Many people practice yoga for physical reasons: chiseled abs, tights gluteus muscles and flexible hips. But what is even more powerful and not fully understood is how yoga can bring peace to our minds and emotions. Deeply embedded within the yoga postures, breathing , meditation and lifestyle parameters is an ancient system of psychology that focuses on freeing the mind for negative thoughts, emotions and continuous cycles of pain and suffering.
This yoga-psychological model offers several suggestions for liberating the mind from negativity:
1. Understanding that life is impermanent-According to yoga, we create our own dissatisfaction with the present moment because of our attachment to impermanent things that we falsely believe will bring up happiness. These include money, power, romantic relationships and even our physical bodies through the aging process. When we let go of these attachments, we learn contentment with what we have and understand that everything has a beginning and end.
2. True happiness lies within-Yoga teaches us that happiness is our true nature. We fail to experience happiness because of our ignorance of our own true nature. This ignorance is fed by false expectations, an unreal perception of the world and fear-led behavior.
3. Peace comes in every moment in the present-The tools of yoga and meditation teach us to be present in the moment. Being present means letting go of the past and releasing expectations about the future as well. We often live our lives pondering over things we could have done in the past or ways we'll make the future change our current state. These past and future states allow us to disregard what is unfolding in our lives the present moment.
4. Letting go of ego-Yoga teaches us to let go of our ego or sense of I-ness. Ego-based behavior is a combination of attitudes, beliefs and assumptions that create a false perception of what is happening in our lives. It is the ego that creates negatives thoughts, emotions and mal-adaptive behavior that can lead to poor coping skills and even manifestation of poor health due to stress.
Even when our perception is right about the toughness and challenges of everyday living, yoga reminds us that these conditions are only temporary and often minuscule in the big picture of what is happening.
As humans it is also natural to experience a wide range of thoughts and emotions from anger to joy to extreme dissatisfaction. Yoga teaches us to cope with life's challenges by not attaching to these temporary states of our minds. Like ocean waves, life's challenges come and go.
For more information on yoga and meditation, visit our happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training and meditation teacher certification programs at kcfitnesslink.com/yoga_teacher_training.html kcfitnesslink.com/yoga_teacher_training.html. KCFitnessLink is a registered school with the Yoga Alliance offering yoga instructor programs in yoga, yoga therapy, Thai massage yoga therapy, meditation and holistic health.
Darryl Olive, MBA, MHA, CSCS, E-RYT 500 is a 500 hour certified and registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance. He leads yoga teacher training workshops and is the director of programs for KCFitnessLink. For more information, visit kcfitnesslink.com/yoga_teacher_training.html kcfitnesslink.com/yoga_teacher_training.html, e-mail
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