Sometimes, when we start doing yoga classes we feel various factors that can slow us down or even stop the practice.
Let's try to understand the nature of such factors and resist them effectively.
In his book "Yoga Dipika: Clarifying Yoga" B. K. S. Iyengar identified 13 distractions and hindrances (Chitta-Vikshepa) that can hinder a practitioner on the path of learning yoga. For memorization, you can conditionally divide these obstacles into 2 groups: 9 hindrances and 4 distractions.
Hindrances are:
1. Vyadhi is a disease or ailment that violates the physical condition;
The essence:
It is absolutely clear that illness or weak health is the first force that will make you shy away from yoga. After all, the main tool for achieving the goals of yoga is the body of the yogi himself. When the body is sick (the instrument breaks), the student will achieve little. A body bound by illness causes mental anxiety, which means that you will not be able to concentrate or meditate.
Ways to overcome:
Before you move on you need to put your body in order, ridding it of ailments. Do not delay your visit to the doctor and taking prescribed medication. I can also add that sometimes the practice of simple asanas helped me get rid of the painful temperature of 37.2 (however there were no other symptoms of the disease). But be careful with choosing this alternative instead of going to the doctors. During the illness do not stop eating healthy food and also sleep more, gaining energy.
2. Styana is the lethargy or mental apathy;
The essence:
Apathy or lack of enthusiasm is the next factor that can cause inactivity, which in turn will dull the mind or / and weaken concentration. When we feel good, cheerful and happy, then any task seems feasible. But once lethargy settles in our mind, we can't focus on anything and we have a feeling lack of energy.
Ways to overcome:
For me the main ways to overcome apathy are the communication with a loved one (you can talk about your problems) and / or a walk in the fresh air. Walking in the air can be replaced by your hobby. The main thing is not to let lethargy take over for several days in a row, otherwise it can develop into depression, which will be much more difficult to deal with.
3. Samshaya is a doubt or uncertainty in your business;
The essence:
Doubt is expressed in constant uncertainty about the chosen path. Such questions may come to mind: "Did I choose this vector of movement correctly?", "Should I devote so much time to yoga?", "Should I continue if the asana does not work?", "Why do I fail?", "Everyone around me is doing better than me", "Is the teacher to blame for this? Maybe I should change him?»…
Disbelief in yourself, in the teacher and the chosen path slowly destroys the student. Faith is a tool that works not only in yoga, but in everything you do.
Ways to overcome:
Notice your achievements in yoga and write them down in a diary/notebook (performance of asanas, changes in the body, mood, breathing, etc.). This will strengthen your self-confidence and your own strength. Also, make it a practice not to criticize yourself for failures or weaknesses. Key phrases that only matter to you can help in this practice. The meaning of these phrases are "this time did not work, but will do next", "Today was a little better than the last, but there is something to strive", "Anything can happen, but I'm still done, because tried to become better." It is better to have key phrases in front of your eyes, whether in your diary, on the wall, in your phone, or maybe even on your hand. And remember the most important thing - you need to look your uncertainty right in the eye and ask yourself "Is what I think is really so bad? Are there any alternatives to this? How terrible is my failure or weakness?"
4. Pramada is the indifference or insensitivity;
The essence:
A person who has ingrained indifference or insensitivity is overwhelmed with complacency and thinks that he is the smartest. He, of course, knows what is right and what is wrong, but persists in indifference to the right, choosing the pleasant. For the sake of satisfying his selfish passions and dreams of personal glory, he will consciously and without hesitation sacrifice a lot. Inability or unwillingness to focus on anything, lack of interest in life, self-discipline of the mind is a serious obstacle to spiritual development. The extreme stage is indifference to one's own life and fate, which leads to the degradation of the individual.
Ways to overcome:
To overcome indifference it is necessary first of all to decide to change the way of thinking in order to implement this determination and abandon the usual shortcomings. If indifference is caused by fatigue during daily practices, then take a rest for at least a day, do not force yourself. In general, if in your life, for example, work has restrictions on the daily routine, these rules are alien to your interests, then it is simply necessary to include in your schedule an hour of "your" time to meet your own needs, whether it is a walk, delicious and healthy food, or, for example, yoga at lunchtime. Nothing is so good at dispelling insensitivity as doing sports.
If you know that indifference came as a result of burnout, then it makes sense to take a vacation, quit, move, divorce, leave the usual circle – by any means to get rid of the source and atmosphere that led to burnout.
5. Alasya is laziness;
The essence:
Laziness is the body's way of saving energy in the body, leaving everything as it is, without changing the comfortable rhythm of life. Laziness is inventing reasons why we shouldn't do something. Laziness, unwillingness to improve (primarily in the spiritual plane) is a lack of perseverance and enthusiasm, often accompanied by indifference, lack of energy. It is important to distinguish lazy physically and lazy mentally: you can forgive yourself body laziness, but mental laziness adoption threatens a person's continuing personal strain and no attempt to change themselves and do better. It is also necessary to understand that mental laziness affects physical laziness and vice versa. So, for example, demanding food, abusing alcohol/tobacco, or even sleeping leads to your mind being subject to heaviness and inactivity.
