It's time to talk about something that's often misunderstood, which is the topic of toxins. We are often told by excited teachers and fellow students that the asana (physical posture) practice, especially a particularly sweaty one, will cleanse the body and remove all toxins. All that beer we had last night, that big hunk of fried chicken with extra greasy chips on the side, the packet of cigarettes that followed the beer, and the communal round of cocaine we consumed with eager relish after the cigarettes will all magically disappear from our body through asana practice.
Ok. I'm being a little extreme here. Well. To most readers of this blog at least. However, the modern yoga world is rife with this notion.
The good news first: there is definitely truth in this idea. Yes, through asana practice, especially vigorous forms, we do cleanse the body to a large extent. Yes, if you have a bit of a hangover and you practice anyway, as long as you've also drunk plenty of non-alcoholic fluids you will almost certainly feel a whole lot better. I can attest to this from personal experience many, many years ago (certainly a night and a morning to remember... or perhaps forget). Through the acts of sweating profusely and churning and squeezing the internal organs in the fire of correct and effective practice, we will most definitely help some of those toxins and impurities leave our system.
This does not, unfortunately, mean that we should eat and drink whatever we want at all times. It still isn't good for us! The mere act of a regular asana practice is a great aid to health and life in general, but it does not act as an automatic counterbalance to all and any miseries we put our bodies through. If we drink too much, our organs are still going to suffer, no matter how much we practice. If we over-eat or eat substances we know our system doesn't react well to, no amount of asana practice is going to fix this.
Even if, and this is a big if, we manage to counteract all the physical damage we do to ourselves on a daily basis due to the ingestion of substances that simply aren't good for us, what we must consider is the following truth:
Removing physical toxins really isn't the point.
This may come as a surprise to some! Yes, yoga does not stop at the body, with a little token meditation if you feel like it. Yoga is a system that actually works through our entire system, from body to mind and beyond, cleaning out all rubbish hidden away in there. If we continue to mistreat our bodies, and then use the practice as a way to counteract this, we miss a wonderful opportunity to go further and deeper, and actually get stuck into the real toxins.
The real toxins?
You see, the physical stuff is only the beginning. Rather than try to describe this in detail and have you all run to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, I'll give you a little example from my own personal experience.
This morning, I had a particularly tough practice. I woke up feeling mostly decent, with a few niggling bits of discomfort going on in my mind, nothing over the top, but the moment I hit the mat, my mind starting fighting with me. All sorts of bizarre, unbidden thoughts and worries came along, and kept coming along. I found myself getting angry for no obvious reason, then that passed to be replaced by a general feeling of worry and discontent. I did what tends to work well for me: trusted in the practice, and continued to work through the sequence. I know that when I stop early, these thoughts just get worse, so I didn't let myself stop, even though the thought of tea and chocolate started to sound very appealing.
Gradually, a feeling came along, a feeling that all these emotions and thoughts were just having their say, that it was almost like a bit of live theatre coming along to entertain me while I practice. The root, the important stuff, was the breath, my mantra, and my physical movement. The extras, the free stuff thrown in for good measure, was a series of emotions parading themselves on the stage of my body and mind, all clamouring for my attention.
Significantly, certain intense postures made them shout all the louder! A great example was kapotasana, which is a rather intense backbend; I relaxed into it, but could almost physically hear the voices of mistrust, doubt and worry shout for my attention. And every time a new series of asanas came along, dealing with a new aspect of physical posture, the voices became louder again. I continued, going back to the breath, to my mantra, to the feeling of being here in these postures.
This continued right to the end of my asana practice. I lay in savasana (final relaxation) and felt like I'd been through a war, but also feeling pretty good at the end of it all. The worries were still there, but less so.
Then it was time for pranayama, as in yogic breathing (more on that another time). The wonderful thing is that the act of sitting and focusing on the breath fully dissolved all those negative emotions, all that mental discomfort and internal shouting. Asana practiced brought it all to the surface, and pranayama dissolved it.
This is the nature of the toxins that are talked about when we go a little deeper. Yes, physical practice gets rid of physical toxins, but it also brings up all the other toxins, those old, deep emotional scars we all carry within us.
And that is the true power of yoga practice! Through regular practice, we get the privilege of confronting all our old patterns and being with them, gradually letting them slough away like old skin. Just like the snake completely sheds its skin, we can completely shed the skin of our old conditioning.
I find this incredibly exciting. It's one of the things that keeps me coming back to my mat, day after day. Yes, it isn't always pleasant, and what we find isn't always something we want to see, but trust me, it's well worth it. The feeling of ease and lightness after dropping even one layer of old emotional rubbish is beautiful, and brings us closer and closer to our true nature, which is one of pure joy and love. I find I love well when I am clear. Don't we all? How can we love another, love the world, or love ourselves when we are clouded over like dirty water in a filthy pond?
Try it. Clean the pond that is your body, in all its marvellous layers. Get on the mat, practice, and see. Don't be afraid of bizarre feelings, it's just a little show your mind is putting on for you. Watch the show, then when it ends, clap your hands, laugh at the whole thing, and go and have that cup of tea with a sense of lightness, joy, and the knowledge that you've just truly cleared some toxins.
