The Wheel & Centering

The Intersection of Ceramics & Yoga

Those of you unfamiliar with the process of throwing on the wheel- I will briefly describe it to you. You have a ball of clay- a little chuck of earth & you plop it down on the wheel as close to the center as you can get it. The wheel is a flat disc that when you press a pedal (like in a car) starts rotating the disc. You start rotating that disc or wheel really fast enacting centrifugal force; a force that pulls outward when something is spinning in a circle. You could say this compares to the merry go round of life. So, we have the clay holding on for dear life rotating on that wheel. And then you place the palm of your hand on that little piece of clay and it lumps against your palm (unevenly) as it spins because it is uncentered. BUT you start to press all of that wet clay dirt into the center of the wheel and it starts to even out into a perfect little disc. Perfectly centered and at one with the wheel.

Unsurprisingly- this is a metaphor. 

The clay is us and we are the clay. 

The clay is our mind and body and the hand is the force that we continually use to center ourselves. And this hand cannot push too hard or too fast or too extreme because the clay will be pushed too far off center...and we’re back in an uncentered state where we started. We need steadiness and ease through this process- also known in yoga as sthira & sukha. You put in the steady effort, sthira, but allow for ease and fluidity, sukha.

The wheel and its centrifugal force, the grand merry go round of life, that we are constantly feeling pulled off center by is just like that little ball of clay. 

There are so many forces at play- so through steadiness and ease, through breath, we constantly are trying to guide our mind and body back to its center. 

Today- can you find your center through breath? Choosing to let go of the things you can’t control and choosing to find steadiness and ease through the things you can control?

x Rae