Embracing Utkatasana (aka "Throne" Pose)

Sometimes yoga feels like church for me; it's a spiritual experience and I take away a lesson to carry and reflect on for the week. This morning's Flowosophy class (Flow + Philosophy) was one of those classes. Our teacher Becky dipped into the ancient, 24,000 verse, epic Indian poem, the Ramayana, to tell us just a bit of the story of royal half-brothers, Rama and Bharata.

Because of some Days of Our Lives level trickery and maneuvering by his mother, Bharata assumed his father's throne even though his half brother Rama was the rightful heir. Bharata didn't even want to take what should have been his brother's crown. But when we're thrust into a spot we're not ready for, like Bharata, we're called on to be fierce, fiery, determined, strong, even if we feel like we're not ready.

So of course in the flow that followed the story-telling, we were called upon to embrace Utkatasana, aka the dreaded "Chair" pose, but instead of calling it "Chair" Becky told us it really should be called Throne. And I like that a lot better.

The Chair stance can be called"Fierce" pose, which is also a lot better than the name Chair, because let me tell you what you're NOT doing in Chair pose - relaxing! Your legs should be on fire. You might be feeling strength and determination (and quite possibly exhaustion and like you might collapse). But you're building a fire, feeling your power within. Which is what we have to do when we're thrown into a position we're not ready for, but have no choice but to take on.

So not if, but when, I'm faced with these moments, like Bharata, I'll try to feel my inner fire, be fierce, be strong, and like Becky told us this morning, "Don't Forget to Breathe."

Namaste.