Elemental Yoga: Earth Practices
E A R T H. Where the journey of Self discovery begins.
For the next six posts, I’m going to break down the five elements of the expansive and evolutionary aspects of the Elemental Yoga practice that I teach, and then talk about the celebratory aspect.
As humans with this particular nervous system, we experience the world through the five elements. We are the elements. This is why it’s so important that we work with each of the elements as part of a larger, holistic practice that addresses our being on every level.
Five senses. Five elements. Five koshas. Five prana vayus. Different ways to slice the unitary wholeness of our life in order to strike balance across the entirety of our being.
Hatha yoga. In the Elemental Yoga practice, earth is the hatha asana practice. Although, ideally, our asana practice is working on all five layers or aspects of ourselves (including all five koshas: annamaya, pranayama, mind, wisdom, and bliss), it’s first and foremost an earthy, physical, grounding practice. We start with gross reality.
In the West, asana is by far the most common entry point for people who are new to yoga—the entry point for yoga but also for the lifelong journey of truly knowing oneself and opening one’s heart. So we start here. Many of us are unaware of our bodies. You often see this in yoga classes, especially in the arms and hands. They’re stuck out at odd angles, crooked, as if lifeless. For most people, it’s crucial to infuse every cell of our bodies with our awareness. Equally important, for spiritual seekers, it’s important to descend into the density of the world and ground.
The root chakra, or muladhara, is associated with the earth element in yoga. It sits at the base of our spine and is the source of kundalini shakti (our infinite potential of being—more on that later). Muladhara is our ground of being.
The muladhara chakra is the home of our fear(lessness), (in)stability, (dis)connection, clinging to the past / fully entering every moment—all these wonderful polarities that we work with in yoga. It’s also where we encounter a majority of our samskaras, our old, habitual patterns.
The more we balance the muladhara chakra, the more we experience equanimity. We start to feel for the first time that we are pure awareness instead of our mind or our ego. We become like a mountain: unshakeable regardless of circumstances. We start to trust ourselves deeply, and trust that the Universe is gently giving us whatever we truly need in every moment. We develop the unwavering feeling of being home, no matter where we are.
Astrologically, earth is ruled by Saturn. It’s our mundane reality. Often it’s the mundane reality of day-to-day life. In short, it’s crucial that our spiritual practice be grounded and built upon a solid foundation.
So we start with asana and always return to asana in the practice. There’s no shortcut to the heavenly realms of the upper chakras. After all, those heavenly realms are only ever here, now.
Earth is where our journey truly begins.
