Yoga encourages everyone's inner soldier to overcome challenges in life.
The daughter of an Army Captain and Vietnam war hero (my father received a Bronze Star for his active duty service), I was raised with military philosophy. My boyfriend is an Army Captain and I teach yoga to the troops at Fort Bragg, so I’ve been even more immersed in military life. In my practice and teaching of yoga and my experience with the Army, one thing has become clear: many of the philosophies are similar. It may just be why soldiers and yoga make such a good fit. Yoga enhances that part of the soldier’s innate personality that strives to master, and offers empowering mind/body exercises that nurture inner strength and discipline. The added perk of yoga is it helps soldiers release the mental, emotional and physical stress that comes with one of the most stressful jobs there is.
1. Strength. Both Army and yoga beliefs encourage you to be the best you could be. Yoga also encourages one to learn how to just be. It takes just as much strength if not more to stop doing and let go as it does to engage your energy with force. It also takes strength to find peace with where you’re at, who you are and what you’ve been called to do in this life. Most of us will have regrets at some point in our lives. Yoga helps us learn how to let go of regret when we accept the wisdom we’ve gained from the experience. It can also inspire us with understanding how we can a turn negative into a positive, usually by way of making a difference.
2. Resilience. The Army calls it “sucking it up.” Yoga calls it “non-attachment.” Both beliefs strive toward avoiding excuses to get caught up in the drama of suffering. Yoga’s non-attachment practice asks you to be the observer of your emotions as opposed to allowing your feelings to overwhelm you and throw you off balance. Holding asanas for long periods can sometimes feel challenging, but the yogi is asked not to give up. Instead, work through the mental, emotional and physical challenge and it can result in feeling more strength and confidence on deeper levels.
3. Discipline.Physical discipline: “Move with purpose” is a military saying, meaning make yourself useful. Don’t get idle, lazy or stagnant. Soldiers are routinely given physical fitness tests they must pass as part of their military contract, so you will often see soldiers working out. Physical fitness is an important part of military life, regardless of which unit you’re in.
Yoga is moving with purpose. The body, emotions and thoughts are monitored with self-awareness to help guide you and foster meaning in your life. Yoga encourages you to avoid stagnancy. The physical yoga exercises are only one part of the yoga discipline, and an important one not just for physical health, but mental and emotional as well. Each asana has an effect on the body, mind and spirit. Some days the yogi may not feel up to practicing an asana, but with discipline, yogi’s know that practicing this “movement with purpose” instills them with a sense of inner strength, health, ease and balance that will serve them throughout the day.
Mental/emotional discipline is practiced in boot camp. Drill Instructors will test a solder’s mental strength by temping him or her to fly off the handle and react to their verbal taunts. Yoga encourages the student to use self-awareness, breath and non-attachment to refrain from over-reacting to outer challenges and relying on inner resources to help you stay calm, cool and collected.
Self-discipline is a huge factor in the practice of yoga. One must have discipline to practice the asanas, the breath and to use the philosophy to better themselves in daily life. Many of us will fall out of our routine in moments of stress or busyness and return to our practice once things have settled down. The challenge is always to remain faithfully committed to our practice no matter what’s happening around us. This commitment to self-discipline is what helps yogi’s take their practice deeper and receive long-term benefits. Yogi’s believe in using your energy wisely, in productive ways.
4. Bravery. You have to be brave to be a soldier. To get through boot camp, away from loved ones, being tested to your mental, emotional and physical limits, sacrificing your freedom of where you’d like to live, when you could get away and how you could run your schedule takes courage. Soldiers give up a lot of freedoms to serve, and some give up their lives. Every soldier knows once they join, there is always the possibility that they may be sent to war and not come home.
