Fiscal Crisis Yoga

Well, I think it is safe to say that by now, we've all been downsized.

Even if you still have your job, even if you invest your funds under your mattress rather than in the stock market, you're feeling the effects of our country's current fiscal crisis. Maybe you have concerns about your job security. Maybe you wonder if your paper losses will translate into major struggles when it's time to buy a car, a house or send your kids to school. Maybe you want to go back to school, like I do, and you wonder if you will even be able to obtain a student loan in the current credit crunch. Maybe you feel like you've had to cut back on things like your gym membership, your nights out with friends, your obsession with designer shoes.

You're suffering. And you don't see an end in sight.

Yoga can help.

Yoga philosophy tells us that the suffering yet to come can and should be avoided. But how does one avoid future suffering when it is outside events, events outside our control, that set the stage for said suffering?

Well, the first thing to understand is that we can never control outside events. Hell, we can't even control our own bodies -- we age, we fall ill, we have accidents, we even have thoughts that we can't seem to control. All of that is unavoidable.

The second thing to understand is that when we stop trying to do the impossible, in this case, to control that which we cannot control, we begin to suffer less.

And this is a form of yoga that you can try at home -- no fee required. Let's try it now:

Say your boss fires half your staff, and you're lucky enough to have kept your job, but unlucky enough to have to do double the amount of work you used to do for the same amount of pay, no raise in sight. You can go home and bitch and moan and complain to your wife, your significant other, your mom, your kids, your dog, your neighbors, the guy who sells coffee on the corner. You can complain until you're blue in the face, and no one can stand to listen to you anymore. But you'll still be suffering. Right? Instead of struggling against it, plotting how you would do things different if you were the boss, hurling mental epithets at the powers who created this fiscal crisis in the first place, how about just getting the work done?

That's right. Just shut up and get the work done. Because really, when all is said and done, do you have a choice? You can certainly start working on your resume after you're done with the work. Or you can accept that things are just bad out there right now and that you're going to have to find a way to ride it for now. Bitching and moaning will not enhance your experience of this ride. It will merely exacerbate your suffering. You can avoid that suffering. You can just accept your feelings (Anger? Annoyance? Fear of losing your job even after doing all this crummy work?) and then do your work and let it go.

Here's another one: Let's say that you go on a date with a guy, and you have a great time, he says he'll call, blah blah blah. But the next day, nothing. And the next day. And so on. You can ruminate and analyze what might have happened. Did he lose his job? Was his cell phone repossessed? Perhaps you should call him to see if everything is okay? Perhaps you can craft a witty and casual email designed to elicit a response. Perhaps you can orchestrate some way of running into him on his block without him thinking you're some crazed stalker. Or... perhaps you can avoid all the suffering yet to come. You could do nothing. You can feel your disappointment and then let it go.

I like to think of it as surfing through life. Imagine swimming at the edge of the ocean. As the waves roll in, you can either fight to swim against them, or you can let them carry you. Let them carry you, and you're getting an exciting, albeit scary, ride. Fight against those waves, and you'll end up picking sand out of your bathing suit the entire ride home.

Understanding and accepting that bad things happen, that things won't always go our way, that people and events will disappoint us -- it's not pessimism. Rather, it's reality. And working with reality as it is is a great way to avoid suffering. When you think about it, you may begin to recognize that it may be the only way.

Comments

[Ed and Deb Shapiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Lauren, Your blog is spot on. You are a coll Yogini. I like the way you bring the ancient science of yoga to life as it is now.

Some of the comments from people below that speak of pain and suffering are not necessarily true. I have met with the Dalai Lama the most Enlightened person I have met and I feel he certainly suffers when the Tibetan people are killed and tortured in his name. It is idealistic to say what Arithrianos says. I may be true for a Buddha but not ordinary people like myself.

You are a delight,

Ed

[Ed and Deb Shapiro - Huffpost Blogger]

Part 2- I meant 'cool yogini' (excuse)
also there is a story of an Enlightened being and his disciple. The disciple praises his teacher as a Buddha. One day the teachers son dies and he cries. The disciple is perplexed and says, 'why are you crying you are a Buddha?' The teacher replies, "because my son died."

Suffering is not wrong. Think of it as part of the human condition. But let us not make it a neurosis and hold on too long and make it our identity.
We all are ok just being ourselves. That's my Yoga. But be it 100% and not to be embarrassed by myself.
A friend in Yoga,
Ed

[brooklyncitizen]

What keeps coming to me now in meditation practice is Surrender. I can still feel pretty angry and disappointed about some stuff but at the end of the day the surrendering allows me to flow and work with what I do have rather than bemoan what I don't have; and the attitude of surrendering impacts relationships for the better and I'm still amazed when I experience that; it's an immediate shift.

Each day there are constant reminders to practice this though not perfect it.. Practice is another word that comes to mind recently...at some point one just has to practice the maturity/ light/ wisdom / experience that one has received. The alternative is not so great.

[Lauren Cahn - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey S, thanks for commenting. I hear you. I wouldn't want someone to have said to me about my cancer, "Just feel your rage about your body's betrayal and let it go." But the thing is...what else IS there? What can you do but move through it? What do you do when nothing is working? You still have to go on. I think that is the idea behind this sort of suffering-avoiding. Not that I am an expert. Who IS an expert anyway?

[skellyuk]

I'm not saying I don't agree with the philosophy in principle, however some things are easier to ride through than others. Not having some bloke call does not compare to losing your job and having your home repossessed. In the UK we are facing 2 in every 5 people losing their job. There is a 45 % increase in home repossessions and a huge number of homeowners now in negative equity. As far as I am aware the US is in a similar position.

As much as I value yogic philosophy, I will not be telling the family two doors away who have just lost their jobs (both worked in the building trade) and home and will have to spend Christmas apart from their children (who will be staying with family to give them stability) to "feel your disappointment and then let it go". It may seem a little glib.

[Fidgey]

"Yoga Philosophy" will NEVER tell us "suffering is yet to come can and should be avoided" it is about ACCEPTANCE and letting go, NOT AVOIDANCE and letting go . Look into the origin of yoga, for example, "the philosophy of yoga is ... to look at all aspects of life"pleasure as well as pain"with acceptance and serenity. "

[Lauren Cahn - Huffpost Blogger]

Actually, Fidgey, I was paraphrasing directly from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is essentially the "bible" with respect to hatha yoga. The specific sutras paraphrased were from Chapter 2, verses 15 through 17, which say, and again, I am PARAPHRASING from a much translated foreign text:

2.15 Life is uncertain, change causes fear, and latent impressions bring pain " all is indeed suffering to one who has developed discrimination.

2.16 The suffering which has not yet come may be avoided.

2.17 The cause of suffering is the overshadowing of the true self by what happens to the self in life.

So, there you have it. Subject to much interpretation, of course.

[Arithrianos]

pain is unavoidable, suffering is avoiadable. There was a master who had advanced cancer and was about to die. His students asked him if he was suffering. He said "in pain, yes, suffering, no." suffering only arises when you deal unskilfully with pain, it is manufactured after the fact.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

'God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.'

It was a wise man who figured out this one.

[James Rotondi - Huffpost Blogger]

Nice piece, Lauren, and very sensible. Stretch. . . ! My take on the downturn is a bit less meditative, but still draws a physical parallel with our fiscal woes. . . . i think it's the yang to your yin (or is that yin to your. . . ?) Thanks. JR

[Lauren Cahn - Huffpost Blogger]

Well, James, I guess I'd be interested in hearing your take on the downturn, less meditative as it may be!