Mental wellbeing is not an absence of issues. It is a presence. It only exists when it is present. Simply not having any issues is not mental wellbeing.
The Melody of the Mind
There was an Indian saint who believed that life was a bed of roses. Stones or rock-strewn paths, he walked on all kinds of terrain laid out for him by curious villagers who were wont to test his gentle smile and dulcet chants. His fame spread far and wide. Once, a path of thorns was laid out for him by the village people. The mendicant arrived jovial as ever. He walked the path of thorns as usual, brimming with his unfaltering melodies, as though it were a bed of roses. Not a tremor nor a cringe.
Sowing the Mind
Everybody believed him to be a saint with many powers and they wanted him to teach them. So they asked him, "Babaji, teach us how to walk on thorns." He looked at them utterly confused and said, "What thorns? I walk on a path of flowers. Wherever I go, people put flowers and I don’t know why.”
The saint's benign presence was paving his path with roses.
Connecting to Wellbeing
The uncertainty, instability, and stress we see outside is a reflection of the insecurity inside. When life gets the better of us, we start relying on outside circumstance rather than the body’s built-in homeostasis, the mechanism that inevitably brings us home to wellbeing.
Physical and mental wellbeing rely on each other. Wellbeing is a state of coherence between a resilient mind and an equally resilient body, much like that of the saint, who was one with his thoughts, experiences and actions.
Yoga, the Gateway to Wellbeing
Yoganganushthanadasuddhiksaye jnanadiptiravivekakhyateh
"Yoga destroys all the impurities and illuminates the intellect with knowledge of reality."
Thus, the aim of yoga is to clear the mind of all impurities, which allows it to focus and reach its highest potential.
A daily dedicated yoga practice paves the way for wellbeing. Its eloquence echoes in one's daily life in many ways.
All of the postures and yogic techniques eventually translate into equanimity in our daily life. They bring pause to our cascading emotions, and a readiness to accept the present without a fight. In moments of distress, we see ourselves behaving differently.
Which techniques we practice is not important, as long as they resonate with our consciousness. Our yoga practice connects us to our deepest selves, and we experience a greater coherence between our inner and outer worlds.
The Experience of Wellbeing
Several things occur in the space where we are close to our consciousness:
- The ability to function from our highest intellectual, creative, and emotional potential.
- Balancing and freeing up our energies to act quickly, instead of being divided and fatigued by internal conflict.
- We learn to cut through complexities to get to the core and deliver solutions.
- There is a greater agility, flexibility, strength, balance, and stamina.
- We find a place of ideal weight and body composition in ourselves.
- We find balance in parameters of physical health, such as immunity, metabolism, cardiovascular health, hormones, gut health, and cognition.
- Negative patterns and habits start receding, as does an obstructive and narrow vision.
- We foster emotional trust and stability to connect better with ourselves, our instincts, and others.
- We build inner trust and confidence, loosening the grip of insecurity and fear.
- Above all, we learn to work with our mind, we learn how to stabilize the mind, and no matter what the external circumstances, we develop the ability to maintain our equilibrium and find solutions to our problems.
Simply put, we learn the art of being happy.
