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One of my Yoga teachers one day told me that the primary objective of Yoga is to help us become a witness. I had heard this teaching of being the witness in the past but did not quite understand it. I had thought it meant adopting a detached attitude in relation to the external world around me. And to me, that was impossible and in disagreement with my core belief of being connected to everything around me. That day, however, it hit me: what we are encouraged to experiment with in Yoga is to adopt a detached attitude in relation to our own internal world, our emotions, our mental imprints, and our physical habitual patterns.

From the point of view of yogic psychology, what we experience as ourselves is unconscious conditioning. With the yogic practices, we are called out, especially in the intense moments when we are thrown out of our comfort zone, to look directly at what’s showing up, mentally, emotionally and physically, in other words, we are exhorted to become aware.

Our first impulse on the yoga mat when the practice gets intense is to resist the pose, we tense up, we hold our breath; then our minds are screaming at us: “I can’t”, “I’m exhausted”, “I’m afraid”, and we want to get out of the pose; finally the emotions swell up: “I’m not good enough”, “I’ll never succeed”, “I suck”, “might as well give up”, “I’m too weak”, “I’m too old”, “I’m too fat”, “I’m always in pain”, “I’m pissed”, and we get sucked into these emotions, the self-judgment and criticism.

These are the unconscious conditionings, the ‘citta vrittis’ Yoga talks about, the automatic reactions that we fall into, not realizing that they are thinking and behavioral programs, and believing them to be true, to be part of who we are.

When our attitude is one of a witness, it is less likely that we become entangled in the stories we tell ourselves, in our programs and conditionings.

When we are asked to connect with our breath and let go of our resistance; when we are asked to step up to our courageousness on the yoga mat, we are being taught how to become a witness. As we master being the witness on the yoga mat, we train ourselves to be the witness on the meditation pillow.

As the patterns come up and we systematically release them one by one by not chasing after them, slowly the layers of conditioning, from gross to subtle, from conscious to unconscious, are being peeled.

Finally, one day, what is left is the core of who we are, the unbounded, infinite-possibilities, supra-conscious, eternal, luminous self.

 “A burning lamp cannot radiate its full illumination if its glass is covered with soot. It is only when the glass is cleaned that the lamp shines most brightly. Similarly, the light or the power of the soul is within us, but it does not manifest itself in our daily lives because of the hindrance of thinking principles, the vagaries of the mind, dissipations and distractions. Meditation helps one to annihilate the sense-consciousness and awaken self-awareness. It removes the impurities of the mind.” Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati

Daya Laure Carter is a Hatha Yoga teacher, Forrest style, at Off The Grid Yoga in Delray Beach. She also hosts a series of webinars on Yoga philosophy. For more information, go to www.offthegridyoga.com

The Yoga sages claim that the very essence of who we are is Absolute Consciousness and Bliss. It this is true indeed then why are we so clueless and unaware about ourselves? Why are we living most of our lives up the high slopes of elation and down the low pits of depression? Long-lasting peace and bliss eluding us. The masters give this answer: the conditionings of the mind, the conditioned thoughts, beliefs and emotions keep our bliss at bay. A point in case is the concept that happiness lies in stability. If our life could just be stable without anything perturbing its status quo, then finally we could be happy. When has life ever been stable? When has there never been some change? Change, movement is in the very nature of life and living, yet we persist on keeping up the appearances, on supporting this fallacy, and constantly struggle against the grain of things. This conditioning that is meant to give us the key to happiness, makes us feel discontent, and dissatisfied. Another point in case is the habitual pattern of characterizing what happens to us either good or bad; as if what happens to us is personal. When something so-called 'good' happens, we take it personally as if it had anything to do with something we did or did not do. When something 'bad' happens we take it personally as well. Then we attach to the 'good' and fear the 'bad', endeavoring to have control over what is completely out of our control. And again we find ourselves struggling, wanting to figure things out, in the illusion that figuring things out, which by the way is another way of wanting to control things, is going to give us any kind of happiness and peace. The masters advise us to first become aware of our conditionings with the support of the practices of Yoga and then drop them. When we live life from the conditioning of the victim, victimization we get back; looking out, we can only see the darkness and hopelessness of the forest. The sooner we drop the conditionings, the sooner we will be able to experience life from the point of view of the masters, the 360 degree panoramic perception at the top of the hill, where the world is a spacious, exciting place, a reflection of our very being!

Laure Carter is a Yoga Teacher at Off The Grid Yoga in Delray Beach, Florida.

