YOGA + MOVEMENT
BY MIRIAM HANSON (SHE/HER)
THE YOGA VITAMINS “The [yoga] vitamins walk us through a clear evolution of our psychological immune system to thrive in the healthy and pure involution of going back to ourselves, our birthright.”
T
he bad news: enlightenment does not come easy. The good news: the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a step-bystep guidebook, can get us there. In particular, Sutra 1:20 outlines what Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar describes as the yoga “vitamins” to fortify ourselves for the diligent practice of disrupting the deep whirling vortices of self-defeating and self-limiting beliefs. The vitamins walk us through a clear evolution of our psychological immune system to thrive in the healthy and pure involution of going back to ourselves, our birthright. Sutra 1:20 Shraddha Virya Smriti Samadhi Prajna Purva Ka itar esam: Faith, courage, memory, consistent integration, and inherent wisdom precede wholeness.
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SHRADDHA Shraddha, from shrat (to assure, truth) and dha (to adhere, that which holds truth) classically translates to faith. This is the faith of deep belief in yourself and what you do, a trust and conviction sattvic in nature: steady, sure, stable. This devotion is an action, a practice of continuously recommitting.
“Courage is necessary to ask the hard questions, to examine self-defeating behaviors, and to shift into the right gear for the terrain ahead.”
In order to embark fully on the transformation offered by the practice of yoga, Patanjali implores one must build all on this bedrock of faith. We may struggle immensely with even this first step — we doubt, we hurt in the wounds of unresolved trauma, we grow preoccupied with all the demands of simply living in this attention-grabbing world. Faith here involves the choice to ardently believe there is another way.
VIRYA From this trust springs confidence and wholeheartedness, the fertile grounds for the second attitude. Virya — the courage of one acting with deep conviction. If faith is the food, virya is the energy and vitality powered by the sustenance of shraddha. The twin pillars
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