If you are anything like me, the battle between surrender and determination is ever-present. Sometimes making up my mind to step onto my mat is a battle…and yes, I am a yoga teacher! I love yoga, but I also don’t mind taking a nap every now and again. This internal struggle of to practice or not to practice plagues everyone from time to time. But that is why knowing the difference between surrender and determination is so important for yoga practitioners.
Sometimes it is okay to surrender, and at other times we must charge on and stay determined. Today I’m going to take a deeper dive into what surrendering may look like in a yoga practice, and in Part Two I will discuss determination and how you can begin to determine which path to follow for your daily practice.
What Does it Mean to Surrender?
“Sometimes it’s not the times you decide to fight, but the times you decide to surrender, that make all the difference.”
Sissy Gavrilaki
Many times, people associate surrendering with giving up. While this can be true, to surrender can also mean to let go. In a yoga practice, it is perfectly okay to surrender. In fact, I encourage you to surrender often while on your mat.
Sometimes surrendering may take the form of letting go of your expectations for a physical practice. Instead you turn your focus to the mental or spiritual aspect of yoga. I find that this type of surrender is essential when I have had a bad day. For example, if I’m worried about something that happened at work, the time I spend on my mat is often dedicated to calming my mind and focusing on meditation.
During these practices, I do not care if my Bow Pose looks like it belongs on a magazine cover or if my foot barely comes over my head in the mirror. I do care that I focus on my breath and letting go of the tension that has my back in a knotted mess.
This first type of surrender is essential for healthy living. Too often in our hectic, stressful lives our brain has us in a constant state of Fight, Flight, or Freeze. While this instinctual reaction keeps humans out of harm’s way, many times it has our body running in overdrive when it’s really not necessary. This is especially true if you are an anxious person.
By focusing on surrendering on your mat, your body and mind have the chance to reset, and suddenly you realize that your life is not in immediate danger.
What Might It Look Like to Surrender?
Another type of surrender deals with your physical practice. This surrender involves learning how to relax part of your body, letting it go, so that you can strengthen the opposite part of the body. This is particularly important in asanas that you find the most challenging. When you learn what to relax, then all of a sudden, your asana completely changes.
A great posture to help you learn this type of surrender is Bridge Pose, or Setu Bandha Sarvangasana. Most people approach this posture thinking only about what to contract, the glutes. While this is true (the glutes contract to hold your hips off the mat), you can miss out on many other benefits by having this singular focus. It is just as important for you to focus on relaxing the entire front side of the body, surrendering in order to open your heart center. This allows the chest, the abdominal wall, and the shoulders to open and release tension.
In addition, surrendering might mean modifying a posture. So many practitioners hear the word modification, and immediately they think, “No I’m not going to do that. That’s only for people who want to take it easy.” But in reality, modifications are there to take out the risk of injury for many people. You have to honestly tune in to what you are feeling and be willing to meet your physical body where it is today.
Take Some Time to Let Go
As you approach your practices this week, I encourage you to keep Sissy Gavrilaki’s words in mind. She explains, “…the times you decide to surrender…make all the difference.” I could not agree more with her. On your mat, be okay with letting go. If you won’t give yourself permission, take it from me.
Next week, we’ll take a deeper look into the opposing side, determination. We’ll also talk about the battle between these two paths and how to decide what you need from day to day or practice to practice. In the meantime, if you have any comments or suggestions related to surrendering, please share them below.
See you on your mat.
~Teriane
P.S. Have ideas for future posts? Let me know in the comments or via the contact page. Namaste!
