Stretching can be the home of the ego. In any asana the sensation of stretch has the ability to usurp the legitimate expression of all other sensations. The stretch becomes the dominant force, the loudest experience. Stretching the muscles makes us feel like we're doing something, achieving something. It can become the embodiment of the “no pain, no gain” attitude that permeates our culture. Without awareness it can become habit to know an asana in terms of stretch to the negation of all other sensation. It starts to feel like we are not doing yoga without the stretch. What would it be like to experience asana from other perspectives? Take downward dog. It is easy to find the stretch here, hamstrings, calves, shoulders. What if we softened a bit by bending the knees and letting the heels rise off the floor? Feeling now the weight distribution between the hands and feet. Then noticing the freedom or constriction in the joints of the elbows and shoulders. The breath moves in patterns of undulation through the tension and softness in your tissues. Can you feel your strength? Are you willing to feel your weakness? Feeling the aliveness in your warm muscles and coming to know the places of stagnation throughout your body you are more than the stretch. You are more than the singular perspective on the moment. This is flexibility – to see the moment from more than one vantage point. To come in to a global awareness of life's rising and falling in your body, in the moment.

Imagine the possibilities of cultivating this ability in your life. Take a conflict with your partner. He's wrong, you're right. What if you softened your position a bit? Feel something other than your “rightness” present. There is emotion. There is the look of pain on his face. There is the flashback of a wrong done to you years ago that has nothing to do with the present moment. Your breath undulates from your fear of being wrong, it undulates from the pain of your aggression. Can you feel your strength and weakness? Can you feel his? Feeling the aliveness of your anger, there is something else there, it is empathy. And you become more than your rightness.

Being more than a singular aspect of your yoga practice, be it the stretch, the burn or the alignment allows us to see the moment from various perspectives. It challenges the ego's tendency to fixate on one aspect of our circumstances in an attempt to appease it's desires or discomforts. And, the greatest fruit of this practice is that it helps us to live with greater compassion. We become able to see circumstances from the vantage point of the other – whether that other is your partner, your child or a perfect stranger.  This week in your practice, as a beginner or seasoned yogi, notice what sensations tend to dominate your awareness - what else is there?  Please let the rest of us know what you've found!