Pumpkin Pie and Yoga
About this time a year ago I had just finished making my delicious gluten-free pie crust before heading out to teach yoga. When I arrived at the studio, I made a comment to my students about making pie crust. One of my students said, “Now, that’s my kind of yoga teacher.”
It could be the beginning of a series on confessions of a yoga teacher. “Hi, my name is Monica. I am a yoga teacher and I like pie.”
Yes, yoga teachers are human, too. And I am back to making pie. I’ve made three in the past week!
So what do pumpkin pie and yoga have to do with each other?
This story is inspired by one of my absolute favorite yoga teachers, Jeanne Heileman, who shared an analogy of blueberry pie and yoga on my Yoga Philosophy Video Podcast. You can see or listen to it here. The blueberry pie analogy starts at 4:14.
picture of a pumpkin pie, mini pumpkins, a woman in a yoga pose (pincha mayurasana) and a woman meditating on a couch
If I hand you a pumpkin and tell you it’s pumpkin pie, how would you react? You would probably wonder if I actually know what pumpkin pie is. Pumpkin is a key ingredient, but it is not a pie. To make a pie, I would need to add together the pie crust along with eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, evaporated milk, cloves, nutmeg, and a few other ingredients depending on how you make your pie.
The pumpkin on its own does not make pumpkin pie. Just like the movement of yoga on its own does not make yoga.
What many of us call yoga in the West is just one part of yoga. The movement part of yoga is called asana. It is a fabulous part of yoga and the third of eight steps in what many yoga teachers study. Asana is often how students in the West come to yoga. Then students start to experience and appreciate all of the other benefits of yoga.
The eight limbs that make up yoga are:
Yama (attitudes toward our environment)
Niyama (attitudes toward ourselves)
Asana (physical postures)
Pranayama (restraint or expansion of the breath)
Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)
Dharana (concentration)
Dhyana (meditation)
Samadhi (complete integration)
I did a yoga philosophy video podcast series on the eight limbs. If you want to learn more, this episode with my teacher, Tiffany Russo is a great introduction to all eight limbs.
There is also the chanting, the philosophy, the meditation and mindfulness, the chakras, the letting go, and the sage.
Yoga can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but it is not just one thing. The movement is helpful to expand our breath and bring us to a place of calm, but it is not just about the movement.
We tell ourselves a lot of negative words in a day. Ethan Kross, author of Chatter says, “people can think to themselves at a rate that is equivalent to speaking 4,000 words per-minute out loud.” That is a lot of chatter.
Yoga is about getting out of the chatter in your head. Yoga is unity. Yoga is taking a negative and making it positive. Yoga is mental wellness.
A pumpkin is not pumpkin pie just like yoga asana – the physical movement part – is not yoga. Sometimes we give credit to one ingredient when it takes a whole recipe. How else does this apply in your life? As a leader, on teams, in your diversity and inclusion initiatives?
What is your favorite part of yoga? What is your favorite kind of pie?
Credits:
Pie recipe thanks to Erin Collins at Meaningful Eats
Williams-Sonoma pie pan thanks to my childhood friend, Colleen Oakley.