1.2
Yoga Sutra 1.2: Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodhah. Yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind. This sutra is the heart of why we practice yoga.
It took me many years to realize: pretty much, what Pantajali is saying, is we do yoga for our mental health. The fluctuations of the mind are the tendency to worry, get sad, any thoughts that draw us away from this moment right now. The aim of yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind. The aim of yoga is to bring us into focus, so we can understand that this moment, right now, is all that there is.
Yoga for me began as a healing for my mental health many years ago. I practiced yoga on and off from age ten & throughout my teens, but when it really had an impact was when I was in crisis around age 18 and didn’t have any mental health resources. I tried yoga for the first time then and it was the only thing that helped. I didn’t understand how it worked, I just knew it worked.
All my life, up until that point, I had lived with anxiety and depression around me, and I remember leaving my first hot yoga class when I was around 18 years old, for the first time ever I felt clear. For the first time ever I felt still.
I used to worry when teachers guided us to be in the moment, that I was a phony, a fraud, that everyone else knew how to do this present moment thing except me. I now understand: no one knows how to do it. That’s why we’re all here: to learn.
Yoga Sutra 1.2: Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodhah. Yoga is stilling the fluctuations of the mind.
