Why Relax the Mind?
Recently I’ve been thinking about a phrase that sums up “what I do”. And I kept coming back to Relax The Mind. Everything I do has the goal of Relax the Mind. Every Yoga Class I teach is ultimately about relaxing the mind. The work we do in our Vedic Healing Sessions is working with overall health and lifestyle, yet ultimately about Relaxing the Mind. Vedic Astrology Sessions are about learning your mind, knowing and remembering your self, remembering who you are, that has the effect of relaxing your mind.
Yoga Sutra 1.2: Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodha - Yoga is the calming of the fluctuations fo the mind
Well that’s just lovely, right? I want that! …we all might say. This is just the beginning of The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, one of the prominent texts about the philosophy and practice of Yoga. The second Sutra of Chapter 1 out of 4. One Sutra (short sentence or phrase) out of 195 in total. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali details out the psychology of the mind, how to practice, what happens to us when we practice, and how the soul can be liberated through all of this. The Yoga Sutras alone is a text that we could spend a lifetime understanding, contemplating, and practicing. If that is the case, then why might we think it’s so easy to just “Relax the Mind”? ~ I’m going to take a yoga class this week because I need it and I will feel better afterwards, we all say. And then maybe we don’t take another class for a month because we’ve been TOO BUSY. Then we take another class and remember, ah I feel better, I should do this more often. And then another month goes by and the cycle repeats. Alternatively, we may take a weekly or even daily yoga class. Ok, feeling a bit better. The more I practice the better I feel. Or perhaps we have our own daily practice, it might be physical, it might be more meditative or subtle, and maybe we’re getting a bit “closer” to living in this Relaxed Mind State. But then life happens and our mind throws us right back into chaos. And we are reminded of this vicious cycle that we can’t seem to get ahold of. My mind is just driving me crazy! It’s a lot.
And for some reason, I have chosen to make this my life’s work. I had never intended to make this my life’s work. I’ve had many iterations of “careers” before this one. Even when I first started practicing yoga, I didn’t really “get” it. Many of us did not. This is mentioned in the Yoga texts as well. They say that you begin to understand Yoga once you have the experience of Yoga. (Mind blown) How can I have the experience of Yoga, you ask? There are many ways. It could be through a class, a meditation, a mantra practice. It could be during a regular situation in daily life. It could be a special connection in nature. It could be a lightbulb moment in the shower. There are many ways! But for me, for example, once I began to have these “experiences of yoga”, I of course wanted more. So I started really diving in. I practiced a lot. I started reading different books. I had to know, what is this practice all about, and why do I feel more like myself through this practice? So I went through a Yoga Teacher Training, not because I wanted to teach, but because I wanted to learn more. Then through Yoga I found Ayurveda, and that helped me to feel even more connected to myself, I gained deeper understanding. And years later, I found Jyotisha, and even more lightbulbs went off. Yes, this is also it!
For me, it wasn’t just enough to learn this from others and practice for myself. It wasn’t enough to apply all of this knowledge in my own life and keep it to myself. (And let’s be clear, none of this ‘years of practice’ means I have it all figured out in general and for myself. I probably never will. But I’m getting closer.) I have been studying and practicing these things for a long time. And my constant need and urge is to share when I have something amazing that I know can help others. I am a natural teacher and I love to share. I also know that all of this knowledge and all of these lessons are quite deep and it does take a lifetime (or more) to really understand all of it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try and apply it, even if we only know a little. So this is what I continue to contemplate. You might end up like me and have this thirst for knowledge and understanding and decide to study and take a million (not exactly a million) trainings and classes learning Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotisha, Samkhya philosophy and Sanskrit and such to just try and make sense of it all. Or perhaps you already have an inner knowing and don’t need any of that. Maybe it’s just me! But clearly, I have chosen to make all of this a lifelong study. But what is the purpose?
I’m always asking myself, what is the purpose in all of this? What is the purpose of my life and all of our lives? I believe in the outer world it’s LOVE! That’s my simple answer. Just let me know how easy it is to know that and be in that constantly through your daily life, wink wink. So the way I continue to get closer to that love, is to connect with my soul and try my best to live through my soul’s purpose. And that’s why I believe it’s important to Relax The Mind ~ It’s to Connect With Your Soul! Oh, The Yoga Sutras says it too…
Yoga Sutra 1.3: Tada Drastuh Svarupe Vasthanam - Then the Seer resides in its own true nature
But what is the soul? We can define it in many ways, I suppose. But the way I like to describe it is the part of you, of all us, that is unchanging. The soul has nothing to do with the way we look, or what our outer world accomplishments may be. The soul has nothing to do with what others think of us. The soul also has nothing to do with the chaotic mind. The soul is our inner light, the part of us that will never change, the part of us that no one can ever take away. And when we practice or learn to connect with our soul, our true nature, we are ultimately guided by truth. For me, this is the ultimate goal. I want to be guided by the deepest part of myself. And I know I cannot do that when my chaotic mind is in the way.
This is why I practice, for myself, to connect with my soul, my true nature. This is why I teach, to help others do the same. I teach and share because I MUST. I feel that it is part of my soul’s journey to share all of these incredible teachings and this wisdom. And I do my best to distill it in a way that makes it accessible to even the Beginner. And that leads me to the very first Yoga Sutra…
Yoga Sutra 1.1: Atha Yoga Anushasanam - Now We Begin the Practice of Yoga