Yoga asks us to be willing to let go of things that no longer serve us. And to push past self-imposing limits so we can be all that we can be. There are yoga poses that you may feel scared of trying. Sometimes trying those poses can liberate you from deeper fears. Meditation can be scary to some. Sitting alone with your feelings takes courage. Admitting you’re not perfect takes courage. Committing to the higher ideals of a yoga lifestyle that include taking responsibility for yourself and honoring the divine in others, not over-reacting to life, being kind, compassionate and respectful – these ideals take bravery in a world that often worships violence, hatred and drama. A soldier must act in defense of his life and to protect others, but that doesn’t mean that he subscribes to a violent state of mind. I’ve met many kind, giving, bighearted soldiers who are struggling with the fact that they had to commit acts of violence because it doesn’t feel right to them. Their act of bravery now is to forgive themselves, to feel liberated from the past and accept the wisdom gained, which is freedom. Acceptance leads to peace.
Yoga is a holistic approach to life which takes courage. It’s a brave act to change one’s diet, to sacrifice things that bring you instant pleasure but are unhealthy. Both the Army and yoga ask us to sacrifice something for freedom. Yoga asks us if we’re brave and willing enough to sacrifice an attachment to material illusions for emotional freedom?
5. Focus. “Boot Camp is 80% mental, and 20% physical. Don’t get discouraged or give in to the temptation to give up (namely because quitting is not an option.) Don’t look too far ahead and stay focused on the task at hand.” -military.com. The military life asks soldiers to be very focused and mindful in every aspect of their life. On the job, focus is critical for many soldiers who are placed in life or death situations. Mindfulness is also important in their personal life. If a soldier acts unbecoming and less than is expected of his character, he or she can face a demotion or even dishonorable discharge.
Many yoga asanas such as Tree Pose can also be considered 80% mental and 20% physical. That’s what draws people to yoga – it’s an exercise that requires focus in the present moment. When you’re holding a yoga pose, you’re not thinking about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. You’re focusing on your breath and maintaining the integrity of the pose: lengthening, grounding, extending, exhaling. There’s a lot happening during a yoga pose that focuses you to be present and to free your mind and body of the stress that tightens, constricts and restricts. Yogi’s who are interested in cultivating spiritual values will practice yoga on and off the mat, striving to judge less, and to be more patient, kind and compassionate human beings.
Are you up for the challenge?
It takes a lot of focus and self-awareness to raise the bar on your standard of living and aim to be the best person that you can be. Both the Army and yoga ask us how strong are we, just how much we can persevere and what level of integrity are we willing to reach. Yoga helps us find peace among the answers.
No reprint without permission for both written and photographic content in this blog.
Lauralyn is a yoga therapist specializing in holistic healing. She is currently providing yoga to the wounded warriors at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
This meditation helps you release stressful feelings related to a job search, career change or starting a new business. The guided visualization is designed to help boost your confidence and motivation and leave you feeling calm, clear and positive about what you want and the direction you’re heading in. More meditations can be found on my website and are available to download for just a $1 donation. Enjoy!
Lauralyn is a certified yoga, reiki and angel therapist®. She specializes in holistic healing and intuitive spiritual mentoring. She is currently providing yoga therapy to the wounded warriors at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
Last week I wrote about the “next” economy or “gift” economy. This week I’m excited because it seems en masse people are realizing our current economic system is flawed. More than a thousand people have gathered for Occupy Wall St. and similar events are popping up in cities around the United States.
For those of you who don’t know, the movement is the expression of people dissatisfied with being a part of the 99% of the population who are not super wealthy. There is a whole tumblr about it actually. Here is one of the entries:
“I have my health. I have a job. I have no debt, and no dependents. I have a tiny bit of savings and a small retirement fund that I cling to. But Wall Street is hungry, and our political leaders have shown whose side they are on. Business and government will work together to steal what we have. I did not get here, to this tiny island of stability, alone. I owe so much to my brothers and sisters who worked hard for the ideals of DEMOCRACY and LIBERTY and FREEDOM. And I will not stand by, silent, while any of my brothers and sisters falls through the cracks: the sick, the unemployed, and underemployed, the kids who depend on us all. I will not stand by while the One Percent who have manipulated our social contract to their vast favor leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves. I will not stand for it. And I am not alone. I am the 99%.”
