0:15

Pushkin. I

0:22

was in graduate school and a friend

0:25

of mine was like, oh my god, you

0:27

should come to yoga because I was really

0:29

depressed. This is one of my wellness idols.

0:31

Jessamin Stanley. She had drunk

0:34

the yoga kool aid. She was like, Oh my god,

0:36

it's going to change your whole life. The idea

0:38

of that sort of big change did appeal to Jessamin,

0:41

who at the time was feeling a bit lost. I

0:43

was like, I don't know who I am,

0:46

what is the purpose of my life? What's going

0:48

on? And she was like, oh

0:51

my god, you should come to yoga. You're gonna love

0:53

it. And I was like, I am not

0:55

doing that. Jessamin had tried yoga

0:57

once before in high school and she absolutely

0:59

hated it. But her friend wasn't

1:02

going to take no for an answer and knew just

1:04

how to make the case. She appealed to

1:06

Jessaman's appetite for a bargain, and

1:09

she got me caught up on a group on though she

1:11

was like, what's the worst they can happen? You go one time

1:13

you paid thirty dollars with this past, Like, what's

1:16

the worst that can happen? Jessamin reluctantly

1:18

agreed at first that yoga class

1:20

wasn't the amazing, life changing experience

1:22

Jessamin was hoping for. So

1:25

it's really hot here, it smells,

1:27

it kind of sucks. Actually, like

1:29

everything about this is really hard. Jessamin

1:32

couldn't do the poses as well as the other students

1:34

around her. As a queer plus

1:37

sized black woman in a mostly skinny,

1:39

white lady yoga class. She felt uncomfortable

1:41

in her body and painfully self conscious.

