By Kate Mandlik - Kate is a senior Yoga teacher and Course Co-ordinator at Yogapoint, she has been practicing & teaching yoga for last 15 years and has been initiated in to Karma Sannyasa (higher yoga initiation) by her Guru Swami Niranjananada. She teaches Yoga therapy and pre natal courses. Each time I come back to my home country I notice how unsatisfied people are becoming. I notice the increase in self centredness, maybe from fear, insecurity or desire, but what I notice the most is the lack of meaning and direction. Yes everyone can say I want a house, car, husband, wife, everyone likes to blame everyone and everything else for the reasons why they do not have ticks for all these things but ultimately there comes a point when we have to start looking at ourselves, really looking deep down. It’s not always pretty and it’s definitely not an easy task. But ultimately if we want to understand our purpose, to find some meaning and to be happy and satisfied in life we need to know who we are. According to yoga philosophy the purpose of life is self-realisation and to achieve unity. But most people find this a little too out of their reach and not a concept that is easy to grab onto. I prefer Swami Niranjan’s view. Though he says ultimately we want to achieve self-realisation he says that we should aim to be the best person we can be, in all aspects of our lives, at all times. Whatever work we do, we should do it 100%, if we are a husband, wife, mother, son, chef, banker, cleaner, whatever roles we have in life we should try to fulfil them to the best of our abilities. Discovering what is suitable and right for us is another matter and where yoga can help. Yoga is all about looking inside and understanding the mind. There are so many different techniques for this but I am going to expand on a few that can help us understand ourselves, what we want and how we can find that longed after purpose. Spiritual diary These are different from regular diaries. It’s not about writing reams of words, it’s a way to help you analyse the day, your thoughts, feelings and so on. Usually it involves particular questions that one asks oneself each day, to improve oneself. Examples of questions can be - - How much yoga practice did I do today?– asana, pranayama, yoga nidra, meditation, chanting. How did I feel, if not why didn’t I do it.
- How much silent time did I have? For reflection. Many times we cannot deal with having silent time because we cannot deal with ourselves, instead we need tv, music, internet, friends, we can’t just be our own self.
- Karma yoga – ask yourself if you did any today and how did it make you feel? Anyone who has studied yoga understands the importance of karma yoga and how it is one of the best ways of achieving happiness.
- Relationships with others – did I help them, was I angry with them? Did I feel love for them?
- Emotions – did I feel any strong emotions today? Positive or negative? What were they and why? Anger, desire, fear, anxiety, jealousy.
- Did I do anything I consider wrong such as lying, cheating, stealing, fighting, complaining?
- Did any special event happen today? How did it make me feel?
The best way is to make a chart and fill out the chart each day, having space to add anything else that you feel should be noted. In this way you can look back on the chart and see if there are any patterns, common problems or things to change. SWAN The SWAN principle was formulated by Swami Niranjanananda and is a tool to develop and expand our awareness and personality. It helps us to understand our mind and to learn how to balance all the aspects of our lives. SWAN stands for strengths, weakness, ambitions and needs. To do a SWAN take a piece of paper, divide it into four and start writing down under each of these four headings. Remember you have to be honest with yourself here, this piece of paper is for no one but yourself. Strengths are skills, qualities are so on which help us to grow and positively affect our lives. Examples are caring, patience, good health, motivated. Weaknesses are those aspects that bring us down, our limitations, our negative qualities. Examples are jealousy, anger, lazy. It’s important that when we write down our weaknesses we write just as many, or more strengths. We all have strengths! Next are ambitions, what we want in life. Again, be honest here. The ambitions may be realistic or fantasy, whatever they are, put them down. Examples may be that you want to start teaching yoga, buy a house, learn French or change your job. Needs are the reality check. Needs are what is actually necessary for you to live, such as the basics of food and shelter, then love, stability and so on. Once you have written down all of these ask yourself a little more. What strengths and weaknesses do you want to develop? What strengths can help you to overcome particular weaknesses? Which strengths support your ambitions and needs? What is not helping you to fulfill your needs? Are your ambitions practical and realistic? How can you achieve your ambitions and what do you need to work on? SWAN can be practiced daily, weekly or monthly. We can make a SWAN for our life in general or for particular aspects of our lives such as yoga practice, work, relationships and so on. It can be useful to work on one strength and weakness at a time, say for a month, and observe the change. Silence This we looked at in the spiritual diary. It is an important yogic technique followed in all yoga ashrams. But it should not be used only in an ashram but in daily life as well. Having some silent time each day will allow us to start focusing inwards, to start observing the mind, as a witness, not a participator. Watching TV, reading a book or listening to music is not silence, it’s a way to escape the mind, to avoid looking in. Unfortunately many of us have lost that interest to look in. We prefer to pretend that we are happy, satisfied, balanced, if we are honest with ourselves we are actually too scared to look inside, in case we find something we don’t like. True silence allows this introversion very fast and is why it is so important to practice. There are many ways one can incorporate silence into our lives, though we need to adapt depending on our lifestyle and living circumstances. Early morning is a nice time to have silent time for ourselves, especially if it’s when we do our yoga practice. Some meditation before starting the day, even to help us plan how we want our day to be, what we want to achieve and how we want to feel. Silence during meals is another that you may be able to put into practice in your home. Going for silent walks is a way to have some exercise and silence. Silent meditation before bed will help one to go through the day mentally, as a witness and to sleep without any distractions. Ashram Living It is always recommended that yoga practitioners spend at least one week, ideally a month of every year, living in an ashram. An ashram is a place where people come to learn, in a spiritually charged place, how to understand themselves and their lives to a deeper level. The energy of an ashram cleanses and purifies a person, making it easier to look inside, whether we want to or not! Many different aspects of our personalities start to come to the surface when we stay in an ashram, both good and bad, but all positive in that they have a cleansing effect. Ashrams focus on simple living and turn our attention away from the material and sensual desires, as well as other distractions, allowing us to focus and concentrate internally and to strengthen our resolves. They are not places to run away to but are instead places to confront ourselves. Through understand ourselves we can understand others and the world. Ashrams help us to learn the techniques for living positively in the world and making the most out of our lives. Living in the Moment – A New Year every day! We all have a tendency to just plod along with life at some point. We often make resolutions during the new year but forget them as quickly as they were made. By having a spiritual diary or making our own SWANs we can start to appreciate each day and make the most of our time on this planet. We can start to understand our inner workings and gain more motivation for life. Once we have found meaning and purpose in our lives it gives us inner strength, faith and determination. It helps us during the difficult times, motivates us during the dull times and gives sparkle, excitement and joy to our lives. | |
