including the yogis or perhaps especially the yogis, Patanjali’s urging to avoid getting caught up in the pair of opposites, pleasure and pain not withstanding,
In yoga class and in daily activities, it is easy to get caught up in trying to do things that are not expanding our capacity, but pushing past it for the sake of some external goal. Sometimes what keeps us from seeking assistance or using a prop (on or off the mat) is some untoward sense of shame that we cannot do it (whatever it is) by ourselves or fear of feeling or seeming weak. This includes not just seeking physical support or assistance, but also asking a question that admits we need help understanding a task or posture.
Sometimes we are right to think that we need to push our boundaries and do something without external support. More common, though, is not having the sensitivity and courage to know and admit when we need help. And fending for ourselves when when we are beyond our capacity and help is available quite often leads to unnecessary suffering.
Learning when and how to ask for help is one of my core yoga practices. What about you?
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Have you done your practice (in Sanskrit–sadhana) today, whatever your practice may be?
If you don’t yet have a regular practice, what do you think it would take? I recommend starting small–allow it to be short and what you like to practice, rather than failing because you think it must be challenging or for a longer period of time than fits readily into your schedule.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Look around–to your right, to your left, all around you, deeply inside–there is, most likely, more to love.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
A number of years ago I had a conversation with a cherished friend and co-worker who is no longer in this body. I was explaining to her the yoga practice of samtosha (contentment), which is one of the five niyamas that make up the second limb of the eight-limbed path of yoga set forth in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. My friend said it felt like a great revelation to think of contentment as a practice. She had thought of it as a state you were either lucky enough to have — or not.
Many states or characteristics or attitudes that we tend to think of as only being innate characteristics or good fortune can be cultivated.
Wearing an exhortation on a t-shirt might not necessarily be my style, but I do agree kindness is worthy of cultivation when it does not happen spontaneously.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