1:44

I remember we were practicing a posture

1:46

called awkward pose that is literally

1:48

it's so aptly named because it is extremely

1:51

awkward. So I'm looking at myself in this mirror

1:54

and which is traumatizing on

1:56

its own, because I literally

1:58

would go out of my way at that stage in my

2:00

life to avoid mirrors and looking at

2:02

myself. And I'm just thinking, like, why did you even

2:04

think you could come to this class? Like you

2:06

obviously don't know what you're doing, and everybody

2:09

here knows it, and you can't even do this

2:11

basic thing. This is like maybe

2:13

the third or fourth posture in the class. I'm

2:15

like, there's no like, if you can't

2:17

do this, then why even show up? And

2:20

I was just talking cash shit to

2:22

myself, and I had this moment

2:25

where I was like, you know, you

2:27

could just try. Maybe

2:29

you just try, Like, yes, maybe you're

2:31

gonna fall down. Maybe everyone

2:33

in the room is going to know that you don't know

2:36

what you're doing. Maybe the teacher's gonna

2:38

know that you don't know what you're doing. And

2:40

maybe that's just gotta be okay,

2:42

Because did you spend this money

2:44

to come to this class to just stand

2:47

here and talk shit about yourself because you could

2:49

have done that at home. Jessamin decided to

2:51

make good on her thirty dollar investment. She

2:53

committed to halting her usual self criticism,

2:56

if only for the length of that one class. She

2:59

started leaning into all the new postures and

3:01

movements, and then something

3:03

incredible happened. She actually

3:06

started to enjoy yoga. It was the first

3:08

time Esseman was able to get out of her head

3:10

and as long as she could remember. So

3:13

it was this insane moment of like actually

3:15

having to reckon with something

3:17

that I had just decided about myself, and

3:20

that moment that breaking

3:22

point to this day. Ultimately,

3:25

that is why I continue to practice yoga,

3:27

because it really is it's a cracking

3:29

open of the spirit. It's like you're looking

3:31

in a foggy bathroom mirror, a

3:34

mirror that you fogged up, and like just

3:36

swiping across it and seeing your

3:38

actual reflection back at you. And it

3:41

was so profound for

3:43

me in a way that I certainly

3:45

didn't walk into the class thinking I was

3:47

going to experience. Decades later,

3:49

Jessaman has gone from an awkward novice to

3:51

becoming a famous yoga professional. She's

3:54

now one of the most sought after yoga and wellness

3:56

instructors in the world. Jessaman's

3:58

done ad campaigns for places like Gatorade,

4:00

Adidas, and Amazon. She's the co founder

4:03

of The Underbelly, an international yoga

4:05

community that celebrates bringing yoga and

4:07

movement to people of all body types

4:09

and identities. But initially

4:12

that experience, I really

4:15

only understood it on a physical level,

4:17

an example being like I'm just going to work

4:19

on this pose, like I'm going to work on

4:22

camel pose or downward

4:24

facing dog like. I got really into

4:27

headstanding and understanding

4:29

the mechanics of that, and through

4:32

that practice of focusing

4:34

on different postures, I

4:36

did start to understand

4:39

that there are a lot

4:42

of themes

4:44

that come up when you are practicing

4:46

yoga so like grounding

4:50

stability, strength,

4:52

flexibility, and understanding

4:56

those concepts beyond

4:59

what they were offering me physically,

5:02

So like, if I am in a posture

5:05

that is offering

5:07

flexibility in my physical whole body,

5:10

what other parts of my life can I be

5:12

more flexible in. Jessamin

5:14

was training extensively in the physical side

5:16

of her practice, but she hadn't yet looked

5:18

at the historic or spiritual roots of yoga.

5:21

Was her practice really supposed to be just about

5:23

the poses, she wondered, or did the founders

5:26

of yoga intend for it to be deeper. Jessamin

5:28

was fascinated by all these questions, but

5:31

she also worried that the answers might not

5:33

be for people like her. I am black,

5:35

I am American, I am not South

5:38

Asian. I do not have a

5:40

cultural relationship with

5:42

yoga. And I was like, I'm

5:44

pretty sure this is all appropriation

5:46

and it's probably not cool

5:48

for me to be doing this at all. But

5:51

at a minimum, I'm just going to stick with the physical

5:54

stuff, and then I won't. I'm not even going to dig

5:56

into anything else. But as Jessamin thought

5:58

more about the varied benefits that she and her

6:00

students got from yoga. She began to realize

6:03

that the physical side of this ancient tradition

6:05

was just the tip of the iceberg. As she explains

6:07

in her most recent book, Yoga, My

6:09

Yoga of Self Acceptance, she came

6:11

to learn that it's less about fitness and

6:13

more about dealing with your mental and emotional

6:16

baggage. So much of what

6:18

was making me unhappy and unsatisfied

6:20

in my life was that I'd created

6:23

all of these boundaries for myself, and

6:25

I made all these decisions about the type

6:27

of person that I am and about what I'm capable

6:29

of handling, and I never allowed

6:32

myself to step outside of those boundaries.

6:34

Yoga requires that you step

6:37

outside of your boundaries, and it's

6:39

put me in these situations where I actually

6:41

had to look at the way that I talked

6:43

to myself and look at the way that I

6:46

process information and be like,

6:48

you know what, I know. I decided

6:50

that I'm not going to be able to do this, but maybe

6:52

I'm just going to try. And part of that commitment

6:55

to moving past her boundaries involved

6:57

taking a careful look at the cultural origins

6:59

of yoga. Jessamine began

7:01

reading about the history of her practice, and

7:03

in doing so, returned to an important

7:05

spiritual work that she'd first heard about

7:08

and her yoga teacher training a book

7:10

that's often thought of as the earliest textbook

7:12

of yoga. It's called The Yoga

7:14

Suits. Such means thread,

7:17

so it's literally like threads

7:19

that tie us together. These

7:22

sutras have been passed down for thousands

7:25

of years, and they've been translated an

7:29

untold number of times, and

7:31

they really are just words

7:34

that were captured by the students

7:36

of a teacher. Parts and jolly,

7:39

and these words

7:41

were just guiding

7:43

thoughts for life. Potentially

7:46

was the wise Sanskrit stage who first

7:48

outlined what's known as the eight limbed Path.

