WARRIORS DO YOGA TO PREPARE THEMSELVES FOR BATTLE
Unleashing karmic garbage through the practice of yoga
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Using the discipline of yoga to prepare yourself for adversity
Yoga, like ballet, puts the body into unnatural positions, through our will, or the will of others (in the case of torture). The mind as well as the body revolts under the pressure until such time it surrenders.
If the body and/or mind fails to ‘surrender’ during the yoga session, the participant experiences a feeling of unease, fear and often disgust for having put one’s self into a position of forced compliance, without achieving effect. “If I’m going to force myself into doing something that is unnatural at least let me succeed at it”, your subconscious mind tells you. Thus, not achieving said compliance leaves one feeling inadequate, thus disturbed – also referred to as karmic garbage. Although professional yogis accept the garbage as inevitable, they don’t seem to know its source. Another more concrete explanation exists, which I will attempt to make clear.
To relax one’s body benefits both mind and body, but doing so is not required to get in touch with one’s soul or spirit. The soul actively engages you, whether your mind or body relaxes or not. Think back to your last crisis and tell me if your soul was out to lunch, floating on a pillow, telling you to ‘let go’ when your life abruptly turned upside down. I don’t think so. Your soul or spirit was on the front lines doing battle right along side you, directing your every move.
Nobody wants to relax during a crisis. Relaxing has its place, but not on the battle field of life. Being alert to subtle changes, aware of your environment including others, ready to assume the position of discomfort if need be is the state of mind that warriors take into battle, and the practice of yoga: assuming unnatural positions, while maintaining composure can help in preparing a warrior for those battles.
Paying attention to the task at hand, while opening channels – all channels – to receive information regarding one’s environment is to train your body and mind to conduct itself with discipline during times of stress. To put yourself into a stressful body contortion, stretching limbs beyond their function, then to expect yourself to relax under those conditions, and feel uplifted for having done it, is a bit masochistic. To relax during times of stress, may be a beneficial temporary time out solution, to refresh you for another battle, but no one can last more than thirty minutes without naturally coming out from the trance-like state once achieved. When forced beyond that limit, again, the body and mind rebel.
The floating of thoughts once considered tantamount to a yogi’s success can be beneficial up to a point of detrimental. Relax and float – but not endlessly. Humans cannot interpret endless, and so again, rebel at the suggestion to do it, feeling unease when floating beyond benefit.
Float to relax, then consciously channel your energy where you want it to go – straight to your to-do list. Give yourself your assignments and trust that if you are supposed to accomplish them, then you will without further pressure and in due time.
You put the leash on your karmic garbage by directing your life, not by letting go of it for somebody else to direct. By putting yourself into unnatural positions you trigger your alarm systems, just when you think you’re supposed to be relaxing, and then because confusion instead of peace and tranquility ensue, you call it garbage – only because you can’t explain why you feel punk when you’re supposed to feel high.
Using yoga to train yourself to find joy in situations of adversity, and by looking upon that endeavor as a warrior looks upon their strategy to win, you accomplish something quite different from the peace and tranquility you set out to capture. A plan is what you accomplish. Peace and tranquility elude captivity. You cannot capture them. But you can design a plan of action by learning to trust your own instincts and by accepting that you have the confidence to achieve our goals under adverse conditions. Forming a plan is ultimately more beneficial to you and those around you, than chasing an elusive feeling of peace. It’s like chasing a rainbow. Even if you find yourself right in the middle of one, you have no control over its direction. Yoga is not all about letting go; it’s all about controlling your thoughts, actions and choosing the paths you need to be on which are best suited to achieving your goals through the acknowledgement and practice of discipline.
Surrender to the discipline and not to an elusive karmic force that you know nothing about. Letting go can be beneficial when you know what you’re letting go of. Defining the goal is a function of discipline, not a willy nilly search for a good feeling. Recognize the source of the bad feeling you call karmic garbage. It’s not your life as everybody claims. It’s the confusion stemming from conflicting signals.
You put yourself in what your mind identifies as a perilous situation, then demand that your body relax through letting go of mental thought and all awareness of your surroundings, which should be used instead to instruct your body, not to ignore it by letting it take care of itself. That’s what you do all the time anyway. Why in yoga practice would you want to continue not paying attention to your body and the environment?
Focus on directing your own life.
If you want to give your life up to the universe, then you put yourself in a position of lockdown. The universe knows about weak links. It’s in a perpetual state of seeking them out. Any weakness it finds, it’s in it, on it, around it till the weak link succumbs to its will – like a snake and a mouse. It’s all about control – not letting go of control. If you need to let go of something, let go of the control you want to have over others. I wish he would do this I wish she would do that I wish they would treat me better. Dictatorial. I control only me. You don’t need a meaningless sound for a mantra. Who says? Make it mean something – something positive, something that will work for you, not the same thing that works for every other human creature. Why would you want that?
Surrender only to yourself. Then work on your warrior skills, knowing that when you place yourself in unnatural positions for extended periods of time, you will indeed feel unease, which will indeed reflect itself through an uncomfortable state of mind – unless you approach it as a warrior. Warriors use these practice situations to better prepare themselves for the discipline required in fighting any battle. Be your own warrior and you’ll gain the control you need through your own practice sessions.
The universe is not a loving place, so don’t offer yourself up to it expecting it to look favorably upon you. The universe doesn’t need nor want you as its slave. Change yourself and maybe the universe will take notice and take a spin with you.
FAT-FREE CHEF™ 