Excellence in Action is Yoga
[Music]
about 30 years ago
when i was in my final years in medical
school in india
i suffered from severe low mood
depression hopelessness and suicidality
my whole world was disintegrated
the familiar things i knew almost
disappeared in front of my eyes
i lost interest in everything
i was disconnected from my friends my
family
my creativity my dawns and my dreams
it was a dark night of the soul
but i didn’t realize at the time
this dark shadows that came over me was
also life
transforming somehow it was creating
unhealthy fertile soil for me to grow
to expand to explore the deep
structures of human existence
to find the connections of mind and body
and even with the spirit
i wanted to become a psychiatrist i came
to great britain
got a training as a psychiatrist and
more
specialized training in child and
adolescent psychiatry
in this global crisis in pandemic
we are continuing to fill the
devastating effects of corona
in every sphere of our lives
our health our finances in education
but more importantly in your mental
health
especially for kids i work with kids
with
complex neurodevelopmental and mental
health disorders
and serious risk-taking behaviors
but those kids who are not even at home
are struggling
with high anxiety depression especially
kids who has autism spectrum disorder
or intellectual disability the whole
world has got disconnected socially
systemically and otherwise
as a psychiatrist i learn in my long
journey
that medicine only is not the cure of
mental illness
and even this virus cannot be cured by
medicine alone
recovery means a broader understanding
of bringing physiological
but psychological educational
behavioral social and even spiritual
dimensions of
recovery and well-being in this journey
to become
a healer from a doctor comprise me of me
asking questions what heals
what is recovery what is well-being
how can you find a greater meaning and
purpose in our lives
rather than just symptom reduction how
can we be
more whole in our lives more alive
when i first came to iit kgp
i saw in your logo at three sanskrit
words
yoga karmashu kaushalam the way of
action is yoga for me
choga is integration
and union it comes from the sanskrit
word yuj
means to become one to create that
right internal order
be in harmony with
everything that there is to ourselves
to our sacred nature to each other
yoga is not just a physical acrobatics
what is
understood in general yoga is not even
this
breathing exercises it’s a systematic
practices
of bringing that integral wholeness
within ourselves
to deeply and intimately participating
with that given reality
that arising within us and always that
that is our true nature of reality
and what is wholeness
just look at a child play a playing in
joy and radical aliveness
perhaps positive psychologist would say
it is
flow when they’re so absorbed into doing
something
time stops they’re alive
everything gets fuzzy and we are
completely in full attention and in
joy in contentment
it is about that mindfulness
body fullness and spiritualness
we find our wholeness
in fact the word spirituality
if you look into hebrew or latin or
greek words
the original words mean spirit us the
life
breath breath makes us alive
what spirituality is about
is that aliveness that we feel in life’s
flow
it is not about going somewhere and
looking into something
it is about having one step in front of
another
filling that aliveness and joy and
knowing we are already there
and when we feed that whole that
aliveness
in ourselves meaning flows in our lives
a greater sense of meaning and belonging
comes to our lives
and that is joy and wholeness in
integration in harmony in yoga
so how come we are not feel that alive
in these times of crisis of global
pandemic
the one word answer is fear
the fear that disintegrate us grabs us
holds us and creates disharmony
breaking our world view of integral
worldview of calm and stability it
threatens us
so how can we overcome this fear
we transform this fear by
cultivating an inner attitude
of stability wholeness
aliveness and integrating or
reintegrating back into our lives
and this is my yogic approach a
three-step approach
called set stillness
exploration and trust
stillness in this scary and difficult
world today
it is hard to find a place of stillness
and calm
it’s like water is muddy in all sides
and we cannot sleep clearly
but if we try to find
solutions in a frantic way the water
gets more muddy
what we need it to keep still
so the mod settles down and we can see
more clearly
make wise choices
but this stillness comes with practice
and it’s not easy
we need to stop give purposeful pauses
purposeful mindful pauses
in every step of our life stop means
s-t-o-p stop
a moment of pause
taking a breath observe what’s happening
in the outside
world and in our inner world
and proceed to our practices
when we are stopping and paying
attention
we can hold our fears and anxieties
and difficulties and disappointments
with greater equanimity
and peace we can be more aware of our
thoughts and emotions
moment by moment without judgment
we can experience life more fully
not about good and joyous things but
understanding life it’s his
entirety that life is a mixture and a
full
spectrum of things from good and bad
evil and beautiful
but we can hold it with more kindness
