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 […]
As the experiment became more incorporated into my life, I was shocked to see just how many things were showing up on my chart, and I had no clue that so many of my thoughts were attached to needing to achieve an outcome. Many of the first rows, as exemplified in #’s 1 and 2, […]
Thus, I can firmly say that as my experiment concludes, my question was answered and my hypothesis was accurate. By combining Aparigraha with my weekly therapy sessions aiming at the same outcome, I did usher in change (regarding my self awareness) with greater ease and speed than just using therapy to achieve the goal of […]
As part of Denver’s Axis Yoga teacher training, students are invited to apply one of the yogic prinicples to their daily lives. Students explore prinicples such as truthfulness and non-harming. This particular student gives an honest account of how his selection and relationship to astaya (the principle of non-stealing) provoked so much defiance in him, that his […]