Inner World of Yoga – Day 8
The conundrum is this: When we feel good, the world is a wonderful place. When we feel bad, it’s not so good.
In our inner world, stress and negative emotions create negative energies which unbalance and put us out of sync affecting our lives on the physical level as well as our mental function, emotions and spirit. Energetically our imbalances absolutely impact our outer world as well. It is all connected.
Essentially, what we perceive outside of us in the world is a mirror image of what is going on inside us. We have internal conflict and it spills over into our outer lives and our perception of the external world. We live in a world of duality: Two sides to every story, black and white, night and day, inner world and outer world etc. While duality gives us distinction, it also gives us contradiction and conflict and this is the real barrier to feeling good consistently, or having freedom, growth, wellness and happiness.
So where does this conflict come from and why does it keep us up at night? It comes from the Mind.
In YOGA, the mind is a large topic, connected to everything, affecting everything and with one aim – to be free of this mind. Here’s some of what we know about the mind, tested and observed in yogic tradition over 5000 years.
The Mind:
- Is necessary for physical survival – we can’t live without it, because it’s number one purpose is to react in the face of danger to keep our physical body alive
- Can’t stop it, for the reason given above
- Cannot control it or manage it effectively, because of its nature – see points 1 and 2
- The real problem with mind arises when it moves from reacting for biological survival into the realm of reacting due to our emotions and psychology; moving from primitive survival mechanism of the brain stem into the limbic system and higher functions of social interaction, learning, memory, etc.
