Have You Ever Discovered What Your Body Is Truly Capable Of?

Here is a question to season and spice your Sunday afternoon!

If the ancient Greeks were quietly observing your life today, would they recognise you as someone living fully?

Would they see the courage of a warrior in the way you face difficulty?

The passion of a lover in the way you engage with life?

The imagination of an artist in the way you perceive the world?

The curiosity of a thinker or scientist in the questions that move your mind?

For the Greeks these qualities were not luxuries. They were the ingredients of a life properly lived.

They believed a human being should cultivate strength, passion, creativity and intelligence together. The warrior, the lover, the artist and the thinker were not separate professions or identities. They were simply different expressions of the same human potential.

Socrates captured this idea in a remark that still carries a certain sting:

"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training… what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable".

A little harsh perhaps to our ears, but It reflects the Greek ideal of balance, suggesting that developing the body is a responsibility to oneself and the community.

Notice what he is not saying.

He is not saying youth matters more than age.

He is saying something far more unsettling: that many people live their entire lives without ever discovering what they are capable of.

And it is here that the connection with yoga becomes interesting.

Because at its deeper level yoga is not really about stretching, calmness, or wearing comfortable clothes in softly lit rooms. Those things may accompany it, but they are not its purpose.

The deeper purpose of yoga is the cultivation of life force.

In Sanskrit it is called prana, in Chinese Qi or Chi.

The various practices of yoga, shamanic movement, Qi Gong, breathing, concentration, asanas ..are designed to increase the quantity and quality of life energy flowing through the human system.

When that current becomes strong enough, something remarkable happens.

The body becomes stronger and more responsive.

The mind becomes clearer and more curious.

The emotions become more vivid.

Creativity becomes easier.

In other words, the very qualities the Greeks admired begin to awaken naturally.

The lover within feels life more intensely.

The warrior within discovers more strength and courage.

The artist inside you experiences more inspiration and flow.

The scientist or philosopher within finds the mind alive with questions and insight.

Different civilisations used different language.

But they were pursuing something very similar.

The Greeks sought the fully developed human being.

Yoga seeks the fully awakened human system, a strong physical body and powerful energy flow to support the pathway of spiritual growth.

Both, in their own way, are asking the same question.

How alive can a human being become?

And perhaps that is the real question worth asking ourselves.

Not whether we are busy.

Not whether we are comfortable.

But whether we are truly alive in the body and mind we have been given...

so...

why not wake up with me, and let's push the limits a little, perhaps awaken some new possibilities for the day ahead.