Beauty; it’s a funny
old thing. It’s ‘in the eye of the beholder’; a phrase I never quite
understood. For a while I thought the beholder was the one who ‘owned’ it,
which made it all more confusing. I’m easily confused at the best of times,
remember.
The train I’m on
right now is cutting through the countryside on a brutally cold October
morning. There’s a frost and as the sun is rising its coating everything with
an almost sepia tinge. All the colours have been asked to keep it down, and
keep quiet, because the rest of the world is hitting its ‘snooze’ button one
more time.
To me it’s beautiful.
And I would assume that it is to most people. On the ‘Is It Beautiful?’ game
show it’s a bit of a no-brainer. Tick the ‘ooooh it really is lovely’ box. Well
done. That’s decided then. Everyone agrees; fields plus lovely sunrise added
with a frosty tinge = a winner.
But lets raise the
stakes a little here. I’m going to open with ‘pigeons’. Surely any bird gets
the beautiful box ticked just by default of doing that whole flying and soaring thing? And
have you ever seen the amazing blue and purple almost peacock colours on their
necks? But to some they’re ‘rats of the sky’. So I’ll see you
‘pigeons’ and raise you ‘wind turbines’. When I see them in a row, with their vast
arms circling through the sky, I get the same feeling of awe and goosebumps on
top of goosebumps as any spectacle of natural beauty. But they too seem to get
people really quite miffed.
Here’s another one to
go in the mix; backbending. Backbends are up there in my top five of beautiful
yoga asanas in ashtanga yoga. The strength of the psoas and quads; the openness
of the heart; the flexion at the thoracic hinge; it’s another surefire winner
in my book.
But when I get to
that point in my own practice, am I the epitome of beauty, grace, balance,
strength and suppleness? Am I buffalo. Unless you consider a laboured breath,
cramping muscles, pointy pain in the general vicinity of my right shoulder, and
a face like I’m sucking a lemon. Yeah – let’s just say that me and backbends
don’t have the best of relationships right now. In fact, I’m thinking of
starting to see other asanas.
However I know that
my fellow yogically inclined friends not only see the beauty of this pose, but they do become the epitomy of it.
Annie and Toff – I’m talking about you! They seem able to completely open
themselves to the beauty of the experience which then manifests itself right
there. It’s a magic yoga circle – what you think is what you experience…what
you experience is what you think…See beauty and you feel beauty…feel beauty and
you see beauty.
Finding beauty goes
hand-in-hand with so much more that is essential for a ‘good’ practice. When
you have those moments and they really take your breath away; you’re left
standing in awe. There is nowhere else you can be other than in that exact
moment. The only place you can be is right here; right now. And that’s one of
the fundamental qualities we’re looking to achieve in practice and as a result
of it.
Can I find beauty in
the things I find difficult or challenging? Can I find beauty in things that
anger me, by acknowledging that there is beauty in the experience? Am I able to
find beauty in all people, whether aesthetically pleasing and/or infuriating
and awkward?
It’s clear that there
is one common denominator in all this and its choice. We, I, can make a
decision to choose to see and feel beauty. It’s only a perception, and perceptions
can be changed as easily as a pair of glasses. When the beholder chooses to
experience something beautifully everything gets better. Even pigeons smile
(well, you never know – have a look next time…).
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