Aparigraha with Ellie
A dear friend of mine lost her father this month & I just came back from his memorial. Losing the people we love is tremendously hard. Each time it somehow remains groundbreakingly new, and I’m not always sure how to feel or what to say or do.
In yoga we have a concept of “Aparigraha” which translates to nonpossessiveness or nonattachment. It’s the fifth of yoga’s ethical guidelines (the Yamas and Niyamas) that we’re learning about this month in our classes. On Wednesday mornings we’ve been using Deborah Adele’s book “The Yamas & Niyamas, Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice” to unpack what they mean & look like in our everyday lives.
She helps us to understand aparigraha / nonattachment through the metaphor of breath: “What if we could trust life like we trust the breath? What if we could take in all the nourishment of the moment and then let it go fully, trusting that more nourishment will come?”
It’s easy to fall into the trap of attachment in our lives. It’s only natural that when we have good things, we want to hold onto them. We form attachments to good food, to good work, to good people. But like the breath when it is held too long, even the things that nourish us can become toxic. Sometimes we have to let go of good things. Adele continues: “The nature of the realm of Aparigraha is impermanence. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. If we can fall back to the breath and watch the belly rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation, we can feel the truth of the transience of things.”
As we focus on finishing postures this month, we can think about them as tools for navigating impermanence. Shoulder stand, plow, fish, etc. these postures are our framework for closing.
Coming back from my friend’s memorial I was so grateful to have had a ritual I could lean on, a structured space I could use to say goodbye. In small ways, our finishing postures do the same for our practice – they memorialize the experience we just had. Finishing postures help us to digest the class and to get our bodies and minds to a place where we can move on.
They’re regenerative: we slow down the breath and they help us unwind from the intensity of the practice.
They give us perspective: we go into shoulderstand or headstand, flipping upside down to get a different vantage point from which we can reflect.
They’re contemplative: they prepare the mind for meditation & help us to move into the next thing.
When we practice our finishing postures, we’re developing the skills to acknowledge impermanence, honor what came before, and ultimately, let go.
Join Ellie in practice on Wednesdays at 9:30am