The Single Greatest Mental Tool…
OFF THE MAT
Weekly Thought Offering:
When presented with disquieting thoughts or feelings cultivate an opposite, elevated attitude.
This is Pratipaksha Bhavana.
Yoga Sutras 2:33 Nischala Joy Devi
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When transgressions hinder, the weight of the imagination should be thrown to the opposite side.
Yoga Sutras 2:33 Charles Johnston Translation
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Weekly Journal Prompts:
My biggest disquieting thought right now is (feel free to make a list)
The exact opposite is…(make a list here too)
What Mr Johnston means by “the weight of the imagination” is…
Weekly Mantra:
Write your own!
From the above list you will see how easy it can be to customize your very own mantras given what you need in any given moment!
Hello Sadhakas!
If there was one OFF THE MAT gift, I could give everyone it would be the knowledge that you have the ability to change your mind. Our minds have been given free reign for so long we think they are us, but they are not. You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts, you are not your feelings. You are a divine being experiencing the mind, its thoughts, and having its feelings. The same way you can watch a movie, but you are not the movie. And just like you can turn off a movie and turn another on, so too can you turn off one thought and turn on another.
Cultivation of opposites is one way we can change the movie our mind is playing at any given moment. Ever get stuck watching a full-on anxiety flick or fear marathon in your own mind? Well, you’re not alone, but guess what? You can change it!
A simple way to practice this is to distill your greatest fear at the current moment into one single sentence. Write it down. Then write down the opposite thing and burn the fear thought. “I am afraid I am going to lose my house” becomes “My home is safe and strong” and then you repeat over and over to yourself as many times as needed. Even out loud and as loud as you need to in order to interrupt the negative movie and allow another to begin to play. Since the mind has a limited amount of focus you will naturally be draining your attention away from the mind’s horror movie and allowing that same focus to shift into a more positive space. This allows you to see solutions and ways to arrive at “My home us safe and strong” that you couldn’t see before because you were stuck in the rerun of “I am going to lose my house”. Also remember thoughts become things and worrying is like praying for what we don’t want. Flipping the script in your head is also a surefire way to help you not manifest exactly the thing you don't want.
ON THE MAT, in week 3 of our revolved balance we move our awareness to trying to maintain a neutral pelvis. BIG joint actions and the corresponding feelings of length and strength (that are required) want to pull our pelvis this way and that way. We are practicing moving our awareness to the opposite parts of the body and manifesting Pratipaksha Bhavana in our bodies to benefit our physical practice too!
With Great Respect and Love,
Nicole
