Yoga for Healthy Mind and Happy

Yoga for healthy mind and happy

Fifteen years ago I found my way into yoga through the physical practice of Hatha Yoga at Yoga School in Ukraine. As an athlete, I continued to practice because it was great for running and hiking. I felt big promises to come…a fab body, sleek muscles, flexibility, and amazing strength. What I failed to realize is that yoga really isn’t about training or the physical body. In yoga, practices are about focusing on and balancing the mind.

What is the mind?

If I asked you to point to your mind, you may throw a finger up to your head, but the mind is subtle and is located all over the entire body and beyond. It is headquartered in the heart, where it is known as citta in Sanskrit.

The citta is a part of the mind that tags along with us for many lifetimes, collecting a snapshot of every moment in our lives. It is also the carrier of karmas. Think of the citta as a DVR of your life, which someday may playback for you when you “see your life flashing in front of you.”

The mind located in the heart is the emotional mind. It sends information to the other two seats of mind, the gut, which gives us gut feelings and intuition, as well as the brain which is the intellectual service center. This is where sensory preception can be processed and choices made.

Mind, unlike the body, is very subtle, so that it is not limited in location and time. The mind can travel to the past, it can travel to beaches or mountains any time it likes. It can probably even travel to the very edges of the universe.

If you are completely still and listen very hard, your mind can go to that place of sound unstruck. And as far outward as it can stretch, so too can it go deeply within, to the most subtle of all places, to possibly experience the atman.

Why do yoga?

According to the most popular yoga text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, yoga is stilling the mind. That’s it. Four chapters all about how to still the mind and achieve the ultimate freedom. Takes less than an hour to chant this book. But its simplicity is not to be underappreciated. Healing the mind is one of the greatest pursuits one can embark on.

First, let’s look at the three qualities of the mind. It can be clear and peaceful, or moving and restless, or stagnant and dark. The word sattva is the Sanskrit word for mind, as well as the word for its native qualities. The mind originates in sattva, which is pure, truthful, wise, creative and free from passions. Having a sattvic mind allows us equanimity and protects us from overreacting to the ups and downs in life.

How do we fade from this beautiful, natural state of sattva? Desires and aversions. As we experience new things, we may crave to experience them again. Like a crème brulee, a first kiss, a roller coaster ride, or a swim in the ocean.

But what happens when you go to a restaurant and the new chef altered the recipe and you aren’t fond of the new crème brulee? There is suffering! And so the sattva begins to turn to rajas (movement, restlessness). As we begin to desire more of these sensory treats, the further we go into rajas and soon the mind is turning and peace is lost.

Aversions create the same imbalances. We have a negative experience and want to avoid any reruns. For example, I played raquetball and fully dislocated my shoulder. I am now apprehensive to play it anymore because I don’t want to revisit the hospital. If I were to schedule a game, I would suffer from anxiety, worry and fear before the event, causing…yes, suffering.

Rajas may at first be a temporary state from which the mind can easily bounce back to sattva, but the further we go down that path, the harder it is to get back to the center. Rajas is a necessary state of mind that allows us to work, move and get things done. It is the opposite of tamas, which is inertia and is what allows us to sleep and rest.

Tamas is the heaviest, darkest state of mind and it really is best not to get stuck in there! The easiest way to imagine tamas is that it is dark. When we want to sleep, we need to be able to enter tamas. So we turn out the lights. Think of going into a bar. They keep the lights low, and the air is quite stale and tamasic.

So we know that if the mind goes out of balance, or too far into rajas or tamas, that equanimity is lost and we will suffer. So we turn to yoga and use it as a practice for the mind and not for a sexier, stronger body. Although I would never complain about those benefits!

How do we build sattva?

First off, if you are truly interested in yoga, you probably already have plenty of sattva. Somebody who is completely rajasic or tamasic would not be interested in healing their mind, especially through spiritual practice like yoga. So fear not, you’re already halfway there!

We can build sattva through our behavior, our diet, and our routines. For right now, though, I’m going to just focus on yoga. Generally speaking, in Ayurveda, all diseases of the mind are treated the same. We need to shorten the distance of how far the mind reaches from sattva into the other imbalanced states.

