Entering into 2023 (January 2023 Newsletter)
Photo Credit: Tai Pimputkar, taken in New Hampshire
We will not address the need for New Year resolutions. It’s not even a new year for everyone right now. It was, on the other hand, a holiday season for most. We celebrated for different reasons and in different ways. The end-result of most celebrations is food and gifts. If we are not thrilled with the gifts, find others who would like them or donate them. Let it not be the source of your discontent, sitting there, staring at you, making you unhappy. If too much good food was and continues to be a problem, remember it’s up to you to walk, run, exercise it off. Freeze the goodies and ration yourself to one a day.
It’s not so difficult to be content. Being mindful that life could be so much worse. Patanjali more than 4,000 years ago very succinctly stated in the Yoga Sutra 1.33:
The psyche can be calmed by cultivating as an object
friendliness, compassion, gladness and disinterest
within happiness, suffering, virtue and vice.
By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and ‘disregard’ toward the wicked, the scattered mind retains its undisturbed calmness. (Although the common translation is ‘disregard’ toward the wicked, I believe it would be more accurate to say ‘disinterested’ or ‘impartial’, i.e. not giving in to personal feelings of anger or disgust etc.)
How do we cultivate these feelings towards others on a consistent basis? The answer is to be found in the very next sutra, or aphorism. (An aphorism is a short and pithy 1 or 2 line verse where a word cannot be added or changed without changing the entire content and meaning.)
The next aphorism of the Yoga Sutra 1:34 reads:
Or, through both lengthening the exhale and holding out of the breath.
The word 'OR' doesn't mean that you can disregard Sutra 1.33. It really is saying that in addition to the acts performed, learn to meditate also. The way to focus our minds for meditation is through certain breathing practices. This is not pranayama or breathing techniques of a yoga practice. The first technique is the simplest and is similar to the one we do in class called anuloma. Try it.
Wash out your nostrils or use a neti pot. Lightly block off both nostrils just under the bridge of the nose with the middle finger and thumb of your right hand. Breathe in through the left nostril while lightly blocking off the right side. Make it a sharp, extended, deep inhale. Don’t hold. Exhale sharply through the same nostril three times Keep your body from jerking or moving. Make no noise while doing this practice. It is a silent breath. Repeat the breathing in the same way breathing through the other nostril. When you have completed three exhalations and three inhalations through the right nostril, bring your attention to the eyebrow center and take three normal breaths. This constitutes one complete cycle. After a week or so of regular practice, add another 3 complete cycles. If not for meditation, it might help you just calm down and reduce stress. Try it!
Namaste,
sipra