7:51

The eight limbed path was a way for students not

7:53

just to achieve a fitter body, as we often

7:55

think of yoga today, but to gain a fitter mind

7:57

and spirit. Potentially argued

7:59

that when followed correctly, the eight limbed path

8:02

is a way for us all to become free of mental

8:04

suffering. It's really just like

8:07

so many other ancient

8:09

texts, and it's been passed

8:11

down because the universality

8:14

of the aphorisms. They can be

8:17

applied in every circumstance,

8:19

no matter who you are or where

8:21

you are, and that's one of the reasons

8:24

we'll be turning to the yoga sutras in this

8:26

episode. Today we'll explore what

8:28

the eight Lived path says about how to live a

8:30

happier, healthier life. Welcome

8:32

back to Happiness Lessons of the Ancients on

8:35

the Happiness Lap with me, Doctor Laurie

8:37

Santos.

8:40

Certainly, yoga has become in

8:42

the mainstream almost entirely

8:44

associated with exercise. What

8:47

poses are you doing? The difficulty

8:49

of the practice is engaged by

8:51

the difficulty of the postures, like

8:53

how acrobatic is your practice

8:56

becomes the metric, so that

8:58

when people go to a yoga class, it's always

9:00

about like what are the physical benefits going

9:02

to be? And that even when you talk

9:04

about like meditation or breathwork,

9:07

it's not necessarily seen as a

9:09

necessary component of a yoga

9:12

practice. And ultimately

9:14

though, the physical experience

9:16

of yoga is really a very

9:19

minor part of the experience. As

9:21

Jessamin learned more about the history of yoga

9:23

and the yoga sutras specifically, she

9:25

quickly realized that yoga poses, or

9:28

asina's as they're called in Sanskrit, are

9:30

just a tiny part only one branch of

9:32

the eight limb path that Potentially originally

9:34

outlined. In fact, Asina's

9:36

didn't even make it into the first limb that Potentially

9:39

preached about. His classic text

9:41

started not with Asina's but with what are

9:43

known as the yamas or restraints. Yama's

9:46

especially, I think, because they go first. It's

9:48

the suture that I think people are most

9:51

familiar with and the ones that

9:53

have the most intense translations

9:56

in our society. The

9:58

yamas remind us about the responsibility we

10:00

have to other people. In doing

10:02

so, the yamas fit well with one of the

10:05

most well documented effects in the entire

10:07

field of happiness science that becoming

10:09

more other oriented is a quick way

10:11

to improve our well being. Study

10:13

after study shows that focusing on other

10:15

people, either through volunteering or

10:18

donating money, can make us feel happier,

10:21

and acting intentionally towards others

10:23

is what the first limb of the eight limb path is

10:25

all about. In fact, Potentially

10:27

thought our responsibilities to others were so

10:29

important that he divided the yamas

10:32

into five tinier principles, as he called

10:34

them, and the first and

10:36

most famous of these principles is what's

10:38

known as ahimsa, which is

10:40

this idea of non violence, and

10:43

often Ahimsa is translated

10:46

as a call to action for vegetarianism

10:49

or veganism, because

10:52

the best way to be non

10:55

violent in terms of not

10:59

harming other creatures is

11:01

to literally not consume

11:03

other creatures. But that's just one

11:05

translation of Ahimsa, and that's

11:07

just one translation for some

11:09

people. Non violence, to

11:12

me has always come

11:14

up more in the language that we

11:16

used to talk not just about other

11:18

people, but about ourselves, because if

11:20

you are using violent language to

11:23

talk about yourself, that is coming

11:26

into the way that you communicate about other

11:28

people as well, which is kind of ironic,

11:30

because I think the whole idea of a himself

11:32

is not to engage in violence,

11:34