Ways to overcome:
The most important thing to struggle against laziness is to try to deceive the mind. So, for example, you are thinking of going to a yoga class, but the brain is preparing for you a number of excuses why you should not do this: "it's cold outside", "so early", "you need to spend a lot of energy that will not leave you strong for the working day", etc. In such a situation, you need to start small, do not injure the mind with such global changes in your life as yoga. Start simply by going outside for a walk, because you already do, or just get up an hour earlier, because there is nothing very bad for the brain in this. But here you are already awake an hour earlier and already going for a walk, but you have brought a bag with a form and a mat and you are already are heading to the yoga studio. Another method of combating laziness is a built-up system of motivation: "from bad" (avoiding failures) and "for what" (directing yourself to success). Motivation "from bad" is the idea of what will happen to you if you continue to sit idly. Motivation "for what" is the achievement of life goals and guidelines. So, for example, in the case of yoga classes, the motivation "from bad" is poor health, irritability, stress, apathy, lack of spirituality. Motivation "for" means to reduce the volatility of the fluctuations of the mind, or simply to perform a complex asana. Also, the motivation for "for" can be watching motivational movies or videos on youtube or Instagram.
6. Avirati is the arousal of the senses and desires when the mind is possessed by sense objects;
The essence:
Avirati is a strong craving for objects of sensual pleasure. This craving is associated with distraction. This sensation occurs at the moment when our senses conquer the mind (and the mind understands this) and begin to dominate, instead of being the support of the mind.
Ways to overcome:
It is necessary to throw off the shackles of attachment to sensual things. The practitioner learns to enjoy them with the help of the senses subordinate to the mind. Pratyahara (5th stage of Ashtanga Yoga) is a technique for distracting the senses from the objects they are directed at. In the absence of connection with objects, the senses follow the inner form of consciousness, and this is a distraction. Control of the senses can be achieved by practicing the first four stages of yoga (yama, niyama, asana, pranayama). So, for example, practicing pranayama, a person calms the mind and his desires by rhythmic regulation of breathing, directs his feelings inside himself.
7. Bhranti darshana is false or inaccurate knowledge, illusions;
The essence:
Not all knowledge is accurate, and not all knowledge is correct. Filtering and verifying the flow of information in the study of yoga is one of the tasks of daily practice. A person studying yoga and receiving inaccurate knowledge (for example, from inexperienced teachers) may face the fact that he has an imaginary feeling of confidence that he has learned everything or "enlightened". Many people begin to boast about this pseudo-feeling and share it with others, which leads to a false path. Reaching the top in practice is just an illusion.
Ways to overcome:
Do not stop searching for new information, be flexible and open at the moment to search for "inflows" of fresh knowledge. Do not be lazy to compare the knowledge obtained from outside with the primary sources. Deepen your knowledge by attending various seminars, workshops and lectures. But their selection should also be carried out wisely. Do not be led by the slogan "I am enlightened".
8. Alabdha bhumikatva is the inability to maintain continuity of thought or concentration, without which it is impossible to see reality;
The essence:
The focus here is on the loss of perseverance, endurance and concentration. The source of this loss can be the frustration of analyzing the path we have done and the path that still remains to be traversed, and we do not see the end. So you lose the interest in the activity, the ability to maintain continuity, the desire to take the next step and concentrate on practice.
Ways to overcome:
Analyze your future path and challenge your uncertainty and fear of the thorniness of the path, because in the end you will become a better copy of your self and not the one who stopped his practice, doubting its expediency. Remember that yoga is not about the result, but about the process of persistent, painstaking and continuous. However, you can draw/describe an image of yourself in the future using specific qualities (gunas), abilities, experiences. Such a picture wil youl serve as a kind of beacon in the ocean of knowledge and experience which you gain.
9. Anavasthitattva is an inconstancy in maintaining the concentration achieved after prolonged exercises.
The essence:
Loss of confidence, stability and / or strength, being on a new peak reached by you ("personal victory") in practice. Such instability rolls you back, and you can't repeat your success. Such feelings can occur with advanced practitioners, for example, when mastering new complex asanas or durations in breathing.
Ways to overcome:
Talk to your teacher about how he/she was able to find this "point of stability". New life-hacks can consolidate your hard work into a reinforced concrete structure.
To the generation of the previous 9 interferences, researchers refer to 4, as they are called distractions. Pain, despondency, trembling in the body, disturbed breathing are signs of a distracted mind.
1. Dukha is misery or pain.
Being a victim to any of the above obstacles, practitioners may encounter physical and mental pain that can grow over time. Pain is expressed in the fact that the world around us is changing, and we are all prone to attachment to things or people. Things and people are short-lived. The loss of objects of attachment causes pain and unhappiness.
2. Gourmania is despondency, depression.
Despondency is a state of discouragement and depression, in which a person is not able to fulfill their life needs. As a result, this leads to an emotional breakdown.
3. Angeldeath is the instability of the body.
Trembling in the body is an external manifestation of emotional arousal (for example, nervousness, accompanied by loss of breathing rhythm). In addition trembling in the body can be observed during the performance of asanas and prolonged physical exertion, or when holding static tension due to muscle fatigue.
4. Shvasaprasvasa is bad or irregular breathing.
This is a confused and intermittent breathing, which occurs with mental overexcitation.
Basically, the reason for the appearance of the above-mentioned hindrances and distractions is the person himself, his attitude to himself, his body, as well as to the outside world. On the physical level they are: illness, laziness, trembling of the body and uneven breathing. On the mental level are all the others.
It is important to understand that the manifestation of physical symptoms is a consequence of weakness of the spirit and mind.
Train your spirit and your body through the practice of asanas and pranamyam, do not forget the values of yama and niyama, and you will cope with any hindrance on your path!
