Bringing Yogic Mindfulness to Physical Labor
Brian Reeder
It amazes me how my yogic practice has changed my entire approach to my physical self. All physical tasks are easier. I have more stamina, endurance, and flexibility. This is the change that practicing yoga seriously for the past 7 years has brought. However, I suspect the real gift of that practice, beyond those physical attributes I listed above, is the awareness of body mechanics, anatomical alignment and respiration.
By being in mindful awareness of the breathing and alignment, much stress that physical labor brings to the body can be mitigated. Much of yoga applies to any physical activity and many of the poses of yoga can translate directly. The main physical labor I engage in is gardening. I keep many beds and raise a wide range of plants. I also hybridize from several families of plants, with my main emphasis being on Hemerocallis and Paeonia. The poses I find most valuable include, but are not limited to, Forward Fold, Downward Facing Dog, Plank Pose, all lunge-poses such as Crescent Pose or Equestrian Pose, all forms of Yogic Squats, Hero Pose and Child's Pose. These poses build strength and flexibility for a number of the activities that are common to gardening and that make so many gardeners so miserable, and thus hate gardening.
However, having strength through those poses listed above is not enough. You have to have the breath-awareness as well and that needs to combine with an awareness of the bodies alignment. With the strength built through the poses and the breath-awareness you gain from yoga combined with an awareness of alignment, not only is the work easier but you can maintain adequate respiration and not cause imbalances in the body that create pain. This would apply to any type of physical labor, I suspect, but I know it applies to gardening, for me, because I am using it, and it is making the experience better than ever. Anyone reading this should of course check with a doctor before they garden or do yoga, but if you get the green light from your papered specialist of choice, then try to be aware of how you are holding your body and if you are breathing.
I have to be honest. I was never a very physical person. I preferred an air-conditioned room and a good book to grubbing weeds out of beds. So for many years I focused on my poultry research and let me beds go, doing the most cursory work and nothing else. I hated the physical labor, I got winded easily and I had no endurance. I had no flexibility, several deeply-held, old imbalances and a deeply-held story about how weeds grew just to spite me. So when I say that I am able to function outdoors doing very physical gardening work much more easily than before, I had decades of "before" to compare my current state to.
Finally, I think gardening is very meditative, so it seems only natural to me that the yogic awareness of breath and alignment could combine with gardening to enhance the experience. I am very grateful for the many gifts I have received from my yogic practice. The ability to be more physically grounded and capable are two of the the greatest ones. Gardening has always meant a great deal to me. I have a natural love of plants. Now I am given the opportunity to care for them in a more direct way.