and in some ways, critiquing people, especially

11:37

critiquing people's bodies, you know, might

11:39

be really a violation of the very principle

11:42

exactly. And another one that jumps

11:44

up for me is Bramacharia, which is this

11:46

idea of chastity. And like I

11:48

remember in my own teacher training it

11:51

being said like, oh, well, we don't

11:53

really think about Bramacharia that much,

11:55

like it's not that big of a deal. You don't need to worry about

11:57

it because bramacharia being translated

11:59

as chastity and therefore

12:01

meaning celibacy, no sex,

12:04

no sex. People are

12:06

like, I'm not not going to have sex what you're saying,

12:08

And in my own understanding

12:10

of brahmacharia, I think that it's

12:12

more about owning your

12:14

own spirit so that when

12:17

you are engaged in

12:19

acts that are literally

12:21

sharing your spirit with other human

12:24

beings, that you can at a minimum

12:26

know what you're getting into. And that's what sex

12:28

is. It's offering yourself to another

12:31

human being, and sex it

12:33

can get you twisted in the

12:35

game. It will get you confused, and

12:38

that is really all that Brahmacharia

12:40

is. It's really just asking a question.

12:42

It's like, you know, what does it mean to

12:45

hold onto your essence?

12:48

To preserve your spirit.

12:50

Jessamine has a similar interpretation of

12:52

the other three Yamas principles. They're

12:54

there so our minds don't get twisted up and

12:57

so that we can preserve our spirit. These

12:59

final free principles include Satya

13:01

or truthfulness, basically, don't lie

13:03

to people and commit to living in truth even

13:06

when doing so is painful. Then

13:08

there's estey, which tells us

13:10

not to be covetous Astea is

13:12

all about nipping that green eyed monster of jealousy

13:15

in the bud and to try to avoid social

13:17

comparison generally. And

13:19

finally, there's a paragraha, which

13:21

is freedom from desire. A paragraha

13:24

fits nicely with a happiness strategy we talk

13:26

about a lot on this podcast, remembering

13:29

that more stuff and more accolades are

13:31

not going to make us happy. A paragraha

13:33

is all about trying to notice times when we're

13:35

feeling a little greedy. It's really not

13:38

like hard rules,

13:40

it's opportunities to engage

13:43

with yourself on a more visceral

13:46

pud For the next limb of the eight limb

13:48

path, the Niyamas is even more

13:50

focused on engaging internally, and that's

13:52

because the five principles of the Niyamas

13:54

are focused on the responsibilities we have not

13:57

towards other people, but towards ourselves.

13:59

Those principles include sautcha

14:01

keeping your body clean physically, mentally

14:04

and emotionally, tap Us a

14:06

sense of austerity and self discipline. Svadiaya,

14:09

a commitment to studying yourself and looking

14:11

within yourself for answers. Isfara

14:13

pranidana committing to finding a spiritual

14:16

path, and my favorite of the niyamas

14:18

Santosa. Santosa is

14:20

my favorite, not because the word kind of sounds

14:22

like it should be the name of some cousin of mine, but

14:25

because it's the principle that's focused on finding

14:27

contentment in the present moment and doing

14:29

so without ruminating about the past or

14:32

the future. You could spend your whole life

14:34

just focusing on the yamas, honestly,

14:37

because they show up in everything, and they can

14:39

be interpreted so many

14:41

different ways, whether that's through

14:44

the language that you use, through

14:48

your personal definition of chastity,

14:50

through the things that you consume,

14:53

how you cleanse your body, but then

14:55

it's also the way that

14:57

you engage with other human

15:00

beings, not coveting

15:03

what other people have, not

15:05

speaking ill of other people,

15:08

and really like having an attention

15:10

to your words and the language that you use.

