Sharing experiences and challenges with Yoga Philosophy, finding balance, peace and strengthening mental capabilities

#1

Hello,

I’m looking for people to share experiences and challenges with regarding yoga practice/philosophy and other ways of finding balance, peace and strengthening mental capabilities. I find yoga an excellent way for self-study and finding balance. I would like to share and hear experience from other people to find depth in yoga and meditation.

I’m just practicing yoga for a few years now. I started with yoga to help me control my emotions and finding peace through difficult times. I’m used to pushing and forcing myself in situations to get to an established goal. Although this pushing and forcing myself was helping me at the time, I forgot to listen to my body (and myself). The psychical problems I experienced caused me take another look at myself, trying to see what I was doing wrong. In an old bookcase I found a book about Aung San Suu Kyi and some of her colleagues. They spoke about ‘Freedom from fear’, I started playing with this concept. Before, fear was a big motivator, fear of not being able to protect the ones I loved, fear of not getting to a certain point in life. It took me a few years of playing with this concept before embracing it. For me, this meant doing the same things, wanting the same things in life as before but approaching this from a totally different prospective. I found this really challenging. In particular because this meant listing to myself, feeling mental pain (instead of ignoring it, and pushing this away). It has been a few year and I would like to further explore the concept of ‘ freedom from fear’ and yoga philosophy to strengthen myself and finding peace and balance.

Last year someone gave me a book about Yamas and Niyamas. Every month I try to pay more attention to one of the Yamas and Niyamas (Nonviolence, Truthfulness, Nonstealing, Nonexcess, Non possessiveness, Purity, Contentment, Self-Discipline, Self-Study & Surrender) as a way of exploring Yoga’s ethical practice.

I would like to get in touch with other people who are trying to find their way I Yoga Philosophy or other kinds of ways to find balance, peace and strengthening mental capabilities.

Kind regards,

Lucy

#3

Hello,

Thank you so much for starting dialogue on this topic. I definitely believe yoga has truly centered me and allowed me to find balance. I really like that you’ve turned to books as a way to help move you on your path to true centeredness and balance. Peace is truly a difficult things to achieve. I will definitely check out the books you mentioned as I have not previously those specifically. I typically tend to turn to inspirational quotes as a way to help guide me through and keep me going. Whether I write a mantra down or repeat it in my head, it always helps when I envision a comforting phrase or quote, especially one that pertains to yoga as I’ve often found it difficult to make time for my yoga routines. One quote from https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/peaceful-practice-10-inspirational-yoga-quotes that I found and I hope brings you some strength goes: “Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself.” As you said, previously you pushed aside your feelings, especially the painful ones. In order to be truly at peace, I believe you have to come to terms with yourself as you are. I hope this helps. :slight_smile: Thank you again for sharing and giving some awesome tips on books!

#4

Hi Audrey,
Thank you for your response! My apologies for my late response, it has been crazy busy these past weeks. I have turned to books to find some depth in the exercises that I do. At times, yoga can be very challenging for me because it requires my mind to be quiet. Even though there are a lot of yoga schools and teachers I find it hard to find someone that can guide me through these aspects of yoga. For me, yoga is so much more than just the physical exercise.
I find practising mantra’s very difficult. I don’t have a lot of things that trigger bad experiences and anger but for some reason the sounds of mantra’s has this effect on me. I don’t have this problem at all with other sounds or music. Maybe I’m a bit crazy but this reaction fascinates me because I’m trying to be open of new experiences and new beliefs. Maybe mantra’s aren’t for me but I would like to be open for the experience. Could you give me some advice?

Kind regards,

Lucy

#5

If you have not already, look at the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

I have not delved into this as much as I should form the perspective of Yoga, I have looked at similar things from the perspective of mostly Taoism, with a bit of Zen.

And if you will forgive the non-yoga practice and book suggestion “Finding the Still Point: by John Daido Loori” may be of interest.

I will look for the books you mentioned in your post, thank you

#6

Hello
Yoga of Pantajali or classic yoga have 8 limbs - Yama, Niyama, Asana, pranayama, prathyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi.
Yama and Niyama are the base of the yoga,without them u cant do asana. Without Yama, Niyama, Asana u cant practice pranayama…
Most of the people dont know about this. As i see here in western countries they do not know what is yoga in fact.
Is not a sport like other thinks, is a path to attain Divinity. So If u dont practice for God, than dont practice at all.Yoga is union with God.
Yama and Niyama are the ethics of yoga- do not lie, hate, anger, dont be proud, help anyoane u can without expecting something in return,
dont have fear, do not harm no one , including animals,share what u have with others, be happy, keep celibacy, vegetarian diet and pray or chant a mantra.
Asana are for meditation , but if u dont do first yama and niyama, u can spoil ur health in future.
U cant do pranayama without yama, niyama and asana. Pranayama requires celibacy, vegetarian diet. Pranayama is not a breathing exercise is the cleanse of nervous system
and if u have anger , or hate than will be bad for u. Prana is a cosmic energy within us , yama is exercise- prana is depleted when we love our partner, so if u dont have prana in u
why to do pranayama? if u are angry, or u hate pranayama will not be good for u.
YOGA is a living science. U must practice yoga all ur life, not sometime, or few months.
Sri Swami Sivananda used to say dettach, attach. Dettach from wordly life and attach to God. This is yoga,

#7

Hi, I totally agree nowadays most of the people treat yoga practice as an alternative of gym classes (and a lot of different forms of modern yoga are designed for that…).

I would like to point out one thing a lot of people don’t know. Which is Hatha yoga was invented a few centuries after Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. “Yoga” back then was referring to meditation practice. Asana in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is the posture of meditation. Not Hatha yoga asana.

Anyhow, please beware a lot of materials out there including books and websites have false information. My philosophy teacher always told us, “Only learn from direct translation, not someone’s interpretation.”