Ch – Ch – Ch – Ch – Changes….
And if you can hear David Bowie singing in your head when you read that, we are absolutely on the same wavelength.
Seriously, September has rolled up on us awfully quickly it seems, and whether it is about back to school or back to work or even just the change in season, September is a month of change for so many of us. The question is, in a yogic perspective, how do we, as humans, handle changes? Because let’s be honest – a lot of humans aren’t great with change. Most of us are creatures of habit and find change to be stressful at best, and downright terrifying and impossible at worst.
So how can our yoga practice teach us to handle change with just a little more grace? I personally look to one of my favourite passages from the Bhagavad Gita – one of the most important historic texts in yoga – Chapter 2, Verse 47 says: कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन | मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि which translates to: Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results. Now, I totally understand if you are confused as to how this relates to handling change… stay with me.. I’ve got you.
This is a lesson in what is called “non-attachment” and non-attachment is one of the most challenging lessons we can learn within the practice of yoga. You see, western culture is all about attachment. Attachment to things, attachment to people, attachment to success, attachment to the system we live in. Western culture RUNS on attachment… and our struggles to handle change come from our natural instinct towards attachment that has been honed and strengthened through our cultural training.
So how do we practice non-attachment? How do we get better at change?
What if I were to adjust the language of the passage from the Gita to say “Live ethically, but understand that you can only control yourself”.
Now, if you are faced with a change that is causing you concern – try saying to yourself “I’m doing my best to live ethically and that is all I have control over.” How does that change your view? For me, it reminds me that I have to practice non-attachment. I don’t have control over other people, or the situations around me – I can only control how I’m showing up. So when changes come upon me, even changes I am choosing for myself, I remind myself that I need to do the best I am able to do and that is all I have control over.
It doesn’t always make changes easy, but it can make them easier and it gives me a way to handle change that aligns with my practice of yoga.
Rolling with the changes,
Cara