Surrendering to a pose in Yoga

The word Surrender brings up a lot of resistance for many of us. If you are around my age, you grew up with movies around cops and robbers and cowboys and indians and it was always a case of the weaker force surrendering to the greater force.

This is kind of true but it may help you to understand it better if you look at it as handing over responsibility for the situation to a higher power. After all, once they did surrender, they were no longer under threat of immediate death. The killing stopped, the conflict ended and they agreed that they were willing to accept the terms.

The key thing here is ACCEPTING what the situation is, DECIDING to hand over the outcome to a higher power and then LETTING GO.

One of the most uncomfortable poses for many of us is Half Pigeon. In this pose, one leg is folded under the body with the weight of the rest of the body pressing down to the floor. Ideally we need to stay still in this pose for 2 minutes on each side. If you are new to this Yoga Pose, the default is to 'hold yourself' above the ground as the tension feels like we will snap or tear something.

Once we decide to let go of this holding pattern, the body eases further towards the floo and the tension is replaced with a sense of being held by the floor. We are safe, there is no need to hold on, the floor will catch us.

How do we let go? It's crazy but have you ever had something in your hands that you really liked, maybe a ring in a jewelers shop, a fantastic outfit or even money and you have resisted giving it back? It was a real struggle to put it back down. That's what it can be like in Yoga. The trick is to unite the body's movement to the breath and add a soothing mantra to the breath.

Breathe in deeply into the abdominal cavity, feeling the already tight space reducing further as you fill your belly.

Think relax as you inhale.

Slowly deflate your belly, breathing out with control and try to let the out breath be longer than the in breath. As your belly reduces and you further push the last of the air out by engaging your abs and pulling them in towards your spine, the sense of coming closer to the ground continues past your exhalation and the body is tricked into going that much further towards the ground.

Think let go as you exhale.

Repeat.

If you practice this breathing, the next time you are in Half Pigeon, you will be amazed at how much deeper you can achieve, safely and effortlessly. This is what it means to Surrender into a pose. And you can practice this in any other pose you find strenuous or difficult to maintain.