By Milda Urban, Summersalt Yoga founder

The physical benefits of yoga are quite well known by anyone who has taken at least a couple of classes (yes, the first class may be discouraging, because THE STIFFNESS, but we all know the goods are coming).

But for, me it’s not just the flexible (-rer) spine or the fact that I can climb a few stairs more without losing breath that keeps me practicing. It’s the side (our actually – the main) bonuses that I reap from living yoga as much as I can in the last few years.

Here are 5 things I’ve learned through yoga

Self-awareness. Probably like most people and especially those walking the usual path of idolizing perfection, achievement of certain set of goals and not losing a moment of “important life experiences” I was actually quite stuck up in my little mind and focusing on just those tasks (with lots of micromanagement!) rather than on how I feel about them, do they actually fulfill me, what is it that I REALLY want and what makes me happy every day and in the grand scheme of things. Only when I stopped (with the help of yoga) and listened I became so much more self-aware, much more in tune of what TRULY matters to ME and I am not talking only about career or work, but the whole picture.

This could not be achieved without gaining better control and understanding of my emotions. As someone who’s always been quite reactive, I’ve learned that it’s okay to feel anger, sadness, anxiety and all the other adjacent emotions without letting them take control of me. Once I identify what’s going on – the negative emotions loose half or more of their power, do not affect my day to day life in general and just pass by like anything else in life. I like to call this the identification of Ego. Is this my ego talking? Am I angry, because my ego was hurt, am I anxious, because my ego is scared? Once you separate the ego from the actual you – voila, best conscious uncoupling example ever!

Gratitude. I am not sure I’m really feeling this word as it’s been so overused, but it does not change the fact that learning gratitude was one of the most important things I’ve learned through yoga. Gratitude for what I have (not only material goods) and for what I am able and capable to have. Again, like many people and like many of our cultures, for a long time my goal was to get MORE – more experiences, more achievements (in work and life), more check’s on the to-do list (self-inflicted list, may I add). But once I figured out that I already have so much and started applying the philosophy that I will still be happy and content whether I check that item of that list or not – a huge burden was taken off of my shoulders.

One of the more humbling effects of the yoga practice was finding the deeper connection to the world. I’m not talking about just meeting all kinds of wonderful people and learning from them, but also feeling connected to the world in a way that minimizes your ego by a ton. Realizing that we’re ALL in this together helps to wave away the very selfish focus on only yourself and your problems, it only makes you feel somehow better by knowing that we all have the same needs, desires, dreams, and issues. None of us are the center of the universe and the sooner more people realized the sooner many of the world’s problems will go away.

The last point is an all-encompassing one. Through yoga, I’m able to achieve a general mental lightness that I’ve had so much trouble finding before. I am going through life with a lighter step, without focusing on the negative so much, without too much pressure of how and when will achieve some imaginary goal or task, without the fear that I will miss out on something and with much more certainty that things will be OK. They definitely will.

Our favorite yoga books to dive deeper into the yoga philosophy and living yoga:

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By Milda Urban, Summersalt Yoga founder

Do you ever feel like you’re being pulled in two different directions? Or that you’re listening to two different voices in your head? One voice is very loud and it likes to call himself “the voice of reason”. The other one is silent, let’s himself be heard just sometimes, but it speaks our deepest wishes and desires. These gentlemen are The Ego and The Self.

Defined by the Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (and father of analytical psychology) C.G.Jung Ego and Self are our consciousness and unconsciousness – defining our psyche as a union, as a whole.

To describe it briefly – Ego is the center of consciousness and the Self is a complete personality that includes consciousness, the unconscious, and the ego. The Self is both the whole and the center. You can see it in the picture below that the ego is a self-contained little center of the circle and the Self is the greater circle

Ego and Self

In our daily life, we can simplify this and call Ego our “reasonable side”, which works to keep and assemble our personality, it keeps us motivated, working, it helps us to deal with the daily grind, struggles, measurable tasks and goals in life. It protects us from the problems that the world presents and helps us create a personality that’s able and capable to deal with these challenges.

The bigger picture is our Self – someone who we really are, not just a mask, not an Ego-created personality whose task’s to deal with the threats, fears, and challenges of our lives, but a deeper, authentic and individual person.

Self can be also called our “calling” – it defines our true “purpose” and desires in life, a higher mission if you will and all of these are often not in line with what the Ego wants.

