“With humility (an open heart and mind) we embrace the sacred study of Yoga.”*
I came across this amazing and intriguing definition of humility. A definition that inspired many interesting conversations…”
What WAS humility?” The answers were always fairly similar: “To be humble, to be meek…”, “To know that you’re not the best…but in a good way”, “To be put in place.” It seemed that humility was something that was generally considered to be thought of as good but felt as belittling in a way.
BUT this new definition was almost opposite, a more positive spin to what I had been told was humility…and the gem of this definition shone through when I experienced the meaning…for all the logical talk about humility really didn’t help me understand…
Humility…open heart, open mind.
Simple…of course, we’ve all heard those words…open heart, open mind.
But never in the context as the definition of humility. That’s what was so intriguing to me. So I brought the intention to understand humility to my yoga (asana) practice. I was absorbed in my yoga dance practice. I found myself in standing forward bend…I placed my hands fully on the floor and without thought I lifted slowly and gracefully into handstand.
The first time ever.
I had never even attempted before because I assumed I wasn’t strong enough. I was so surprised that I fell out of the handstand…and it was in this moment that I understood open heart, open mind…it was in this moment that I was humbled. Not because I had fallen out of the handstand…but because I had lifted up into handstand. I was humbled by the wisdom that I was capable all along but had been closed to the possibility. I was humbled by the thought that the only thing that had ever stopped me from this was my thinking. At the moment of lifting off, I was without thought, without effort, no attachment…I was completely open.
And while the lifting into the handstand is minor, it was the understanding that I was capable of awesome-ness that left me awed and humbled.
And lying on the floor with this well known quote rolling around in my body and mind …
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Now how that feels in me, I can only describe as humility…it is the vastness and potentials that exist that humble me. And so now I begin my day connecting with the vastness and with the understanding that anything can happen. With humility (an open heart and open mind) we embrace the sacred study of Yoga.
*The Secret Power of Yoga – by Nischala Joy Devi
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