For Bluer Skies
Practicing equanimity in a pandemic.
What can be said about this pandemic that hasn’t already been said. It’s been so difficult for so many people; to say it’s changed everything seems almost trite now. And while we were lucky enough to have some reprieve in Singapore, our recent shift back to “not” Circuit Breaker serves as a harsh reminder of how precarious our situation really is.
It was difficult enough keeping everything together before Covid. With the current pandemic, it can feel almost impossible. For me then, yoga’s tendency towards equanimity has been very useful during these turbulent times.
When we talk about equanimity in yoga, we’re really talking about balance. We’re talking about an evenness of mind, or a quality of mind that’s not easily overwhelmed. And if it is overwhelmed, we know how to come back to a place of centredness more easily.
Yoga breeds equanimity in lots of ways, most commonly in asana (postural) practice. In it, we’re always trying to find balance between expansion and contraction, effort and relaxation, in-breath and out-breath, etc. And we train ourselves to recognize that sweet spot so we can revel in it.
Same goes for yoga ethics, or the yamas (abstentions) and niyamas (observances). These are not practiced in isolation, but in harmony with each other. All yamas and niyamas must be tempered by ahimsa (non-violence), for example. And for the karma yogi at least, all yamas and niyamas blend with Ishvara-pranidhana (offering). In case this sanskrit is all Greek to you, the key takeaway here is that yoga’s multi-dimensional ethical framework calls for more than obedience. It requires thoughtful engagement and balanced consideration.
In meditation most of all, yoga’s tendency towards equanimity is undeniable. Every time we create abit of space from our thoughts, or shepherd our distracted awareness without judgment, we feel balanced and poised. And we try our best to embody that feeling deeply.
Ultimately these practices help create pockets of steadiness in a stressful time. And the more time we spend in those pockets, the more we normalize an even-keel, and the less likely we are to be overwhelmed when things get hectic.
It’s a lot like that analogy you may have come across before, where blue skies represent an even mind, and clouds represent distracting or troubling thoughts. There’s no denying that on some days, all we see are clouds. Sometimes, it feels like we’re so zoomed-in on those clouds that we’re incapable of seeing anything else. The point of yoga here is not to ignore those clouds or pretend they don’t exist. Rather, the practice gives us a chance to step back and regain a fuller perspective, so we don’t end up focusing on dark clouds only. And in doing so we’re gently reminded of the ever present blue sky, obscured though it may sometimes be.