15:13

But the eight limp path doesn't just stop with the yamas

15:16

and the ni Yamas. When we get back from

15:18

the break, we'll continue our discussion of Patanjali's

15:21

other six limbs. We'll see where

15:23

all those tough yoga poses we use in the modern

15:25

day fit into the ancient stage's vision of

15:27

the good life. And we'll learn how a true

15:29

eight limbed path towards flourishing requires

15:32

regulating not just the body, but also the

15:34

mind. The happiness lab will be right

15:36

back. When

15:43

you look at people who are extreme

15:46

athletes, like I think

15:49

a lot about ultramarathoners and

15:52

people who run ultramarathons,

15:54

they're not doing that for their health, Like they're

15:57

not obsessed with that experience because

15:59

it's like, oh my god, my body is going to

16:01

look this way. No, they are working

16:03

out deep psychological

16:05

truth, so they are they are having a spiritual

16:08

experience. The ancient sage patan

16:10

Jolly lived way before modern

16:12

fitness practices like CrossFit and tough

16:14

Mutters were a thing, but he still

16:16

recognized that moving our bodies could

16:18

be an important step towards spiritual enlightenment.

16:21

And that's the logic behind the third and most

16:23

famous limb of patan Jolly's eight limbed

16:25

path, the asanas. The asinas

16:28

are what most Westerners typically think of

16:30

when they think of yoga, the poses, things

16:33

like downward facing dog, chaturanga,

16:35

gomu casana, and chair pose. But

16:37

the key to getting the most out of all these asanas

16:40

isn't what most modern practitioners think from

16:43

Patan Jolly's perspective, the goal wasn't

16:45

to twist your body into an uncomfortable pretzel.

16:48

Author and yoga instructor Jessamine Stanley

16:50

says that the original idea behind the asinas

16:53

was much simpler, asina

16:55

really means to sit, so

16:57

it's not even as complicated

16:59

as assume this specific posture.

17:02

It's literally like to be just

17:05

to exist. Patan Jolli is

17:07

really saying that any form that your

17:09

body takes is

17:12

assuming a shape that

17:14

then is a part

17:17

of this world, and it's something

17:19

that evolves for every

17:21

person throughout their life, depending

17:23

on what's going on in their life. But

17:26

the reality is that you really only need

17:28

to practice one posture, and it can

17:30

be any posture. The posture can be

17:33

sitting down, it can be

17:36

lying on your back, it can

17:38

be standing up. That's

17:40

sufficient posture because ultimately

17:43

they're very complex postures, and

17:45

in truth, being able to

17:47

just be in stillness

17:50

is the hardest posture. Jessamin

17:53

tells her students that this is the point

17:55

performing all the yoga poses they practice.

17:57

The austins are there to help us accept

17:59

the hard challenges that come not on our

18:01

yoga mats, but in life. Let's take

18:03

a posture like post For example, you

18:06

look at a posture like cheer pose and it's like,

18:08

what do I need to do? I need to turn

18:11

my thighs toward one another. I

18:13

need to engage my core. I need

18:15

to fall down backwards while

18:17

also sitting upright.

18:20

I need to lengthen out of the crowd

18:22

of my head. All of these things

18:25

are things that I need to

18:27

do when I'm challenged, when someone

18:29

is pushing back against me at work,

18:32

when I feel like

18:34

someone is being mean

18:37

to me, when I'm feeling challenged,

18:39

those are the same things that I need to do. I need

18:42

to pull into my core. I need to

18:44

try to fall down backwards but also stay

18:46

upright. I need to lengthen

18:48

up to the sky. I need to pull

18:51

It's all of these ideas that seemed

18:53

theoretical and that seemed like philosophical

18:56

but that are really actually very

18:58

practical, And I think it makes

19:00

it easier to deal with the parts

19:02

of life that are really hard,

19:05

really really hard and complicated

19:07

and that are not meant to be anything

19:09

other than that. Like I think sometimes

19:12

in life, really hard shit, bad

19:14

shit happens, and you think this

19:16

isn't how things are supposed to be things are supposed

19:18

to be good. I'm supposed to be happy. This

19:21

is wrong, And what yoga reminds

19:23

is that everything in life is not

19:25

good. Everything in life is not happy.

