Like I said, I was pretty smug with myself. I mean I was living with really simple means; I slept on an air mattress and had a folding camping chair as luxury items. I ate on the floor or in my chair and the outside world only came to me via cell phone or internet, […]
I was doing well with most of my attachments but I had not even thought about my attachment to people. I was and still am very attached to people. I am a jealous person and that tends to lead me to hate and anger. Looking back at all of my past relationships, I sheepishly realized […]
Attachment to people has also made me a prideful person and perhaps fearful in some respects. I concern myself with their well being and don’t want to let them down. I make sure I don’t disappoint them by showing up for them even if it disrupts my own life or isn’t in my best interest. […]
As part of Denver’s Axis Yoga teacher training program, students apply a yogic principle to their daily lives. This student chose to take the approach of examining grasping, greed, and outcome-driven actions within her individual life. Working for an organization whose goals rely on grasping and greed, this student found extreme challenge in reconciling her work […]
When Derik said that the Yamas were listed in order of precendence, I knew I had to start at the end. My job, my life, and my sloppy self-reflection skills all demanded that I take it easy on this one. So, I went straight to the end: aparigraha. The three versions of the sutras I […]
On a more detailed level, the place I work in particular inspires grasping, greedy, and outcome-driven behavior. As a FOR PROFIT fundraiser that solicits funds for nonprofit and political groups (almost all left-wing progressive groups), it uses telmarketer tactics to exploit donors’ and callers’ genuine concern and passion for the issues, turning them into money. The […]
When I started my experiment, I became downright tortured by this dynamic. I knew what I was doing, and didn’t know how to stop. I beat myself up, made a spectacle of myself in my plight when Santosh opened up the room for discussion, and still have no real idea how to resolve my sins. […]
As part of Denver’s Axis Yoga teacher training program, students are asked to apply a yogic principle to their daily lives. This student chose to combine the yogic principle of Aparigraha (non-possessiveness, non-attachment) into her therapy sessions to begin to understand and overcome her attachments. She becomes aware of how her attachments are linked to […]
When the task came to choose a yama with which to experiment, I was certain that Aparigraha was the right one for me. Over the past six months I have been working weekly with a therapist on overcoming many of my attachments to unhealthy parts of my past. Because breakthroughs in therapy have come in […]
With excitement in my undertaking and dedication to my personal growth, I set off with Desikachar’s words on my mind: “When we are attentive to our actions we are not prisoners to our habits”(Heart on Yoga p.6). My experiment happened in a rather linear style where I created a table highlighting a thought for which […]