Lately Ive been dealing with a multitude of life changes. While these changes are positive in many ways, being faced with so many at once have manifested some thoughts, feelings or situations which could be perceived as unpleasant. When faced with these, I used to think I could confront it or run - fight or flight, if you will. Neither sounded good. My yoga studies led me to the concept of Pratipaksha Bhavanam, or the contemplation of opposites meaning perhaps there was a third choice, rather than just fight or flight. This article states it clearly and concisely....read on! From LA Yoga: Most of us have felt hurt or angered by the harsh words or actions of others. We have experienced holding on to our pain, chewing it endlessly in our minds like a never ending one-sided argument. Or perhaps we have found fear, anger or stress welling up inside of us as a recurring reaction to the ups and downs of our daily lives. In our current time of great economic uncertainty, this anxiousness is more pervasive and profound. Millions of us end up in therapy or on antidepressants, leaving us less aware of our worries but also less aware of life in general. We are still out of balance, still aggravated, and now we are doped up as well. We might not feel our inner pain as sharply, but it is still there. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali offers us a simple yet profound solution to this syndrome that can be deeply transformative when put into action on a sustained basis. Vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam. “When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite [positive] ones should be thought of. This is pratipaksha bhavana.” ––Sutra 2.33 Pratipaksha means opposite and bhavana means contemplation or meditation. By cultivating an opposite or positive thought when we are in the throes of emotional turbulence, we pave the way for self-healing. Patanjali is simply asking us to replace anger with compassion, violent thoughts with peaceful ones, hate with love, and even to replace our general feelings of tension and stress with a sense of relaxation and contentment. While pratipaksha bhavana allows us to release our painful and destructive emotions and come to a higher place of awareness, any of us who have found ourselves in a state of deep anger or hurt know that shifting our feelings is much easier said than done. We actually become psychologically and neurologically habituated to these toxic emotions. Some of the ways we can practice pratipaksha bhavana include simply removing ourselves from a negative situation and finding a place where we can feel safe, peaceful and calm. We can then put the incident into perspective. Is it really the end of the world? Are we overreacting? Is it really worth all this suffering? We can sit for a few minutes and contemplate positive thoughts such as the beauty of nature, the life of a great sage or saint, or specifically focus on cultivating the opposite emotion of the one that has welled up inside of us. We also can explore what role we played in creating our drama, if it is a pattern in our lives, and how we might seek to react differently in the future.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 13:54:58 +0000
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