Healing comes as we choose to release the pain of our past
and cultivate the trust that returns us to innocence
- an innocence that is reborn in wisdom.

IT IS THROUGH trust that we come to know love as our true nature. Our human journey, which begins with newborn innocence, inevitably brings painful experiences that teach us to fear and mistrust. Our healing comes when we choose to release the pain of the past and cultivate the trust that returns us to innocence - an innocence that is reborn in wisdom.

Love being the truth of who we are, is ever present even when we are unaware of it. Love and trust are intimately related in that we are unable to experience love as our true nature until trust is also present. When we mistrust, we unknowingly place our trust in fear, and believe we must defend ourselves from others and from life. When our beliefs are based in fear, we repeat patterns of behavior that bring about the same results - reaffirming to us that our trust in fear is justified. Even when our desire is to love, without trust, true love is impossible.

It is our ability to affirm our basic goodness that creates pathways for changing fear to trust. When we know ourselves as goodness and love, life reflects that back to us. When we are open and willing to listen to our own knowing, we develop true response-ability and respond appropriately to our experience. We no longer react from fearful conditioning and limiting beliefs but are able to discern when a person or situation is safe to engage with. When our awareness is based in trust, we create different experiences and outcomes from the past.

An inquiry into the principle of trust leads us to question our most basic beliefs. Albert Einstein said the most important question we can ask ourselves is, "Is the universe friendly?" The answer to this fundamental question reveals our relationship to trust. Other questions that are useful to ask ourselves are: Can we trust that all of our life experience, even the painful, has the potential to heal and awaken us? Can we trust that the deeper purpose of pain is to bring us self-awareness, compassion and connection to each other? Can we trust enough to ask ourselves whether the fear we experience is valid or simply reactive conditioning? Partner Yoga practice is a place to explore all of these questions.

When our partner supports us in a challenging posture, we experience directly and viscerally the level of trust we feel. If we notice fear is present, we have a choice to experience it simply as sensation. Through the strength of our presence and our choice to trust, we dissolve illusions that fear would have us believe. As we find the willingness and courage to experience fear directly - in posture and in life - we learn that compassionate presence is far greater and more powerful than the presence of fear. When we realize the truth of this for ourselves, it may stimulate a cathartic release after which we find we have much more available energy for life.

In Partner Yoga practices we have the presence and support of our partner as we open to trust. Our partner's presence supports us to stay grounded in ourselves even when we are experiencing fear. Our commitment to stay with ourselves and with our experience is what engenders trust and openness in our partner. When we seek safety outside ourselves, or look to others for validation, we experience fear instead of trust. Fear and confusion result when we abandon our own knowing and believe that others know better what is right for us. We can only experience being supported by others and by the universe - in ways that strengthen our trust - when we are fully present to receive the support.

All strength, all true power and support come from our willingness to trust and open to life in this moment.

THE PRACTICE: Hanging Inversion

This pose immediately shifts physical, mental and emotional states. It teaches us about trust, surrender and grounding. It shows us that it is not our muscular strength that supports us, but our capacity to align our skeleton and our energy with the ground and gravity. Use the practice to let go of beliefs around effort and struggle. Experience being held and supported.

Partner One lies on his back with bent knees, lengthening and flattening the spine against the floor. Widen the sacrum, root the pelvis and slightly tuck the chin toward the chest. Create as much extension and connection between root and crown as possible.

Partner Two places Partner One's feet into her groin with heels turned inward toward the pubic bone. Partner Two places her shins onto Partner One's upper inner hamstring to assist Partner One in grounding and widening his pelvis. Partner Two places heels of hands onto Partner One's pectoral muscles to widen and root the upper body. Partner One continues to lengthen and root the spine. Partner Two widens her pelvis, lengthens spine, deepens breath and focuses.

Partner Two presses palms onto Partner One's feet to encourage grounding. Alternately, Partner Two can lift feet off the floor balancing shins evenly along Partner One's hamstrings.

Partner Two releases shins and moves up onto her toes continuing to root Partner One's shoulders to the floor. Partner One slowly lifts Partner Two by straightening legs and rooting pelvis. Partner Two can place hands onto the floor above Partner One's shoulders to maintain a steady balance. This transition requires both partners to work together in a synchronized movement.

NOTE: Once Partner Two is fully lifted, Partner One's feet slide just below Partner Two's pelvic bones creating a comfortable balanced fulcrum.

Partner Two widens pelvis to help locate the fulcrum point between upper and lower body. Partner Two extends energy from her pelvis through her flexed feet.

Once the fulcrum point is found, Partner Two removes weight from her hands and allows torso to release downward, perpendicular to the floor. Partner One remains stable and rooted by continuing to widen pelvis and lengthen spine. This action is deepened through the inward rotation of the thighs and extension through the heels.

NOTE: Partner One allows Partner Two's weight to ground him to the floor. Both partners stabilize alignment and energy, coming to a natural point of stillness and rest. Partner One maintains vertical alignment between the ankles and hips. Avoid lifting the pelvis off the floor or bringing the legs toward the head.

© 2006, Elylsabeth Williamson
All images © www.wisdom-arts.com, 2006

For more information, your own copy of this gorgeous hardcover book,
or to check out Elysabeth and Rex's workshop calendar,
visit Wisdom Arts online at www.wisdom-arts.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elysabeth Williamson has studied and practiced Yoga for more than thirty years. She has taught a unique synthesis of various traditions of Yoga for eighteen years. Elysabeth currently teaches at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Boulder, Colorado. She also travels internationally facilitating workshops on The Pleasures and Principles of Partner Yoga. Elysabeth lives in Colorado with her partner, Rex.