True Core Strength

What is core strength?

     Core strength is becoming a common term in modern America. Most people are aware that they should have a strong core, but what does that mean? Gym advertisements and infomercials show models with six-pack abs-- is that core strength?

    In yoga, core strength is not just about the specific muscles, it is about the whole person. A strong core begins with the ability to ground and root yourself, to receive energy from the earth and the breath. Prana, or vital life force, is carried into the body on the medium of the breath. It is important to cultivate a relationship to this life force, to receive, store and release it. Otherwise, the breath, like a strong wind, will carry this prana in and out of the body without it charging the core. The body is like a sponge, it is important to learn to relax, let go of tension and worries, and receive and absorb this life force.

Sara's Story

    I am often deeply touched by the lives of my students, as I get to know them intimately through their challenges. When Sara came to one of my workshops, she was a new student to yoga. The training was for three weeks. At the end, she was admiring the new muscles she got from the dolphin push-ups we did when she found a lump near her armpit. She went in to the doctor and found it was breast cancer. During the training, I had stressed that core strength is the ability to receive the strength from nature and God that is all around us. When you are too tired to continue, go to the breath to receive energy, go to the earth to receive strength. The sky is not tired; the earth is not tired. It is this ability to receive by tapping into Source that gives true core strength. There is always enough strength if you can connect to something bigger than you, there is always enough if you can surrender and receive it. Sara shared that during the difficult, scary times getting tests done at the hospital, she was comforted and empowered by this idea, that she always had enough strength when she received it. She practiced the breathing exercises to stay calm and centered.

     When I was teaching in the training, we were applying that idea to working with challenges in the physical postures. Of course, what applies in the yoga class will apply in the rest of your life. That is the great beauty of yoga practice.

What are you practicing for?

What do you need more strength for in your life's challenges?

Core strength is who you really are; learn to take that strength from your Source to your core, the place where you are timeless and never shaken from your seat of true self.

Your imperfections are just the places you turn away from spirit, where you nurse your wounds and separation.

Let these be burned away in the tapas, the fire of refinement, the fire of discipline and devotion.

Be blessed,