Yoga and adaptive resilience
As human beings, it is inevitable that we have our share of ups and downs. Something always pushes us down, throws us off-balance and makes us uneasy.
During such moments, it is imperative that we stop, take a step back and observe ourselves objectively to understand how long it takes us to bounce back to normalcy once again.
The faster we can disentangle ourselves from events of the past, the faster we begin experiencing freedom in the present.
This is where Yoga comes in, to rescue us from this vicious negative spiral of mental and emotional whirlpools that suck us down into the depths of despair.
Yoga may be understood as a conscious and evolutionary path that enables us to break free from our conditioned patterns and inherent tendencies (samskara-vasana) that are constantly fragmenting us.
Yoga enhances the “Power of Choice” ! The Superpower of Being Human!
Yoga teaches us that we need to make conscious choices to do the following:
1.Let go of the negativities beseeching us (doshanivarana),
2.Regain our balance, equipoise (samatvam/sthitaprajna) at the earliest,
3.Relax ourselves so that we can rebuild and replenish our resources (nishpanda kayakalpa anukrama).
4.Empower ourselves to efficiently face ‘repeat challenges’ by:
a)Adopting healthy attitudes (pratipakshabhavanam, maitri, karuna etc),
b)Enhancing flexibility of body-mind-emotions- spirit complex (hathayoga),
c)Developing objective self-awareness (vairagya,swadhyaya)
d)Creating positive relationships through acceptance (samabhavabhavana).
Mind, body and emotions of the individual are harmonized and brought into a state of balance by the various Yoga techniques.
The practice of jathis and kriyas helps loosen up inherent tensions, stresses, and regressed emotions. They can be then thrown out through conscious breath-body-mind workouts such as nasargamukhabhastrika and the pawanmukta series.
Nada Yoga techniques that utilize sound power like the hakarakriya, brahma mudra and bhramari pranayama are efficient methods to release pent-up tensions. These practices produce psycho-somatic energization and create a beautiful mind-body harmony, stabilizing emotions thus teaching us to ‘let go and be free’.
Through Yogic relaxation techniques such as shavasana, we consciously overcome our self-defeating tendencies and re-invigorate ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Many studies have reported that Yoga reduces allostatic load & induces balance of autonomic nervous system.
This is the keystone in developing adaptive resilience.
The very sound of the word resilience captures its bouncy, rubbery quality.
Yoga enables alignment of panchakosha, the five-fold aspects of our existence — the anatomical, physiological, psychological, discerning and universal.
Jnana yoga kriya-s and prakriya-s enable inherent healing energies to integrate, reunite and bring together fragmented parts of the individual thereby enhancing such adaptive resilience.
Yoga also empowers the spirit, developing a deep and subtle adaptive resilience that promotes the skillful stepping beyond one’s limitations, enabling self-transformation (atmabhavabhavana).
This facilitates insight, empathy and an ability to be calm and focus the mind, thus ultimately transcending all limiting traits of the individual.
Such a transformation of the individual until they manifest their fullest potential, and live life as it is meant to be, is truly the goal of Yoga itself.
