Is Yoga Cultural Appropriation?
Swami Ji, the OG
What is cultural appropriation? Cultural appropriation is defined as the process by which Intellectual property, artifacts, dance, clothing/fashion, language, music, food, religious symbols, medicine, wellness practices and more are used for purposes that were unintended by the original culture and may even be offensive to that culture. With yoga, this can often be seen through the adaptation of practices in ways that sterilize them for the West by stripping the spiritual aspects of the philosophy, by refusal to use Sanskrit words, or by removing the symbols or stories that exemplify the...
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Journey Into Your Being Plus a Meditation Practice
Swami Ji, the OG
Today we are going to discuss the components of who you are, and then you will be guided through a short meditation. Feel free to listen to the discussion portion, but then stop the recording before doing the meditation if you are not in a location where you can sit quietly and still with the eyes closed. You may have heard the common definition of yoga is “union” and it comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yug’ meaning to yoke. If we think about how buffalo are yoked together or horses or sled dogs are joined together, the purpose of yoking is to unite multiple forces to create...
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Making Life Simple and Easy
Swami Ji, the OG
Is your life simple and easy? I believe it can be and for the last couple of years, I’ve challenged myself to create a life that is becoming simpler and easier. Prior to this time my life was so full it was overflowing, and it often left me drained to the point where I felt so weighted down that I could barely keep moving forward. In 2019, I was in the twenty second year of running a yoga center that employed about 16 staff members and served several hundred students per week. I was also the education director and president of the board of a nonprofit yoga academy, housed in the center’s...
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3 Steps to Healthy Boundaries
Swami Ji, the OG
A boundary is a limit or space between you and another person. It is a clear place where you begin and the other person ends, physically, mentally, energetically and spiritually. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of yourself at all levels of being. Do you have unhealthy boundaries? Unhealthy boundaries involve a disregard for your own and/or others' values, wants, needs, and limits. Unhealthy boundaries can also lead to dysfunctional and potentially abusive relationships. I’m going to ask a few questions that will help you...
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Letting Go To Find Balance
Swami Ji, the OG
When we feel we are losing our balance we grab hold of something to feel secure and to prevent falling. This is a normal reaction to be able to maintain our physical balance and hopefully prevent pain. At that moment of uncertainty, that moment of being out of balance, we would think it strange if someone told us to “just let go.” But what about our mental balance? What are we grabbing hold of to feel secure? And are we holding on to hopefully prevent the mental and emotional pains? In the ancient text, the Yoga Sutras, within the very first few sutras we are told that it is possible...
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Still Body - Still Mind
Swami Ji, the OG
Sometimes we keep busy moving from one thing to another and believe this will keep us from thinking too much. However, we are only creating a distracted mind, the part that is overdeveloped to start with, and all this busy-ness keeps feeding this part of the mind that is processing sensory information and tries to make sense of the world. We need to develop the part of the mind that connects us with our higher self. When we go to bed at night, we become still and gradually the mind slows down and we fall asleep. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to slow down the mind at any point during...
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5 Keys To Improve Discipline
Swami Ji, the OG
When you think or hear about the word discipline what comes up for you? “Oh, I wish I had more of it,” or “I don’t have time for discipline,” or even “did I do something wrong?” The last implying that the word discipline is a form of punishment. Today we are going to discuss our misperceptions about discipline, its importance, and how we can improve our discipline to be more successful in our lives. Let’s start with the dictionary definitions. 1) the practice of training people to obey rules using punishment to correct disobedience or 2) a branch of knowledge,...
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From Change Comes Growth
Swami Ji, the OG
Today I will discuss the inevitability of change, why we find it difficult, how change and growth go hand in hand, the importance of having goals, and to welcome change! WHEW! That’s a lot to think about! And all of those thoughts are also part of the mechanism that keeps us “stuck” where we are and resisting changes. It has often been said that the only constant is life is change! Yet most of us find it difficult to change, especially when it takes us away from our routine, our conditioned ways of thinking. In actuality we’ve been changing our whole lives! Some of the changes...
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Just Relax!
Swami Ji, the OG
Just relax! I’m sure someone has said this to you at some point in your life! As if the ability to relax is like flipping a switch and something so easy you can just do it spontaneously at any time. When we were growing up, did anyone ever teach us how to relax? Do you know how even now? From my experience teaching yoga since 1995 and practicing yoga since the early 1980’s, I know that relaxation can be difficult to achieve, and few people have a method that supports them to become deeply relaxed. Today this podcast will have a brief introduction to the practice that I’ve done and taught...
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What Is Resilience and Why Do You Need It?
Swami Ji, the OG
Some think of it as endurance, but when I think of endurance, I think it means the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process without giving up. Or fortitude? Fortitude is courage in the face of pain or adversity. Indeed, both of these words can be a part of resilience, but don’t thoroughly encompass the whole concept. Resilience is the ability to bounce back quickly from difficult situations and actually thrive when faced with challenging circumstances! Some ways of thinking about resilience includes being tough, quick to recover, buoyant, irrepressible, adaptable, flexible and...
info_outlineThis episode will explore how yoga defines the mind and provide you with information to help you believe that you can manage the mind.
