The art of staying undisturbed

Sutra 2.8 

DUHKHANUSAYI DVESAH 
 
Duhka = pain, anusayi= follows with, dveshah= aversion
Aversion is that which follows identification with painful experiences.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali



Fear, aversion and avoidance are strong negative feelings we sometimes (or often) come across in our yoga practice when faced with a challenging pose such as a deep back bend or an inversion. All of a sudden the peaceful, non reactive state of mind that you had a moment ago vanishes out the door as soon as the teacher tells you to bring your mats to the wall for some Adho Mucha Vrksasanas; Handstands. Sounds familiar?

Like me today in my lovely teacher Jenny Aurthur's class. I felt that my practice was steady and soft, I was peaceful, sharp and present. When transitioning from Downdog to the first Handstand however, my chill spirits left me and my busy monkey mind took over. Yes, I did get up, but for a moment the non reactive part of me disappeared and my deep, smooth breaths were suddenly non excising. By bringing my focus back to my breath however, the third time I went up my handstand felt like any other asana, just a shape I made my body take, and I managed again to keep my focus on the alignment points and my steady breath.

So how to stay undisturbed and non reactive when faced upon challenges, such as an inversion? That's were it gets interesting, and that's where the true core of yoga lays.

R. Freeman writes about this in his book The Mirror of Yoga;

"... In this process of yoga, feelings of extreme fear and avoidance often arise when we first encounter change, impermanence, and the deeply rooted patterns of feeling within the body.
[...] but as we continue to practice by inviting the mind to stay with whatever is arising, rather than grasping onto pleasant perceptions and rejecting those things we see as unpleasant, then the nectar of the practice unfolds as the mind dissolves into the core of the heart reveling the interconnected meta pattern, the matrix of all things." p.71

One of my other dear teachers, Carrie Owerko, often refers to our yoga class as a low stake environment, meaning that it's a great platform in which we can work on our fears, issues and anxieties so that we become better equipped to endure the even greater challenges in our lives; off our mats.

And that is one of the things that makes me love yoga and makes come back to my practice again and again, every day; All the asanas that we do, these shapes we put our bodies in, all the deep breathing , the focus, the presence, the meditation initially help us live better lives off our mats.