and the attitude of stillness is more
nurturing
approaching in friendly way to hold
ourselves
in kindfulness mindfulness
joining with the nurturing kindfulness
brings us a position
of deeper sense of awareness
it comes gradually because we try to
avoid these bad thoughts we reject them
we put them under the carpet
we distract ourselves to other things
we’re trying to become just
positive but we need to be still not
just
positive and at this moment
we approach life with or
fear and fascination at the same time
look at a child in the beach when the
wave comes in
they withdraws with fear but this same
child
goes towards the waves when they’re
receding with joy
and aliveness and in both responses
needs openness and the stillness
brings us to a position
of transformation and power
where we can go to the second step of
more exploration
in that space of peace and in this
creative space
opening from stillness we can encroach
into understanding and exploration
and in the first step of that is
acknowledgement
acknowledging and recognizing that we
are suffering
i am struggling this is a hard time
right now
but we can embrace that suffering
this acceptance is not a passive
acceptance
it’s an active process of acknowledging
and recognizing and accepting
it is what it is right here right now
i’m suffering but
we are all together in this game
i’m not suffering alone millions of
people in the world
are suffering struggling
it happened before in the plague in 14th
century in europe that killed millions
of people
we are almost in that space again
i am not the only one and in this
recognition opens up
a possibility of more self-compassion
be more kind to ourselves it opens up a
space
of understanding that our thoughts and
emotions are separate from ourselves
we are not our thoughts and emotions we
are unlimited sky
and these thoughts and emotions are like
clouds passing by
it’s like a film screen that we are
watching a movie
the pixel dancing on the screen but we
can
caught up in the drama but we have a
choice not to
and see the movie screen separate from
ourselves
in that recognition we can start
altering the relationship with our
thoughts and emotions and ourselves
we can use the understanding from stoic
philosophers
like marcus aurelius or even epitectus
who said
some things are up to us and other
things are not
things or even doesn’t have a value in
itself
how we respond or relate to them
are important whatever is going in the
world in our lives in our families
we can create a different relationship
but using philosophical understanding
being in the zone one our attitudes and
things our beliefs towards things
zone two is something that we cannot
control we try to control and become
more anxious
the events that are happening is in zone
two but we can relate to it differently
but this has to come from understanding
recognition acceptance and stillness
and it’s a creative process and in this
process
brings us to trust
trust and openness
is a yes to belonging a hope
i even call it faith faith is not in a
religious narrow sense or a dogma
it’s a courageous trust to life
courage comes from the latin word core
means heart
it is the full-hearted response to life
and that aliveness that all it offers
it is the full-hearted mindful approach
towards
life that we lean into our pain and
embrace the whole world of suffering
we watch our thoughts but do not cling
to them
do not feed the fire but we can alter
the relationships and trust the process
of life
in corona times the battle is begun
between
fear and faith
and you know what we can bring them
together in a kinship
we can be more kind to ourselves and
each other
we can create a global kindness pandemic
in fact kindness comes from the
english old word cindy and middle
english word kinde
means family kindness is our religion
we are tired together and in the right
sense of the religion again
from latin religio tying the broken
knots together
we can integrate ourselves in that hole
we can reconnect with nature ourselves
and each other in a different ways
and when we do that integration again
meanings start
in our lives we belong
and in that greater sense of belonging
we become greater and larger than
ourselves
and that is yoga in summary
in this difficult times our full-hearted
response to aliveness or wholeness means
to be mindful to be fully present with
our experiences
to be playful to be open and creative
and curious to be prayerful
to connect communicate in communion
and have trust a sense of belonging
yes and last but not the least
be grateful and bringing that radical
attitude of gratitude in every sphere of
our lives
to be grateful to be alive to this day
to bring a gift to our life
as that day brings to us and the only
response we can cultivate to this day
is to thank you
and to know that we can bring that
wholeness back
and integrate in our lives and say
as in four canonical bibles we have
known
fear not stand in our holy ground as
moses did
take our shoes off of fear and say
mabhoi in sanskrit fear not
and we can have a fearless full-hearted
response to aliveness and this joy in
this
life together in this planet today
in sanskrit in our indian tradition we
call
if you take wholeness away from
wholeness wholeness remains
as fullness arises from fullness
i’ll finish with the sanskrit vars from
uponishads
purnapura
m
you