By JACCI GRUNINGER MS,C-IAYT, ERYT500
Los Alamos
“In Indian and yogic philosophy, samskaras are the mental impressions left by all thoughts, actions and intents that an individual has ever experienced. They can be thought of as psychological imprints. They are below the level of normal consciousness and are said to be the root of all impulses, as well as our innate dispositions. Through yogic practices, such as meditation, it is possible to look within and come into contact with one’s inner samskaras, below the threshold of consciousness…” Source: yogapedia
As yogis, we are looking for freedom from our habits. Maybe you are not a yogi but you want to break free from one or more habits. Our goal is to be present and non-reactive, to be able to say YES or NO.
“The yogi wants to get off the merry-go-round of cause and effect.” –BKS Iyengar
We want to let go of our ego mind and release that which keeps us trapped in past patterns or ruts. We want to better control our memory.
If you practice yoga, do you remember when you first started to practice yoga and what you learned about your body? Or, do you do another activity where you are able to learn about your body? Did you find your body moved in habitual ways?
Even today, my right foot/leg/hip has a mind of its own, always externally rotating slightly when I’m not paying attention or staying in the present with my practice. How about your breath? When the teacher asked you to breathe deep into your belly, did you notice any tension? Maybe even emotion?
I grew up thinking I was never thin enough (and am still working this old habit/pattern/way of thinking) and spent years sucking in my stomach to create a flatter belly.
The first time a yoga teacher asked me to inhale deeply and feel my lower belly expand, I not only felt panic but I couldn’t do it. And then, when she said place your hands on your belly and feel the movement, there was nothing. I’m surprised I ever went back to yoga. It took some time, but I eventually broke the habit of always sucking in my belly.
Asana, the word we use for posture in yoga, like Tadasana – Mountain Pose, actually means “to sit”. This hearkens back to the time of sitting in meditation. Today, a more modern interpretation would be “to sit with”. Your yoga teacher might often use phrases like: “sit with this feeling or sensation” or “sit with what you notice without trying to change it”.
Yoga is an opportunity to watch/sit with what is happening in this moment and the next and the next. There is no rush, no need to do anything. We can just watch and accept without trying to change it.
My tag line – “guiding students in compassion, patience, acceptance and permission” stems from this idea of “sitting with”. By being with our thoughts, feeling and emotions and watching them, we can create a sense of freedom.
The freedom we are looking for comes from the practice of awareness. Every yoga posture we do, pranayama we practice or time we sit on our cushion, is an opportunity to cultivate this awareness and to sit with/watch where our habits, thoughts, ideas and judgments come from.
“Threads we hold together that become a tangled mess” –Anne Dillard
Our mind holds onto our past experiences, our likes and dislikes and is constantly retrieving and feeding us information to make decision. If something feels uncomfortable, say a particular yoga posture, our mind feeds us a story and we respond in kind. Most probably we move away from the pose if it is uncomfortable. The sensation or thought we had gets translated as DUKKHA or suffering.
When we don’t like something or if a situation, person, or place causes us what we define as discomfort we lay down another tack in our mind confirming that assessment.
You might call this a habit or way of being. In yoga, we call these ways of being/doing samskaras.
Next week, we’ll explore a little more about samskaras and how they “run” our lives but how we can also change them.
