S
ometimes in life you can feel a little
stuck. Things simply aren’t flowing:
it feels like you’re not making
progress with your career, your love
life has been on standstill for a year (or 10)
or the money tap feels like it’s eternally
turned off no matter how hard you work.
Note the word “feels”. Sure, there may
be very real reasons for why you feel like
that but, fundamentally, the perception of
being stuck or trapped may be greater than
the reality. You mind gets “fixed” then your
actions follow suit. Or, you get paralysed and
can’t take action at all.
What you really need to do is see things
in a different way, to turn your thoughts
around or even upside-down.
In Yoga Sutra 1.2, Yogas chitta vritti
nirodha, Patanjali introduces the concept
of feeling stuck and how it originates in the
mind. Sitting on the clear, open channel
of your mind (pure consciousness), says
Patanjali, are whirlings or vrittis. These
vrittis are the endless thoughts you have.
The root vrt (to turn) implies there is
a rotational quality to these thoughts. They
go around and around until they are stuck
on a loop, preventing you from seeing
clearly and keeping an open mind.
The true nature of the mind is to be
completely open but your thoughts run in
circles, chasing their tails, until the mind
gets stuck in a closed circuit. This results
in anxiety, obsessive thoughts and getting
fixed in your thinking.
In order to change the way you think,
you need to break the circuit. Pranayama
practices can be a very powerful tool for
changing the way you think. They can be as
simple as taking three deep, slow, conscious
breaths. This is especially useful when you
are hooked on a thought that’s causing you
pain and provides a quick fix.
You might also like to engage some of
the stronger and more difficult pranayama
practices such as kapalabhati. Practise this
only if an experienced yoga teacher is guiding
you as it’s not appropriate for everyone.
Asana and other physical activities like
running or surfing are very effective at
breaking the circuit and bringing you outof the mind and back into the body. For
me, asana is magic and helps me to feel
embodied again. I know that, no matter how
I feel when I get on the mat, I’ll certainly feel
differently when I step off. I don’t know how it
works but I know for sure it does.Changing thoughts
In order to understand the nature of
thinking, notice your thoughts changing in
every moment. One moment you might be
in love with someone and the next moment
you cannot bear to be in the same room as
them. One day you think kale is the answer;
the next day it’s celery.
As you begin to understand the ever-
changing nature of your mind, you start to
lessen your grip. If your thoughts are always
changing, you can change your thoughts,
right? With that comes knowing that you can
change the way you think. From a scientific
perspective, this is why neuroplasticity,
or the ability of the brain’s neurons to
reorganise, has become such a hot topic.
“The brain is a far more open system than
we ever imagined,” wrote Norman Doidge,
“and nature has gone very far to help us
perceive and take in the world around us.
It has given us a brain that survives in
a changing world by changing itself.”
The most practical way to work with
changing your mind is through meditation
and asana. When you meditate, you
become a witness to your thoughts,
watching them as they arise and fall away.
You notice the way your mind whirls and
changes in any given moment. By getting
on the yoga mat to practise regularly, you
see how the body, mind and breath are
different every day. The practice teaches
you that the body mind and breath are
always changing; therefore you can change
your body, mind and breath.
Yoga Sutra 4.15 says that each person
perceives the same object in a different way.
For example, when a human sees a pen,
they see a writing instrument, but a dog
sees a chew toy and a toddler sees a magic
scribbling toy to destroy couches and walls.
You see things from your unique perspective
and so does everyone else.This is a good reminder to take the
blinkers off and keep an open mind.
Everyone is doing their best with what
they know, looking through the lenses of
their own individual experience. Once you
fully comprehend that you become more
compassionate and really listen to others.
Compassion softens everything; it softens the
hardest heart, offers more connectivity and
makes you receptive rather than defensive.
Instead of standing in your fixed beliefs, you
see things in a different way.Asana for an alternative
perspective
The asana practice is masterful at showing
you the world from alternate perspectives,
especially through inversions. An inversion
is any posture where the heart is above the
head. When you experience what it’s like to
turn the world upside-down on the mat, it’s
not so scary when it happens off the mat.
You’ve been there, you’ve experienced it, you
know what it’s like and you were OK.
Going upside-down physically allows
you to see things from a completely new
perspective. Inversions can be scary but, by
facing your fears and seeing things from
a completely different perspective in space,
you are more able to have an open mind.
Patanjali speaks to this idea of turning
things upside down in order to free the mind.
Yoga Sutra 2.33 says if you are disturbed by
disturbing thoughts, think of the opposite.
I engage this sutra a lot in my life,
especially when I’m feeling anxious about
something and my mind just won’t stop
fixating on a particular imagined outcome.
By turning it upside-down, thinking the
opposite, I can totally change the way I feel.
It won’t necessarily change the outcome but
it certainly preserves the serenity of the mind.
If you’re obsessed with a particular negative
thought, this is a very powerful way to change
the channel and discover new possibilities.
The yoga philosophy is not inviting you
to “fake it until you make it” or “turn your
frown upside-down”. Rather, it’s asking you
to use yoga to understand the changing
nature of the mind and in turn empower you
to change your mind.Yoga to change
your thinking
Hooked on a negative thought? Find out how yoga can help break unsupportive
thought patterns, reroute mental circuits and change the way you think.Wo rds RACHAEL COOPES Photography SARAH ANDRIJCICHbody
YOGA70 | wellbeing.com.au