Your Edge
This month I wanted to take a little time to elaborate on the concept of Sthira Sukham in relation to our physical practice and finding our edge. As you might remember, Sthira means steady and Sukham means comfortable, plus we can also think of these two Sanskrit words as referring to the balance of effort and ease, both on and off our mats.
Something I often hear on the wide landscape of American Yoga is that one should find their “edge” in the posture and stay there, with some (thankfully) adding that you shouldn’t push yourself past your edge. The concept isn’t purely American, though I think it’s been exacerbated by our cultural consciousness that has been conditioned to believe that if you aren’t pushing yourself, you’re failing. Many traditional Indian yoga teachers in the West have been known to push students to their edge as well, even going so far as to stand on people’s backs while they are in a seated forward fold, though one can certainly question their ego and motives. You can also find many esoteric practices in ancient texts that required the adept to move well past their comfort zone and to explore territory so far beyond their edge, your eyes would pop out of your head just reading about them.
While I 100% respect and honor the traditional practices that exist in those ancient texts, I also 100% know that the world is a very different place than it was when those texts were written. We live in a time where we are constantly inundated with stressors and are somehow expected to simply carry on and keep pushing through. Our nervous systems were not designed to function in the environment we now live in, and while the human body has the miraculous ability to adapt, there’s only so far we can push before either (or both) our mental or physical health begins to break down. It’s rare to come across an individual who isn’t navigating a chronic level of dis-ease in their body and/or mind to some degree.
Your Sympathetic Nervous System
To better understand this idea of your “edge,” let’s take a quick look of what happens in your body when you’re in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) response, also often known as your stress response.
When some outside stimulus triggers your SNS, your body is flooded with both cortisol and adrenaline, your primary muscles engage, your heart rate speeds up, your digestion is put on hold, your immune system responds by increasing cytokines which are responsible for inflammation, all cellular growth ceases, your reproductive functions shut down, and cognitive function is impaired.
Of course we need our SNS as it protects and helps us deal with threatening situations. Cortisol converts protein to glucose to give your body quick energy; adrenaline increases your heart rate so you can draw in more oxygen quickly; your muscles engage so that you can fight or flee; digestion, reproduction & cellular growth become superfluous; all of those cytokines will immediately begin working on any minor injuries that occur; and your rational mind needs to take a back seat when it comes to survival. All necessary stuff indeed.
Until you’re endlessly stuck in that state, and you find yourself dealing with weight gain from the cortisol, elevated heart rate and blood pressure from the adrenaline, tense and achy muscles, digestive issues, fertility challenges, auto-immune and inflammatory diseases, disordered sleeping, overall fatigue and brain fog.
These symptoms result in hundreds of different diagnosis that ultimately stem from too much stress. In fact, many doctors will tell their patients that “it’s just stress,” and those patients often feel like they aren’t being taken seriously, when the reality is, it is stress that is causing many of these issues.
I don’t say that to minimize the numerous challenges that people navigate on a daily basis, as I myself have experienced over half of those symptoms. I say it because it’s true, and because the fact of the matter is, if we actually look at the impact of stress, we realize how massive it is. And yet, somehow we live in a society where we wear our stress like a badge of honor. I admit to having had conversations that amount to little more than vying for the title of most stressed, because somehow that has become tied to our worth. We must prove that we are working harder than anyone else in order to prove that we have value.
Trending in Yoga
This plays out on yoga mats far and wide in the West in many ways. For example, heating classes to the point where people are sweating so profusely that the floor becomes slippery and the students are forced to wear barely anything to combat said heat, leading to those who don’t posses society’s perfect body type to feel like they can’t even take a Yoga class. Spoiler alert, sweat is not how your body detoxifies and it’s a sure sign that your body is in distress and is trying to regulate itself so that it doesn’t overheat and die. The body is literally sweating to keep itself alive, and yet the sweatier one gets in a power “yoga” class, the harder they are seen to have worked and therefore are admired for it. Heat also causes the tendons and ligaments in the body to overstretch, enabling people to go “deeper” in yoga poses, as if that is the goal.
We also see the rampant invention of more and more complicated yoga postures in the West. Students & teachers alike will string a few Sanskrit words together and twist themselves into some unnatural shape just to prove that they have supposedly mastered their body more than others.
It’s all bravado and it’s not yoga. Yoga is about seeking balance and harmony within ones body and mind, which is quite literally impossible when the nervous system is in a state of dysregulation. I acknowledge that many ancient practices would appear to have been out of alignment with this statement, but when we take into account the vastly different world we live in, they were not.
The Grand Canyon
Keeping all of that in mind, lets circle back to this idea of finding your edge with an example I often use in classes.
Imagine you are taking in the vastness that is the Grand Canyon, and you are standing right on the very edge of a steep drop-off. Are you getting a completely unencumbered view of the scenery, allowing you to take in every detail as far as your eye can see? Yes, absolutely. Are you calm and therefore able to genuinely enjoy the experience? No, you are not. Because your SNS has been triggered by being on the edge. There is an aspect of you that is experiencing fear and assessing the threat, and fear will always dominate because we are hard wired to stay alive for the longevity of our species.
Why not step back and take in the majesty of what’s around you from a place of stability? A place where you can fully enjoy what you are seeing because you are not afraid. A place where every colorful nuance can come to life, where the depth of what your seeing can be comprehended, and where the beauty of mother earth can truly be appreciated.
I can 100% guarantee you that you are not missing out on anything that was meant for you when you take that step back to marvel, rather than force yourself further to supposedly master.
When we find our edge in a physical posture and we push ourselves to remain right at the edge, we are inevitably triggering our SNS in any number of ways. The body will begin to tighten up to protect itself, our heart rate might increase, our breath may become dysregulated and we shift into wondering when the teacher is going to cue us to come out. We are not exploring comfort and stability, we are experiencing our ego on full display. And while, like the SNS, our ego is a necessary part of existing in this world, we will never progress along our path when either are in control.
A Path to Progress
If I had a dollar for every time a student has expressed frustration at the fact that, even after practicing for X amount of years, they still experience XYZ, I wouldn’t be worried about my bank accounts ever again. I genuinely believe sincere practitioners do not experience the shifts they are seeking, because they are constantly pushing themselves right to their edge. Maybe, just maybe, if you locate your edge and subsequently take a step or two back, your edge would begin to move forward, and you could comfortably follow in its wake.
So the next time to step onto your mat, I invite you to find your edge and immediately ease back. Give yourself permission to explore without having too achieve, and watch what happens…