Yoga to be more compassionate (Was: too much sleep

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--- On Fri, 1/16/09, Crystal Morgan <crystal_morgan76 wrote:

> I just want o know how yoga can help you to be more compassionate ?

 

Hi Crystal,

Here is an explanation maybe more based on buddhist theory and Alexander

Technique than K yoga - but the results are the same whatever method you use and

whatever theory you have. I think K yoga maybe is the best method for many

people - it gets the changes fast!

 

Due to the high stimulus rates of 'civilised' life our trauma processing systems

are overloaded - we accumulate trauma but don't release it. ie. we keep tensing

up with fright, shock, fear, aversion etc but don't properly un-tense.

As a result we live in a messed up fight-or-flight mode, a state of low grade

fear. Our poor mind thnks we are frightened and searches for something to be

frightened of but cant find it - the result is anxiety - fear without a valid

cause - and negative over-reaction to events.

Every event that happens is processed first by our threat processing circuits

because that is how we work in fight or flight mode. Our muddled mind tends to

look for threats everywhere - resulting in us viewing the world in a negative

way. What a mess!

Yoga, meditation, or western Somatic techniques like Alexander Technique reverse

us out of it. When we lose this negative over-reactivity aspects of our deeper

nature come out - compassion & love.

here's a made-up example of a buddhist.

 

When a man walks up to a normal person and says

'You are a worthless ugly piece of trash'

they will probably feel offended, hurt, angry and will worry about what was said

for a long time after. They may start to argue or fight.

 

But a buddhist will tend to not have such a strong negative first reaction and

will not carry any tension or worries about it with him afterwards. His reaction

will be more like

'Well I know I aint the prettiest & can handle that but why would a stranger say

such a nasty unpleasant thing to me? He doesnt know me so it must be because he

has some sort of problem. Poor chap he probably treats most people unpleasantly

so what a life that must be'.

 

He reacts with compassion because that is natural when the negative first

reaction doesnt happen or is weak. Then he doesnt repress hurt or anger - he can

process it and be free of it quickly.

 

I hope that makes some sense. There are other ways of looking at these things.

Keith