Wise Ways to Welcome Spring

Spring is a time of transformation, renewed energy, starting new endeavors and sewing seeds for future harvest. Here is a little bit of insight from The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient yogic text, about being wise in our response to change. 

Kishna when speaking to Arjuna says, “Feelings of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are caused by the contact of the senses with their objects. They come and they go, never lasting long. You must accept them. A serene spirit accepts pleasure and pain with an even mind, and is unmoved by either.”

This statement is about accepting the ever changing nature of life. It is a powerful guide through life, especially periods of intense personal growth. I have often found myself with attachment to the past and the pleasure it brought me. Have you? The work of a student of yoga is to become more comfortable with the impermanent, unstable nature of reality and not to cling to the illusion of stability. this is the key to ending our suffering.

As a Yoga Therapists, I use this teaching with clients in pain. Many of us identify with our pain as if it were who we are and make it a big part of our lives. It effects everything we think and do. If we can understand that it will change, because everything changes, than maybe the mind can come into greater contentment with what is right now. Vipassana, or insight meditation, is a great practice to develop the skills for not reacting to the sense experiences. It is the development of equanimity. Even just focusing on the breath can help steady the mind in the present moment and release thought patterns of attachment to pleasure or aversion to pain.

So, I invite you to take a deep breathe of the Spring air right now. May it nourish you deeply.