually the best confirmation that you are about to grow, expand and get back to yourself. 

So, how do you want to feel today?

“You have no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You. Nothing seemed right. What’s the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the ocean? So I’ve brought you a mirror.” – RUMI