Simple Yoga Blog

Yoga Sutras 2.30-2.34: Guidelines for reducing strain and struggle The yamas, niyamas and pratipaksha bhavana An efficient energy management system so that your energy is not generating more agitation but instead contributing to enhance the quality of your life.

Yoga Sutra 2.34 Abstaining from negativity and violence Do you engage in negative and violent thoughts, emotions or actions? Engaging in negativity and violence plants the seeds for future experiences that will be colored by suffering. How are your different systems affected by negativity? What ahppens when you turn around violent thoughts toward more uplifting and inspiring ones?

Yoga Sutra 2.33 Turning things around (pratipaksha bhavana) How are you turning your unhelpful tendencies around? What happens when you choose uplifting and helpful ways of being? By letting go of the pattern again and again, with gentle and patient persistence, you are developing a new, more helpful and uplifting pattern.

Yoga Sutra 2:32 Niyamas: Humility - ishvara pranidhana What happens when you set aside the illusion of control? Do you have complete command of your own body, mind, or emotions? What are the chances that you may be able to control the world outside of you? How do you respond to what cannot be changed or controlled?

Yoga Sutra 2.32 Niyamas: Wisdom - svadhyaya How well do you know yourself? Wisdom, understood as pure common sense, is instrumental to your most important duty: your wholehearted and open-minded participation in life’s perfection. How do your tendencies influence the quality of your life?

Yoga Sutra 2.32 Niyamas: Enthusiasm - tapas Tapas is an invitation to participate in every moment with passion and motivation. Tapas is the fire that helps us overcome our tendency to predict and to assume that we already know what will happen. Tapas is also the heat resulting from the friction or going against the grain of our habits. Concentration, another meaning of tapas, is necessary to notice if your habits are useful or harmful.

Yoga Sutra 2.32 Niyamas: Contentment - samtosha Do you find reasons to complain, or reasons to be content? What conditions are you putting on yourself, your life and others? What do you need in order to feel happy? Can the practice of gratitude open a door to contentment?

Yoga Sutra 2:30 Yamas: Abundance and simplicity - aparigraha The fact that you are alive confirms that at every point in your life, whatever you needed to move forward was within your reach. How much do I really need? To what extent does what I have contribute to enhance the quality of my life? What level of maintenance do my possessions require? Do I own what I have or does what I have own me? To what extent am I cultivating simplicity in my life?