Cultivating the Opposite

Why I am Doing My Own Beginner Yogi Course every day for 40 days.

As I may have mentioned, I am completing my 500 hour yoga teacher training. (I graduate in May 2024!🎓) Part of the studies includes completing the same practice (be it a meditation, a yoga asana/yoga flow, a chanting meditation etc.) every day for 40 days.

I completed this 40 day challenge once before, with a guided meditation. This was a beautiful exercise, and I learned so much just by showing up each day. The “challenge” is called a kriya.

Kriya [Sanskrit] kree-yah

action, deed, effort, completed action, practice.

Why 40 days? It is said that it takes 40 days to incorporate a new activity as a habit. – 3ho.org

I have chosen to complete my own yoga flow (The Beginner Yogi Class) every day for 40 days – promising to start over again if I miss a day. The magic is in the showing up each day, in whatever state I happen to be in. Anchoring myself with a ritual and time (even if it’s just the five-ten minutes) invested in myself.

How is this cultivating the opposite?

My natural habitat is the planning zone. I love planning. My bullet journal collection is impressive. What I am keen on these days though – is moving past the planning. Jumping into the fire of action, even when I don’t feel ready. 🔥

Showing up to a physical practice, one that naturally generates a bit of heat, is not my preferred activity.

Which is exactly why I need to do it!!!

Nope, I would be most comfortable all curled up under a blanket, with a cup of tea, to meditate on my cushion for a nice 20 minutes. 🍵

But in order to expand, evolve and grow… I have to be willing to shape the entire sphere of myself. I have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, so my range of ability expands.

I feel like I’ve said this before, but have you heard this story?

When the knights of the round table set out in search of the holy grail, they were advised to set out into the forest – at the part that seemed darkest to them.

The moral here being: the answer to your problem, lies in the place you most don’t want to go. (I believe I heard it from a Jordan Peterson video on: Maps of Meaning)

This is “cultivating the opposite” is a very yogic idea and connects to the Sanskrit term we will end with today: “pratipaksha-bhavana: whenever adverse notions crowd our mind, Patanjali (author of THE book on yoga) tells us, we must endeavour to conjure up their opposites.” (Full article from Yoga International here.)

So I hope that whatever path you set forth onto, in the dark part of your own forest – may it bring you a lightness you didn’t know existed. May you enter that forest with so much love in your heart, for yourself and for the people who love and support you, that the path is lit up on it’s own. 💡

If you’re feeling called to cultivate the opposite in your life with yoga/ meditation… but you’re not sure where to start… please book a free consultation call with me. I would love to talk with you about how meditation and yoga can be tools in your toolbox! 🧰

Wishing you an amazing weekend.

With Love,

Esta