Yoga Philosophy: Spiritual Hydration
Our physical bodies are 2/3 water, and as we all know takes a lot of awareness to support. You can’t just chug a gallon of water and go on with your life, you gotta take small sips throughout the day to truly hydrate. Our spiritual practice is the same. We are energetic beings and we have to hydrate our spiritual body by taking small sips of awareness throughout the day. Just like we bring a water bottle with us throughout the day, we could bring our awareness with us too. Remembering to take those sips of awareness takes effort, in fact, it requires that we place more attention inside than out. At first this could seem impossible, just like ever feeling totally hydrated, but both movement science and yogic science agree that this is not only possible but a preferred way of moving, being, and growing.
Your body is 2/3 water, roughly 4 gallons, and 2 of those gallons are literally flowing through you like a river everyday in the form of ‘interstitial fluid’, washing past literally every cell of your body, taking away the waste and bringing in the groceries so to speak. So it’s no wonder why it’s hard to stay hydrated— it can feel like trying to fill a rushing river, an extra cellular thoroughfare, with a 24 ounce water bottle. Go ahead and take a sip, we all probably need it.
Facts like these tell us what we all already know but don’t always want to admit: to actually effect a change in our bodies, and in our lives, we have to participate in the process in a conscious, disciplined steadfast way. Or as Patanjali put it in his Yoga Sutras 2,000 years ago, “Regular, whole-hearted application over time will create a foundation whereby the practice is firmly integrated” (1.14). Advice like this is easy to understand when it comes to our physical bodies, as if the Sutra could say ‘Regular whole hearted sips of water throughout the day will create a foundation whereby hydration is firmly integrated’— but very few of us take time to apply this same principle to our spiritual practice.
But just drinking more water isn’t enough— because we can fall into the shortcomings of doership, which creates tension and eventually overwhelms us. This is described in this classic teaching story… There once was a girl sitting next to the ocean looking worried. She held a cup in her hand, her forehead creased with consternation. A teacher happened to be walking by at that moment, and seeing the girl inquired what worried her. She said that she loved the ocean so much, and wanted to bring it with her wherever she goes, but there’s no way she could ever fit the ocean in her small cup. The teacher then taught her how to meditate on her natural breath flow. As she turned towards her breath she felt a pulsation much like the ocean within her. As she kept her focus there, the joy that she normally associated with the ocean started to bubble up within her. When she opened her eyes, she looked down at her small cup and laughed. She threw the cup in the ocean, it was made of natural materials in that time, and she then bowed with respect for the teaching.
We need to learn how to do spiritual work, but ultimately we have to remind ourselves that the place we are trying to go is inside of us. According to the yogic tradition, we are Shiva already, and our practice is simply how we release the obscurations that keep us from experiencing that. THis means that we have to bring a sense of surrender to our practice, and that when feel established in our practice, allow ourselves to let go of the practice and merge with the experience itself.
“The yogī who, leaving aside the effort of āsana (yogic exercises), prāṇāyāma (breathing exercises), dhyāna (contemplation), and dhāraṇā (meditation), simply remains in that posture with nothing left to do, aware of what he actually is. This is why the author has used the word sukham in the sūtra because “effortlessly” means that without exerting any effort in respect to breathing or yogic exercise, contemplation or meditation, he remains seated in that posture.”
So we see two paths here, first, when we feel balanced in our practice, we can release the tool and merge with the experience. Also, we see that the way in which we practice would be ‘effortlessly’, which we would describe as surrender.
To put this all into perspective, let’s play with taking a sip of water with surrender. To do this, we simply pause for a moment before picking up the bottle, allowing our awareness to snap back into the present, so that we aren’t just taking a sip of water, but also taking a sip of awareness. It is said in the Sutras that when we take this pause, we actually unite with the goal we are seeking— by pausing, we reach the goal sooner!
“Here, just begin with some movement, any movement, and stop. Hold the beginning point of that movement with awareness. In Sanskrit, this state is called anusaṁdhitsā. By holding the very beginning of that movement, the goal of uniting the seeker of God consciousness with the God consciousness they seek, the spiritual aspirant with that to which they aspire… is achieved.” (2.2)
In the biology of our fascia, this is also the case, as we move more efficiently when we those movements are felt.
So let’s begin by just picking up your water bottle in the most normal, almost thoughtless, way possible. When you pick up the bottle in this way you tend to use superficial muscles to do the work, and there is usually a lack of integration, orchestration and synergy between all of your muscle and connective tissue. This means that you probably feel the weight of that bottle in one muscle or joint— maybe your elbow, Bicep, or chest, and when we move like this in everyday life it tends to wear our those individual spaces. Also, there is really no presence of awareness in this kind of movement— ie. it’s boring.
You can set the bottle down.
Now, watch your breath for a moment and try to pay attention to the end of your exhale, and allow the inhale to come to you. It might take a couple of tries, and even then feel a little unclear— that’s ok, it’s a work in progress. We’re trying to connect to a natural breath flow, to let go of filling the ocean with a cup, and instead feel the ocean of breath within us. Use this moment to allow yourself to soften, and let your mind feel simple. Try to hear the sounds happening in the room you’re in, feel the seat you’re sitting on.
Ok, now we will try to bring that same level of awareness to our physical movement. Similar to watching the breath, it will be a little slower than normal, and take a little practice. Just like our breath, we want to pick up the bottle in the most natural way possible, and that starts with feeling it, literally. Reach out as if to pick up the water bottle, but pause for a moment with your hand on the bottle. Feel the bottle against your skin, this simple pause awakens the thousands of fascial receptors just under your skin, 2/3 of which are wired to send information inwards to other sensors in order to coordinate all of your movement. When we look through a microscope we actually find that 2/3 of our muscles nerves are wired to feel and receive information, and only 1/3 to actually move the muscle. So many parallels! This means that when you stop to feel the bottle, you are actually giving your body huge downloads of information that will help you lift it more ‘fluidly’.