I like to sit outside in the morning and meditate. Our house faces east, and we have a little front porch. But because we live in the mountains, I don’t see the sunrise from the horizon – it takes a little longer (which is perfect for me cuz I’m not exactly a wake-before-dawn kinda person anyway).
Earlier this year, in June, when we first moved in, I could see the sun rising to my left – if you can imagine an analog clock face (those curious relics from the past 😉), it was at about 10 o’clock. As the season moved through summer and into late fall where we are now, the sun slowly journeyed south. These days it rises to my right, at about 2 o’clock.
(not from my house, but close by)
The waning light feels like a direct call from the season to act accordingly – less busy-ness, more rest, less activity, more reflection.
The season nudges us to yield.
The extraordinary teacher, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, defined five developmental movements: Yielding, Pushing, Reaching, Grasping, and Pulling. The first movement all babies have to learn is to yield, to let go, to allow another to hold you and care for you. In fact, you can’t learn to push (physically and psychologically) until you’ve learned to yield.
(Pexels.com)
Developmental movements are interesting to revisit in yoga practice. Where do I yield? – śavāsana and restorative poses are obvious, but there are many other opportunities like Child’s, forward bends and twist, and in coming out of back bends and laterals. And of course, with every exhale.
And then where do I push, reach, grasp, and pull in my yoga practice? There are plenty of places these actions can happen too (I explore these in greater depth in class #6 of my online teacher training BTW).
(with my embodiment guru)
When we revisit developmental movements in asana practice, we have a chance to rewire some of our neuropatterning from childhood. What if you weren’t held enough? Or what if you were not allowed to push (physically or psychologically), or to reach for something, or to grasp something, or to pull it toward you (again physically or psychologically)?
When you explore developmental movements, you have a chance to feel the emotions associated with them, to observe how your body responds, and to allow this witnessing information to inform and remind you of who you are, where you want to go in life, and what you want to do.
(Pexels.com)
Yoga practice provides an opportunity to explore a sense of identity.
Mostly, our sense of self, and our actions, default to previously patterned intrinsic (below the level of consciousness), psycho-social habits. These habits account for behavior that then initiates and sustains most of the problems in the world. For example, just watch politicians move (or mostly, not move) sometime, they tend to be quite a disembodied group in general, and they often have aggressive and/or defensive postures and movement patterns. Nefarious or nasty behavior is often the literal acting out of unmet, largely unconscious, developmental needs.
(Pexels.com)
Fortunately, it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
If the first thing we learn is how to yield. Learning to yield also means learning how to be in loving relationship – with others, with ourselves, with our higher self, and with all that is. Every year, the season affords an opportunity to revisit, relearn, and re-embody yielding. The holidays are meant to submerge us down into that reality – at least that’s their esoteric potential.
Maybe I don’t have to decorate my house perfectly. Maybe I don’t have to spend the weekend at the mall. Maybe I don’t have to bake dozens of cookies. Maybe I don’t have to go to every event.
(unsplash.com)
Maybe I can find some space and time to yield to the season.
Maybe I can sink into the quietness of the world right now. Maybe I can sit in the afternoon sun with my cat for a few minutes each day and find stillness. Maybe I can enjoy a slightly more restorative yoga practice. Maybe I can allow myself to heed the season’s call to rest and reflect and think about the deeper meaning of life.
One of my favorite poses for yielding is Supta Baddhakoṇāsana, or Reclining Bound Angle. It’s a simple and almost immediately effective way to practice yielding.
Place a block under a bolster (about 1/3 of the way from the top), and accordion fold a blanket so that it’s very thin (width or length wise depending on how much length you need).
Sit down about one fist width from the edge of the bolster. Place the middle of the blanket over your feet. Tuck the blanket edges under your hips. Then lie back. Place an eye pillow over your eyes and another blanket on top of your whole body if you like. Rest for 5-10 minutes, or longer.
Yield to the earth.
What does engaging in this simple practice whisper to you about yourself and your life? Please leave a comment.
Happy Holidays. Happy Yielding.
I’ll be teaching a workshop on January 15, 2021 called The Neuroscience of Subtle Yoga for Better Sleep – if you’d like more info, please go back to the email that brought you to this blog and click on the link, we’ll send you more info about the workshops as soon as it’s ready.
Please check out my online course, Chakras Beyond the Rainbow: Rethinking New Interpretations, Reclaiming Traditional Wisdom.
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So good to have this reminder! Thank you.
Thanks for commenting Kit! Glad you enjoyed the post.
You do not live in New Zealand anymore?
