The deeper you go the calmer it gets

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. The deeper you go the calmer it gets”, said the scuba dive master as I headed out over very choppy Thai waters feeling rather seasick! The weather had come in quickly that day, it was wet and windy and we were heading out from the island into deeper seas for a coral dive.

Now you might wonder what any of this has to do with yoga and even more so with yoga for cancer, especially given that most cancer patients won’t be able to go scuba diving whilst in treatment. All will become clear!

This trip happened a long time ago but during a reflexology home visit I was doing last night, my client had put relaxing music with video on her TV and there was a section of a green sea turtle calmly moving through the water. Suddenly I remembered my diving holiday in Thailand from 20 years ago and the day I saw a sea turtle for real.

I remembered the journey in the small boat and how nervous I was about doing the dive as I’d only ever done them in fine weather before. The sea was very choppy ad the boat was being thrown around a bit. It all felt very precarious, and I was feeling nervous about how safe the dive would be. Wouldn’t we be thrown off course or bashed into rocks? How could we control our sea depth when it’s so wild? But I knew the instructor well, that he was very experienced and trusted his judgement. When I raised my concerns, he just smiled and told me that the worst bit is the top meter or two, it’s the weather causing the waves, and as you get deeper it all calms down. He was right!

It was not fun entering the water but as I went down deeper, I could feel the water surges easing off and all getting quiet and calm. Gradually I relaxed, connected with my breathing, got my bearings and focused on the area we were in. There was plentiful and varied colourful coral, iridescent fish darting about, larger shoals in the distance and then below me I saw a green turtle, quite rare to see in the wild, just casually munching on some bubble coral.

As it all came back to me, it struck me what a parable this is for our yoga practise, and especially in difficult circumstances such as going through cancer treatment. In our day to day lives it can feel as though the surface of the sea and the weather is all there is, the whole of our reality. After all it’s the only thing we can see when we look around. The stress, uncertainty and physical impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment is often overwhelming and consuming for people. They are metaphorically caught in a horrible weather system and it can feel like this is the whole of their reality at that time.

What we can offer through our yoga practise is the chance to go below the surface and find a place that is calm and beautiful, that allows us to take a moment to find our bearings and connect with our breath. It is not to deny the reality of what is happening on the surface but to acknowledge there is another level of existence available at the same time.

But as with the dive instructor, our students have to trust in our knowledge and experience to take that leap of faith with us to access these deeper states of being. It’s why in my training there is so much focus on personal development and how you hold space as a yoga teacher. Who we are is just as important as what we do.

There are a few places still remaining on my YFC teacher training course in September. You can find the syllabus and booking link here: https://yogateachersforum.org/cancercourse

If you would like to book a discovery call to find out if it’s the right thing for you do email me at yogaforcancer@jennitherapy.com