Saucha, Vairagya and Baby-talk

I was re-reading a copy of  last month’s Yoga Journal this weekend, and was truly struck by a column on using yoga to manage infertility placed above a commentary on Saucha.  The more I mused on this positioning, the more I thought it fit completely with our discussion of Vairagya.

Saucha

Saucha is one of the 5 Niyamas (personal observances on the road to bliss/samadhi).  It is often simple described as the quest for purity.  The translation writer Kate Holcomb refers to in her column is one of the most descriptive and accessible I’ve read.

“Through the feeling of trying to become clean, and of being clean, we come to understand that our body is impermanent.” YS II.40

So no matter how on top of things we are: cutting out this and that, doing more of that and this, we remember that change is inevitable.  That this body is not what makes us…us.

Vairagya

We’ve talked recently about vairagya, the concept of non-attachment. Of accepting what is and moving from that place.  I liken this to what Daniel Faraday said a number of times on LOST “Whatever happened, happened.”  Our freedom comes from a place of acceptance of what opportunities present themselves in that reality.

Goo-goo Ga-ga

I did just write that.  Without getting too heavy into the details, I’ll say that B.K. (my husband) and I have begun trying to expand our family.  Even this nascent phase of baby-making has brought a bit of change to our lives.  While I already live pretty clean (mostly raw-vegan, no smoke, no drugs, not a lot of alcohol– though I do enjoy a lovely glass of wine), I’ve begun to alter a few of my habits (hello, decaf tea and espresso!).  Moreover, I’ve become more conscious of the vast number of pregnancy-baby-child–related resources out there.  I suspect this could easily turn into a time when we could attempt to control the un-controllable, but having some yogic perspective has allowed me to shift into this new phase of life with awareness and a certain amount of surrender.  (That being said, I have fallen in love with A Nourishing Home— a site filled with thoughtfully written articles that have inspired me to simply trust myself, an idea I attempt to share with my yoga students in each class.)

Does this mean I’m munching on Chee-tos while writing this blog? Of course not. For if the practice of yoga has taught me nothing else, it is that the awareness-the consciousness-the bliss to be found in this life dwells in the elegant dance between apparent opposition.

peace. + LOVE. always. k