We need all three states to happily exist, but if we get stuck way out there in rajas or tamas, the imbalance kicks in and soon we begin to see anxiety or depression, and as it worsens, full-on diseases can begin to take over the mind, like schizophrenia or bipolar.

We start with the yamas and niyamas of Patanjali’s ashtanga yoga. These are like the ten commandments and set a foundation for social ethics and personal upkeep. This is where we see behavior as a route for creating sattva…by not harming anything, being truthful, not stealing anything, using a moderation with pleasures, and not holding on to too much stuff.

Personally, we need to maintain purity in our bodies and actions, find contentment with our lives and conditions, be disciplined, self-reflect, and surrender to something grander. These are the first and second limbs of the eightfold path of yoga and are the most important practices available.

The next two practices for creating sattva are postures and breathwork. Asana is not to be confused with yoga therapy, as yoga therapy is meant for those who may be weak, sick, or need healing. Asana is a pose that is sthira-sukham, or stable with a sense of ease, and can be held for a long time.

Five breaths don’t do it justice. Asana is meant for stilling the mind so there is patience and discipline in each pose.

After completing an asana or yoga therapy practice, we jump into pranayama or breath control. These two limbs work on the physical and subtle bodies, but the breathwork goes deeper and is a much more effective tool for healing the mind since it resides in the subtle body.

There are breath practices for calming, energizing, cooling, heating, balancing, and rejuvenating. You can adjust the practices by which side of the nose you press on, or the ratio of inhaling length to exhale length, or by holds that you put in between.

I love using pranayama with clients because it is a physical practice that they can easily feel in their bodies, but more importantly, it teaches awareness of the mind and subtle body. When something is off, either mentally or energetically, it is now noticed and can be corrected with these powerful practices.

The fifth limb is the gateway limb, known as pratyahara, and takes us from these external, physical practices into the internal practices of the mind. Here we try to remove all sensory inputs so that we may begin our journey inward. One of the best practices here is chanting or Japa.

We focus the mind on our words so that we may bring the focus away from life, desires, aversions, activities and we start to become more present. Sound can cut through all of the clutter better than any other sensory input and can even be used in meditative practices.

Moving into the last three “internal” limbs, we move our yoga practice completely to the subtle realms and this is like mental medicine. We begin with dharana, or concentration, focusing the mind on one thing. Perhaps we gaze at a candle, or practice calligraphy, or learn Sanskrit or just sit and focus on an object in front of us, or even recite a verse in our head.

Once the mind is focused, we continue on to dhyana, or meditation, where we still focus on one object, but we are not so easily distracted by external noises or interruptions. And finally, we can ease into samadhi, where our attention on the object is so strong, that we literally become one with the object, fully knowing everything about it. I know I made that sound easy, but it’s not! Remember that discipline and passion for your practice are the best things to get you there.

Can I keep going to my yoga studio and get all of these benefits?

Yes! A yoga studio offers a great foundation to your practice. A great teacher is a must and will teach you about the yamas and niyamas during your classes. You will also be taught how to safely get into postures, how to breathe into them, how to hold them, and how to eventually go deeper. You may even spend the entire class doing poses that will allow you to do one big finale…an asana!

A great yoga teacher loves healing the subtle body too, so he/she understands the importance of steady, long breath and will remind you to “just breathe” during class. You may even be introduced to bandhas or energy locks.

Being a part of a studio also offers community and connection with other yogis…the opportunity to keep “good company”. Once a great relationship with a teacher is established, then going deeper by joining a yoga teacher training program is an option. Here the philosophy, language and mysteries of yoga will begin to be revealed.

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True health and happiness come from a balanced mind. Yoga is the best collection of tools for creating such harmony and peace. Not only does a daily yoga practice heal our minds and bodies, it creates a powerful collection of qualities that can change our lives forever…discipline, strength, courage, discernment, vitality, inspiration, contentment, and peace.

I welcome you to try some classes at our studio and experience what sattva and peace may look like for you!