Attention, livelihood and emotions

I have come to the conclusion that my attention and livelihood are directly affected by my emotions, which all lead to my Nervous System. If I balance out my Nervous System through various means, my life is solid and vibrant—the person who I imagine myself to be! if it’s not balanced, I go into "fix it" mode. This is the nature of the Nervous System.

Nervous system cleansing

I know without thought that going to yoga each morning for two hours to practice Ashtanga yoga (going to my physical and emotional edge) is the innate key to solving the mystery to maintaining my true self. It works while I’m in my practice, there is a lingering effect throughout the days, and there is a burning of Samskaras which reconstruct my patterns over a course of time. Over time it keeps getting better and better.

Intermediate Series cleanses Nervous System

Each morning I practice most or all of the Ashtanga Primary (First) Series: Yoga Chikista, followed by the Intermediate (Second) Series. Ashtanga Second Series: Nadi Shodhana is Nervous System cleansing. Everyone goes through their own personal version of its effects in the middle of the series while it’s still challenging, especially while learning it and repeating each day while it's still new. Experiencing discomfort indicates it's working correctly, dissolving bad holding patterns in the Nervous System.

Dissolve bad holding patterns

As  I learned the postures, my Nervous System came into a state of balance over the challenges (backbending, forward bending, foot behind head, inversions); after I acclimated to the work, I was taught the remainder of the series. The idea is to eventually remove some of the Primary Series warm-up when practicing the full Intermediate Series. Over time, the initial poses in the Advanced A (Third) Series were added on. Ashtanga Third Series: Sthira Bhaga is the merging of strength and grace. I continued to practice full Intermediate plus beginning of Advanced A four days per week, only Intermediate once per week, only Primary once per week, with one day rest per week.

Self-love matters

During the most challenging days, it's most important to stay emotionally warm and nutritionally healthy. This includes alone time, rest time and self-love. Everything inside me is tested, not just my physiology. 

When I first began the Second Series cleansing, emotions arose immediately in backbends (and now I feel love and intuition), anger came up with foot-behind-head poses because I wasn't calm enough (and now I'm able to drop in to the extreme state of calm), fear came up during deep spine stretches (and now its blocks are released and I’m free, resulting in euphoric feelings as Prana moves through).

Allow anger and fear to move through you

For a good few months after maintaining a daily practice of the full Second Series, I would have a great yoga class yet feel my Nervous System elevated (like I was stuck on the inhale) for hours after class. It was necessary to calm myself so that I could sit still and didn't feel a constant electrical feeling pulsing through me. During the days I focused on:

• Feeling my emotional heart
• Using my bandhas
• Remembering that stress recruits my body’s energy stores to overcome imbalance
• Paying attention to my Ayurvedic Vata dosha (grounding, warming)
• Doing headstands
• Deeply breathing, especially exhales into my lower belly (Qi center)

Discomfort, unnecessary pain and karmic pain

There’s lots of discussion in Ashtanga about pains, and what is necessary for growth past patterns along with what type of pain is to be avoided. I identify with the notion of different types of irritations that we go through in life to detox ourselves: Creative discomfort, unnecessary pain and necessary, karmic pain.

Discomfort, unnecessary pain, vs. karmic pain

It’s important to recognize the difference, where discomfort helps you along in your practice, pain does not. It's more beneficial to adjust alignment where pain occurs repeatedly in order to truly feel the body's joy. That is what should be repeated. Karmic pain is what remains after adjustments, and once recognized as that, should be faced and felt so that it has a opportunity to burn off its karma. (Source: http://chintamaniyoga.com/asana/do-postures-have-to-be-painful/)

I personally have experienced these discomforts and pains and have gladly adjusted accordingly. I felt the necessary, karmic pain in the Nervous System, where “pain” is agitation/overactive nerves. The Intermediate Series detox for the Nervous System identifies and speeds up the burning off of the “pain” (a.k.a., Samskaras). Whatever has arisen, I've continued on in my practice, feeling it’s meant to be and a gift for me. When I’m done with my practice and in the comfort of my home, I sit with the feelings and have grown to like the uneasiness (because they are working magic and then go away, but only if I sit with them). In the same way I grew to like the physical, muscular pains when I first started Mysore and realized the practice was working to change me on a spiritual level.

It's all about balance. When I utilize all methods I know to bring my Nervous System back into balance, I feel euphoria at the idea that this challenging part of who I am is breaking down more through my fearless yogic path, performed with the utmost of consistency.