Yoga at times of economic crisis:

Shifting for from personal experience to a collective endeavor

The financial crisis in Greece has undoubtedly triggered much fear and insecurity over our future. Hence one would expect people to become more pessimistic, closed-hearted and hostile with one another. But in the world of yoga a different perspective emerges out of the recognition that this is a part of the transformation process…and in a sense of a collective endeavor, not just a personal experience.

Instead of time for panic, this is just the right time to wake up from the dream in which we are separate from each other, separate from nature and separate from God. The crisis provides an unprecedented opportunity to recognize that all life is connected, and to have that highest knowledge guide us in our daily actions.

This is a also a time for drawing a line between what is truly needed and valuable, what really matters, and what we can do - sometimes better - without. The over-consumption has been a characteristic of the western societies for many decades. Despite the indefinite increase of what is called “needs” in marketing, the production and consumption of the great variety of products has clearly failed to fulfill its promise of bringing about joy and inner peace. So here comes the crisis giving us a chance to shift our gaze away from the external in pursuit of happiness, and to look for peace and happiness on the inside.

Yoga and meditation have an important role in this shift. All over the world people are improving their physical and psycho-emotional health, awakening their spiritual connection and overcoming the misconception that they are small beings, weak and incapable of making healthy durable changes. With a help of teachers and spiritual leaders, many yoga practitioners come to realize their infinite potential, as they attune to the ever-present teacher inside their heart.

Yoga helps people mature emotionally and take their lives into their own hands. With opening of the energetic channels, in some way our lives also get “unblocked” – free to unfold in new, unpredicted directions. People change careers, improve the worthy relationships and terminate the unhealthy ones, engage in voluntary and other activities that help the disadvantaged groups, or the planet. Some enjoy the new freedom so much that they embark on a path of teaching yoga themselves, excited about spreading this knowledge further, and serving their fellow human beings on their own path to spiritual evolution and liberation.

Furthermore, in the midst of the crises of luxury and comfort, there finally comes an opportunity for us to recognize the abundance that exists in our lives, and to be grateful for all those things that we are already enjoying. Gratitude for who we are, and for what we are experiencing is not just a feeling, it is a state of being. However, it is difficult to cultivate it when the mind is constantly attached to what we lack and to what we think we need in order to be complete. When we feel gratitude for having a roof above our heads, for eating food every day, for the sun that shines, for being loved and cared for, for the very gift of life with all the good and the bad, for the pulsation of the creative energy inside us, then we know that we already are complete on a deeper level.

In yoga we always emphasize the universal. In each session we remember that it is one spirit, one love, one divine power shining in the beautiful diversity of the many, and we try to take that remembrance to our daily interactions. It is there - outside the yoga room - that the true practice of yoga takes place. When our personal aspirations are inspired by the greater good, a good that will benefit all, the doors open to us. It does not mean that we need to suppress the personal interest. But the desire for the personal interest must be in harmony with that of the others.

The un-observed mind wakes up each morning anxious about what is there to be gained today. It constantly obsesses around how to accumulate as many positive and as least negative experiences as possible. That produces stress. But cultivating awareness of the mind’s processes in meditation, we begin to take certain thoughts less seriously and start to wonder what is there to offer to people we meet today, in each exchange, from family, to people at work, to fellow drivers, to the cashier in supermarket, to the sales person on the phone…each exchange becomes one chance of being caring, compassionate and brightening up someone’s day.

Through cultivating awareness the mind gradually gets used to seeing the bigger picture than the one with which most of us grew up – the ego-centric image of the self with some, or even everyone else on the other side of the battlefield. We discover that this separation is the main source of pain and loneliness for a person.

An interesting documentary about nature on Himalayas shows animals like tigers and Yunnan monkeys that live in severe weather conditions - at the highest peaks of the mountains – to behave differently than the ones living lower down the mountain in milder-climate areas. In the harsh environment the males are less hostile and competitive, their packs consisting of more members who “stick together” in more harmony and balance.

This is therefore our opportunity to invite more balance in our lives. The presently more difficult circumstances are only to be taken advantage of to bring about fundamental changes in the way we perceive and treat one other. We see ever more clearly that our individual path of awakening is in fact a contribution to, and an inseparable part of the global transformation.