mantra for life Archives - yogawithpragya

Untying the Knots

October 9, 2015

A couple of weeks ago I had a student in Supta Baddhakonasana. That’s Lying Down Bound Fixed Angle Pose, a supine variation of a pose popularly called the ‘Butterfly Pose’.

As the relaxation came to a close, I gave the instruction to keep the eyes closed and to come out of the pose in the easiest and most comfortable way possible.

The student started to undo the belt binding his legs in the pose. He realized that he couldn’t reach far enough to actually undo the belt easily. He started to reach around and fumble with the belt a bit more. All the effort made him want to open his eyes, but he wasn’t going to not follow the instructions. Finally he managed to twist and turn enough to grab a hold of the buckle and wrest the belt off. Once done he sat upright and relaxed his tightly closed lids. Hmmmm….

Sometimes a student’s behaviour on the mat is highly indicative of his/her approach to real life. Does a student twitch and move a lot when relaxing? Post Savasana do they quickly jump up and run out to meet the rest of their day? Do they fall asleep during relaxation? In this case, the student had to complete his relaxation and face the real world. One which, at that point, literally had him up in knots.

When faced with sticky, frustrating, tight, claustrophobic, rigid etc situations, our first reaction is to fight for dear life. So we close our eyes tightly and twist and turn and try to grab that which we feel is smothering us and wrench it away from us. However, if you breathe deeply and instead of struggling, you work on accepting that you are in a bind (in this case quite literally), then you may have an easier time getting out of the unpleasant situation.

Someone once told me that you can consider roadblocks to be either problems or constraints. You can choose to dwell on your problems and try to (unsuccessfully) wish them away. Or you could think about how you can carry on with your life’s work with the existing constraints. I believe that changing your perception is all it takes to change your life, and this forms a huge part of that philosophy. So next time you’re in a conundrum, think, do you want this to be a problem, or do you want it to be a constraint.

The Supta Baddhakonasana is when you lie down on your back and keep your legs in this position.

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I Discovered a New Mantra

March 11, 2015

My days in Den Haag are super relaxed. My parents live in a quiet neighbourhood. There are forests all around our house so we frequently go for little hikes and walk through the forests when we go grocery shopping. When I arrived the winters were in full swing. Days were shorter and there was frost on the trees in the morning. The surface of the little lakes in the forest would be frozen. The weather has started to get warmer. But as I write this it looks like this outside:

When we woke up this morning everything was covered with a layer of frost. In a couple of hours the frost disappeared and there was mist rising through the trees. I’ve never seen this sort of thing before (at least not in real life), so I got really really really excited.

I’ve realized in the past few weeks that this is the first time since I went away to college that I’ve had so much time to spend with my parents. That’s close to 15 years. I’ve started to notice that there are many quirks we share despite living apart. I’ve started to notice good as well as not so good character traits we share. I’ve started to think a lot about the whole Nature vs Nurture debate.

Taking this time off has also helped me to appreciate things. When we go for our daily walks through the forest I see lots of fallen trees. And I see new shrubs growing all around them. People carve animals out of the stumps and make picnic tables that can be used in the summer. Similarly, life also has the ability to mould itself according to circumstances.

And I suppose that’s what life is all about. It’s not about wishing for things to change or waiting for better times. It’s about accepting what’s going on in life right now and working with what you’ve got. So instead of lamenting the fact that it’s getting more and more difficult to chase the sunrise, my parents and I spend time taking photos and planning the big move back to India.

Another mantra for life.

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