Encountering yoga & realizing how to ground the feet on the earth.

Not being the sports type of kid, and liking food a bit too much lead me in my early years to be overweight. During all those years, I sailed through sports eventually giving up... "Other" practices were not an option at that age -- boys don't dance, or do yoga. Later in life I had an English teacher who liked to practice some asanas when the weather was cold at 7 in the morning, and I started developing some curiosity. I liked to browse through books, and see people on TV practicing yoga, my favorite, I remember was a sweet faced Hawaiian practitioner whose name I don't know if I am allowed to disclose freely since it is a trademark (One good topic of discussion) .

Eventually I did get close to Astanga Vinyasa, and I liked it, but due to lack of time and discipline, I had this on and off relationship with the practice. After a couple of years of inconsistent practice, and hearing a myriad of doctors telling me to do some excersise, I decided to do something for myself and took one real yoga lesson with a teacher my mother introduced me to. I was not even sure if I would stick to it, but there was I, trying to copy my teacher's movements, trying to get my hands to touch the floor, trying to balance on my arms, trying, trying and trying. Then I learned I shouldn't try that much, and when I realized, I was practicing yoga at least twice weekly, the feeling of slowly soaring from Uttihita Trikonasana into Ardhachandrasana, or completing a Surya Namaskar with full awareness was certainly a most gratifying experience in which I felt for the first time in many years, working as a whole body, and the best thing is how, after a couple of years, one keeps on learning new stuff, and one keeps discovering that what used to be is not more.

For me, yoga is not only about suppleness and contortionism. I must admit it is fun and challenging all the time, but being backbent has much more to it than back strength. The practice of asana demands full attention to the moment, and knowing how to play with gravity, that means, learning how to ground your feet (hands, head, shoulders...), uprooting yourself from the ground will only give you a false sense of security and support, making you work even harder, while loosing attention to the moment can even put yourself at risk.

Feet rooted with full attention to yourself as a whole makes you aware of many things: What you eat, what you think, what you do... confronting reality. As if, like Donna Farhi puts it, you were opening a box of monsters.

Grounding your feet might open your eyes to the world, maybe I was fat, but I was also lucky to be able to fight that, many people don't even get to choose, they live wars, they go through pain, lose their families, and suffer hunger. They feel, cry, smile, eat, crave for an embrace, and need love, just like you and me. I cannot change what I was born to, all I can do is to ground myself and pay attention whenever I start feeling blue and see myself in a more real and less biased perspective.
For me, yoga  does not mean Shiva, Matsyendra or Parvatti, but pulling everything together in order to be able to be a little more aware of what life is, even if I just happen to realize seldom glimpses of it, they are worth it.

This is my experience, I would like one day to hear yours!