Yoga to retrain,
break habits and develop character.
I was talking to my colleagues recently on car accidents
among teenagers. We saw a surprising trend: some teenagers get into accidents
nearly a year after they take the license! During the period of learning as
well as the earlier period with license, they are very cautious and apply all rules
(don’t they even teach you, when you drive with them?) Then comes that moment-
“maybe I need to check that text or make a call.” They are unable to comprehend
the consequences. Latter part of the associative stage and the early autonomous
stage are periods where complacency inflicts chaos. I happened to talk to a Human
Resources manager once who mentioned a unique behavior in gen Y (young adults,
immediate gratification group) “I have been in this position for almost two (a
short period) years, what next?” They are talking to a manger who is dealing
with employees who worked in that organization for several decades. I remember
the first few days in my life when I went against my faith. It was in my 8th
grade; the first time I was exposed to evolution. I thought the belief was a
hoax; rebelled against my Sunday school teacher; hesitated to go to go the
program. These scenarios have all one common thread: perception which is
reality, till enlightened.
Miscomprehension, obscurity and complacency –which surface
in the cognitive, associative and autonomous stages, respectively -could lead
to undesirable habits and outcomes. Breaking the temporary cocoon of these habits,
through mindfulness is a solution. One needs to guard miscomprehension in the initial
cognitive stage. I had written in the past: the rate of drop-off from any
program, initiative, and resolutions is very high in this time. There seems a
solution to this- be present where you are! Focus. Be there in the cognitive
stage. Do not be complacent. Ask questions; teach yourself and teach whom you
ask questions. Be candid. Nourish integrity. Everybody make mistakes; a successful
person would be able to spot, fix and weave around those faults.
Do the right thing; do at the right time. We know it. But, sometimes,
we are torn between complacency and miscomprehension. This was one of the
scenarios in Hindu epic Mahabharata. King Arjuna was in a dilemma on the
outcome of waging a war at Kauravas; dejection and despondency overtook him. Lord
Krishna spent hours to advise him to get out of the labyrinth of his feelings through
700 verses of Bhagavad Geetha- the philosophy which gave rise Karma yoga, Raja
yoga, Bhakthi yoga and Jnana yoga It may be hard for us to understand the philosophy
of theses yogic streams. The yoga we know and practice today in the western
world should help to train our body and mind to comprehend experiences in life
with clarity and retrain us when we swing, naturally, to complacency. By definition
of Patanjanli, yoga should warrant stability and comfort. It is not only the
stability of body, it means the integrity; it is not the comfort of
complacency, it is the comfort of challenge and dedication.
Here I give a flavor of one of my favorite (under-utilized)
yoga pose- Ananthasana. Anantha is a mythical snake, a bed for lord Vishnu. The
Lord chose Anatha as a mattress; Anantha gave the comfort along with the
stability he needed to control the universe (Again, I am not going to explain
the details on how to get to this pose. YouTude knows everything!) In this pose
your diaphragm is moved caudally by the vacuum created by the internal organs
(while flowing to the bottom of the belly); the pressure created by the
internal organs on the bottom moves the diaphragm cranially. There are not many
yoga poses which would asymmetrically stretch your diaphragm. It retrains the diaphragm
to get out of the comfort of symmetric operations. It is one of the yoga poses
suggested for breaking out of habits. If you feel really hard to sleep on the
other side (as most of us do, we sleep only on one side), you may try this yoga
pose and see what happens. This is an example. I could cite several other examples
where yoga has shown us the light to break off the habits and overcome
complacency.
Please feel free to comment on this post and let me know what is in your mind.
Healthy regards,
Jay
Jay, thanks for sharing the history of Ananthasana (anantasana). I must admit that when you first introduced this asana in class, I found myself very unstable in executing the side leg-lift. In order words, my "mattress" must have been pretty lumpy. However, as I have continued to practice anathasana, my stability has gradually improved and I am realizing some of the benefits of the posture.
ReplyDeleteI am experiencing more focus on breathing into the posture, and believe that eventually the toning benefits to the stomach, legs and sides will improve. You mentioned the many forms of yoga that can be practiced, but it is always exciting to try new asanas.
Thank you for the inspiration.
Thanks for the comment, Ozzie.
ReplyDeleteHi Jay:
ReplyDeleteThis is excerpted from a Yahoo article:
It is no surprise that asana (the movement part of yoga) and meditation are becoming big business. But as yoga becomes commercialized and corporatized, how much of what we practice — at independent studios, gym chains, and corporate retreats — can really be considered yoga, in its truest sense, especially considering its ancient ties to Hinduism? After all, it seems unlikely that new studios popping up nationwide — teaching everything from pole-dancing yoga to disco yoga to fantasy costume yoga — are helping connect practitioners with any form of higher truth.
But “I wouldn’t agree that yoga and meditation have religious roots in the way we normally think about religion,” says Carol Horton, PhD, a thought leader on contemporary North America yoga. “Whatever ties yoga has to Hinduism — and other traditions of yoga have ties to other faiths — the modern yoga tradition is bound up in a universal notion of spiritual practice and is designed to be available to people of any religion or no religion.”
According to Alanna Kaivalya, a “teacher of teachers” in the yoga community and founder of the Kaivalya Method, “yoga and Hinduism grew up together,” emerging at the same time in the same place. “But like two siblings growing up in the same house, they’re still different,” she notes.
But Kaivalya wonders what the problem is to begin with in recognizing yoga’s religious roots. “Just because it’s not your religion doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have something beneficial or inspirational to offer you,” she says.
And then there’s the differentiation between true yoga — where you’re being taught to find your center, work on your breath, and think about where your mind is going — and yoga done to pop music at full blast, where you’re moving super fast to get a “bikini body,” Horton adds. “There’s obviously the pull of consumerism and the idealized beautiful body and promises of quick fixes to happiness,” she says. But these “take away from what [these practices] have to offer: a more spiritual, rooted-deeper alternative to the rest of the culture.”
However, Elizabeth Rowan, an Atlanta-based yoga teacher and writer, warns that there’s a fine line between making yoga accessible and changing the heart of the practice.
“Dumbing down yoga and meditation does us no favors,” Rowan tells Yahoo Health. “The challenge is to find the balance between acknowledging the origin of the practices and the necessary evil that is today’s commercialization and commodification. Secularization of yoga undermines the entire principle that is the practice.”
Indeed, when you practice without the spiritual aspects, you’re missing out on yoga’s “incredible psychological and spiritual benefits,” Kaivalya says.
The popularization of yoga has made certification easier, teacher trainings more readily available, and the option of yoga as a career palatable to those who might not have committed to it as a vocation if it involved more years of study and work. And with all this inevitably comes less emphasis on the spiritual side, Horton says.
“In the past, you would maybe practice for 10 years before you would even think about becoming a teacher,” Horton says. “Making the practice easier to experience — Look good! Be more efficient! Lose weight! — is taking away from yoga’s spiritual hidden depth.”