Inside Yoga 159 (22/2/2016)

Instead of searching for the answers, like the meaning to life, the universe and everything else, or pursuing some ideal state of health or being, we are asked in yoga focus on getting rid of what we do not need in our life.

First and foremost among the list of things to be rid of are our thoughts, especially distracting thoughts, but as explained in the previous blog (see https://www.yogabristol.co.uk/yoga-blog/ ) while practising yoga whether it be asanas (postures), pranayamas (breathing exercises) or meditation, we do not want any thoughts – all we want is silence and a pure awareness of breathing and body.

It is as if we start our practice carrying on a backpack filled with burden, it can be anything, worry, unwanted feelings, stress and so forth – it can feel very heavy at times but the intention of our practice is to empty this bag. So we feel lighter and liberated by the end of practice. So there is no time to dwell on goals and destinations, because while practising we have enough to do just to empty our backpack of burden.

By the way, when we are so happy we are up in the clouds, although a great feeling, we are perhaps not grounded and cannot focus on very much at all, so the practice serves the same purpose – to bring us back to ground and silence, and to restore a sense of balance.

This is why yoga practice has a simple message, to remove, to take away, to be free of things in life we really don’t need, and this includes thoughts we are attached to, for example, the XYZ thought we keep on thinking about, which is going nowhere just taking up so much of our time in this one thought, and usually we can be stressed by it. Break the vicious cycle by focussing on the yoga practice and emptying the bag is the solution.

Picture our mind as a kitchen cupboard that we fill and fill, and most of the time we sort out the front few items, rarely checking what is at the back, until we get to the point that we have to empty the cupboard and see what is lost in there. And then chucking the out-of-date items and empty ones (that mysteriously had remained in there for months) and making it a tidier and more functional cupboard – until the next time it gets out of hand. This is our mind and attachment to thoughts. We just have to get rid of them.

There is a lot of emphasis on the mind and our thoughts, but the body is affected by the mind, because a restless and stressed mind has a negative impact on our body, so the yoga practice uses both the mind and body as the focus, with meditational awareness at the heart of breathing exercises and physical exercises, so everything within feels lighter and liberated of the things that weigh us down and drag us the wrong way.

Like a spring clean of our house can feel refreshing and rewarding, so does a yoga practice, which is focussed on getting rid of what we do not need, emptying the cupboard of clutter and making our backpack of burden lighter, so that we feel better, lighter and liberated.

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