Back to Yoga - Week 5 - Aparigraha - Non-possessiveness
This week is the last of the Yama's. It will also be my last Back to Yoga blog until I am Back from India. Although I don't leave for another month, it is a busy one. I will start the Niyama's in the new year.
This can also give you time to read the book I've been using, The Yamas and Niyamas - Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice, by Deborah Adele or other books you might find and work on some of the journaling exercises Deborah suggests.
When we bring this ancient practice into our daily lives we begin to experience changes in how we react to ourselves and interact with others. We experiences changes in body, breath and mind.
The fifth yama is aparigraha, which means non-possessiveness, non-greed or non-attachment.
Deborah writes that aparigraha invites us to let go and to pack lightly for our journey through life, all the while caring deeply and enjoying life.
She writes that we must use the breath as our teacher. If we are attached to the breath and don't let it out or let it go, we will die. Some things give us nourishment, until we hang on or get too attached and then it becomes toxic.
I like how Deborah explains that there is nourishment until we get attached to these things, often unconsciously, and then disturb ourselves with expectations, opinions, criticisms, disappointments, all because we forget to trust life, exhale, and let go.
I have never been a big one on possessions but I of course still have "things" that would be hard to let go of. Deborah puts it as, "what we posses, possesses us" and it doesn't actually have to be physical possessions. It can be how we think of ourselves or others too!
"Subtle attachments come in the form of our images and beliefs about ourselves, about how life should be, about how others should be."
I soon will be heading on a few trips. I find packing a bit daunting. You have to choose wisely what you are going to bring because you can't bring everything. I usually start by taking out too much, knowing that I will need to eliminate items. In some ways this is a form of non-attachment because I have to let so much go, but also a bit of a form of attachment because I am taking the things I really like and feel can't live without.
Deborah writes of this too and says, "How many suitcases full of expectations, tasks, plans, resentments, and unforgiven moments was I toting around with me everyday?"
"Pack light for the journey..Strip yourself to raw nakedness and vulnerability, the yogis teach us. This is the invitation of nonpossessiveness. Are we up to the unpacking?"
To be non attached can come across as being non-caring.
Deborah writes,"Nonattachement does not mean that we don't care. In fact nonattachment frees us up to be immersed in appreciation of life and one another."
Deborah invites us to take time this week to journal and explore this yama of non greed.
Pay attention to your breath. Let the simple act of inhaling and exhaling teach you about the fullness of breathing in life without the need to hold on to it. Notice when you may be grasping the breath for too long.
Take time to also examine the objects in your life and how they make you feel.
Deborah ends with a quote by Swami Jnaneshvara:
"Love is what is left when you've let go of all the things you love."
In Peace and Gratitude,
Pam
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