Why I practice Yoga WITH Nature and not in a studio.

I was practicing Yoga unofficially before I had even heard the word.

Often times I would feel so overwhelmed that I would just lie in the dark in the moonlight and breathe. That’s it, just breathing. At the time I was just trying to get a grasp on what the heck was going on within me, trying to quiet my mind and emotions so that I could feel something else. I was barely a teenager when I consciously started seeking moonlit breathing sessions. I was always secretly delighted to be alone.

As I look back through my life I can see how this was a pattern in my life, something I innately understood and did. I remember being as young as eight just sitting in my snowsuit starring at the vast sky for hours in the quiet, solitude of the night in my backyard – just breathing and being. I didn’t really understand it back then but Nature* and breathing brought me naturally to peaceful internal places and this ‘tool’ would help me through many life decisions.

When I eventually found Yoga** at the age of 19, I was already doing what much of Yoga was about – using my breath and movement to still the fluctuations of the mind so that in the moments of presence something larger than myself could be understood; a cessation of my thoughts so that union may arise spontaneously in the moment… although I wouldn’t have worded it as such at the time.

A structured yoga practice gave me more tools, clarity, language, and a community…but the more I hit my mat in a studio, the more I felt that the organic peace piece was missing. I knew it was there, I had experienced it before; it was on the fringe, something obvious and elusive at the same time.

Eventually I found myself walking out of the studio and into Nature; being in and with Nature amplified, simplified and made Yoga come with such a greater sense of ease. It seemed that Nature naturally imbued the very essence of a yoga practice.  (There are many parallels of a yoga practice and Nature connection but I’ll save that for another article when I can really get into them.)

The closer I looked, the more I meditated, studied translations of texts and contemplated, the more I realized that Nature was there in the practice from the beginning; t was subtly pointed too, but not point outed. A quiet gentle force holding the container for a return to abiding in our own inner nature, much like Yoga Sutra 1.3 (Tada drashtuh svarupevasthanam Then the seer abides in it’s own nature1).

Nature was quietly whispered about in the background, always referenced in the form of the names of poses, greetings to sun, cautions to not practice in full sunlight, quotes/metaphors/analogies (monkey mind, mind like a peaceful lake, thousand petal lotus)…oh it was there; it was ubiquitous but it wasn’t so subtle for me. That was the missing peace for me, the honouring of the relationship with Nature.

The integral part, the yogic part of building a relationship with Nature is having the skill to discern between our wounds and reality, to understand when we are being guided from a depth of connection, or from an injury. Many of us don’t know how to be in relationship with Nature, but rather see Nature as a resource, a backdrop, or a location that activities (skiing, biking, swimming, etc.) happen in.

In our society there is a story that Nature, both inner and outer are something to be overcome and that there is a spiritual aspect to overriding our bodies and Nature.  We can see this when we are encouraged to challenge ourselves beyond the pain, to conquer mountains and grasslands, to progress and prosper not matter what it costs our bodies or Nature’s body.

It’s taken me a long time to untangle this conflict within, and although it’s a spiral of wisdom that I will continue to contemplate for awhile yet, my yoga practice has allowed me to dissolve this internal conflict but I couldn’t have done without Nature.

Building a relationship with Nature means we have to be willing to revise our stories,  and realize that Nature is a dynamic ecosystem that we are a part of. We have to remember how to communicate with our inner nature and Nature again instead of thinking it’s something to be overcome. We have to learn to hear the conversation between Nature and ourselves. In doing so, our presence becomes a doorway to Yoga, a way to experience the expression of Life itself.

Here are four lessons I’ve learned on how to integrate Nature into a yoga practice:

1) Be aware of the personal and societal labels and stories about Nature.

I noticed that the label I put on Nature changed my perspective, my interaction, my willingness to engage as an equal (not as a being at the top of the food chain or as a steward but simply another being). When I used the word resource or thought of Nature as a playground I was less likely to hear when I wasn’t welcome. However when I came from a place of presence and was willing to see the multitude of lives and cycles going on within Nature, I understood and was willing to engage at a more humble level. The connection, the place of resting in my own inner nature came with such a greater ease that it was immediately heart opening.

2) Contemplate the stars, the sky, the sea, the forests… Vastness will help to balance and understand the details.

This quote says it so elegantly:

“Pondering on large ideas or standing in front of things which remind us of a vast scale can free us from acquisitiveness and competitiveness and from our likes and dislikes. If we sit with an increasing stillness of the body, and attune our mind to the sky or to the ocean or to the myriad stars at night, or any other indicators of vastness, the mind gradually stills and the heart is filled with quiet joy. ” ~ Ravi Ravindra, The Wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

To me, quotes like this lead us back to Nature in our Yoga; it’s part of who we are, our inner nature. Our sanity and humanity are intertwined with our relationship with Nature.

3) Let the posture be an expression of an interaction, not a shape.

Our brain structures change through experience2 and what better way to experience than with the physical postures (asana).  Yoga, after all, is an experiential path.

In Nature a deeper meaning of the word posture took root and my whole asana practice blossomed. A posture is not something to do, or a position to take based on some instruction at the front of the room or an abstract idea or shape that arises in the mind, but rather it is the physical expression of what is moving from within. The postures are a way to move energy to help still our minds; an expression and wisdom of being connected to something larger than ourselves.

Tadasana (Mountain Pose) wasn’t about standing on two feet strongly because my mind or a magazine told me that was what the pose was. No, the point is to actually experience a mountain, to interact and sit with a mountain and contemplate it, understand it and listen so deeply that something in me was forever changed.

When practiced in this way, the ‘point’ of the pose is to embody the strengths, the wisdom of a mountain. In doing so, my inner nature became less in conflict and peace settled within.

When something moves us that deeply it isn’t about the physical posture but rather the physical for is an echo of this understanding; it bubbles up and over from within. For me practicing this way brings an authenticity to it. This is a state, an experience of Yoga, a place of resting in our own inner nature; an inner nature that is inseparable from Nature.

4) Be with what is. 

If there wasn’t a mountain near by, I learned to be present with what was in the moment and contemplate that, get to know that, and let that become part of the practice. I wouldn’t force the mountain to be when it wasn’t.  To be real with this moment and not be lead by thoughts, to let Nature and this moment be the Guru, that became the practice. A yoga practice, after all, rests deeply in the ability to be with what is real in this moment…that’s the only ‘place’ that Yoga exists.

I moved my practice out of the studio because the depth of my practice and my being is nurtured so much more in Nature.

* You may have noticed that I capitalize the word Nature. Nature is not a thing but a collective of nouns, and I might argue that collective has a oneness to it, therefore Nature is a name given to a complex system of life.

**I draw a distinction between a yoga practice and Yoga. A yoga practice is the use of the tools (breathing, tools, meditation, contemplation..etc) so that Yoga, the state or experience of oneness, may more easily arise.  When I capitalize the word I am referring to the state or experience.

1 http://www.judithhansonlasater.com/writing/2014/11/20/tb7p1jhvohw7l9s03w3e6wxxtooy4p

https://yogainternational.com/article/view/yoga-sutra-1-3-translation-and-commentary

2 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100615191647.html

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