Abhyasa
In his yoga sutras, Patanjali extols Abhyasa, stating that for yoga to be present, successful, continual, consistent practice is required.
This is easy to appreciate, we all comprehend the idea of training, or repetition
leading to development of a skill or an ability.
ln more recent times, neuroscience has became very interested in how long it takes to learn, something new, for it to become second nature, Yoga’s emphasis on repetition illustrates it understood this a long time ago.
But this isn’t just for learning knowledge, its for living knowledge too, being, thinking, responding and acting in a way which is yogic, and serves us and others well.
This is particularly useful when life presents us with difficulty or challenge, it is then that we are grateful for the accumulation of years of practice.It is then we can see whether it’s an idea that we carry or qn ingrained aspects of ourselves.
Quite often the tricky situations and occurences can actually give us an opportunity to see where we are, where we have come from and how the practices have taken root in us.
As one wise person told me decades ago, Yoga won’t change what happens in life, but it will change how you respond and react to it.
This is of profound benefit to us, as often an inappropriate reaction may further exacerbate whats happening.
So on the times, when you don’t feel like practicing, or might think you don’t need to, perhaps recognising that through your practice, you are planting the seeds of what is to come, the future you, your response to and experience of life.
