by Christine Stewart, Certified Ma Yoga® Instructor
Recently, while putting my class together for my Ma Pregnancy submission, I was contemplating Sthira Sukha Asanam, from the Yoga Sutras 2.46. This sutra from Patanjali has always resonated with me in times of disturbance or challenge.
So, when I was thinking about my class for Ma Yoga, it was an obvious choice for many reasons: pregnancy, birthing, motherhood, and in these challenging times, all need a little Sthira Sukha Asanam.
Though this sutra is often referred to as guidance for meditation, it can also be a message for the living experience.
What we practice on the mat is what we bring into the world, and who doesn’t need stability, strength, and openness with ease in one’s seat now?
These qualities also speak to me as an Anusara Yoga teacher, opening to what is, and connecting to life as an experience to be treasured no matter what, the hard and the wonderful. Hugging into our own power and finding strength in challenges is empowering, and when we can, we grow out from there to experience the ease and openness of the space between; isn’t this too yoga?
Sthira attaches to the qualities of stability and strength, to stand and be firm. This is pregnancy to me, to find that seat (asana) every day, in birthing and in all life throws at us or in motherhood itself. We learn this strength and stability on the mat and challenge ourselves there to bring that self-knowledge off the mat. Poses like the lunges and half Hanuman and the lifting of the knee and foot off the ground, while staying with the breath. Standing poses and chair pose, and in the effort of toe crunches and quad work involved in raising the knees repetitively from sitting, we find fire and strength. This fiery experience always has the support of earth, even when it seems hard to connect to; this is the yoga.
In the comfort of Sukha, ease and openness, finding good space, this is where we rest between the work, the space between the breath, the ananda experienced after the asana or the surge or contraction. In yoga, we can recognize that this space is the jewel of the practice, it is too easy to be overwhelmed by all the other stuff- sensation, emotion, and confusion. Coming back to this space in your body, in your asana, in your seat is this practice.
As I teach my classes for Ma Yoga, I am aiming for a sense of earth and fire to connect to Sthira, and then the watery hip circles to connect to the sense of settling and ease. For Sukha, we will come back from effort to the steadiness of the grounded poses of balasana, the reflection of ease even when we are in effort of toe crunch.
We will finish in savasana, with connection to the baby through breath and quiet time. This can be the only time a busy Mother gets to connect to her growing baby and to connect to her own power and, as importantly, to rest.
These are the gifts that prenatal teachers can bring to their communities, and they are valuable beyond compare. Jessica has put a wonderful training together, guiding yoga teachers to support and empower their students.
