Jul 15, 2012

an engineer's Child Pose


    I have to admit, studying engineering has helped me to build a perfectionist, type A personality. I am taught to solve any problem that comes my way and co-ordinate everything including my life, to avoid problems so everything goes smoothy... Or so I used to think :) 
    During my forth year in the university, I was facing a break-up of my then 3 year relationship. That was a problem I couldn’t figure out a solution for. No matter how many theories I applied, this was an emotional problem. It was right then that I’ve started my hatha yoga classes. Although I’ve started yoga for the breathing exercises for my asthma, in a very short time I started experiencing and enjoying its deeper effects. 
    One day, our instructor introduced us “Balasana” - The Child Pose. A really simple looking posture with extraordinary benefits. The pose itself was easy enough to get into, since my legs were rather flexible and my heels would touch my hips. But then the instructor asked us to relax our tommy, shoulders, arms, spine and let go of all our thoughts from our third eye to the ground ... Now this was tricky, here I was thinking over and over what I’ve done wrong, what I could do to mend my relationship in any way, and this woman was asking me to let my thoughts flow out of my mind.... HOW ??? 
    Sometimes, when we are stuck in a thought or a problem, we find it very hard to get out of ourselves - even for a minute. It’s like a cul-de-sac, no where out and just impossible to let go. My mom usually advises me to imagine myself floating high above and look at myself from above. This way one can see the situation easier. That is exactly what the child pose did for me. Every session I let go more, some more and some more. And finally I could let it go, all of it. As I let go of my body  I could also let go of my prisoning thoughts. I began to see the situation differently and finally I found a way out. 
    Today, I teach yoga as well as practicing it. I always include child pose in our sessions and make sure I remind my students to try to let go... Rather than the headstands, handstands, shoulder stands, my all time favourite pose has become the Child Pose. Letting go of old and comfortable can seem very hard most of the time. But it is utmost necessary to open ourselves for the new. 
    I may be able to solve or handle very complex projects as an engineer but child pose always reminds me that sometimes, in order to complete-solve something, you need to let go, relax and look at it from above. We just need to be open enough to let go once in a while...

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