Is our practice meant to be comfortable?

I don't think that our practice is meant to be comfortable.

One of the reasons I love my practice is because it teaches me that I can sit in discomfort. Often, in difficult times, I turn to Yin Yoga, and not just for the deep meditation it brings, but because it teaches me I can sit in physical discomfort.

If I can bring awareness to the sensations, direct the breath to the points of tension and become the quiet observer of what's coming up both in the body and the mind, I find that the discomfort starts to ease and dissipate and I'm able to sit through ‘pain’.

I’m finding more and more that what I do on the mat is seeping into my everyday being, rather than avoiding discomfort, running away from uncomfortable conversations or emotions I’m starting to breathe into them, sitting with them.

The spiritual teacher Mooji gives a beautiful analogy for this. He advises to treat sensations like visitors. Invite them in to eat with us, treat them with kindness and compassion, ask them what they’d like to tell us. But never ask them to move in. We let them come, and we let them go.

For those of you who join me in Yin, you may have heard this story before, if not here is a story that helps us understand the transient nature of emotions and sensations.

One day a student came to his teacher complaining of meditation he said ‘’I can’t sit still long enough, my legs ache, my mind won’t stop talking, I’m constantly falling asleep. It’s horrible’

The teacher looked at the student and said: ‘It will pass’ matter of factly

A few months later the student went back to the teacher and said

“My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It’s just wonderful!’

The teacher looked at the student and replied…

‘It will pass’