the curious paradox.

in my favorite weekly yoga class a few weeks ago, my dear teacher introduced me to a new pose that has been on my mind ever since. the pose is called dying warrior and it represents the death of the ego. the other warrior poses are largely about confidence, strength, and righteousness. i find these qualities palpable when moving through warrior poses, and though valuable, they often feel out of balance with the goals of my yoga practice (peace, gratitude, growth).

but i have now found something to balance that strength. dying warrior is humbling. it is not a pose of great pride or confidence. it is a pose of humility and release. you end up contorted on the ground, as if your strong confident warrior has fallen on its face.

this is the deepest, most profound twist i have felt in my yoga practice.  it is a difficult pose. you need the confidence boost of the previous poses to endure this twist.

i think the death of the ego, the death of striving, the death of the wanting self is key to feeling one with the energy of the world. through the death of the individual ego, we can experience the incredible, breathtaking interconnectedness of life, the great undulating energy of existence without the felt boundary of self.

this experience of letting go of striving and accepting experience as it is has been discussed for thousands of years in Buddhism and for decades in psychology. as the insightful psychotherapist carl rogers once said, "the curious paradox is that when i accept myself just as i am, then i can change." only when we truly attend to our experience, treat ourselves with compassion, and accept ourselves, thereby eliminating the ego, can we truly undergo change.

in my home practice, i have incorporated this pose as if it is warrior 4, following the three traditional warrior poses.

to practice: move from warrior 1, to warrior 2, to warrior 3, with your arms outstretched in front of you and your right foot as the standing leg. gently bring your hands down in front of you and touch down the back foot. then lift the right leg and feed it to the left, directly out to the side, and release down onto your right hip. then, lift your left hand, and feed it through the space between your right hip and right hand, so that you are lying on your left shoulder. relax the head down, facing right. if possible, lift the right hand and press into the unturned left hand to deepen the twist. sink into the release, the twist, the humility. repeat on the other side.