The Practice of Listening
Late winter reflection
There comes a point when practice no longer looks the way it once did.
The familiar shapes soften.
The edges blur.
What used to feel effortful becomes quieter, less certain, and more honest.
This morning, my mat stayed rolled for longer than usual. Not out of reluctance, but attentiveness. The body did not ask for movement first. It asked for warmth, stillness, and time.
For a long while, I believed consistency meant showing up in the same way each day. The same rhythm, the same effort, the same expectation. Over time, however, the body began to speak more clearly, and I realised that listening, too, requires discipline.
Yoga, at its heart, is not a collection of postures. It is a relationship. One that evolves gradually, shaped by seasons, circumstance, and change. At different moments, the body, the breath, or the inner landscape takes the lead.
Ayurveda reflects this understanding with remarkable clarity. It recognises that we are not fixed beings, but rhythmic ones, influenced by light and dark, warmth and cold, activity and rest. What supports us in one season may not in another. What once felt nourishing can quietly shift.
Modern life rarely leaves much room for this kind of sensitivity.
We are encouraged to override fatigue, move quickly through discomfort, and prioritise output over attunement. Listening, particularly to subtle cues, can feel unfamiliar, even inconvenient. Slowing down is often mistaken for falling behind.
But the body does not measure life in productivity.
It measures in balance.
When listening becomes central, practice changes. Movement arises in response rather than obligation. Rest becomes purposeful rather than passive. Stillness is no longer an absence, but an intelligent phase of the cycle.
This is often where practice deepens.
Not through doing more, but through attending more closely.
Perhaps this is the quieter invitation yoga and Ayurveda offer modern life. Not additional structure, but refined awareness. The capacity to recognise when to move, when to pause, and when simply to stay.
Practice begins there.
In the listening.
Susanna Syassen writes on yoga, Ayurveda, and embodied living. She is the author of The Enlightened Earth forthcoming
