The Sutras on Strength

Hi Christina,

I hope you have been doing well since we met at your intensive. In our last conversation I briefly introduced a personal project I am completing on strength. It's probably no surprise, in my eating disorder, exercise addiction, and anorexia recovery I have discovered I have a pretty distorted relationship and understanding with the word "strength." After discovering this about myself, and  with guidance from my sponsor, I have been asking people in  the many circles of my life what strength means to them. 

If you have time, I would love to hear what strength means to you and how you define it. If you feel so inclined, I am also curious to hear how your definition of strength has evolved over time. 

Of course, I realize you are busy, so I will not take offense if this is not something you can respond to at this time. :) 

Hello, again.

Thanks for your note and your thought-provoking inquiry.  While I do not know what the word is, I am sure there must be a name  for those emails, like yours,  which warrant a heartfelt response, and yet sit in my inbox for months instead of receiving a quick reply. Thank in advance for your patience with me. 

Speaking of words, when I am hoping to clarify or deepen my relationship with a concept or a principle, I often go to the dictionary to see what insight I might glean from the definition and etymology of the word I am considering. When I looked up strength, I was surprised to see how many definitions the dictionary offered for the single word. With so many layers of meaning to the word strength, I wonder if, perhaps, your “distorted relationship and understanding with the word ‘strength’,”  may have something to do with the fact  that strength is not any one thing only. In the same way that each of us are multi-faced, multi-dimensional beings full of nuances, complexities, and unique idiosyncrasies that affect the ways we see ourselves and the ways in which we show up in our lives, strength has many different meanings and ways in which the word is applied. 

The dictionary speaks to physical, muscular strength (Lifting weights helps you develop your strength), the power of groups (The strength of our democracy was challenged), conviction (The strength of their commitment was palpable), cogency in an argument or case (The lawyer presented a case with strength enough for an acquittal), the capacity to withstand force (The dam had strength enough to withstand the flood), emotional fortitude (I find strength in my faith), potency of a substance (The strength of the prescription medicine is  greater  than the over-the-counter version), as well as the number of members in a group (The strength of choir was diminished due to seasonal allergies making it hard for members to sing.)  

When I looked at the etymology of the word strength, the dictionary  took me to the German word strong, and surprisingly, to the word string, as in when we string things together they become stronger. This relationship between strong and strength immediately made me think of how sutra, the form of scripture we see throughout the yoga tradition, means thread. Each terse aphorism or teaching lesson,  no matter how richly encoded and valuable in its singularity, must be strung together with what came before, what is written after, and with a set of practices threaded throughout the lived experience of the aspirant in order  the strength of the text to be revealed, understood, and optimally utilized. With this idea in mind, I offer you a series of blog entries over the next few weeks I am affectionately calling, The Sutras on Strength.  I will consider the many definitions of  strength and offer a few reflections on the topic.

Perhaps, if we are lucky, the readers of this blog will  chime in each week with their considerations of the topic and, as a community, we can string together what me know in a way that might help you with your project and help us all with our ongoing recovery and growth. Hear that community? After all, one of my greatest joys about my current teaching life is that I am surrounded by insightful, intelligent,  and generous people of all ages and backgrounds and there is, shall we say, strength in numbers. Please  contribute the strength of your insight and experience as we go along so we can offer a well-rounded contemplation on the subject.

Also, before I close for the day, and launch into my more specific thoughts on your sincere questions,  I want to say that I think you are probably in great company with your challenging   relationship with strength. Our society doesn’t  offer robust options for how to be strong in functional ways, no matter how we define the word. How many young children each day are  told “be strong, don’t cry,” thereby losing  contact with the strength of connection that comes through vulnerability?  How many people are so consumed with the directive to  “be nice,” that   they have no access to the strength of their anger, can’t set boundaries well, and/or no longer know what they truly feel or think? Too many.  So, while the struggle you are walking through is not easy,  you are not alone. And while the symptoms of the challenges you have been through may have created feelings of isolation and loneliness, as most addictive processes do, you are most certainly in the midst of the  shared human experience of claiming an empowered relationship to your strength, unravelling the shadow elements you have internalized, and finding your way to a greater possibility. 

May these entries offer you strength for your journey. More soon.

Keep the faith.