Yoga For Emotional Balance

Do you know the power of Ganesha?

It’s said that one day, Parvati wanted to take a bath, undisturbed. From the dirt on her body, she created a child. She asked the child to stand guard at the door of their home while she bathed.

Soon after, however, her husband Shiva returned home with his attendants. Ganesha, under instructions from his mother, refused to let him enter.

Shiva was outraged. After all, this was his home. He ordered his attendants to clear the way. In the scuffle that ensued with this small child, Ganesha’s head was cut clean off.

Hearing the disturbance, Parvati rose from the waters, dried herself off, got dressed, and came to see what the trouble was. Upon discovering what had happened, she was distraught.

Shiva did not quite know how to respond. He had just killed his own son.

It was decided that a search party would look to the north, and that the first head to be found would be placed on the child’s body to bring him back to life. This turned out to be the head of an elephant.

Ganesha, the pot-bellied, elephant-headed deity–who, by the way, has a mouse as his vehicle–now represents the clearing of obstacles. He is often chanted to at the beginning of an endeavour. He brings good luck. 

Ganesha Charanam Charanam Ganesha
Ganesha Charanam Charanam Ganesha
Charanam Charanam Charanam Ganesha
Ganesha Charanam Charnama Ganesha

Now, I’d like anyone to get up and demonstrate a pose to relieve emotional difficulties.

(Poses offered included balasana, vrksasana, and virabhadrasana I)

That’s good. There is actually no one pose to balance our emotions, to bring us to the natural state of inner tranquility. The potential is in all of them.

In fact, you’re in the pose now. Just sitting.

We are here today, however, to get some answers. To share in an experience.

The trouble is, what can we talk about that you don’t already know? You were born knowing this. It has always been in your heart.

Experience your own tender heart. That’s all any of us needs to do to relieve emotional distress. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to feel. Don’t be afraid to cry. And don’t be afraid to love. To love with passion. To love in stillness. To love like you’ve never loved before.

Just love. That’s all there is.

Sometimes, people choose to remain silent, because there’s nothing to say about this. The tender heart. It’s an experience. Taking refuge in the heart.

But, today, we’re going to try to talk about it.

Let’s start with the obvious. The body. We live thinking that we are this body. The one that we can see and feel. This body that sees and hears and smells and tastes and touches. The physical body.

The annamaya kosha. The part of our being that thrives on fresh and simple foods and pure water. The temple of our soul that we care for by cleaning and exercising it regularly.

This body is the obvious.

In addition to the physical body, however, there are subtle bodies. Collectively, these are known as the koshas. The five sheaths of the soul. Body. Breath. Mind. Wisdom. Bliss. The annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, and anandamaya koshas. We’re going to talk today in particular about the bodies of breath and emotional mind. The pranamaya and the manomaya koshas.

The breath body, or just the breath, is the bridge between our physical body and our emotions. It is through the breath that we can touch and release our pain. The pain that we’ve been holding inside for so long. We hold it tightly, because we’re afraid to feel it. Afraid to let it be what it is.

Don’t be afraid. Feel it now. Let the breath touch the heart. That’s how we can heal. Let the breath touch the heart.

It’s through this gentle breath that the asana experience can open us to our natural state of joy and freedom. Asana is initiated by the breath. The poses don’t come from the physical body. They come from the Source, deep within your own heart, and they manifest through the breath. The breath propels the poses. As this breath moves the physical body through the poses, it also allows our emotions to clear.

It’s important to recognize that we do manifest emotion in the physical body. The emotion that we feel doesn’t stay in the mind. Our muscles hold onto it.

Think of a difficulty now. Experience the way first the mind and then the body shifts.

We can, however, move through this. Literally. We move through it with the compassionate asana experience. Stretching and breathing without being afraid to feel. Knowing that we are in a safe space where whatever arises will be okay. Allowing body and mind to release.

Experience whatever is within you. What will each of us find? Who knows? That depends on our past experience. That depends on our mental tendencies.

What are the mental afflictions that we all share? Fear? Loneliness? Anger? Is there anyone here who hasn’t felt these kinds of feelings? These emotions that hold us back from living as the free beings that we truly are.

Take the time and space to offer them up. To let them go.

