Lately I am very much into Yin Yoga.
I still love Kundalini Yoga, but I feel really drawn to receptive and restorative postures at the moment. To lean in and just be. Be with it all without resistance and stretching my comfort zone. I have a need to balance all the yang of day to life and I find peace and clarity in Yin yoga. It helps me stretch my boundaries in other ways (not better) than Kundalini yoga does. Kundalini taps more into my perseverance and Yin Yoga into my allowance of what is, my ability to just receive.
Insight and out
And I just had an insight on the yoga mat. One that probably everyone has, but I decided not to let that stop me from sharing. Even if it is just a reminder to myself that we have options and we decide how we react to life.
Pain is the name of the game of life
See pain is a part of life, of everyone’s life. It may not always seem this way as the grass is always greener, but we all get our fair share of crap. Pain is a part of life, and it comes in many forms, but we all experience disappointment, death, heartbreak, loss and illness to name but a few.
There are experiences in life we desire (Sukha) and experience we judge as being undesirable and avoided (Dukha) even though they are a part of life and cannot be avoided. So we better stop resisting.
Dukha (undesirable sensations) exists, now the suffering comes from having the belief that it should not exist. Most people just want life to be all Sukha. But we wouldn’t experience Sukha if Dukha didn’t exist. We would be oblivious to the gifts that Sukha brings as there would be no contrast.
Now I don’t want to glorify pain, but how we respond to Dukha is within our control. Suffering is optional…and so is happiness, you decide how you respond to Dukha. Suffering is drama that our minds adds to sensations we feel. We judge based on these sensations (desirable versus non desirable) and we react in a way of suffering instead of being with the sensation and deciding to focus on responding differently. We always have the option to respond differently. To take another approach. We are never to old to learn.
We can’t be happy all the time. Pain is a part of life.
But there is joy
Now joy is another energy altogether. Joy always exists and it is not something the mind creates such as happiness and suffering. Joy is always there, we just have to look out for it and notice. The blue sky is always there, even if it is hiding behind dark clouds. Always remember that glint of blue, focus on it and it will show itself fully again. Just be patient and get out of suffering. It is your mind, you decide.
Yoga really helps to lean into those feelings of Dukha for a while, to sit with it. Now you can sit with it and suffer and impatiently wait for it to be over and focussing on the uncomfortable sensations or you can choose to show up fully and know that this to shall pass and who knows you may even learn to love being comfortable in the uncomfortable. It feels great to stretch boundaries and to show up fully for yourself! Feel what there is to feel, don’t deny yourself that pleasure. That pleasure to really get to know yourself, for you are great and so so loved! And when you come out of the pose you will experience something greater than happiness, you will experience joy!
Remember choose joy. You decide how to respond. Suffering is optional.
I wish you joy and bliss,
Charissa xx
