Samskaras are the subtle impressions of our past actions, mental, emotional and physical patterns of movement, that together constitute our whole being. We begin accumulating these patterns even before we are born, and from birth onwards we pick them up from our environment, from the people around us, and they become part of who we are.
These patterns, can be either functional or dysfunctional, moving us towards or away from our highest potential. Many of these patterns are hidden from us, we act them out unconsciously, experiencing the positive or negative consequences without necessarily knowing why or how we are manifesting them.
As practising yogis, we seek to cultivate those patterns which move us towards highest potential and away from unnecessary suffering, and to diminish or adapt those that do the opposite – simple! Yoga is a process of bringing these unconscious patterns into the light of awareness, in so doing we become able to adapt and change them so that we are more aligned with the reality we want to create.
To bring these patterns into awareness we can learn to become better listeners. Imagine that the body wants to help us to heal, and move towards optimum function. In a way, the body is like an animal or small child, it has things to communicate to you, which are important, but it cannot use the language of words, we must learn a new language in order to be able to communicate well with our bodies. This new language is one we already know a little, but can come to know much better, the language of feeling and emotion.
By learning to listen to the signals of the body, whatever they may be, and not turning away from them, by honouring these communications and respecting their intelligence, they can in time guide us towards more functional patterns.
This will not happen overnight. Though some patterns may change quickly, others may take years, others may never change. The Yoga Sutra ‘Tapas swadhyaya ishwara pranidhanani’, offers us an intelligent way to approach the process of self-growth, translating roughly as ‘changing what I can through the process of self-reflection, accepting and surrendering to that which I cannot change.’ If we can keep this in mind, we can be patient with our progress, not forcing change, but allowing it to happen naturally as we turn in the direction of our highest potential.
Hare om tat sat.
