kriyayogamalaysia

We cannot control but we can influence

From our e-book “Filling our Life with Celebration”

As demonstrated earlier, we do not really have control over our mind-body complex. However, we can influence it. Influence implies some level of acceptance of how things are and the willingness to allow change to happen over time. We do not hit ourselves over the head until we improve but we treat ourselves with love and respect. We observe and understand ourselves and apply appropriate solutions in order to create the improvements that we want in our lives.

We all have differing problems and it is impossible to address every type of problem. However, problems are stacked like buildings. If we can find the pillars that form the foundation of the building, we can knock down the building by knocking down those pillars.

Our emotion is one of the pillars we can work on. Because we are often over-whelmed by our emotions, we react to external circumstances without wisdom. A person who gets angry easily has the karmic condition to get into fights. He can change that by understanding his habitual thinking patterns and apply certain techniques whenever his anger builds up.

It is because our emotions are so closely linked to our thoughts that we often react to external circumstances and fall victim to our habitual tendencies. It is only after we have calmed down and reflect on our actions, do we regret our deeds. Therefore, if we are able to influence our emotions as they begin to build up, we are more able to act with wisdom instead of reacting based on our past conditioning.

Some practitioners have observed that if they are able to watch their emotions in a non-judgemental manner, the negative emotions begin to lose their strength. This sounds difficult but can be easily practiced and mastered by observing our breath and our emotions simultaneously.

For negative emotions to build up, certain conditions must be present. Firstly, there must be some stimuli, an enemy or a memory of an enemy. When the enemy is present and is provoking us, we can no longer change the circumstance. The karmic event has taken place.

The other condition is the change in our physical condition and our breath. We will automatically breathe in a shallow and rapid manner. If we do not do this, we cannot get angrier. That is why some therapists tell us to breathe deeply and slowly to calm ourselves down.

Before our negative emotions can gather strength, we can start observing our breath without trying to influence it. By doing this, we draw our minds to our physical bodies. We draw our attention from the external circumstance to our internal conditions. We then bring our observation power to the physical sensations of the emotion. When this happens, they are able to act with far greater wisdom in resolving the problem at hand.