By Morgan Osmani
What do you think of when you hear the word “strength?” Do you imagine strong muscular bodies, or the ability to lift large barbells over your head all at once or several times in a row? Do you think of marathon runners or triathlon competitors aiming toward personal records? How about perfectly fit bodies with a minute percentage of body fat? What about powerful historical figures, such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., who made incredible impacts on society?
Check in with yourself right this moment and notice what comes to mind when asked what you think of when you hear the word “strength.”
The dictionary defines strength as:
• The quality or state of being strong: bodily or muscular power; vigor
• Mental power, force or vigor
• Moral power, firmness or courage
• Power by reason of influence, authority, resources, numbers, etc.
• Number, as of personnel or ships in a force or body.
Did you by any chance associate a meditation cushion or a yoga posture with strength? My guess is that, if you did, it’s because you have practiced once or twice before. For me, strength is not about how heavy you can lift, how far you can run, or how many days a week you make it to strength class. While these things are amazing accomplishments and an expression of our strength, the truth is, our strength amounts to far more than a workout or accomplishing a goal.
In my experience, both personally and as a yoga instructor and fellow practitioner, I find myself accessing my strength in unplanned circumstances or life events that most workouts do not obviously prepare me for. What I love most about practicing yoga or applying a yogic mindset to a strength training or conditioning workout is that it is an opportunity focus on my approach to the task or yoga posture, rather than the take or posture itself.
Yoga is not about how deep your backbend is, the depth of your lunging warrior pose, or even the accuracy of alignment. Yoga is about how open your heart is and whether or not it can remain open in the midst of all the unplanned circumstances of life. Yoga is an invitation to stay connected to a wholeness that exists no matter how strong we think or feel that we are. Strength is about following our goals and intentions through to their completion, even if it means we fail and discover ways to have fun in the process. Yoga is about remembering what we want and assisting others in remembering what they want, in the gym or on the sidewalk. Being strong asks us to be kind to others when we have forgotten our own strength or feel fearful of showing up fully because we feel week in our heart, mind, body, or spirit. Yoga is a process of discovering how much of your own expectations you are willing to let go of in order to align with the present moment. It is about how much acceptance you can offer those around you and yourself as you meet yourself and others exactly as you are, dropping expectations and making peace with what is.
Can you be kind and loving towards your foot, your injury, your belly after eating massive amounts queso, or your neighbor without keeping score? Are you willing to breathe in life fully, in each moment and fiercely drop your mental conditioning over and over again, as many times as it takes for you to make peace with your body, your mind, or your life exactly as it is?
As I write this article, I do so with the challenge of maintaining peace and equanimity as I journey through a slew of canceled flights and several hours of travel on a trip that should have taken just a few hours. I have witnessed fellow travelers lash out rudely at gate agents and airlines employees. I have also witnessed airlines employees lashing out coldly or meanly towards customers in attempt to preserve their own sanity. I cannot help but think and believe that part of what is required to live in a more cooperative society is the mental, emotional, and physical ability to rise above our mental conditioning.
Yoga, strength classes, and conditioning classes may not directly prepare us for difficult circumstances in life, but the continual process of training our mind and resisting our conditioning to do one less burpee, or to work harder than necessary in a yoga pose, has surely trained me to respond as peacefully as possible to an uncertain situation. Perhaps what we are up to in our workouts is far greater and far stronger than we realize and that when we come together for a workout our strength magnifies as we inspire each other to resist our conditioning, try something new, or give ourselves a break.
Hope to see you on the mat or in a class sometime soon.
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