Sometimes…often…I can get caught up in wanting to correct the “wrongs” of the world. Like a professor with a red pen grading a paper…putting lines through pages and correcting spelling and reforming ideas.
I get very, very sad. It is one of my greatest struggles to accept what is.
Mel Robbins has a great book, The Let Them Theory. I own it in hardcover and audio book. I have not opened the book or turned on the audio book. I have plenty of reasons (excuses dressed up in fancy clothes) why I haven’t. I can justify it with my past and present experiences. Honestly, it is because I am afraid. I am afraid of the change…in me. I am attached to my outcome.
Aparigraha is the yama in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Aparigraha is non-greed, non-attachment and non-possessiveness. It is not only about possessions. It is also about beliefs, experiences and shoulds.
In the middle of the night, do you get trapped in the mind chaos of solving every problem in your life? Or perhaps what you should have said or should have done? Do you have an unpleasant experience before class and hold on to it through the practice? Do you hold on to the past or the future?
“I hold on to the fate I believe I have for myself…whether it is negative or positive.”
Emilie-Anne Samaroo
Or do you bring it to the mat to let that stuff go? This is the piece that leads to peace. Practicing aparigraha is something that I learn more about every day. Some days…I have it…others I don’t. It is in accepting that is part of the practice and perhaps a reflection of life as it moves each day.
“Nonattachment does not mean that we don’t care or that we somehow shut ourselves off from the pleasures and joy of life and each other. In fact, nonattachment frees us up to be immersed in appreciation of life and one another.”
― Deborah Adele, The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice
One of the parts of practice where I see people struggle with aparigraha is the practice of savasana. Savasana is a pose and a practice. The practice is at the end of class of silence and stillness.
I get more comments about savasana as a barrier to practice yoga than being not flexible!
If you have been to class lately, I cue the practice of savasana differently now. Not to fight against what savasana should be like, to allow it to be what it is! Maybe going through your grocery list in your head is exactly what you need! Let them! Let the thoughts, visions, stillness, tears, etc. be what they are. Can you get comfortable with being uncomfortable in savasana? Isn’t that the point of the practice??? When you bring something that is weighing heavy on you to the practice, you may get your inspired next step while in the practice of savasana or perhaps even a new way of experiencing any asana (pose.)
Now practicing aparigraha also does mean non-possessiveness to things as well. I am attached to many things that I believe represent a part of me…yarn…books…coffee mugs…family treasures. Things that are attached to how I see myself. It’s called identity clutter.
That leads to the next blog post when I begin writing about the niyamas.
Read more about the yamas in these blog posts.