BY: TRISHA CURLING
Lotus. The first thing that comes to mind when I say or hear this word are both the beautiful flower and the yoga pose.
The various meanings that are often associated with the flower are rebirth, purity, awakening, past, present, future. I believe the thing I love about it the most is the metaphor it provides for life. When I first learned about how it grew in shallow waters and in the mud, I was fascinated. This beautiful thing grows out of what seem to be poor conditions. It still flourishes over and over again with a new day.
I understood then, that challenge may arise and/or circumstances may not be all they need to be, but we still have the ability to flourish, grow, and start over if we need to.
Like the various types of lotus flowers, lotus (Padmasana), yoga posture is also rich in beauty. It seems to have this unattainable quality, yet this incredible appearance of peace once achieved.
This is why, as we delve deeper into yoga, we come to understand the parallels between the postures and life. On our journey, we may find out the meaning of the poses, but we also learn the meaning for ourselves as we work through the poses. Lotus in particular for me meant patience, understanding, growth, confidence, ability. That “unattainable” quality I mentioned was true for me. It was a challenge to not only achieve in body, but also in mind. I continue to learn to be able to sit in this pose comfortably and at peace.
Anatomically, padmasana may not be for everyone, but if it is something that is accessible to us, we need to develop things like ankle mobility, open hips, and strength and integrity in the hip joint.
It is true for any posture, but when approaching lotus, it means that we must approach the pose with a fresh mind each time I/we go to our mat. Yes, we must consider our past experience with the posture(s), but we also need to nurture and prepare our bodies with other poses and movements in the present moment to create new ability, which means that our future experiences with the posture will also be fresh and new.
Lotus, like life, shows us that circumstances may not always be ideal. We may feel like we don’t have enough or that “we” are not enough. However, if we examine our lives and really see all that we have endured or come through, we see that we have come out on the other end of adversities, most of the time stronger and more beautiful than before. Where we come from or our experiences may be “ugly” but we prove ourselves to shine and grow from murky circumstances.
Getting onto our mats and giving ourselves the opportunity to grow each time can spill over into so many other aspects of our lives. On our mats, we learn how to prepare, how to be patient, how to get stronger, how to be more flexible. All of these things work equally for body, mind, and spirit. It is not only in lotus pose that we learn these things, but it’s such a beautiful metaphor for experiencing a rebirth.
