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Fall 2000

NAMASTE,

Recently, I have had a couple of students come to my office to speak with me about problems they were having in their Yoga practice. This is not unusual. Students often have questions about how to structure their practice, how to deal with injuries, what to do in a pose, what a particular experience means, and so on. For me, encouraging and guiding a student's practice is one of the most important -- maybe the most important --parts of my job as a Yoga teacher. I try, therefore, to let my students know that I am available if they want to talk about any aspect of their practice. In one instance, a student came in who had encountered a series of injuries within the past several months -- some Yoga related and some not. Her first injury had occurred in her practice. She had struggled subsequently trying to figure out what to do, and just about the time her injury had begun to heal, she had been hurt in a non-Yoga accident. Now, while practicing and accommodating her second injury, she was beginning to experience pain altogether different from and seemingly unrelated to the first two injuries. Understandably, she was very frustrated.

The second student I spoke with had given birth recently to her second child. She had another young child in the house as well, and she was having difficulty finding time to practice her asanas (poses) and pranayama (breathing). She tearfully expressed to me her concern that she would lose what gains she felt she had made in her Yoga practice and that she would never move past the class level she was currently in. She felt she wasn't making any progress in her Yoga, and she, too, was frustrated and disappointed with herself.

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Frustration and disappointment seem to be the inevitable concomitants of any long term endeavor, even Yoga. Most all of us strive to make progress in our practice, and most all of us are frustrated when we run into snags that impede us. These bumps in the road can take many forms, from the ones I have already described to things like busy schedules, caring for friends and family members, a difficult practice environment, and on and on. But it is pretty near a sure thing that we will run into snags.

Why do we get frustrated and disappointed, though?

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These feelings are always related to the failure of events to turn out as planned or desired. Of course, if we didn't have some anticipated or desired outcome, then we wouldn't be frustrated or disappointed. Hey! That makes things simple. We just have to not want anything. And as all the Yogic texts advise, we simply give up any desire for the "fruits of our efforts", and then.....no problem! Wow! It is so easy. Well, maybe not. I mean, if we don't want anything, why practice Yoga in the first place? Really. Think about it. There are one or more reasons why you are practicing, or coming to class, or thinking about doing those things. You do have a goal or a desire of some sort that is motivating you. And if your movement toward that goal or desire is thwarted, being human, you are quite apt to get disappointed or frustrated.

Clearly the two students I spoke with had goals. For the first student who was injured, her goal had shifted from her initial motivation to healing her injuries. The second student's goal was to make progress. Who can argue with these goals: health and progress? We should work to heal our injuries, shouldn't we? Or at least try? Certainly we want to be as healthy as possible. And we want to continue to improve in our practice, don't we? Am I really saying that we shouldn't have any goals, even ones that obviously make sense such as these?

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No, I'm not. Goals in our Yoga practice are essential to provide motivation and direction. Health is a reasonable goal and an important aspect of Yoga, so much so that I made it one of the cornerstones in the Unity Woods logo. And progress is a necessary component of a Yoga practice, as well. Patanjali, often referred to as the "father of Yoga" for his contribution of the Yoga Sutra, specifically includes ill health and inability to make progress as obstacles in the path of the aspirant (I. 30). But disappointment and frustration are also obstacles. Patanjali states that contentment, which is not compatible with frustration or disappointment, is a key part of the practice of Yoga. With that in mind, the second corner of the triangle in the Unity Woods logo points toward serenity, which implies the lack of conflict and dissatisfaction.

The problem , it seems to me, lies not in having goals, but rather in the choice of goals and the priority of those goals. For instance, what does "make progress" mean in the context of Yoga? If we measure the value of our Yoga practice by the achievement of increasingly more difficult poses and advancing through higher levels of classes, we are doomed to disappointment. Our bodies are going to get older at some point (tomorrow), and eventually we are not going to be able to do Vrschikasana (Scorpion Pose) or Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III Pose). If we regard health as the deserved outcome of our practice, we are going to be shocked and frustrated when we and/or our teachers succumb to human frailty or karma and become ill. (It is interesting to note that quite a few of the great Yoga saints and teachers experienced major illness and disease, including cancer and stroke.) Very few of us will go through life without some sickness at some point.

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While good health and "progress" are important goals, they are, from a Yogic point of view, secondary goals. The point of attaining these goals, Yogically speaking, is not so much for their own sake, desirable as they may be. Instead, they serve a greater, overriding purpose: freeing ourselves from ignorance and realizing our true nature. We do this by being consciously present each and every moment, by paying attention. That is why "Awareness" sits atop the Unity Woods logo. It is the long term goal of Yoga practice relative to which every other goal is short term and subservient.

So when we get frustrated and disappointed at a particular turn of events, it may be helpful to stop for a moment and look at why we are experiencing these emotions and how they relate to the goals of our practice. Indeed, the very point of formal practice is to set aside time for the direct purpose of examining ourselves in the context of our overarching goals and making adjustments in light of that which is brought to awareness.

In our Fall discussion group, we'll take a look at the whole question of the purpose and meaning of Yoga in greater depth. I hope you'll join us on Sunday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m and enliven the conversation with your own questions, observations, and comments.

       

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