Attitude: You Are What You Think

by Anita Farrah – CYI, RYT

The Yoga Sutras are a manual for the study and practice of yoga.  Standing the test of time, these teachings, or threads, have been passed down for hundreds of years and include practical advice on how we can learn to master our minds, to achieve physical, mental, and emotional harmony in our lives.  As Swami Satchidananda puts it, “If you can control the rising of the mind into ripples, you will experience Yoga.”

Putting the Yoga Sutras Into Practice

The world around us is based on our thoughts and mental attitude.  There is a Sanskrit saying, “Mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoho.” “As the mind, so the man; bondage or liberation are in your own mind.”  On the physical level, the practice of Yoga teaches us how to open up the lines of energy within ourselves, how to work with our breath, and from there we learn how to quiet our minds.  From that still point we are able to access what is rather than some thought distorted by outside illusion. Things outside neither bind nor liberate us; only our attitude toward them does that.  So take the time to pause, go inside and be guided from within.