What is Enough…
in this world of infinite options, of constant excitement where there is no rest for the wicked? How do we know where to stop when the slogans of the day is “more”- get more, see more, experience more, have more? We seem to be conditioned into a competition, where there is no sense for what is enough. Competition with our fellow humans, competition with the planet we are living on and depleting of resources and competition within ourselves. Given these facts, what could be the higher instance that will help you make a decision?
I’ve found an interesting answer while reading the book of the Patagonia owner Yves Chouinard. He says “the more you know, the less you need”. But does this really answer the bunch of questions above or just starts new questions? What should I know? What is less? And above all what exactly do I really need and what is what I’ve been taught I should need? And within all the questions that seem to bear a certain rhetoric to them, this last one might actually be the one question with an answer…
The wise Patanjali, “the Enlighted one” if you can trust what the Sanskrit Philosophy tells us, wrote 196 verses, or “sutras” as they are called in Sanskrit, that describe the practice and benefits of Yoga. One of the most famous one is the 46th verse in the second chapter “Sthira Sukham Asanam” meaning in a direct translation that an Asana (not only the body pose in yoga but also the state of mind related to it) should be steady and comfortable. You are probably now asking yourself what does Patanjali have to do with our current way of life and with what is enough… Well pretty much actually. When I first started to practice yoga, everything was a fight. I am a pretty competitive person, and I took things quite personally. I was always the one sitting in the front of the class, practicing yoga every day without exception, pushing myself in impossible poses for my body at that time, cringing into meditation because meditation had to look good and by no means I would have exchanged the block with a comfortable pillow under my sit bones. Nothing was quite enough for me. I was chasing the next pose, the next advanced class, the next teacher training. There was no trace of steadiness and comfort in my striving for more on the yoga matt (and not only on the yoga matt…). With experience, constant practice, some injuries and one serious illness, I start to slowly understand what steadiness and comfort means. And this does not by any means mean sitting on the couch in front of the TV. It means that any practice, not just yoga, but also work, human connections, life, can be light and fun. It means that the experience of meditation is only real when you can focus on your breath, let your thoughts float away, watching them passing by, not getting into their drama, enjoying those few moments when time, space, your body and the world outside it, fades away into the greatness of the present moment. The present moment meaning now and the moment when you are present at the same time. Meditation is by no means focusing on your hurting sit bones or knees with cringing jaws and counting the seconds until the blessed moment you are finally allowed to move again.
The same applies to practicing asanas. By using to much muscle force, the practice is exhausting and energy draining. By using to little muscle force, a safe practice, protecting your joints from injury is almost impossible. Finding out what is enough is, like in life the real art of being. In the moment you first stay in let’s say Trikonasana with your feet earthed into the ground, the legs strong, just as strong as you need them to be to enable you the needed balance, your back of the hand pressing against the shin just as much as you need it for you then to be able to open your torso, stretch and twist your spine and your arms, with open shoulders while your whole body is feeling steady and light, with your breath flowing effortlessly and highly likely with a big smile on your face, you will know what yoga is about. And I will allow myself to say then you know what life is about.
Yoga and life are about finding out more that allows us needing less. Yoga and life are about experimenting, making mistakes, learning from them, so next time we will know better. We will know ourselves better. We will know what we need, what we want, what others think we might need and most important what we do not want or need, neither for our steadiness nor for comfort. We will learn that we are enough, imperfect, clumsy and mindless as we are. And once we do learn this, we will stop trying to find something to fill us up on the outside, we will stop looking for external validation through peer opinion and things (we need) to buy. Spoiler alert… having and being enough is an inside job and the higher instance keeping us out of the competition is (self-)love. Once every one of us finds out that he or she are already enough, that we do not need much for steadiness and comfort, the world will become a better place. And the good news is that although we might not all have our own answers to the question “what is enough?” we can still try to find them on the yoga matt.
Keep practicing,
Love Ioana