Above is a link to an article entitled "What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits". The article discusses the link between your behavior and your environment, specifically about soldiers with heroin addictions after they returned from Vietnam. As those of you who know me well, addiction and recovery are issues close to my heart.
"Samskaras" is a yogic term that simply translated means "habits". These samskaras are both good and bad habits. They are like loops in our minds. We follow these loops all day- in the ways that we move, talk, think, perceive, and respond. We walk these pathways in our minds without realizing we are going in circles. We approach anything new in our lives, approach every new day, by reliving the experiences of the days before. We use our past experiences to create boundaries around the very complex and overwhelming world around us. But these boundaries/loops/habits can become binding. I have found in my yogic practice that the work lies not in releasing yourself from these binds, but in becoming aware of their existence. When you can begin to pull yourself away from your mind, can begin to see the patterns and habits as just that...then you can begin to see yourself as something beyond the thoughts and patterns in your mind. You can see that you exist beyond your mind. You can see that these patterns can be interrupted.
Perhaps this idea is how yoga can help addiction. We are all addicts. But we are all so much more than our good and our bad behaviors. So in the next few weeks of this new year, perhaps resolve to suspend judgement and see if you can identify any of these patterns in your own mind.
Good luck with those New Year's resolutions.
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