Among people who do not practice yoga, I often see the opinion that yoga is a boring activity for them. And they don’t understand why do yoga if it’s boring?….
The question immediately arises – what is “boring”? And one more important question: ‘Who exactly gets bored doing yoga?’
Each of us understands the word “boring” as something uninteresting, not exciting. And of course, we don’t like to do things in life that are not interesting…
To answer the second question, a little additional background is needed.
The Vedas define 3 qualities/properties of energy – the gunas tamas (ignorance), rajas (passion), and sattva (goodness). Each of us is controlled by these guns and we live by their rules, because… they are one of the most important foundations of the material world. So, if you look only from the perspective of our mind, then its characteristics of “behavior and reactions” are also determined by the gunas.
The ancient sages compared the human mind to a mad monkey – it does what it wants and is completely out of control.
Have you ever tried to control your mind? For example, you need to write a report/report on work, and the faucet at home has broken and you are waiting for a plumber, besides, your girlfriend called and shared her problems with her husband, in addition, everything, you received an invitation from the director to school – something… That’s what your child did. And what is your mind doing now when you need to write a report???
And so it is in everything. No matter what you do, your mind always finds something more interesting to do and goes for a ‘walk’ to many different places when you need to do something ‘boring’.
So, the mind, which is especially characterized by the property of rajas, is most difficult to keep in place, to force it to “stay at home.” And it is precisely these people who find it most difficult to practice yoga. They can either take care of their health or not, but if they care about their health, they will do anything but yoga: they will go to the gym, they will run, they will take up dancing, or even Zumba.
Why is that? Because one of the most important principles in yoga is concentration! If you are unfocused and during yoga you think about everything in the world, but not about what you are doing now (because your mind is bored), then yoga will essentially not happen for you…
You’ve probably heard that yoga is not just about doing asanas. Yoga essentially involves 8 steps/stages, each of which, to one degree or another, teaches how to manage your mind. They have been talking and writing about this for several thousand years! Based on this, it becomes clear that controlling your mind is a very difficult task and, at the same time, very important.
To be honest, I used to be the same, with the predominance of rajas in my mind and life… The world of business and office life with its multitasking taught me to do several things at the same time. I became unfocused and tense. Only a few years ago I realized how destructive this skill is for my psyche and mind, which leads to nothing but illness, depression, and selfishness. Through this understanding and a mindful approach to yoga, by coming up with different motivations for my mind, I learned to practice yoga mindfully and joyfully.
Combining the knowledge of Ayurveda and yoga, I strive to support yoga practitioners on their difficult path of “taming the mind” by selecting the right pace of the lesson, as well as effective asanas based on the type of constitution of the group participants. Now some of my activities may be more active or less active, simpler or more complex, but in each of them, there is a lot of emphasis on concentration to control your mind.
And if you are now one of those who are still “bored” of practicing yoga, try coming to class again. Pay attention to your thoughts while practicing. Try to feel and understand who exactly is bored doing yoga – is it you whining from boredom or not… And if after such practice you are in an excellent mood and well-being, if you begin to concentrate your mind and watch it, then you are bored you definitely won’t. Draw your conclusions!
When you want to become the master of your life, which means managing your mind, and not the other way around, then an exciting journey into the world of yoga awaits you, where there will be obstacles along the way, trials, new friends, and a well-deserved reward!