This workshop is about yoga for emotional balance, with an emphasis on balancing poses. Why do we pay special attention today to balancing poses today? Well, first, in order to balance we need to focus. The great sage Patanjali said that this is crucial to being liberated. Patanjali was not only a yogi. He was a medical doctor. He was an expert on how body and mind work together. In the Yoga Sutras, he speaks of ekagrata. Becoming one-pointed. Honing our concentration to calm the mind. Balancing poses hone our concentration. But that’s not all.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, when we try to balance, there’s this kind of clenching. We tighten up and we hold the breath, because maybe we’re afraid we’ll fall.

If you fall, you’ll stand back up again. In fact, it’s the holding back that actually makes it more difficult to balance. So, in balancing poses, we pay special attention to the breath as well. Allowing it to flow freely.

Just focus, breathe. These two together will take care of any trouble of mind.

When the idea for this workshop came to mind, I was thinking particularly of standing balances. They can be very grounding. A week or so ago, I started wondering, what if some of you were expecting to focus on a pose like pincha mayurasana?

And, then I thought, what is a balancing pose anyway? For some people, trikonasana is a balancing pose. Really, virabhadrasana I might be an exercise in balance.

In a sense, any of the yoga poses involves balance. So, we could focus on all of them. Or on one. It amounts to the same thing.

The answer today might be to focus on selected balancing poses and to integrate those into a well-balanced asana class. As we do forward bends, so we do backbends. As we do standing balances, so we do inversions. It’s important, even when we focus on one or two poses for balance, to allow the context of the entire experience to be balanced as well.

I’m going to share with you the balancing poses that have really helped me to balance emotionally. That’s the best anyone can do. To share from experience.

Anything that comes through another human being will be filtered by experience. And by the limitations of language to express what is really beyond words. That’s why you need to have direct realization.

You’ll discover in your own practice which poses work particularly well for your ayurvedic dosha—your unique and very special physical and emotional temperament. Do you tend to go out of balance through depression, feeling heavy and lethargic, feeling hopeless and despairing? Or is it through anxiety, losing your grounding and feeling scattered, exhausted by persistent worry? Maybe you live life on a roller coaster of ups and downs, never knowing what’s coming next, and yet knowing all too well…

What brings us into emotional balance depends on how we are out of balance. There can be, however, complete transcendence of your dosha. Of the ways in which you tend to go out of balance. Of your body type. Of your personality and mental tendencies.
 
If you focus and breathe, you’ll be liberated through any pose. On or off the mat. Through any experience.

Today, we’re going to talk particularly about vrksasana and kakasana. Coming back to what we said earlier, each pose is universal. One pose is enough to liberate you.

Vrksasana:

Vrksasana is an interesting pose, because it works particularly on balancing opposing flows of energy. The upward flow and the downward flow. The prana and apana vayus. It both grounds and lightens us. It integrates these two ways of feeling.

Then, if you think on a poetic level of the qualities of a tree, one thing that might be said is that a tree is steadfast. It stands still through any kind of weather. Perhaps the branches move about, but the trunk is sturdy. So, as we stand in vrksasana we manifest this quality of steadfastness, or stability. This ability to weather the storms and still stand strong.

Kakasana:

When I first started doing yoga, I was in a lot of emotional turmoil. I felt relaxed, supported, and uplifted in class, and for a while after class. Slowly, over time, the practice became a daily one, and the effects began to be cumulative. But, in the beginning, I needed something between yoga classes to keep me balanced.

Kakasana did this for me. If I felt upset, I would just get down on the scarred wooden floor of my studio apartment and lift myself up into kakasana. I would feel better immediately. That’s how powerful this pose can be.

Kakasana activates our core strength. Among other things it may do, kakasana clears the manipura chakra. The center of self-confidence. The balance between empowerment and humility. It brings us to the center of our being. And in Native American lore, the crow symbolizes wisdom. The wisdom of the elders. The pose cuts through emotion to bring the mind to a place of clarity and peace.

So vrksasana and kakasana.

Does anyone have questions before we begin the class?

Offered by Swamini Sri Lalitambika Devi at Integral Yoga NYC on Sunday, November 1, 2009.