Why Practice?

by Christy Mahoney,

When asked, most people say they practice to build a strong body. This amazing series of poses has comprehensively developed my body better than any sport or exercise I have ever known. Yet, if you ask me why I practice - I may pause before answering. In the pause I will make a decision about how much to say.

Do I tell you that this practice is all that I do and at 40 years old, I am in the best shape of my life? Do I mention that by doing this practice I have dropped from a size 12 to a size 4? (Believe it or not, that answer really seems to impress people.) I could get more personal and tell you I am going through a significant life transition and yoga grounds me. I could tell you a lot of things that are true, but they don’t explain why this full-time-working-single-mother-of-two spends so much of her precious time in a yoga studio!

The real reason I practice is because it strips away everything that doesn’t matter and shows me the truth about who I am. Not a sexy answer – I know. In fact, in most settings it is a pretty effective conversation stopper. That being said, it is why I find time to practice. Further – it is why I make time to teach.

As a teacher at Verge I have 75 minutes to guide you through your practice. My purpose is to cue alignment from the ground up, coach breath, reveal benefits, share personal experience and provide space for you to just be in the pose. This is my purpose and it is very challenging, but it is not my intention. My intention is to share the life changing power of this practice.

Did I really just say life changing? Sounds so dramatic, but that’s because it is! I believe we all have deep down fear that is incredibly powerful. Some of us have lived with the fear for such a long time, we actually think it’s a part of us. We do all these crazy things to avoid it. Almost instantly, and more profoundly over time, this avoidance changes who we are. It compromises our true self and we become only images of who we are meant to be. The avoidance begins a vicious cycle. We fear – we avoid – we are drained – we have no energy to face the fear – we avoid more intensely – we get more drained… Surviving this cycle is probably harder than facing the fear itself, but we don’t realize it. The cycle is so familiar we can’t see it. Even when we do notice it, we do not know another way. That is, until we practice.

In practice, we learn to let go. We turn our attention to breath. The breath points us towards Right Action. In my experience, the Right Action is usually pretty difficult (hence, the aforementioned fear.) Sometimes it is so powerful, all we can do is just face it, find our breath and stand in place. This is enough - we can take steps in time. I teach because I have experienced that when I quiet my mind and let go of control, there is a universal energy that becomes available to me. It is beyond my physical self yet it strengths me profoundly. To receive this energy we must surrender, only then can it strengthen & guide us to face the truth. I call this energy the power of the universe.

What you call it isn’t important to me. What is crucial to me is that when we let go, this energy is available and we find true courage. We can pause in the fear and wait for clarity. Once clear, we use our courage to take Right Action. This is what leads to happiness from the inside out, not because something good happened or something bad didn’t. We are happy because we are aligned with all that is real. We know who we are and who we are not. That knowledge is absolutely life changing, some might call it enlightenment.

So, how do these simple poses bring us back to the essence of ourselves? Ironically, I don’t know. Concepts swirl in my mind, but I do not definitively know the answer. Curiously, we are now where we began, “Why practice?” I’ll answer that question another… What would happen if you stripped away everything that doesn’t matter and faced the truth about yourself?

Come to practice – let’s find out together!