Showing Up
One of the biggest lessons that I have learned from my long involvement with yoga is to show up! What do I mean? To be the best that I can be I cannot hide or make excuses! I cannot hide from my responsibilities even when I desperately want to do so. I cannot hide from my commitment to my guru. And even more difficult - I cannot hide from myself and my thoughts!
To progress on my spiritual path I have to show up and face all of my negative and positive qualities, all of my strengths and weaknesses, all of my fears. I have to live my life realizing that every thing that I do or do not do is no one's responsibility but my own.
In the Yoga Sutras, the two key methods to managing the "whirlpools" of the mind are abhyasa and vairagya. Abhyasa is described as a dedicated yoga practice, over a long period of time, with faith that change will come however slowly. Patanjali was not talking about getting your yoga mat out in the morning and doing a few asanas or a little meditation and then going on with your day forgetting all about yoga. In fact, abhyasa is the practice that must be done off the mat, cultivating the perspective of the witness to be able see our mind with objectivity and detachment. After all, if we only practice our yoga for 30-60 minutes in the morning, what are we practicing the other 23 hours in a day? Think about how your day is spent and realize how you are reacting and dealing with life is what you are actually spending the most time practicing! If you are frustrated, stressed out or dissipated, then you will get very good at these qualities if you devote so much time to them! And if you are practicing positivity, happiness and focus you will also begin to excel in these.
The other method, or the other wing of the bird that will help you fly is vairagya. Commonly defined as non-attachment, it truly means to work hard without attachment to the results. Most people expect so much of themselves and others. We are all so attached to what we do and what we think. There's a wonderful bumper sticker that says, "Don't believe everything you think!" This is an example of vairagya. Don't be attached to the stuff of your mind, especially emotions. Swami Niranjananananda has said the very word "emotion" should be thought of as E=energy + motion. We must learn to let emotions move through us without attachment. It's okay to be angry. Everyone gets angry sometimes. But learn to watch the anger and let it go. Don't hold onto it, touching it over and over with the mind, thinking it is a bad thing, that you are bad, or you will give it more energy and it may be released in a very forceful and hurtful way. Show up to your emotions, see them for what they are - energy + motion - and let them move through you.
Show up to your mind and learn how to accept every aspect of your being. This is a very advanced practice of yoga!