You might be asking, why exactly this inspires me. It’s because about 10 years ago I had a conversation with a classmate, trying to explain why capitalism was a flawed system and she said to me, “If those people worked hard for their money I don’t see why we should limit how much they make. I don’t see why they can’t make as much money as they want because they earned it.” I’m inspired by this Occupy Wall St. protest because it shows me people are becoming more heart centered. They are starting to become more compassionate. They’re starting to see what happens to the homeless man down the street is not ok. I’m inspired because people are starting to care. As a 17-year-old it was hard for me to put into words capitalism doesn’t work because it rewards the greedy and it’s selfish. How on earth could I win the argument if the person I was talking to would respond by saying, “So?”
I love that we’re showing compassion for each other. That people are saying, “Hey, you know, greed is not ok and I won’t stand idly by watching someone gobble up the wealth while the rest of us are fighting for scraps.” I love that we’re wanting to support each other. That we’re wanting to ensure everyone in the world gets their needs met. How AMAZING is that?
I dream of a world where everyone gets their basic needs met. A world where we are all taken care of because we take care of each other. A world where we’re supported. A world where wealth is shared and we show respect and compassion for our fellows. A world where we live more in our hearts than in our heads.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.
I love my mother. She did a fantastic job not only of taking care of my siblings and me, but showing us how to do things for ourselves. It’s because of my mother that I’m able to cook, clean and sew buttons. Even though I’m a grown woman I still sometimes want to be babied. And by that I mean I still want someone else to take care of me. Not in the sense I want a sugardaddy, but I want someone else to make dinner and wash the dishes and take over for a while because right now it seems like everything falls on my shoulders.
Since I’m out of my parents' house, that means I’m the sole person responsible for my well-being. I have to take care of everything and it can be exhausting, so of course I want to be babied every now and again. Except my view of the world has been flawed. I don’t have to do everything myself. I don’t have to rely completely on myself to take care of me because there is a power greater than myself I haven’t factored into the equation.
It’s a subtle thing, but of late I recognize God takes care of me. I’m not walking through this world completely alone because the universe supports and loves me. There’s an energetic difference because now I’m allowing myself to be taken care of. I’m allowing my higher power to show up for me and shoulder my burdens. One of my burdens is financial. I’m only working part time and I’m freelancing to pay the bills. I’ve been fretting because it feels like I’m completely responsible for all of it. I’ve been telling myself I have to run ragged to make ends meet. I have to find those opportunities, market myself, get out in the world. Everything is on me. I’ve written about allowing things to be what they are, but this is different. This is me acknowledging it doesn’t have to be my concern. I can let God be my ultimate caretaker.
I’m probably rambling a bit but what I’m getting at is God can be the one who’s in charge. The one who makes decisions and steers my life. I don’t have to constantly decide for myself whether something is a good idea or not. I don’t have to stew in worry and anxiety about the world because instead I can check in with my higher power. I can let my higher power decide what’s best for me, where the money will come from, all of it. I am not alone in the world. Not only because I have friends and a community but because there is an energetic being that watches out for me all the time. That sticks with me through thick and thin. That will never abandon me no matter how angry or whiny or childish I act.
I love my mother and I’m extremely grateful for all that she’s done for me. But now I’m allowing my higher power to take over that role for me because really that’s exactly what my higher power is supposed to do.
On this mother’s day, I dream of a world where we let ourselves be taken care of by a power greater than ourselves. A world where we let our mothers also be mothered. A world where we let someone else shoulder the burden for a while. A world where we feel at peace because we know someone else is taking the reins. A world where we know we’ll be provided for now and always.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.
I have a little bit of a rant today. I’m in one of my moments of being extremely frustrated with the self-help and spiritual movement or industry really. I’ve mentioned The Secret a lot on this blog and in writing elsewhere. That book helped me tremendously but also bugged me. Every time I recommended it to someone, I did so with a warning to not get caught up in the materialism of it.
In the book and movie, when you looked past the people wishing for sport’s cars, checks showing up in their mailboxes, million dollar careers, and mansions, there were several spiritual gems there. The thing is most people didn’t look past the cars, checks, money, and mansions. In some cases it just fed the desire for more, more, more by convincing everyone they deserved it and would have it.
