Russells Astanga

I found the following quote/article very interesting.

“We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior,” lead author Eileen Luders, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, said in a statement. “The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why meditators have these exceptional abilities.”

Taken from; Meditation-may-lead-to-a-bigger-brain (www.upi.com)

Today I would like to discuss a little about my experience of how the regular sustained practice of yoga (any yogic technique, mediation and posture work for example), benefits our daily lives.  First we need to look at the effects of a yoga practice, which could be meditation or posture work (asana), and how that makes us feel. We can then continue on to how this effects our daily lives.

The practice is the seed of the fruit, the fruit lasts longer the more we foster the seed with regular sustained practice. It may help to bring a little yogic science/philosophy into this article, only a little mind. Lets introduce 3 qualities; laziness (inertia), very active, and, a balance or a transcending of the active and lazy qualities.  These three states are tamas (lethargy), rajas (activity) and satwic (lightness and awareness, balance and harmony), and are known collectively as the gunas.

When practicing yoga techniques (or equivalent ones in other traditions) I find my state of being changes. I find that I’m more calm, relaxed and aware which is satwic (lightness). I’m more in tune with myself and things take less effort. Emotionally I’m more stable, not that I’m an emotional sort of person, I’m not, it’s all relative. I also have more energy. These effects do wear off over time, but less so the more regular and sustained I am with my practice. Over time the quality of the experience and state of being attained in the practice increases and remains longer, essentially the state of being cultivated over many practice sessions becomes easier to attain and maintain. Each practice session is like a pulse, which helps the satwic qualities permeate your being.  Each day you generate more satwic qualities around the various aspects of your being. The practice sets up a rhythm that generates it’s own energy and vibe in your life, which sets the tone for you and how you are.

When regular practice is sustained over long enough time you will end up being established in your yoga practice. One way you will know this, is when you don’t practice, you notice your state of being becomes less than what you have become accustomed too, a degeneration of the rhythm and vibe. It is when you reach this level in practice that it is easier to practice than not to practice. Of course everything becomes easier the more we do it, and we will have found practicing becoming much easier while we are establishing our practice.

In my daily life I find my working day is easier, more productive and flows better. My relationships with people are enhanced and remaining calm in difficult situations becomes easier, more natural and spontaneous, therefore my actions become more appropriate to the situation and everybody wins. As the saying goes yoga is a win-win thing. Needless to say work isn’t the only aspect if my life that is positively enhanced

So it comes down to choosing how we want to live our lives, making choices. We can all say we don’t have time, or make up many excuses, or allow ourselves to become distracted. The bottom line is we modern western people have plenty of time, or at least the lucky majority seem too. How much TV, game playing or chatting on the phone do we do, not to mention other activities. Simply put most people do have time to incorporate regular practice. I think the real barrier in most cases is twofold; 1) not knowing a technique/teacher who can help us, and 2) the discipline to get on with it when we have a technique to use. Sure, I know there will be other reasons, but mostly I think they will be superficial reasons. I know there are exceptions, and this isn’t a blanket statement, but it has held true for most people I meet that are interested in developing a personal practice.

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers

Every moment you have is an experience, how you view the experience is possibly more important than the experience, although the experience is vitally important.

Make the best of everything you have that comes your way, and the people you know and meet along the way. Enjoy everything you can and humbly accept the rest.

Life is about understanding, transformation and embracing ourselves as we are in the world as it is. Starting from this point we move as we are into what we will become.

This is why I find the tools of yoga so practical the more I learn how to use them in my life. Harmony and balance, a dynamic interplay of forces, each force requiring a continuous re-adjustment to maintain balance.  Try balancing something on your finger, like a spoon and once you find the point of balance , you will notice it requires minimum effort to continually maintain it’s position. Yoga for me is about learning where this balance point is, and how to maintain it.

As we continually refine and hone our ability to develop and maintain this balance we release more energy, and effort becomes effortless, we can do as we need, thereby allowing us to make the most of who we are, how we are and what we can do becomes spontaneous and more enjoyable. We become less attached and less adverse to what comes our way, although we will still have likes, dislikes and opinions, we may see them for what they are, transitory interactions rippling through who we are. This process of course shows much about who we are, and this is why I like Swami Vivekenanda when he says “Experience is the only teacher we have”.

Yoga isn’t just about sitting or standing on a mat and putting your body in odd positions, although these are very powerful and effective. The yoga tradition has so many other tools available that it caters for people of all dispositions and backgrounds.

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers