Ahead of her workshops 07 – 09 April in Camden, Harmony Slater writes about her own experience with yoga’s highs and lows, and what we can experience if we persevere through what she calls the ‘Practice Plateau’.
How do you create love?
When I first came to the practice of yoga, like many, I immediately fell in love with its challenges.
The sensation of lightness and clarity I had after my first class was like nothing I experienced before. It blew my mind. Each practice brought with it a sense of euphoria, and the changes in my body and mind were both obvious and exciting – I was hooked
However, after some time, like most students, I found that this initial infatuation wore off; what was left was this monotonous routine – day in and day out.
Have the changes in you become imperceptible?
Has the overwhelming sense of lucidity that was so novel at the beginning become your new normal?
If so, you might be entering the Practice Plateau – the place where the practice starts to get real.
Personally, in my own journey of almost two decades with ashtanga yoga, this time of difficulty arises to keep my ambition at bay. Accompanying this plateau are many hidden opportunities disguised as obstacles that have forced me to dig in deeper to discover what yoga is really all about.
On this practice plateau, when I’m working through injury, frustration or just plain boredom, I have found that like a spur, the struggle itself urges me to get unstuck from meaningless attachments and highlights the ways I like to stroke my ego with a myriad of physical or pseudo-spiritual “achievements”.
These periods of draught have helped me to refocus on what is important. Over time, I have seen this practice work to shift unconscious patterning… sometimes in uncomfortable ways.
Once we start on the path of yoga, it can be a long journey back home to our “true self”. This daily ritual of purifying our mind and body has the characteristics of a marathon – it’s not a sprint to the finish!
One of Guruji’s favourite quotes from the Yoga Sutras (1:14) gives us the recipe for a successful yoga practice:
– sustained attention to practice
– without interruption
– with a feeling of love or devotion
– over a long, long time… an entire lifetime
Like any relationship over time, your practice will go through different stages and phases. Sometimes, it can be helpful to take some time out, attend a workshop or retreat, infusing yourself with fresh energy to see things with new eyes.
It’s useful to remember that growth will not always be a linear projection. We often have to go back to the beginning to understand the inner workings more deeply, and then get re-established in something we may have missed the first time around.
Ultimately, if you stick with the yoga through the good periods, as well as the less enjoyable ones, it gets interwoven into the very fabric of your day. It acts like a mirror revealing hidden truths about how we live our lives.
The practice of yoga becomes a sacred time to listen and connect to your innermost self. It becomes your very heart and colours how you interact with the world, and we find that we practice for the love that arises from within.
Harmony first journeyed to Mysore in 2004 to study with the Jois family. She received Authorisation to teach directly from Pattabhi Jois and Certification from Sharath Jois in 2015. She is one of the few women in the world to hold this honour. Harmony has a strong presence in the asthanga community worldwide. In addition to her regular teaching schedule, she has shared her experiences with the practice, pregnancy and childbirth in the books: Yoga Sadhana for Mothers and Strength and Grace: A Collection of Essays by Women of Ashtanga Yoga. She has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to share with each one of us about the practice!
Join Harmony Slater in Camden from 07 – 09 April for her weekend of ashtanga workshops. Book now here.
