3 Prerequisites to Changing Your Patterns

Creating awareness is the first step to changing your patterns, Yoga is one of many processes we can use for this.

So why doesn’t everyone who tries yoga create greater awareness that will help them shift their patterns? Because they don’t allow for the fundamentals.

Whether through yoga or another means you choose to create awareness, you must be willing to do three things for the act of creating awareness to work:

(1) Create space for the process

Uncovering inner habits is not something we can do while we’re moving at warp speed through our day. Awareness is a result of investigation and exploration.

Our culture of constant doing doesn’t leave us much space to explore and investigate. Awareness isn’t a “drive-by” activity. To create awareness, we must first create space for the process. This requires us to slow down, and even stop.

There’s no way around it: you’ve got to get “on the mat.”[1]

Once on the mat, allow yourself the space to dig deep and explore. If you’re just pushing through poses in rapid succession, you might be building up a sweat but you’re not really exploring what comes up.

(2) Look at what you find

There’s no point in stopping to explore if you’re not willing to look at what you find. Creating awareness requires some investigation. It’s a dance with your edge.

Looking at our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions is a journey into muddy waters. We are often unclear about our own thoughts

The reason for our chronic busyness is to avoid looking at the inner workings of the mind. Sometimes we see thoughts and attitudes that we don’t like, or that conflict with our perception of who we are.

It’s more comfortable to stay unaware — even if we remain stuck in the same patterns as a result.

Pulling the shadows out of the dark and into the light is the path to enlightenment.

The principle of fractals tells us that life is patterns. When you discover a “sticking point” on the mat, ask yourself:

Where does this show up in my life off-the-mat?

(3) Feel what comes up

Awareness isn’t just a cognitive or visual exercise. It’s also experiential. In this case, it’s the experience of emotions. You must be willing to feel the emotions that come up.

When you take time to notice the sensations you feel and allow yourself to feel them, you can work through them.

The physical poses of yoga are the easy part. It’s what comes up in the poses and after that makes yoga a challenge.

Learning to stay with what arises is a big part of the practice of yoga, both on and off the mat.