One takeaway from the Yoga Philosophy? It’s got to be this one!
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All Yoga philosophy has a common goal, which is, in a very simplistic way, establishing unconditional peace of mind, along with many different concepts helping us on our way.
Today, I am introducing the one statement that impacted me the most. It is not a concept but one message encased within Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in its second chapter, sutra 16.
Heyam Dukham Anagaatam
Pain that has not yet come is avoidable.
When we understand the reverberation of this statement, it has got to hit us head-on; anyone independent of a Yoga practitioner, meditator or otherwise.
In this blog post, I aim to bring this statement closer to your heart for you to take action.
What does ‘avoiding pain that hasn’t come’ mean?
All Yoga philosophy helps us to make our lives purposeful. The Yoga Sutras encourage us to peel away the layers of the entirety of our experiences in this life, covering our true being to eventually become free, content and still.
The Bhagavad Gita introduces different paths we can follow according to our abilities; we can devote our lives to do, understanding, and love.
If our life is without purpose, we get lost and disconnected; this equals pain and suffering.
You might say, I’m sorry, but I am not a soul searcher. I practise Yoga only for my tummy to be less wobbly or my shoulders to be less tight; otherwise, I have no pain.
Let’s explore how this might still be relevant to you.
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Why is avoiding pain important?
On a physical level
To be honest, the vast majority of us don’t enjoy pain. So, naturally, we do our utmost to avoid what we don’t like, even more pain. And ultimately, this is what Yoga and Ayurveda are about and where they meet.
Looking back to instructional Yoga literature such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a medieval scripture, suggested Yoga asanas, and postures, are for their benefit to our health.
Most postures benefit our digestion, such as the twisted seat, Ardha Matsyendrasana, or flatten the wobbly belly, like Pashimottanasana, igniting our digestive fire, such as Savasana, corpse pose, our usual relaxation pose, is practised in order to remove fatigues and provides rest and peace of mind.
In my asana-based blog posts, I often cite the Yoga Makaranda, which is full of health benefits for all the postures we practise today in our Yoga sessions, triangle pose, side angle pose, the warriors, all of them.
We practise Yoga posture to become healthy, flexible and resilient. And once we have experienced their powerful benefits, we keep practising them to stay healthy. So we have tasted and enjoyed feeling better, more energetic, and calmer.
Breathing exercises are equally beneficial. As mentioned in one of my recent blog posts regarding spring-related congestions, they rid us of phlegm-related illnesses.
Ayurveda, Yoga’s sister science, is both curative and primarily preventative.
Ayurveda’s aim is for us to live a long and fulfilled life and stay healthy and energetic until we leave this life here and this body or ours.
All recommendations on what to eat through the different seasons, how to live according to our constitution, and all seasonal cleanses have the purpose of making or keeping us healthy.
Ayurveda looks and prepares the step ahead, preparing us for the next phase of life to stay healthy and enjoy.
Ayurveda acknowledges that all illnesses are an accumulation of decisions that we have made which weren’t beneficial for us, such as eating food that does not agree with our constitution or is not suitable for the season.
For example, we have too much heat in our bodies and continue eating spicy food, drinking regular coffee and/or alcohol, and eating late at night. In that case, we end up with heartburn, a sign that the acidity levels are rising.
Suppose we continue ignoring the warning signs and resorting to antiacids rather than changing our diet. In that case, eventually, we will end up with gastritis, followed by stomach ulcers.
Pain that hasn’t yet come is avoidable by changing our diet and lifestyle to eating food with cooling qualities and eating earlier.
Equally, staying with the spring congestion, eating Kapha-increasing food items, such as dairy, food of sweet taste, such as root vegetables, milk, butter, and cakes, combined with an affinity to increasing Kapha dosha we end up with sinus congestion, sinusitis, chest congestion, phlegm, swellings etc.