No, we moved back to Asheville in June.
Thank you for this message. While we here in the southern hemisphere are going into summer with the longer days and more sunlight, the pressure leading up to the festive season can be the same, so it is a good reminder to stop and yield and let go of some of the pressure and stress this time of year brings. It is good to take time out to refresh and restore and feel clearer and free to just be you.
Thanks Fi! It’s so nice to hear from you and I hope you’re doing well (and wish we had had time to take more walks!). I kept thinking of my southern hemisphere friends in NZ, Australia and Brazil while I was writing this and hope that they found something useful here too! xo
I’ve been doing some intense trauma yoga and I like that idea if the five developmental movements need using yoga to explore and clarify identity. I enjoyed reading this very much, thank you
Thanks so much Kate. I’m glad you got that from this post! I think they are a beautiful way to revisit identity too – anyway, all yoga practice has that potential. I hope you have a nice holiday season!
What a lovely post. I’ve never like the commercialism around Christmas so this is a message I resonate with. I’ve always loved Reclining Bound Angle but somehow I forget to do it at home, so thanks for this reminder of how good it is.
Thanks Cheryl! I remember as a child feelings something very powerful around Christmas time but somehow it was elusive amidst all the chaos. It’s there, it’s just deep, and needs silence to emerge. (Silent night?). I think the drive toward quiet is so embedded in the season but I get so distracted I have to almost fight for it LOL! Happy Holidays and thank you for writing!
I love this explanation of bringing these development movements to our yoga practice. Your article was so timely for me right now as I have recently moved country and am in the midst of total chaos! Trying to unpack three house loads of furniture all at once. This will be our last move around this planet and our past life has often meant temporarily setting up a home only to leave it quickly for yet another transfer. The result has been to store furniture all over the world which has now come back to bite us having finally descended upon us here.
I need to sit and as you say just ‘stop’ and sit. I need to arrest the ‘doing’ and be grateful that I have arrived safely and soundly and appreciate the moment. As you say everything doesn’t need to be done as soon as!! Even my yoga practice and teaching (which is on hold for now) can wait and maybe it can be the better for the ‘pause’.
Merry Christmas to you Kristin.
Oh goodness. I really do feel your pain Maria (having moved overseas and back in less than a year!) I hope things settle down soon. I hope you find some peace in the process too. Thanks for writing and I hope that you eventually enjoy being planted!
I just taught the developmental movement class from the online teacher training program last week. I have done so many times, and I love it each time. I tend to focus on the fun and playfulness of the movements. This post is a great reminder of how powerful these movements can be too beyond just connecting to playfulness. I don’t always like to bring too much “deep stuff” like that up to my students in classes but it is nice to sneak some of it in! Thanks for this reminder!
Oh that’s great Lea, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the class and I glad this post is giving you a little more depth for exploration!
Thank you for this. If it wasn’t for my yoga practice and meditation, I don’t think I would have known that yielding was possible, necessary even. I wouldn’t have know the restorative benefit of pausing. As I was planning my class for today, with your teaching in mind, so many thoughts were bouncing around in my head, about how I could link the ideas to the practice. They were mostly serious thoughts, so I really appreciated the comment from Lea, about playfulness! Now my class will be more balanced. 🥰
Thank you for this perspective, so true and so helpful to remember. Each time I read your thoughts I am struck by how you seem to bring such grounding and balanced insight. I am in the midst of trying to figure out if I need to take a different direction in life and reading here just makes me wonder if I could do something more/different professionally with the combination of yoga and my mental health license. It has been difficult to do in the framework of my present job, but change is very scary and risky. Your thoughts,ideas and knowledge are always encouraging and give me new insights for therapy and keep me hopeful that someday maybe I can make the change that I feel I need. Thank you so much!
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for sharing your heart with so much clarity and wisdom. I think there are so many things that you can do with that dual qualification as a yoga professional and a mental health license! It’s pretty wide open – from online teaching, to online therapy, to in person teaching, in person therapy – it’s wide open. And there is SO much need, particularly with all the suffering COVID has started. Yes, it’s great to have a steady income, and there are lots of places to work that will support your interests if that’s the way you want to go – to have the best of both worlds so to speak. I hope this is helpful. I think the possibilities are wide open!
Hi Kristine, I am taking the time today to re read your blogs and enjoy. Thanks so much for all your teachings and thanks to your staff.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I notice that the sun rise is in the northeast in the summer and sets in the north west from our house.
In the winter it rises in the southeast and sets in the south west. Interesting.
Thank you Carol! xo