One of my favorite yoga quotes that I live by says, “Yoga is not about touching toes but it’s about what you learn on the way down.” If asanas are practiced to become flexible then it’s nothing but gymnastics; only when it is practiced with mindfulness and awareness it is called yoga. Yoga teaches us several life lessons that are very important to incorporate, as they rightly say it makes one better at life than making life better.
Being a yoga teacher, I learn each day through my yoga practice and from seeing my students’ progress. One of the things yoga has taught me is patience and consistency. I believe that having patience and giving it time is all that is needed to see the right outcomes. To master any yoga asana (posture), one needs to be patient and be consistent with practice. Similarly, whenever we stumble upon obstacles in life, we need to be patient because every day is not the same.
One bad day does not lead to a bad year. Each day is different; with each passing moment situations tone down and we are able to make better choices to come out of them. All we need is to be patient and consistent with our never-giving-up attitude. If we give up practicing a particular asana that we find challenging, we will never be able to master that asana. Similarly, if we give up and stop trying, we will never find our way out of the hardships of life. To achieve any goal, one needs practice and perseverance.
In Yoga Sutra 1.30 (vyādhi-styāna-saṁśaya pramāda-ālasya-avirati bhrānti-darśana-alabdha-bhūmikatva-anavasthitatvāni citta-vikṣepāḥ te anta rayah), Maharishi Patanjali points out nine disruptive forces (obstacles) as reasons why we might lose our way in life; these are: illness, laziness, doubt, carelessness, overindulgence, and overconfidence. These obstacles are quite often faced by us. All of us have at least once fallen sick; enslaved by our laziness; have questioned ourselves and our actions; have been careless and negligent; have been attracted by the temptations of the world and lastly, mistaking the unreal to be real causing unimaginable consequences.
Maharishi Patanjali tells us that it is normal for us to encounter these and get stuck on our path leading to our goal but irrespective of these obstacles we must continue our practice with determination. Practice in this context means to stay firmly in present facing the hardships of life. Meaning to say that when we face obstacles in life, we must not stop, we must continue our duties and face the situation the way it is.
When practicing yoga asanas, as practitioners we often hit a plateau and are not able to progress further or we find it difficult to hold an asana; this is when the importance of letting go through breathing is realized. Instead of holding our breath, we must let go and let our breath flow naturally and continuously, only then one can hold an asana for a long time comfortably. With a continuous flow of breath comes the scope of going deeper into the asana practice. The longer we hold our breath, the harder it becomes to hold an asana. In the very same manner, when we hold on to those negative experiences in life, we will not be able to move on and overcome the obstacle but the moment we let go, be patient with ourselves and continue our duties leaving the rest to the higher reality; we are able to come out of these difficult times very soon. Letting go is the hardest asana but the most crucial one to master.
Written by: Ankita Nadkarni
A little note: As community facilitators, we believe in giving an individual the autonomy of expression. The views expressed in these pieces are the author's own.
