Climbing And Ashtanga Yoga

About a year and a half ago I took up bouldering with my teenage son. Before long, this extended to climbing with ropes, and eventually outside on real rock. Along the way, we’ve met and got to know, new and special people. With climbers, often we connect easily and talk about yoga and climbing. How are they different or similar? Does one prepare you for the other, or improve the other?

Starting climbing after 25 years of practicing Ashtanga yoga, I do notice a few things. Most obviously, the strength and flexibility I have gained through my yoga practice come in pretty handy! But what captures my interest a little more fully is the way I experience presence and mind through these modalities. Climbing carries some inherent risk - there is potential to fall and be injured. That possibility also exists with yoga, but not at high stakes. The risk in climbing demands mental focus and presence - everything is very immediate. I have found it interesting to enter new and awkward physical shapes when climbing and, as stakes get higher, tune in and resonate with my yoga practice of conscious breathing and presence. I don’t feel like I want to be climbing all the time (my gentle being needs more softness than that). But there has been a lot of value in the experience of entering new and scary territory and applying what I have learned from years of practicing yoga.

I think you have to work harder on mental focus and presence in yoga. Once practice is familiar and relatively stable, the mind can more easily wander, seeking entertainment instead of dropping into the whole subtle universe opening up. But if you approach your practice earnestly and continue to practice being conscious and present to what is, a mental strength and steadiness sprouts. And it’s not just a high stakes kind of strength. It's softer. It can hold subtlety and nuance. A whole universe opens up.