The Shiva Samhita, one of the classical texts of Hatha Yoga says: "When this body, obtained through destiny, is made the means of attaining divine bliss, only then does it cease to be a burden and become fruitful, not otherwise." [2:41] Practicing Hatha Yoga for the sake of the body will only lead to more suffering, frustration, self-judgement, competition mentality and ego; but practicing Hatha Yoga for its true and sole purpose: "divine bliss", happiness, joy, delight, only then will we develop a lighter, more compassionate, more patient attitude towards our bodies and their idiosyncrasies; only then will we develop some perspective towards our bodies, and not be obssessed with them. Therefore, discipline on the Yoga path is first and foremost  the discipline of the mind, because what and how we think will determine what and how we do and the results of our actions. The mind that is polluted with thoughts of scarcity, discontent, resistance, frustration, ego-centered drive and judgement towards self and others will not give us an experience of the bliss that is at the very basis of our self, so promise the sages of Yoga. We may have beat our bodies into shape before but how much joy and confidence has that given us? How much freedom from pain, both physical and emotional has that given us? How long did that last? Let's check. Only the mind that is disciplined, "rooted in truth," says Swami Chivilasananda, meaning that is compassionate, patient, all-allowing, grateful, one-pointed and focused on the highest goal, will undoubtedly give us lasting satisfaction. "When you tap into the bliss of your own inner Self," says Siddha Yoga Master Swami Chidvilasananda, "the more you experience, the more emerges. This amazing promise transforms a seeker's attitude towards his body. He no longer sees it as a burden, but as his greatest asset, the vehicle that sustains the inner journey."

During an advanced yoga workshop at Off The Grid Yoga in Delray Beach, Yoga Master Teacher Jessica Unmani King, called inversions Yoga’s happy pills. Now for those of us who have been experiencing fear around going upside down, happy is definitely not a word that we would naturally associate with inversions. However, under the guidance of a masterful and compassionate teacher, inverting can be quite exhilarating! This excitement can be felt both physiologically and emotionally. Inversions are cleansing and nourishing at the deepest levels, and thereby engender tremendous health benefits. The entire physical system, under control of the brain, is energized and nourished as the brain is washed clean and flooded with rich new nutrients. Emotionally, facing one’s fears affords a sense of courage, and inner strength. Facing my fears in the safety of my yoga mat is enabling me each time to deepen my experience of faith; the type of faith, as Alison Wright describes, that “enables us, despite our fears, to fully engage with the unknown. This trust in ourselves, the world around us, requires us to examine our lives and define our own inner truths; and it makes us willing to explore.”

One of the aspects I came to love, with time, about Forrest Yoga as it was taught to me by my teacher, International Forrest Yoga Master, and Creator of the Release Into Peace Process, Jessica Unmani King, is that it made me realize that my resistance to being challenged on the yoga mat reflected my resistance to being challenged in life! One of the poses that pushed my buttons was Handstand, Adho Mukha Vrksasana. About 4 years ago I had the opportunity to venture out on my own and open my business; at the same time I was doing a 21-day Forrest Yoga Intensive with Unmani. For 3 weeks while I was going back and forth with making a business decision, my teacher had me go into Handstand in the middle of the room with her assistance and decree, while upside down, my vision for my business! Then she would have me sit on my mat chest lifted, heart open, connect with, verbalize and release all the fears that came up for me: fear of falling, fear of breaking my neck, fear of the unknown... fear of commitment (oh yes!), fear of failure, fear of being judged and criticized if it did not work out, (that's a big one!) fear of being on my own, fear of not being good enough (even bigger!). A funny thing happened though, each time there was a little bit less fear and a little bit more excitement about both the Handstand and the business!... I believe that it is thanks to surrendering to the challenge of the pose on the yoga mat and allowing the fears to come up that I was able to surrender to the challenge of the pose - opening my business - in my life. Fear, the emotion that comes up when we are being challenged beyond our comfort zone, is the primitive feeling that makes us be constantly on our guard and in a self-protecting mode, either physically by holding the breath, holding tension and resistance, emotionally by analyzing, intellectualizing or suppressing feelings, or mentally by creating limiting beliefs, reasons why not. Most of the time we are unconscious of fear.Yoga can be an incredible practice of looking directly at our fears when we are feeling challenged and ultimately releasing them. What my experience has taught me is that to release fear, we need to release the resistance to fear. When we release our resistance to fear, fear unravels. What's left is an insight into our fortitude; what's left is a deep-seated trust, as Erich Schiffmann, author of Yoga, the Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness describes it: "the inner relaxation that accompanies fearlessness."

Laure Carter is a Hatha Yoga teacher Forrest Yoga style and a Release Into Peace facilitator at Off The Grid Yoga in Delray Beach