Before
Yoga – Eat Pancakes; After Yoga – Eat Pancakes
Fluffy
pancakes dripping with warm, real, grass-fed, hormone-free cow butter
and delicious pure maple syrup. Yes, that's
right, pancakes. Not gluten-free, not dairy-free, not egg or
sugar-free, just pure, fluffy, the way grandma used to make 'em
pancakes, stacked to the hilt on a plate in front of you with a
glorious cup of Joe and some fruit. I don't care which fruit you
choose: bananas (cause you can get em year round), strawberries,
blueberries fresh or frozen. Hey, maybe you are a chocolate chip
pancake fan, or chia and cinnamon. How ever you stack it, I am going
to show you how you can practice yoga while enjoying a hearty stack
of flapjacks right now. Shanti Om.
Everyone
thinks yoga is a bunch of body-twisting postures which contort your
form into strange positions for the purpose of both fitness and
enlightenment. And though this is true, to an extent, yoga is truly
so much more. It is more correct to say that yoga is a state
of mind,
and you can practice that state of mind in any situation, at any
time. In fact, the more you can practice in random, mundane
situations, the better of a yogi you become.
I
choose the yoga of pancakes to illustrate the fact that yoga is not a
strict dogma of practices which limit, but is instead a mindset,
which when implemented in its fullest, liberates.
Before ever practicing and embodying yoga, one might sit down to eat a stack of fluffy pancakes and enjoy
them with very little thought. Maybe even while watching television
or reading the daily paper, maybe with the companionship of Aunt
Jamima or Mrs Butterworth.
As
yoga is brought into one's life, the experience of eating pancakes
begins to change. It starts with a deeper awareness of the body and
its relationship to the foods one is consuming. Perhaps one newer to
the practice of yoga may suddenly decide that they don't jive with
fake syrup, or that wheat flour pancakes are preferred. Later, as the
practice deepens, gluten-free might come into play and an awareness
of butter – real or not – starts to matter. Perhaps there comes a
time when the yoga practitioner is not feeling the pancake vibe at
all and instead feels the need to eat lighter, fresher or more
“crunchy” foods.
All
of these shifts reflect the refinement process in the mind of the
yogi.
As
consciousness begins to truly take a seat in the awareness of the
yogi an equilibrium takes hold which is less and less affected by
outside circumstances and input.
Instead, the yogi starts to
influence his or her surroundings, and those things which are
consumed are likewise transmuted through the alchemical field created
by the yogic mind.
Now, pancakes become once again pancakes, as
enjoyed in the beginning, but now somehow enhanced by the observing
mind. The yogi now participates fully in the act of eating and with
every bite the witness mind engages, transforming the act of eating
pancakes (or doing anything else, for that matter) into a yogic
practice and a holy moment.
The
yoga
of pancakes
is not unlike the yoga
of parenting
or the yoga
of bike-riding.
It is synonymous with bhakti
yoga, karma
yoga and mantra
yoga. The yoga of anything or anything yoga is the conscious doing of
a thing, anything, which brings you into a deeper experience with
that thing. It is the allowing of any moment, of any task, of any
engagement to become the gateway to the eternal holy moment of
presence. With awareness, everything becomes yoga – be it
dish-washing, child-rearing, sun-salutations, mantra or pancakes.
When
a yogi eats fluffy pancakes dripping with warm, real, grass-fed,
hormone-free butter and pure maple syrup, they do so with
consciousness and presence, allowing them to over-ride all else. A
pancake eaten yogically is a pancake fully surrendered to, with no
preconceived notions, no limitations, no expectations and no labels.
It is an occasion to experience the god-self through the filling of
the senses...a pratyahara moment which gives way to a pancake
meditation and a transcendent experience that defies even the
pancake.
So if
you love pancakes and you think eating them can't align with your
yoga, or you are a yogi and you think you have to give up pancakes,
or anything really, just remember this. Yoga is a state of mind.
States of mind are stronger and more potent than any physical object
or experience. It is the way you choose to respond to an experience
or thing that determines the quality of that experience or thing. The
Yoga of Pancakes can be applied to every moment and every act. It is
the ghee in the supermarket of choices. Get clear. Eat pancakes, do
everything, like a yogi.
Namaste
Friends.
May Bliss Be in Your House Today - As it is in Mine.
Stasia Bliss