Results versus process

Our Ego wants to do, act, have, protect. It is motivating and fueled by fear – fear of not having enough, of not doing enough, of losing some kind of created identity of ours. It pushes us to work and achieve more – it says we must, have, should. The ego is motivated by anxiety. The ego identifies a “problem” and finds a “solution” no matter what it is. The ego needs results. Ego preserves itself. The ego needs external validation.

The Self wants to create, express, and fulfill itself. It wants to be. It does not need to tick of a list of achievements, to have a “diploma” to show or accomplishments to brag with. It strives in silence when the noise around is gone and everything is still. Self does not want to achieve in our daily sense, it wants to express itself, to do good for the world, the universe. Self concentrates on others. Writer Frederick Buechner describes the calling as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” Self needs process.

Inside battle

Ego sometimes finds these silent words of Self disturbing, annoying, and something that needs to be eliminated in order to “achieve” or “fix a problem”.

And yes, as Ego, its anxiety and fear are a part of our Self it does affect The Self, it silences it, it dominates it and The Self is pushed away. Pushed away even deeper into our subconscious. The Self now has a chance to show up and manifest itself in our dreams or when we’re under the influence of alcohol or some substances. During these times The Ego is the one silenced and our true calling and desires come out. Just think about it – why is it that just after a couple of glasses of wine we finally find the courage to talk about “that book I’ve always wanted to write” or “the business idea that’s been in my head for years”. It’s the true Self-talking when The Ego is silenced. Please do not take this as an encouragement to drink or take drugs – these are the desperate measures and not an actual tool or treatment!!

Finally, the peak of The Ego is a burnout – total crash. The peak of Self is the fulfillment and reaching our deepest and most real desires. It’s the fulfillment and not burn out because it is your true calling and not a fake and manufactured version of it.

Please do not simplify this though. Ego is necessary for all of us to be able to function in our world and eliminating it would cause delusions, fantasies, and instabilities. However, The Self is the one that creates a deeper, more meaningful, and soulful way to be in the world. Let The Self come out and be heard.

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By Vanessa Fleming, Summersalt Yoga teacher

Think back to a situation when you’re challenged by progression. Whether it’s in a yoga class, or your job, or any sport or hobby you participate in, it’s happened to all of us.

We usually call this phenomenon “reaching the plateau.”

When this happens, we often push harder. We take on more, we try to go outside of our capabilities, just to avoid stagnation. Sometimes, this creates an unsafe environment for our bodies or minds. When we find stagnation, we may have a tendency to avoid (avidya), or become mindless in our actions.

Oftentimes we devalue the importance of taking a step back. We have been sold the idea that taking a step back is weak or lacks character. If we push harder, we’ll break the stagnation and come out on top…right?!

But let’s be real…how often does that actually work?

What if, instead of pushing harder, we took the time to just slow down? What if we take some steps backwards and go back to where we started?

The viewpoint of going backwards can be humbling, or it can be humiliating. Which persona does the ego take on?

Somewhere along the line, we have told ourselves that starting over again means nothing has been gained or achieved. We’ve lost everything we have worked for.

I was talking to my good buddy, Farhad, about this. Farhad is a musician with whole lotta heart and creativity. He’s been playing music for over 20 years, and I am inspired by his dedication to his craft. What happens when he gets stuck?

“Sometimes you just have to take a step back and abandon an idea no matter how much time was invested into it. While it can be a very difficult thing to do, it’s important to note that no time was wasted in the grand scheme of things. This is the embodiment of the creative process. You have to be open minded in the review stages to assess if an idea is good enough to make the final cut. There are times when songs that have been worked on for days have to be scratched completely, and at other times it can be just certain parts. Abandoning ideas regardless of how time consuming they were is frustrating, but it can also inspire you to come up with something even better in just a few seconds. Some of the most amazing songs only took minutes to write.”

You know what sticks out here for me? Abandonment. Fear of abandonment. Fear in ourselves of being abandoned, fear of letting things go.

We attach to our things – our practice, our creativity. But with attachment we create suffering. With suffering, we can not grow. We can not see where we’ve come from, we only see where we are at that moment. Maybe that isn’t the moment we want to be in. We can’t see the bigger picture.

How do we see the bigger picture?

My friend Lara and I also talked about this. (Can you see my fascination with it?) She’s a former dancer. Whenever she and her fellow dancers would get too ahead of themselves, her teacher would put them all back into basics.

