Between Heaven and Earth

Heaven and Earth are two very powerful symbols that have intersected every culture and that still survive in our language and mind with the same evocative force of our origin. We constantly experience their presence in our movement, in our Yoga practice, just as we perceive these two forces stirring also in a more subtle way in our psyche (or soul for those who believe in it).

As humans, for a physical perspective, we are under the constant pressure of gravity that weighs us down and engulfs us as we try to rise upwards. Whereas from a psychological point of view, we often experience conflictual feelings for the traits that are most linked to these elements: one more primitive and earthly nature made of needs that need attending, shadows and anxieties and a lighter and softer one, inspired and researching

Hence, more or less, we all experience the clash between Dionysian and Apollonian qualities, between darkness and light which from the dawn of time has afflicted men in their desperate attempt at defending one and condemning the other, pursuing the divine path of Light and purity or preferring the “wine path”, enthusiastic and dishevelled.

As a true Sagittarius, half animal and half-celestial warrior, I have always lived this dichotomy not only within the body but also within the soul with an startling awareness. I have always fluctuated back and forth, without ever choosing one "friend" or the other.  Experiencing looped restlessness: during the "Dionysian" phase, I felt like I was living a useless and meaningless life and yet, when I decided to set out along the path of "purity " and discipline, it seemed to me that I was losing touch with things, with people, sometimes with life itself. Practicing on the mat, I would perceive the same tension in the body, between two parts, the lower one and the upper one, whose dialogue stopped abruptly in the loins, leaving me without a center.

I kept practicing yoga with the intent of remaining balanced. I certainly wasn’t hoping to solve this ancient conflict when, one day, I perceived that my lower and upper body were no longer “struggling” with each other and they had in  fact, started such a fruitful collaboration that, in some blessed moments, nowadays, I don’t feel the “weight” of the asana while being totally at one with the earth.

Vanda Scaravelli explained: "There is a division in the middle of our back from which the spine moves simultaneously in two opposite directions: from the waist down, towards the legs and feet attracted by the force of gravity and from the waist up, to the top of the head, lifting us lightly. The force of gravity under our feet makes the extension of the upper part of the column possible and this extension allows us to release the tension between the vertebras.”

At that point, the struggle between my earthly nature and my purest one became far tamer and so my anxieties and the useless thoughts that generated them. Solving the conflict within the body dissolves the conflict in the mind

This way, you won’t think any more about life or about practice, you just live it. Grounding becomes the most spiritual experience ever and contemplation becomes the most real experience ever.

The struggle dies out; a feeling of completeness is powerfully tangible. At least on the good days. Even for one moment, feeling unity between the opposites, on the mat and off the mat, it’s worth experiencing

So to speak more practice and less paranoia!

Elisa F.