The sauca of cleaning my closet.

Every Tuesday and Friday morning I used to have a yoga class in the studio that I created in my basement. The space is also used by my very active  family as a driving range, batting cage, weight room, movie theatre, gymnastics studio, and bedroom.

It's actually quite impressive that I was able to transform the room (which often looks like a tornado came through) into a peaceful and zen like space to practice yoga.

Oftentimes, in my haste to get the room ready, instead of putting things into their proper places, I would just shove them quickly into the closet and slam the door shut. I had been doing this for quite a while and the closet was beginning to protest. In fact, the door had begun to change shape as it's contents threatened to burst out.

As the closet got more and more cluttered, I often hoped that no one would open the door and find out my secret!

One day as I approached the misshapen door, with weighted vest in hand, I was reminded of a cartoon. I imagined the door trembling as it attempted to keep the mess inside and hidden from view. Since I also wanted to keep the mess inside and hidden from view, I saw myself quickly opening the door just enough to shove the vest in there. After I imagined myself slamming  the door shut and hoping for the best, the closet door buckled and then burst open knocking me onto the ground where I lied trapped under the weighted vest, soccer balls, hula hoops, winter coats, golf clubs, exercise bands and baseball bats.

In the Path of the Yoga Sutras, Nicolai Bachman defines yoga as a gradual purification of all layers of the individual self. 

Sauca is a personal practice of keeping the body, mind, and heart clean and clear. 

On the outer most layer, the practice of sauca would require not just cleaning out my closet, but keeping it neat and clean on an ongoing basis.

 The clutter in our surroundings can add to the clutter in our minds. Closing the door on my messy closet didn't make the mess go away. Just knowing what was behind the door weighed on my mind as I tried to hide it or pretend that it wasn't. Most of us know the feeling of spaciousness and relief that we get when we clean up our desk, our car, our garage, or our junk drawer.  

To purify the layer of our physical bodies, we practice asana (yoga poses). We also eat as cleanly and healthfully as possible, choosing organic foods and reducing our consumption of processed or junk foods. We might even fast or do a cleanse to clean out our sluggish digestive systems. 

At the layer of our breath, we practice pranayama or conscious breathing as a way to purify and cleanse our lungs, heart, and circulatory system.

As we move inward towards the layers of our hearts and minds, sauca becomes a practice of being aware of our thoughts and emotions so that we can mindfully rid or purify ourselves of negative, angry, violent, or judgemental thoughts about ourselves and others. This purification practice might require forgiveness or letting go of grievences and resentments that we hold onto. In an attempt to purify our hearts and minds, we might also stay away from people or places that affect us in a negative or toxic way. 

When we attempt to hide, push down, or deny the "messiness" in our lives, (like I did with my closet), we not only create a mind, body, and heart that is sluggish and cluttered by all the stuff, but at some point all that we push down will find a way to come out. My closet door changed its shape in order to hide its contents. Our bodies, minds and hearts are also shaped by the junk that we put in them. Our bodies may develop an illness, an injury or excess weight. Our minds may become delusional, confused, or unclear, and our hearts may become bitter, closed off or shut down.
 
The more junk we layer onto our surroundings and into our bodies, our hearts and minds, the less we are able to connect to our higher self or as the yogis call it our parusha. When we purify and cleanse the layers of our being,  we are sure to find that our inner most layer always is, always was, and always will be, to put it simply, PURE LOVE.