Gaslighting Ourselves With Yoga
Of the many evolutions of Yoga over the centuries, the one thing that I can't get to grips with is how modern Yoga has morphed into a way of bypassing awareness. Yoga is used over and over (consciously and unconsciously) as a way to escape and retreat from reality. We give out techniques, tips and tricks to quell anxiety, stress, grief, sadness or anger instead of using the practice to sit with and tend to these emotions. Our "spiritual community" promotes positive affirmations, light, and love, encouraging us, like most things in society, to create preferences and biases towards certain states or emotions. So instead of being with the emotion we don't "like," we try to get out of it as quickly as possible, whether we've pulled the weed out from the root or not.
I've seen the most intricate and manipulative ways of people gaslighting themselves in this community. Instead of acknowledging that sadness or anxiety is there for a reason, we go to a pretty studio, tropical retreat, or YTT and cover it up for a while and pretend we've "transformed" ourselves. But Yoga is not a practice to promote escapism - it's the exact opposite. It's a practice to deepen into all that is present in the mind/body/spirit so we can move towards wholeness, which integrates the light AND the dark. The more we push our fragmented selves into the darkness, the wider the gap toward integration becomes.
We quickly think that "negative" emotions shouldn't exist, as if we are cursed with feeling them. But ALL of it belongs. And ALL of it is there for a reason. Maybe your anxiety is trying to tell you something? Or maybe your sadness keeps coming up because there's a piece of you waiting to be integrated. How will you ever know if you don't listen and bring it to awareness?
Does the practice have enormous benefits for people experiencing complex emotions? Hell yes! That's why I keep coming back and sharing these techniques with thousands of people. But I do not use the practice to cover up those things or shift my emotions to a more comfortable or preferable place. I use it to get out of my head into my body and sit with what's arising. To be able to meet the anxiety or sadness with compassion and curiousity. THAT is where Yoga can become an absolute life changer, but it won't be from a fancy retreat promising transformation in 7 days. It will come from showing up again and again and listening to the truth of your experience.
So if you feel like a bag of shit and need help, COME TO YOGA. We have lots to share. But please make sure you don't use it to hide or bury what's there - use it to find the part of yourself that can hold you tenderly and with compassion while you ride the waves of life.
Love and light x