Day 136 Intention ~ Accept the Funk
No, I'm not talking about George Clinton or Sly Stone, I'm talking about my mood and how I've been feeling the last few days. I've been reading Richard Freeman's book, The Mirror of Yoga, for awhile now. I savor each page and try to soak it all in. I only read it right before I go to bed, which I tend to go to bed when my eyes are struggling to stay open. Therefore, I only get 2-3 pages in a night.
So, as yoga lessons always go, Monday night when I was noticing how uninspired I had been feeling, I open up my book before sleep to Richard Freeman talking about the gunas: sattva, rajas & tamas. He discusses how we need all three qualities to live and that they all give us balance in this world.
Sattva, of course, is the most desired by people. It is when we feel we are most balanced, harmonic, smart, peaceful and happy. And that was how I was feeling just last week! It was fantastic.
Rajas gives us our energy, passion, desire, motion and sorrow. It can definitely help us to motivate...perhaps when we are feeling tamasic.
Tamas is sluggishness, depression, laziness, dullness and inertia. This is what I was starting to feel take over my body. Ugh. But then I read on...
"When we are first in a sattvic mood our perceptions are clear and bright. The feelings of joy, love, compassion, empathy are right up near the surface of our awareness, and virtually everything we experience stimulates one of these "good" and satisfying feelings. Consequently we behave ,think, and react in ways that reflect this sattvic state of being. But after some time spent in a sattvic mood - and it can be a long or a very short period of time - we become desensitized to the joyful stimulation of the sattvic state, and usually without even being aware of it, we reduce the good state to a formula or image and begin to drift off into a state of complacency, dullness, boredom, and inertia; the state of tamas sets in."
~Richard Freeman, The Mirror of Yoga, p. 81
He goes on to say that eventually rajas kicks in, motivating us to do things and find our way back to that sattvic state.
Once I read that, I realized that my own tamasic, dull state would pass, and not to lull in it too much. I (and we all) need it to appreciate those peaceful, harmonious moments when we are sattvic.
By this morning, my tamas has seemed to kick back into rajas and I am looking forward to finding my sattva!
So, just trying to accept whatever is going on with you at each moment. And realizing, nothing is permanent...even if you're in a funk.
Til tomorrow...
Shanti,
Marcia
