Squeeze Play

Photo by Chris Chow on Unsplash.com

As I was doing my aerial yoga practice this week, I was reminded of how much I purposefully use the hammock to explore the squeeze and release quality of a yoga asana sequence. Many of the ways we fold over in asanas, and especially any binds we include in a class, systematically work through the body in a manner to squeeze, then release organs, glands and muscles. In this way, we stimulate our circulatory, endocrine, and lymphatic systems. And although using the hammock to squeeze the body does feel and stimulate the body slightly differently than asanas without props, nevertheless, the intention is still there.

I started to think about squeezes, and where else I see and hear of them.

Baseball is in mid-season right now, and I’m reminded that there is such a thing as a “squeeze play” commonly seen in a baseball game. A squeeze play is when the batter basically hits the ball in a way that he/she knows will result in removing them from play, but that also offers an opportunity for a teammate to score a point. In a squeeze play, the batter essentially “sacrifices” his/her own glory of (possibly) scoring, for the betterment of the team. That’s what happens in team sports – even “star” players have to think of the team as a whole; they have to see the “big picture.” If they are to get anywhere during the season, the whole team has to come along.

Part of the process on the path to yoga is the adoption of a belief to be of service to others. And in many ways, it’s for similar reasons why a baseball player would run a squeeze play. Our lives each improve once we make efforts for everybody’s life to improve. My teacher, Dharma Mittra, always talks about making everything we do – from eating, to practicing asanas, to our career, a gift to the Supreme Being. Even if you’re not offering up your daily activities to a deity, you can offer them for the betterment of humanity, as an alternative. As Krishna tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, when you renounce the fruits of your labor, your suffering ceases. And so, this is the yogi’s ultimate goal.

Sometimes, when people try to adopt such an altruistic attitude, they get overly serious, or overly righteous, or overly self-deprecating. To avoid these traps of the ego, if we can find a way to make everything we do like a game – perhaps even a team sport, then we might be able to tap into the joy of play. When we play (like a child, not like a professional sportsperson), we are so involved in what we are doing each moment, it’s easier to experience equanimity over whatever outcome arrives. Because, the journey itself was rich enough.

In aerial yoga, we may not have a “squeeze play,” but we certainly can have squeeze, and play. 🙂 Let’s embrace them both this week. And, don’t worry. You’ll be able to control all the “squeeze” elements, so as to remain comfortable, and breathe deep throughout the class.