Do you often arrive on the yoga mat carrying more than you realise? I know I do.
Worries about the future, expectations, self-judgment, stories about who I should and shouldn’t be, regrets about the past, are just some of my daily visitors.
And when I begin to spiral, I remind myself that yoga doesn’t ask me to fix myself or become someone else, it encourages me to be present and get curious.
I think the idea is to let go of what doesn’t serve me, while remaining true to who I am.
Sounds confusing.
Letting go is not giving up
While the idea of letting go can sound like resignation or indifference, yoga encourages us to relinquish our attachment to a specific outcome.
Do your practice and let go of the idea of performing a perfect shape on the mat. Tap in, instead, to how it feels: its sharp edges, corners or smooth surfaces.
In Sanskrit, the word often translated as non-attachment is vairāgya. It means dispassion or freedom from compulsive wanting.
It doesn’t mean we stop enjoying life but that we stop needing life to be a certain way in order to feel okay.
It shows up when we notice comparison arise and soften around it. It shows up when we allow a pose, a breath, or even a feeling to pass through without grasping.
Over time, this practice ripples outward. We begin to hold relationships more lightly, successes more humbly, disappointments more tenderly. We still care but we don’t cling.
There is also a form of letting go that is about trust. Trust in life, in an intelligence larger than our personal will, in the unfolding we cannot control. This is called īśvara-praṇidhāna, and often translated as surrender.
Surrender in yoga is not submission; it is participation with humility. It is recognizing that we are part of a much bigger dance than our individual plans.
When we practice surrender, we still act, we still choose, we still care but we release the illusion that everything depends on us alone.
This can feel frightening at first. Our culture trains us to grip tightly: to plan, optimise, defend, and perform. Letting go can feel like stepping into the unknown.
And yet, again and again, yoga shows us that when we soften our grip, life meets us with surprising support.
Letting go is not something we do once and finish.
It’s a living practice, moment by moment, breath by breath.
This meditation might help you live into surrender this week. Find a quiet spot to sit or lie down in.
Open the doors and windows, and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this wisdom and understand will come. (Meditation source: Ajahn Chah)
See you on the mat soon friends!
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See you on the mat soon.
With love
x
