IF this // THEN that

We naturally tend towards thinking in a very logical, linear way. What I call the if/then mindset. For example, we may think, “if I practice yoga, then I will become more flexible” or “if I meditate, then I will be a calmer, better person” or “if I study my favorite subject in school, then I will get a job doing exactly that”.

Although we all use this logic and it holds some truth, we have also all experienced the reality that life isn’t always black and white… that just because we did one thing in the past doesn’t mean we can predict what is coming next. We love this sort of logic because it gives us a feeling of being ‘in control’ and helps us make sense of a world that can otherwise feel so messy, unpredictable and even scary.

The first word of Patanjali’s yoga sutra is ‘Atha’. It is considered a very auspicious and important word. Atha means ‘NOW’, now as in ‘the present moment’, this very moment in time. Atha is said to be encouraging, because it means in any moment we have a chance to experience and create something completely new and unique, untied, unrestrained, unrestricted from what came before or our prediction of what is ‘going to’ (or supposed to) happen next.

The many practices of yoga are all designed to help us tap back into the present moment, to experience it fully without superimposing our ideas of how it ‘should’ be onto it. As we practice coming back, again and again, we slowly allow ourselves to soften more to our experience- we start to see the potential in life’s unpredictable, messiness and how that makes it all the more magnificent and profound.