Social Workout

Spirit Guides

The Beauty of the Yoga

Double Bakasana with Lotus (Via Susanna Harwood Rubin.)

Wherein yogi, artist, and Social Workout Spirit Guide Susanna Harwood Rubin explains the mind-body-heart connection. Drawing by Susanna!  ~ The Eds.

At post-yoga Saturday brunch, a friend asked me how exactly yoga is a "spiritual" practice, and not merely physical. I get this question a lot — and I welcome it — from students, family, friends, and (somewhat ironically, I think) from skeptical artist friends who are suspicious of my choice to dive so deeply into the practice. As if it throws into question my commitment to my other "spiritual discipline," namely art making. Well, here's my briefest, most lucid response....

If we consider the body, heart, and mind as a triangular relationship, when one of the three falls out of balance, the triangle is thrown off, distorted. We need to tend to all three points, as each serves as a gateway into the other two. We weave back and forth through the gateways like a circuitry: body – mind – heart. And what happens in each area functions on both a literal and metaphorical level within the others. If I am mentally irritated or emotionally joyful or physically energetic, that visibly manifests in the other areas. It can be seen and felt. Once we get a handle on this dynamic, we can step into this circuitry and play with it, shift it, use one of the gateways to draw the others back into balance. In this way, we begin to participate more fully in our own embodied experience.

It is this constant dance between these three entryways that leads us into a deeper more meaningful experience of ourselves. If we look at the Tantric model, body, heart, and mind not only triangulate, but fractalize. So every single point is a point of departure in every direction for more – expanding exponentially outward like shooting stars. Bodyheartmindheartbodymindheartmindbodymind heartbodyheart…and so on, and so on, and so on.

Can yoga be a spiritual practice? Yes. Can art making be a spiritual practice? Yes. Can running or dancing or singing? Yes-yes-yes. Of course, you can strip away the spiritual component of any of these practices and leave them as simple calisthenics – whether physical or mental. Any can be reduced to a simple technical enterprise. But then you’re not doing the yoga any more, or really fully participating in anything in a rich and meaningful way.

The word yoga literally means union. The Sanskrit root of yoga is yuj, meaning to yoke, to connect, to unite. When we do the yoga, we are uniting body, heart, and mind. Every asana, every breath, every gesture and movement becomes a deeper assertion of the exquisite circuitry of our very selves.