I have already shared, in the past, my love of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Me and Patanjali...we're tight. In fact, when I'm feeling like I need a little guru love in my practice (i.e. oh my god, someone who knows more than me...please send help), I often call on ol' Mr. Patanjali for assistance. Though, because there aren't any real images of Patanjali, I usually picture him as an animated kid's cartoon character, which can be weird, when you're calling across the void for help.
Anyhoo. I've been thumbing through my copy of The Sutras over the last week or so, and I keep accidentally opening to the same page:
Pratipaksha Bhavanam. Or rather, this sutra, # 2:33, which says:
"Vitarka badhane pratipaksa bhavanam. When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite [positive] ones should be thought of. This is Pratipaksha Bhavanam."
That's right folks, Patanjali was a new-age thinker. This, essentially, is yoga's version of The Secret. If you're thinking negative thoughts...stop doing that. And choose some positive ones, instead.
Now, I'm going to admit (and if you listened to my interview with the amazing Edward Vilga, you won't be surprised by what I'm about to say), I am sort of obsessed by this idea. Reason being, I have intimate personal experience of the power of shifting thought. As I'm sure most of you all do, too, as it seems that this Pratipaksha Bhavanam business is a built-in, in the human system. Change your thoughts, change your mood, change your mood...change your whole f-ing life. I mean, how this could ever be considered "a secret" I'm not so sure...someone who's ever had a bad day and then a good day, knows how different the whole world is, dependent on your mood. Same stuff, same people, same circumstances, bad mood=it's all terrible, good mood=it's all lovely.
Ta-da!
Anyhow, what's tricky about this is...well, everything. But here are a few of the most tricky of all the tricky-things (at least in my little head-sphere) in regards to this whole thought-choosing conundrum:
1. You have to believe that you can indeed choose your thoughts. Might as well just stop right there for a lot of us, right? I think this gets most confusing when one tries to retroactively choose thoughts. Meaning, instead of just moving forward from the thoughts that are already present (which requires a bit of surrender, a bit of softness), in order to choose new and better ones, instead of doing that, so many of us try to go back and figure out how the thoughts that are currently there got there in the first place. And this, my friends, is a road to nowhere.
2. You have to be willing to give yourself permission to choose positive thoughts, even when there are negative ones present. Now, this is a particularly sticky-wicket for me...my tendency is to want to clean up all of the negative thoughts/emotions/what have you so that there are ONLY positive thoughts to choose from. I feel like I need express written permission from a higher power in order to abandon the thoughts that make me cranky or worried...as in, "who am I to just walk away from all this...mess?" Which tends to leave me, you guessed it, right in the middle of the mess.
3. You can't expect miracles. Meaning, if you are in a crappy crappy mood, way down the rabbit-hole, the idea that you can just choose a thought of joy or bliss or love or peace or whatever and feel better immediately, is just going to make you feel WORSE when that doesn't happen. There is no way to, Star Trek-like, beam ourselves instantly from our worst mood to our best. We have to walk there. We have to just take gentle progressive steps away from the magnetic center of our sour selves and towards the equally magnetic center of our best selves.
and 4. (this is a big one) You have to be able to understand the difference between a positive and a negative thought. It's like this: if you've been raised on fast food, you're going to have a hard time enjoying a vegetable. You're going to have to force-feed yourself those suckers for a while until your internal body nutrition clock gets reset. Only then will you be able to start truly reaping the benefits of all of those good-for-you foods. The same, I think, goes for thoughts. If you've just been letting your mind and your emotions run wild, you are going to have a hard time, for a while, telling the difference between what SEEMS good for you, and what IS good for you.
This is where we have to start relying on our own internal yes/no meter. And this is why we have to start cultivating a relationship with our intuition and our larger (quieter) self, so that we can begin to choose well for ourselves. So that, no matter who wants to tell you which problems you need to solve, and exactly how you need to go about solving them...you know the truth. You know that the cheeseburger in front of you, while momentarily satisfying (just like, I don't know...worry, or rage, or jealousy, or all those other sticky negative emotions can be) is just going to make you feel really bad later. And that carrot, while not nearly as thrilling in the moment, is going to fill you up in ways you could never imagine...
So, Shanti Towners, if you won't take it from me, take it from Mr. Patanjali...and give pratipaksha bhavanam a go. If nothing else, you might just feel a bit more full.
