Inside Yoga 147 (2/11/15)

It is perhaps safe to say that most of us want to feel happy and experience the “feelgood” factor as often as possible, and few of us enjoy feeling miserable and down. The question is not only how do we find this happiness but how do we maintain this good feeling?

Life teaches us that everything will change, and as the Buddha pointed out… everything is impermanent. That is where our yoga practice comes in to help, because recognising that everything keeps changing, the practice is way of getting back to the place where everything felt fine, both in our inner world and our outer world.

Simple really, but the practice is the challenge, and maintaining our discipline to keep practising is equally challenging, yet this is what those who practice yoga recognise. We just keep practising, and the more we practice the better our chances of feeling good with ourselves and happy.

One of my teachers, Clive Sheridan, used to say “enjoy the intoxication while it lasts” when we had just finished a strong yoga asana (posture). He said this because some postures leave us feeling light-headed – intoxicated with what feels like an enjoyable high, a sense of bliss – but this only lasts for a short period.

Ananda is the Sanskrit word for bliss. It is temporary like everything, but with the practice we learn how to repeat this experience and the deeper the practice the longer we experience bliss and more often.

This yogic sense of well-being is an intoxication which comes without the catch of a hangover or withdrawal problems which drugs and alcohol cause. Should we become addicted? This sensation is the result of yoga practice, both the physical practice and meditation (the concentration on our breathing and body, keeping our mind quiet), so perhaps it is safe to say that this is a healthy addiction.

There is a catch though: we are reminded not to be attached to the experience of well-being. If we enter practice wanting to feel exactly the same as we did before when we last practised and felt great, then there is a good chance it will not happen. By grasping for the pleasure we might fail to find it, and feel frustrated or flat.

This is the paradoxical nature of yoga. The practice is simply a series of exercises, both physical and mental, which create the conditions via which we can arrive at the place we want to be – or not be. They are not the answer but the path.

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