We are human beings; which means that we
are full of wonderful emotions that constantly remind us of that fact. They can be strong, quick, fleeting,
lingering, mild, ferocious, amusing and scary. But whatever they are through
life’s twists and turns they are coming and there is nothing wrong with having
them, in fact we should have them, even when they are negative ones it is all
part of this life. But it is knowing
what to do with them or how to handle them that is important and how to turn
the negative ones to positive ones. How
to make anger turn to joy, fear to love, worry to freedom, grief to peace and
confusion into clarity. How do we clear
out those cobwebs of life to see a clearer more peaceful horizon? When we are talking in yogic terms then
actually the practice of Bhakti Yoga is key to learning how to master the
emotions, that of prayer, ritual, puja, visiting places of a spiritual nature,
spending time with a higher consciousness and chanting and singing within that
consciousness. However for some of us
those practices may seem far away or something that we may not want to discover
yet, so it is important to know the use of our yogic postures, where we work
with the body to achieve the same or similar results. Yogic asana or postures work on many
different levels, of course they are physical but they are also aligned to the
organs and energy channels within the body and this is where many of our
emotions congregate. For example we hold
a lot of our anger within the liver and kidney, fear we hold around the heart
and chest and anxiety can build within the stomach. Practicing our asana with the right intention
is a purification process for not only the physical body, but also that of the
emotions that lie within the mental layer of our existence.
Backbends allow us to embrace life, take
on life’s challenges and open our hearts to others and the world that surrounds
us. Backbends can be difficult allowing
us to overcome obstacles and fears, they can be confronting and can allow many
things to surface.
Twists can allow us to confront our anger
and the many knots that accumulate through life and allow us to start to untie
those knots or barriers within us.
Inversions give us the chance to look at
life differently and can bring calmness as sometimes they are showing us what
can not be seen from an upward point of view.
Balancing postures can bring clarity to a
confused or cloudy mind as they increase focus and concentration.
It is important not to suppress our
emotions but deal with them, yoga allows us to find a sense of contentment in
any given situation, it allows us to acknowledge the emotion and let it pass,
to accept it and then let it go, giving your internal self a spring clean of
all the cobwebs of the past. Hatha yoga
brings all these polarities into harmony all the negativities into positives,
the masculine and the feminine into balance, the sun and the moon within you
become closer together.
Acknowledge and let it go, here are four
postures that will help –
Ardha Matsyendrasan – the half spinal
twist
Turning anger into joy with this twisting
pose as it stimulates the liver and kidney and allows you to focus on the
exhalations imagining a cooling sensation for the mind with every out breath.
Ustrasan – camel pose
Turning fear into love, as we open the
chest and allow the heart to expand giving it more space, an invigorating
posture that re-energizes and allows us to confront.
Paschimothanasan – seated forward bend
Turning anxiety into freedom as this
posture calms the mind bringing a greater sense of security, soothing and
toning for the digestive system and rebalances through our whole energetic body
bringing fresh prana (vital life force) into the spinal column. According to
the Hatha Yoga Pradipika one of our classical textbooks on the light of yoga,
it is stated that this posture can remove all diseases. Great youth can be
gained from this pose, we can return to when we were children and anxiety was
less than when we grow older and life leaves its marks on us.
Shashankasan – child’s pose
Turning grief or sadness into peace as we
bring our forehead to the mat and feel the connection to the earth. All becomes safe as it puts the mind at ease
and into a receptive state and allows us to journey to the depths of our hearts
finding love, compassion and a sense of being nurtured.
Finding joy, love, freedom, and peace
through our journey with yoga, enjoy your practice,
Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu
May we all find balance and harmony
Om Shanti
Mangala / Nicky.
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