I have been practicing Vinyasa yoga regularly for about two years, and I have found two specific moments I really look forward to each class. The first is when the teacher gives us two options for how we can move from the back of the mat to the front. They are “step or float.” Not hop, not jump. Float. Oddly, this command never comes with any further instruction. The teacher just offers floating as an option, in case we’re feeling extra buoyant that day I suppose, and leaves it at that. I have yet to float. And I have yet not to try anyway.
The second moment I love comes at the very end of class when we “seal the practice.” This ritual consists of joining our palms, bowing our heads down to our hands and uttering the sanskrit word “Namaste,” which roughly translates to “the divine light in me acknowledges the divine light in you.” Which, when you think about it, is a rather intense send-off. One that makes “goodbye” seem pretty darn casual. Almost insulting. Like.. really? Goodbye? That’s it? You’re not even going to acknowledge my divine light? Goodbye yourself.
ANYWAYS.. the idea of sealing the practice initially seemed crazy to me in the way that finishing studying for a test always seemed crazy to me. Like when I used to call my best friend in high school and ask her if she was studying for whatever test we had the next day, and she would usually respond, “I finished.” You finished... studying? It's not a worksheet with a clear ending. I had always understood studying to be an ongoing, all-consuming process that only ends when the teacher is standing over your desk, test in hand, annoyed, and asking you to put your notes away for the third time.
Because you can always learn a little bit more, right? And can’t we always be working on our breathing and mindfulness? Why would we give such a finality to something we should always be doing? Maybe because we can’t do everything, all the time.
Studying and practicing are things we do to receive overall life benefits. They, themselves, do not have to be a part of every second of our lives to obtain those benefits. In fact, having a clear start and finish to them is probably the way to get the best results for our lives as a whole. If we dedicate an hour studying, we’ll learn the material. If we carry our notes with us everywhere, and distractedly glance at them in the hallway, we won’t learn it. The same goes with yoga.
But how about in our creative lives?
I was recently reading a book called Creative Confidence, and in it, the authors mention how Geshe Thupten Jinpa (the Dalai Lama's chief English translator) explained that there is no word in the Tibetan language for "creativity" or "being creative." The closest translation is "natural." I love that. Being creative is our natural state. So ending creativity would be unnatural. I think that’s a great way to look at something so often separated out and neglected in places that aren’t traditional “creative spaces,” like many businesses and homes. There should be no end to looking at the world with a creative eye.
That being said, I think it’s important to make this distinction: being creative has no end, but creative projects do. Working on a creative project is an effort to obtain a tangible result (like a song, story, painting, etc), but it is also what studying is to an intellectual life, and what practicing yoga is to a peaceful and mindful life. Creative projects are practice for living a more creative and “natural,” if you will, life.
It seems like if we want both a spectacular (and finished!) project and also a thriving creative life, we need to set aside time specifically for creating, and then, at some point, part with it. Seal the practice. Bow our heads to our hands, acknowledge the divine light in the creation, and know that we’ll see it again next time. Namaste.
Love Love Love,
Kat
*The photo above is an excellent demonstration of my favorite yoga pose: Corpse Pose. This is what you can tell your roommates you are doing next time they catch you napping when you're supposed to be cleaning the apartment.
Interesting. As you know I sign my emails "Namaste." I learned it from the Kennedys song of that name. I did some research and found it usually translated as "The divine (or lIght) within me acknowledges the divine (or light) within you .You learned it as both! the literal meaning is "bow." It's the putting the hands together and bowing. The rest is the meaning of the bow.
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