Equanimity and Perspective

I just spent a week being sick and that is unusual for me. It made me realize how closely tied my own happiness is to the state of my physical body. It's easier for me to be lighthearted or let go of annoying things when my body feels fine. But when I'm in a great deal of pain or discomfort then everything is more annoying and everything is harder to do and it's not happy. It gives me a good deal of perspective on my job and the people that I see every day. It is very impressive to see some of the people who are in pain all the time yet maintain their sense of humor. That is not easy.

Yoga gives us many tools and techniques to utilize to maintain equanimity within ourselves: equanimity in our thought patterns and equanimity in our emotions. But they are only useful to us if we practice enough with them to remember that we have them when we're at our lowest. If we can remember that we can use these techniques to make us feel better when we are feeling our worst then we have practiced enough. Because physical pain is all-consuming. We become so closely identified with our physical form that we can't get any perspective on the pain when it occurs. Yoga (and many traditions) teaches that there is a part of ourselves that has nothing to do with the physical form and is therefore blissful. Because we are so in love with our physicality it is incredibly difficult for us to begin to sense that non-physical part of ourselves. 

It takes a great deal of effort when you feel bad to do even every day, simple tasks. It becomes very important that we practice things that make us feel better even when were feeling okay to begin with so that were prepared when we feel bad.