“All of us had this ‘advanced’ practice. But our teacher would watch our egos balloon, and make us go right back to the basics. And with that, we felt the nerves down to our bones. We felt the muscles from the simple moves. These poses, the ones that we ‘were above,’ rocked us right down to our cores and humbled us. She taught us to never take our advanced level too seriously.”

EGO! There it is again!

So maybe the next time you’re feeling a little stuck, stagnant, or like you’ve plateaued, remember, to speed up progression, slow down. Go back to the basics. See where you can find something new, a little joy, and a completely different challenge. You’ll get there with a new vision, a new technique, a new acceptance. And it might be totally different than what you expected.

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By Vanessa Fleming, Summersalt Yoga teacher

Today, I sat down with my journal and started to write. Whenever I feel any sort of internal turmoil or confusion that I can’t seem to answer or understand, I turn to my journal. I haven’t properly turned to my journal in some time now, but this morning, I turned to my dear old friend.

As the words started to flow, I kept noticing one word coming up – truth. What is the truth? What is MY truth? What truth in any sort of terms? How does one live in truth? How does one be true?

I’ve struggled with the definition and concept of truth for a long time. I’m not talking the dictionary definition of truth. I’m referring to the abstract concept, the depth of its being, the many layers that need to be peeled back to discover the truth.

So I spent the better part of the morning, long after I closed my journal, contemplating truth. Some of what I came up with was this…

I’ve spent a better part of my life in a daze. A daydreamer I have always been. Easily, I slip away to my created world where if I just make it this far, or make it that far, or try this one thing, or accomplish this one goal…I’ll no longer daze. The effort I have to put in to staying present and not get too far ahead of myself is magnificent. It doesn’t always work.

And lately, I’ve really been unkind to myself, partially because of this. It seems the harder I try, the harder it is. It also seems the more I examine myself, the more I’m uncomfortable with who I am, how I am being, what I am thinking and doing. I put my weaknesses and flaws under a magnifying glass out in the sun, hoping those weaknesses and flaws will disappear and fade if I just burn them out from the sun’s rays. But what I’ve found is exactly the opposite…the fire ignites from the magnifying glass and I soon have a blaze that’s quickly going out of control, taking over my actions, my mind, my presence. I try to put the blaze out by doing seemingly innocuous things – texting my best friend, and another friend, and my parents, and someone else, and an old flame, all to start a conversation about fears, worries, contemplations, and all things under the umbrella “Ethereal.” The effort is to make myself feel better in my unease, but I end up feeling so, so, so much worse.

And this does nothing but take me out of the present, put me behind on my ever-growing list of tasks, and makes me sad.

So under all this, I start to examine my truth. Do I know what my “truth” is? Nope. Not a clue. But I think I have discovered some key concepts on my way to the answer, and I still ask some important questions:

Being true. What does it really mean? Acceptance? Tenacity? Could, in some twisted life or reality, mean denial? How do I rise above denial and naïveté to reach “truth”? I’m not the best at really anything, and that’s okay – but how do I accept that without becoming defeatist? How do I make that work FOR me and not against me? How do I make my weaknesses work for me and not against me?

Does the truth lie in this ability? Is this where strength and greatness come from?

I don’t know that I’ll ever know the answer to this. But all I can do…is try. And to contemplate further, but not too much. Practice benevolence to myself, because who else will be my friend if I can’t be a friend to myself? Who else will take care of me, if I can’t take care of my own heart?

But most importantly…how can I take care of others, if I can’t listen to my own self?

It won’t be easy. But I have learned a small part along the way, even as a write this post.  It’s so easy to get caught up in what you are and what you aren’t.

What I do know is this – I could continue to be mad at myself for miscalculating numbers or losing my (expensive!) sunglasses, I could continue to be uncomfortable and scared because of self-created prophecies that could become fulfilled, I could continue to walk on eggshells around myself so that I don’t create inner turmoil, or I could…

not. I could just not do any of that, and just…be.

And in that, somewhere, I’m convinced! is where the truth lies. Defeat the defeatist, live the best I can, even the flawed, the cranky, the forgetful, the moody…all of it. Because all of that…is me. But it’s not all of me. They are just small parts that are inclusive of this being, and all of what does make me who I am. And maybe I ain’t so bad after all?!

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