Change
Change. Pariņāma. It happens all the time. Some is gradual and some is sudden. At our core, we are all the same but our outside influences change us and that’s what makes us different. Different from each other, and different from ourselves over time. Being resistant to change will only cause problems because it’s inevitable. So we must learn to be flexible and move with the change, while keeping our inner light of awareness – our peruşa – ever constant.
I’ve been going through the Yoga Sutras slowly but surely over the past few months. It’s going so slow because I’m reading each one and journaling about it, usually creating a yoga class around it, and letting each one manifest itself in me for several days or more. I’ve been off the blog for a LONG time and since then, I’ve experienced a TON of change. I’ve been wanting to get back here for a while now and I’ve had resistance. But today, as I was reading and journaling about Pariņāma, I decided this was the perfect first entry back. I taught a class around this earlier this morning and I'm finally ready to write. We moved a lot – never holding any sequenced pose for more than a breath or two and we kept noticing our bodies change.
The timing is perfect (and if you pay close attention, it almost always is) but I was reading about Pariņāma on my screened porch this morning and the weather is changing. It’s getting cold. And the leaves are changing and they are spectacular. And I spent all weekend roasting pumpkins so my diet and the food I’m craving is changing. And tomorrow, there’s a big election in Georgia and our political and social climate is changing. And I’m blogging again, so there’s another change! It just seems so relevant that today’s undesignated sutra and journal prompt is change and what a day for it.
This sutra is so simple yet so complex. Obviously everything is ever changing. And obviously, what you put in is what you get out. But how impactful of a reminder is it that if we put in good thoughts, good food, good ideas, good people, good books, nature, love, patience, understanding… that’s going to be our output. You want to fill yourself up with negativity and hate and stress and gossip and shitty people? Don’t be surprised by the outcome of either. You choose what goes in. And when your outside influencers don’t match what you want to go in, keep fueling what you can control with the good stuff. For example, I have stopped listening to the radio, eating processed foods, and watching local news to name a few things. Instead, I listen to uplifting, educational podcasts, eat clean & natural food, and do my own research on the important issues that I take an interest in. My job fortunately doesn’t require me to know details of every news story so I’m able to fill my tank with education on Yoga Sutras and Auryeveda and the Chakras.
There are basic elements. Like gold. Gold can be a wedding ring, a computer chip or a statue. We can melt down a statue and make a ring. But it’s still, fundamentally, gold. Regardless of what the outside world has done to it, gold is gold is gold. It’s kind of like us. We are organisms. Made up of cells and blood and energy and water. Our outside surroundings all shape us into who we are but at our core, we are who we are who we are. Our inner light of awareness – our peruşa – is constant. But we must be flexible enough to move through the ever changing world. There are so many external factors that change all the time and many of those affect internal changes within us.
So my advice today is to roll with the change. Don’t get too hung up on any one thing and the way it is today; be it a relationship, a diet, a job, a study; because it will change. Practice the flow on your mat so that you may more easily flow off the mat. Namaste.
