What’s on your happiness bucket list this year? I bet its not hard to make one! But what is hard is to find is a way of keeping unhappiness out of our year ahead. But don’t worry, yoga has the answers!
For starters here are three really basic hints from the wise yogis on what to avoid:
- Longing for something you don’t have
- Worrying you will lose what you treasure
- Missing it when it’s gone.
Usually these kinds of worries and stresses take up residence in the mind (which can either be our greatest friend or our greatest enemy). It’s like the dark side and the light side Luke!
Who would have thought that yoga asanas and breathing offer an tangible way to keep the mind’s dark cohorts… anxiety, worry and distress away. Who would think that just going along to a yoga asana class is going to help us to be happy? Well maybe it’s not that easy but at least it can steer us towards the light!
When we enter the yoga zone we are encouraged to put aside everything that has happened in the day or even before and everything that will happen in the future and stay totally present. We are asked not to compare ourselves to others and in fact to just totally accept where we are at today in terms of our flexibility, strength and stamina. Whatever we are experiencing in the here and now is totally how it should be for me in this moment.
As we cultivate this type of awareness, which is helped along by the calm steady yoga breathing and attention to the details and feeling of the pose, then gradually we can take that acceptance, that fortitude and resilience and the feeling of being in the present moment out into our everyday lives and at the very least find some peace and calmness amongst the storms of life.
Of course, peace and calmness are not all there is to happiness. We need to feel deeply fulfilled in our hearts and that is another story for another day but as a hint….try placing into your heart the yoga meditation which is always the finishing note of our ASMY asana classes.
Happy New Year Yogis!
By Vrndavan Dasi
Founder and Principal of Veda Yoga Teacher Training