Recover from stress with Leila Sadeghee: Tapasya, Samskara & grief work

Many of us are affected by stress and anxiety. In my training and offerings, I teach a lot about spiritual and emotional work in relation to yoga practice. Most people who practiceYogasanaare familiar with the heat and intensity of certain aspects of physical practice:Tapasya, the spiritual friction of yogaSadhana. While folx, which can withstand physical intensity with an air of calm and consistency, is valued in today's yoga world, less is said and appreciated about the other forms ofTapasyathat spiritual aspirants undergo awakening as part of a true devotion.

How our past experiences affect us in the present

Yoga, in its many iterations, is always a practice of freedom. The tapas – this spiritual heat of practice – is not just a challenge to resist the fire. It's more than just physical conditioning. Something is being cooked in this heat, and that is somethingSamskara.

Simply and briefly said,Samskarasare the impressions and imprints left by our positive and negative experiences, which lead to our behavioral patterns and through which we tend to see the world. Generally positiveSamskarais one that entitles us to see the world clearly, without the overlay of our particular circumstances. A negativeSamskarawill make life seem dark in many ways and orient us toward behaviors that create less freedom and more suffering.

Yoga, as I understand it, is a practice that requires us to become familiar with our samskaras - those patterns of consciousness that either distort or clarify the world as we see it. It is a practice of giving attention, concern, and clarity of vision to these patterns. We both learn to see the deception of samskara for what it really is so that we can make more dharmic choices, and we also learn practices that can melt, burn away, and otherwise apply leverage to these patterns.

So: there is the theory. What is it really like? Intimacy withSamskaraFor me and other sadhakas, it was a very unpleasant process to recognize many of the darker aspects of self and behavior. It means dealing with discomfort and a whole range of unpleasant sensations and experiences.

How to get comfortable with the uncomfortable

I encouraged my students to address these impressions and use any means necessary. Intercession means both inside and outside the yoga cannon. I see how Folx who work with these Samskaras need as much help as they can get to become free. It's sticky work - it's unpleasant - and if you really commit to it, it's not like you're done, hopping off the mat and the burn is over. Working with the deeper samskaras can cause discomfort that lasts longer than your average yogasana session. It's WORK. There are no two ways about it. It is spiritual and emotional work.

Most yogis I know who work at this level are very competent at naming and working with certain ranges of samskaric material - such as family of origin issues - but the collective (traumatic) samskaras of racism, white supremacy, patriarchy and oppression go largely unmentioned or undiscovered. My understanding at this stage of my development is that there is simply no freedom without will and a practice aimed at undermining these harmful samskaras.

And let me be clear about what the work of oppression feels like in my own body: uncomfortable, sick, dark, tight, sticky, painful, debilitating, stuck, and deeply sad.

It feels similar to the other samskaras I have cultivated over the course of my sadhana - and even more severe due to its collective nature, how these oppressions (samskaras) are defended and reinforced by institutions and nation-states around the world. It is GREAT Samskara. It's not just my body - it's everyone's thing.

It's also much sadder - part of the awakening and tapas of working with this material is the heartache of it. It's not just ordinary emotional work - it's a specific kind of work: it's grief work.

How grief work can help you reduce and reduce stress and anxiety

“Grief work” is a term coined by the second wave of feminism in the 1970s. As these women came together to share their personal stories of harm under white supremacist patriarchy, the grief and pain of all they had lost individually and collectively became overwhelmingly evident. It is impossible to grieve for yourself alone for what has been lost in oppression - it is inevitable that you grieve for everyone - for all the harm, everywhere.

Grief work is what we go through when we tell ourselves the truth about what we have truly lost in a world where the majority of living beings are oppressed. When we let ourselves feel the true cost of the system we are born into. And the melting of these samskaras is very liberating because it allows us to dramatically reconnect with our shared humanity - and frees us to act in the world in ways that support the freedom of all.

As part of our training we have...Radical darshaninvite the students to a powerful work of some very thorny samskaras. We are very clear that everyone's freedom is at stake and is greater than any one person.

It is also clear from our many years of practice and dedication that the freedom that true yoga practice offers is also infinitely more far-reaching than many yogis have yet to experience. We know the value and are deeply invested in collective freedom - in fact, we believe it is the only freedom that truly exists.

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