It is a tragedy that we think ourselves smaller than we actually are, but it is also a tragedy when put our own self-worth before the good of the people we are meant to be of service to. I love to go to workshops and learn about new things, but I refuse to pay out the wazoo for something that is supposed to heal me and improve my life. Shouldn’t we want everyone to be healed and improved? Sadly, most of the teachers that offer these type of experiences make them unaffordable for anyone on a budget. Those people who died at James Arthur Ray’s spiritual warrior retreat paid $10,000 to be there. The last person I talked to about this said “Yep, that’s about the price of a funeral.” From what I heard about the incident, James compensated the families of the victims by giving them $5000. They didn’t even get the money their loved ones had paid to participate!
In everything I read there is a promise of abundance and prosperity to those who are awake and aligned with Truth. I believe that, but I don’t believe that abundance and prosperity mean that if we connect with God and follow our hearts we will all get a million dollars and a fancy house. I believe that actually the two are measured in love, not dollars. If you love your work, are surrounded by people you care about, find joy in the small things, and allow yourself to be mindful in each and every moment than you are very wealthy indeed.
At some point we have to stop feeding this myth that money equals value. Money doesn’t make people happier and healing/self-improvement should be accessible to even the poorest among us. In the end it is what we offer to the world that makes us valuable…not what the world decides to pay us.
I almost don’t want to tell you this because it’s kind of embarrassing. I don’t want you to judge me or think I’m ungrateful for the people in my life. But what I'm about to discuss is also indicative of a deeper issue, which I think might be valuable to share.
Have you heard of the five languages of love? Gary Chapman says there are five ways people give and receive love: words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service, receiving gifts and quality time. Chapman says we won’t feel loved until we receive love in our primary language. My primary language is words of affirmation. I want those I love to compliment me, tell me why they love me, write me heartfelt cards and poems. This is not me fishing for comments, but rather divulging why I’ve felt frustrated of late.
For the past two months I’ve felt upset people haven’t been expressing their love for me the way I want them to. Being the person I am, I conveyed this need but nothing’s changed. My friends are still showing me how much they care via the other languages – not words of affirmation. And it bugs the hell out of me. “Why can’t you just do what I want? Is that so hard? Love me the way I want you to!” I keep secretly hoping they’ll change, but they aren’t. So really, my choices are to either accept them for who they are, and how they express their affection, or I can ditch them. Let’s get real though, I love these people. I’m not going to stop being friends with them because they don’t tell me how awesome I am. Strangely, even knowing this I’ve still felt upset. I’ve still wanted them to what I wanted them to do.
Pondering my feelings last night I’ve realized this is yet another way I’m trying to exert control. The important thing to remember is I’m receiving love. Does it really matter how I’m receiving it? Reflecting on my control issues, I’m finally allowing people to be who they are and express themselves how they see fit. Control is a sneaky fellow because it comes up in all aspects of my life. When I allow people and the universe to do its thing is when the magic happens.
For instance, I was offered a part-time copyediting gig (yay!) but I also need to make more money to pay for my expenses. I decided freelancing was the answer, and more specifically, freelancing for a specific publication. It didn’t pan out. My controlling nature wanted to take over and “fix things.” I had to take a step back because I realized when I try to dictate how things are going to work with both love and money I disallow the universe from working its magic. There are INFINITE ways for me to receive money. Why does it have to come from freelancing for X publication? Similarly, why does love have to be in the form of words?
Sometimes I think life works like Best Buy – I go in, pick what I want, pay for it, the end. I get exactly what I want, the way I want it, when I want it. But life isn’t like that – at least it hasn’t been for me.
Wants and needs are natural. I’m allowed to ask for what I want but the “when” and “how” are out of my hands. When I try to dictate life according to my specifications I end up feeling demoralized. The best thing I can do is say, “I want love, financial abundance and success,” and then sit back and watch the universe go to work. And wouldn’t you know it? In my e-mail inbox this morning someone messaged me and asked me if I’d like to freelance for them. The universe provides, I just have to let it. People love me, I just have to let them.
I dream of a world where we are more allowing. A world where we ask for what we want and then let go. A world where we let the universe do its thing, knowing what we want will come to us. A world where we understand the world works in mysterious ways and that’s what it makes it so fun. A world where we recognize we are not in control because there are greater forces at work. A world where we accept what we receive, no matter how it gets to us.
Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.
