What is a “Yoga Spiral”

The term “yoga spirals” refers to the dynamic exchange between the most common energy patterns in life; what yoga calls “the gunas” (Yoga Sutra 2:18). The term is used colloquially by students of David Garrigues to describe the “seemingly revolving action of the gunas”, a dynamic process of human evolution through practicing yoga. It is, in essence, the lifestyle that we have chosen by being practitioners.

Yoga Spirals display themselves as a day to day existence where our bodies change for apparently no reason at all. Some days we experience sadness, and some days we experience pleasure, seemingly in equal proportion over time, but nonetheless astoundingly new each time these states come around. We recognize that just as there are seasons on the earth, there are seasons in life, and our yoga practice stays with us, changing, and spiraling in and out in whatever form we need. It is a reminder of Yoga Sutra 2:5, that we are only human, and we are prone to mistakes, and that is exactly why we practice, by embracing the parts of ourselves and our lives that may not be the way we want them to be. Instead of convincing ourselves that our lives are perfect, or our errors do not exist, we acknowledge the pain we experience and the mistakes we have made, and show kindness to ourselves as we continue to practice. It is not a full throttle embracing of our human condition, but a gentle acceptance of it. We work with what we have, each day, through our breath and our movements. We find grace there.

The philosopher Alain Danielou noted that there is a hierarchy that humans often assume in the natural world; that what is above us, and that which is light, is superior to what is beneath us, and that which is dark. Yoga is a process of balancing the forces of nature that we experience in our bodies and minds, and in this process we do not refute that some aspects of life may be less desirable than others, but as yogis we understand that our own spiritual path will be a combination of successes and failures, of pain and pleasure, and we understand that ultimately, to penetrate beyond the veil of illusion, we must see the world for what it truly is, and see ourselves for what we truly are (Yoga Sutra 2:15).