Pain that hasn’t yet come is avoidable by changing our diet and lifestyle by eating more bitter, pungent, astringent tastes and turning to an active lifestyle.
Avoiding pain on a mental level
The physical level is clear to us as we feel the pain and discomfort, and we can join the pieces together. What this shows, though, is that WE need to initiate the change. Nobody else can do it for us; we need to take charge.
The mental level is subtler and trickier. So, we should start peeling the said layers away. But, again, this is something that we need to do individually for ourselves.
Mental discomfort or pain often relates to childhood patterns. Coping mechanisms we have created as children to deal with, for example, situations as simple as being told off or not being praised enough, could translate into ending up in the same kind of relationships that are not beneficial to us.
Being overlooked for promotions.
Always doing the work.
Always saying Yes to something that we promised ourselves not to repeat.
Sounds familiar?
We might not necessarily be in physical pain, but we are not happy, not content with our situation; we are in pain. This can result in behavioural patterns such as retreating, getting angry, frustrated, and lashing out; people around us have no clue what’s happening.
Just as the acidity accumulates in our stomach and gives us pain, so does repeatedly ending up in the same situation. It undermines our self-esteem, motivation, and confidence.
Seeking out to understand why this is happening TO us makes us eventually aware that these situations happen FOR us to bring change, to allow ourselves to let go of patterns that we have outgrown and don’t serve us any longer.
Breaking through these patterns is avoiding the pain of repeating them again and again.
Einstein called it: Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
The silver lining is that it is on us to change. At first glance, this is hard work. But, still, we should see it as a blessing because we don’t rely on others to finally be in a nurturing relationship, to eventually get promoted or change the job as we are not valued, as we are valuing ourselves.
Here are some easily implementable Strategies
It is that easy, but at the same time, pretty tricky.
Changing patterns and taking charge requires patience and determination. As Patanjali states, abhyasa and vairagya consistency in practice, independent of the outcome or timeframe or to say it with the catchy phrase of Nike’s Just Do It. This is one of the transformation concepts of Yoga.
Further on, the Yoga Sutra recommend that we embark on the 8 limbs of Yoga, the outer and inner disciplines, practising Yoga postures, breathing exercises, bringing the senses inward, concentration, meditation and becoming one with our object of focus.
9 easy Steps towards avoiding Future Pain!
First, we need to identify our pain, physical or mental. By identifying and acknowledging this, we can start taking charge.
With slow and steady steps, we bring change. Try the following:
Whatever you do: Be Kind to yourself 😊
Get up by 6 am.
Drink a glass of hot water first and continue sipping hot water throughout the day.
Practise 3 Salut to the Sun daily.
Eat a proper lunch.
Take a rest.
Eat dinner as early as possible.
Before you go to bed, practise 10 min of deep belly breathing.
Go to bed by 10 pm.
Slowly establish the above steps with consistency and patience. Always fall back to the first one if in any doubt. After 2 weeks of sticking to the schedule, you will see changes happening.
Celebrate every minute change, and praise yourself daily (my teacher created a ‘well-done’ morning exercise for us to pat ourselves on the back every day because we can’t wait for others to do so) for taking action; even imperfect actions are significant actions. Notice subtle shifts and how one leads to another, propelling yourself in the right direction.
Conclusion
We all experience pain as a natural part of our life. But, clearly, there is pain that we can’t influence, accidences happen, natural disasters occur, Covid happen, etc.
However, there is pain that we can avoid. The way we pick ourselves up again after these events, instead of seeing ourselves as victims, we start taking actions catapulting us out of difficult or unwanted situations.
This is probably the most important takeaway:
Start acting, map out your future, and make it happen.
And, taking action does not equate to being alone in it; book yourself a free 20 min consultation with me to give you some ideas on what actions you could take and changes you could implement.
Enjoy trying these strategies and please let me know on Instagram, Facebook or even good-old email how you are getting on or any questions that might pop up.
I love hearing from you!
Katja x