And please. Put down that hash pipe.
Ok. I'm being a little extreme here. Well. To most readers of this blog at least. However, the modern yoga world is rife with this notion.
The good news first: there is definitely truth in this idea. Yes, through asana practice, especially vigorous forms, we do cleanse the body to a large extent. Yes, if you have a bit of a hangover and you practice anyway, as long as you've also drunk plenty of non-alcoholic fluids you will almost certainly feel a whole lot better. I can attest to this from personal experience many, many years ago (certainly a night and a morning to remember... or perhaps forget). Through the acts of sweating profusely and churning and squeezing the internal organs in the fire of correct and effective practice, we will most definitely help some of those toxins and impurities leave our system.
This does not, unfortunately, mean that we should eat and drink whatever we want at all times. It still isn't good for us! The mere act of a regular asana practice is a great aid to health and life in general, but it does not act as an automatic counterbalance to all and any miseries we put our bodies through. If we drink too much, our organs are still going to suffer, no matter how much we practice. If we over-eat or eat substances we know our system doesn't react well to, no amount of asana practice is going to fix this.
Even if, and this is a big if, we manage to counteract all the physical damage we do to ourselves on a daily basis due to the ingestion of substances that simply aren't good for us, what we must consider is the following truth:
Removing physical toxins really isn't the point.
This may come as a surprise to some! Yes, yoga does not stop at the body, with a little token meditation if you feel like it. Yoga is a system that actually works through our entire system, from body to mind and beyond, cleaning out all rubbish hidden away in there. If we continue to mistreat our bodies, and then use the practice as a way to counteract this, we miss a wonderful opportunity to go further and deeper, and actually get stuck into the real toxins.
The real toxins?
You see, the physical stuff is only the beginning. Rather than try to describe this in detail and have you all run to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, I'll give you a little example from my own personal experience.
This morning, I had a particularly tough practice. I woke up feeling mostly decent, with a few niggling bits of discomfort going on in my mind, nothing over the top, but the moment I hit the mat, my mind starting fighting with me. All sorts of bizarre, unbidden thoughts and worries came along, and kept coming along. I found myself getting angry for no obvious reason, then that passed to be replaced by a general feeling of worry and discontent. I did what tends to work well for me: trusted in the practice, and continued to work through the sequence. I know that when I stop early, these thoughts just get worse, so I didn't let myself stop, even though the thought of tea and chocolate started to sound very appealing.
Gradually, a feeling came along, a feeling that all these emotions and thoughts were just having their say, that it was almost like a bit of live theatre coming along to entertain me while I practice. The root, the important stuff, was the breath, my mantra, and my physical movement. The extras, the free stuff thrown in for good measure, was a series of emotions parading themselves on the stage of my body and mind, all clamouring for my attention.
Significantly, certain intense postures made them shout all the louder! A great example was kapotasana, which is a rather intense backbend; I relaxed into it, but could almost physically hear the voices of mistrust, doubt and worry shout for my attention. And every time a new series of asanas came along, dealing with a new aspect of physical posture, the voices became louder again. I continued, going back to the breath, to my mantra, to the feeling of being here in these postures.
This continued right to the end of my asana practice. I lay in savasana (final relaxation) and felt like I'd been through a war, but also feeling pretty good at the end of it all. The worries were still there, but less so.
Then it was time for pranayama, as in yogic breathing (more on that another time). The wonderful thing is that the act of sitting and focusing on the breath fully dissolved all those negative emotions, all that mental discomfort and internal shouting. Asana practiced brought it all to the surface, and pranayama dissolved it.
This is the nature of the toxins that are talked about when we go a little deeper. Yes, physical practice gets rid of physical toxins, but it also brings up all the other toxins, those old, deep emotional scars we all carry within us.
And that is the true power of yoga practice! Through regular practice, we get the privilege of confronting all our old patterns and being with them, gradually letting them slough away like old skin. Just like the snake completely sheds its skin, we can completely shed the skin of our old conditioning.
I find this incredibly exciting. It's one of the things that keeps me coming back to my mat, day after day. Yes, it isn't always pleasant, and what we find isn't always something we want to see, but trust me, it's well worth it. The feeling of ease and lightness after dropping even one layer of old emotional rubbish is beautiful, and brings us closer and closer to our true nature, which is one of pure joy and love. I find I love well when I am clear. Don't we all? How can we love another, love the world, or love ourselves when we are clouded over like dirty water in a filthy pond?
Try it. Clean the pond that is your body, in all its marvellous layers. Get on the mat, practice, and see. Don't be afraid of bizarre feelings, it's just a little show your mind is putting on for you. Watch the show, then when it ends, clap your hands, laugh at the whole thing, and go and have that cup of tea with a sense of lightness, joy, and the knowledge that you've just truly cleared some toxins.
And please. Put down that hash pipe.
Beautifully written!
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