To do this
- Understand our thought patterns called samskaras
- Develop and focus our awareness
- Observe where our response is coming from – the root of the pattern
- Use yoga techniques such as meditation, yoga nidra, breathing techniques, slow & mindful asanas
- Practice, practice, practice
What are samskaras?
- A conditioned and automatic way of responding to the events of life around us, eg. anger, guilt or indecisiveness
- Subconscious process
- Samskaras decide your thoughts, behavior, pattern of perception, understanding, expression, reaction, everything
- Sum of our samskaras make up our personality, and we even define a person’s personality based on them – He’s an angry person, she’s indecisive
- We need to know about samskaras to understand some of the fundamental, underpinning concepts about yoga
Yoga Sutras
- Yoga is to be understood as a form of discipline
- My guru says it means “to tame the wild nature of the mind”
- Yoga is defined as stopping the pattern of the mind. Enlightenment, not for most of us. Rather it is a system of mind management where the subconscious patterns that continue to keep us stuck doing the same old things the same old way are stopped.
- Once the mind is managed, a person becomes the “seer” established in his or her own true nature - meaning that you can access your higher self, your more intuitive wisdom and be less influenced by the dramas of life. You will have the space needed to do that.
- If this is not practiced, one continually assumes the form of the patterns and they continue without change and keep getting sucked into those dramas
Consideration in Understanding the mind
- The mind is so preoccupied with thoughts about the past, the future, or some imaginary problem that we usually leave the day-to-day, moment-to-moment tasks to the subconscious.
- This becomes habitual.
- When the conscious mind is busy, we do not observe our own programmed subconscious behaviors.
- 95% of our decisions, actions, emotions, and behaviors are derived from the unobserved processing of the subconscious mind.
- Being unaware of our subconscious behaviors, we often perceive ourselves as being influenced only by external forces or see ourselves as victims of these circumstances.
- As victims we may fell that we are powerless to manifest our best intentions.
- Most powerful and influential programs in the subconscious mind are the ones that were recorded first during the formative period of our lives up to age six.
- Much of what we learned as a child, was based on misperceptions that may now be expressed as limiting beliefs.
- This keeps a lot of us from maximizing our potential.
- It has been estimated that over 40 million nerve impulses per second are interpreted by the subconscious mind.
- The prefontal cortex (the self-conscious mind) only processes about 40 nerve impulses per second.
- Subconscious mind 40 million – conscious mind 40?
- This means the subconscious mind is a million times more functional or powerful than the self-conscious mind.
- No wonder we “think” we are going to change, but then don’t.
- Additionally, psychologists estimate 70% of our thoughts are negative and redundant. Think about that one!
Now, by combining this information with yoga psychology, we will have a better understanding of how yoga can help us.
Sanskrit
Antar Karana – Inner Instrument
Manas
- Thinking mind, responds to sensory input for survival
- Measuring and judgemental
- Relates to thought and counter-thought
- Changes from moment to moment
- Continuously engaged with other parts of the mind
Ahamkara
- The sense of “I - ness”
- Ego as protector
Chitta
- consciousness
- The storehouse of past experiences
- Memory
- Substratum of mind and mental power
Buddhi
- ‘To know’
- True discernment, awareness and understanding – at higher levels
- Intellect & rational thought – at lower levels
Here’s an example of how these parts work together. You walk into the kitchen and find a chocolate cake on your counter -
- Manas: That round thing smells of chocolate
- Chitta: I remember, it’s cake!
- Ahamkara: “I” like cake
- Manas: I want cake, but cake is fattening, but it smells so good, a little piece won’t hurt, I haven’t had chocolate all week, etc.
- Buddhi: Is eating cake really the best thing to do right now?
Buddhi decides Yes or No
- Decides based on its strength from the input it receives
- If buddhi is influenced to act due to the continuous input of manas & ahamkara?
- The senses are always attended to without awareness
- The ego/I-ness is habituated into getting whatever it wants
- Then budhhi will use rational thought and decide a small piece is OK.
- If buddhi is influenced to connect with our inner sense of knowing based on strength of discernment and a better understanding of what our actions yield over time
- Has arisen by developing a depth of awareness
- A release of old patterns through mindfulness
- Having space to act rather than react
- Then buddhi will help us realize that cake is not leaving the planet and your desire for sugar is not necessary
Must practice mindfulness techniques such as meditation, yoga nidra, breathing practices.
Why Practice?
To purify the subconscious mind.
- In life, we accept positive thoughts & allow them to be expressed.
- Negative thoughts & feelings are pushed down into those subconscious layers of mind, adding to our samaskaras. Those patterns that keep us stuck.
- Vast accumulation of suppressed thoughts create tension, stress, chronic pain & unhappiness in life.
As we begin to practice yoga mindfully and cultivate our awareness there are many benefits that will be realized.
- Learn to witness the thoughts without reacting to them
- Allows subconscious thoughts and emotions to slowly be confronted and released in a therapeutic manner.
- Increases our resistance to external disturbances
- Mind becomes more tranquil and focused
- We can become more proactive and live with intentions. We become healthier, both physically and mentally
Please note that there are several practice episodes in Season One that can help you get started.