The Yoga of Awareness

October 2011
By Mehtab, Founder of Yoga Yoga

I was the poster child for the spastic yogi when I first began yoga. Coming from a childhood where I did not learn to tie my shoes until third grade and only dancing in high school with my eyes closed so I could not see how bad I looked, moving my body into yoga postures seemed like the most insane undertaking I could do.

But one day I found myself in a headstand with my legs crossed in lotus pose and I thought: How in the hell did I do this? And then I lost it. I lost the posture and I lost what got me into that posture. I was too much into myself and not the self. I lost the awareness and I was no longer practicing yoga.

The practice of yoga begins with the cultivation of awareness and the direction of consciousness. Everything you do in a yoga class is essentially about developing an awareness of your body, your breath, your mind and ultimately your place in the universe. Without this awareness, you are not practicing yoga and you are not fully human.

Awareness begins before you even walk into the classroom or your yoga space. How you choose to dress for a class, how you enter the room, how you place your mat on the floor, and how you place yourself before you begin – all reflect the level of awareness you bring to the Self and to the practice.

In yoga we first begin with cultivating awareness of the body through the practice of postures. Then we move into the awareness of the breath and connecting it to the movement of our postures. Finally we bring awareness to the mind as we deepen the connection to the breath and the movement of thoughts.

From this heightened awareness, all areas of our lives change. We become more aware of how our choices affect us, how the foods we eat help or hinder us, how the way we spend our time elevates or negates us, and how what we say takes us closer or farther from whom we truly are.

With this cultivation of awareness, we are able to direct our consciousness. Our mind serves us, our thoughts no longer enslave us, and we consciously choose to become what we have come here to be. We become god-like, we create our situations rather than being a victim of them, and we understand the reality that underlies all of our actions and thoughts.

And it all begins with the cultivation of awareness. Be aware of the body, the breath and the mind. Use your time in a yoga practice to continually refocus on developing this heightened awareness. Feel the floor beneath your feet, hear the breath move through the body, sense the movement of thoughts from moment to moment, and just be aware.

There is nothing else you need to do to become successful in yoga. Yoga is not about accomplishing. It is not about going anywhere. It is realizing that you are already there, in every moment, from breath to breath, in the full awareness of the universal Self.