19:28

You need for things to be hard so

19:30

that you can actually strengthen

19:33

from the inside. So practice the

19:35

things that you do when

19:37

things get hard. Pull into your core, become

19:39

flexible in your hamstrings, draw your

19:42

butt cheeks together, whatever the things are. Practice

19:45

that in the moments that feel emotionally

19:47

hard, and you will be strengthened

19:49

as a result. The fourth limb

19:51

of the eightfold path, it is also about harnessing

19:54

something that can help us get through tough times.

19:56

Not mindful movements as in the Ausinas,

19:59

but mindful breath. It's called

20:01

prana, the full word

20:03

as prana yama, Prana being

20:05

this energy

20:08

that we we most consciously

20:10

understand as breath, and

20:12

so breathwork becomes

20:15

the focus of pranayama.

20:17

Scientists have long recognized that our breath

20:19

can have a huge impact on our well being. Take

20:22

for example, one of the easiest ways to

20:24

shut off activation in our fighter flight system,

20:27

or what neuroscientists refer to as our sympathetic

20:30

nervous system. You're probably

20:32

familiar with the activation of this system if

20:34

you've ever felt overwhelmed by too many demands

20:36

at work, or anxious after reading

20:38

some scary news article, or pissed

20:40

off by an annoying email. Our

20:43

sympathetic nervous system kicks in whenever

20:45

we feel under threat. It's a system

20:47

that's only supposed to turn on once in a while

20:50

in moments of urgent threat or danger, but

20:52

many of us keep this system running chronically,

20:55

which leads to a whole host of stress related

20:57

illnesses and bad feelings. But

21:00

there's a fast and easy way to get our fighter flight

21:02

systems to chill out for a while, and

21:04

we can do that through our breath. There's

21:06

evidence that we can switch off sympathetic nervousness

21:09

to activity simply by taking a

21:11

slow, deep belly breath, especially

21:13

one with a long exhale. Pat

21:15

and Jolly wasn't a neuroscientist, but he

21:17

realized that we can use the breath to change

21:19

the way we feel in our bodies and our minds.

21:22

But Jessamin says that prani Yama isn't

21:25

just about taking a few deep breaths when we're feeling

21:27

stressed. Prama is

21:29

really like everything.

21:32

Once you focus on your breath and

21:34

once you assume a posture,

21:36

whatever that posture is, then

21:39

your body starts to go into a state

21:42

of actually engaging

21:44

with what is underneath your skin and

21:46

what is happening beyond your mind.

21:49

It's starting to unite the

21:51

way that your body moves and the way that your

21:53

mind works, and the way that you feel

21:56

so that you're able to understand yourself as

21:58

a full spiritual being. But

22:00

if you really want to understand yourself as

22:02

a full spiritual being, you can't

22:04

stop at Praniyama. You also need

22:06

to commit to practicing what's discussed and

22:08

the rest of the limbs of the eightfold Path, the

22:11

ones that we haven't talked about yet. We'll

22:13

hear more from Jessamine about what these final

22:15

spiritual practices are and how

22:17

we can harness them to live and feel better when

22:19

the Happiness Lab gets back from the short break,

22:29

so that the

22:31

last limbs of the eight limb

22:33

path, Pratiahara,

22:37

Darana, Diana,

22:40

and the Samodi are

22:44

all the stages that happen

22:46

once you have united your breath

22:49

with what reform

22:51

your body is taking. So

22:54

far in our progress through Patanjali's path.

22:56

We've talked about the importance of the yamas

22:58

our responsibilities to other people. The

23:00

ni yamas are responsibilities to ourselves.

23:03

The Austina's physical postures we

23:05

can relax into distay, grounded and prani

23:08

yama, the importance of controlling our breath.

23:11

And if you're counting and keeping track of where we

23:13

are in the eight limbs, you might be tempted

23:15

to think that we basically hit the halfway point

23:17

towards spiritual enlightenment. But author

23:20

and yoga instructor Jessamine Stanley's

23:22

quick to point out that Pat and Jolly didn't intend

23:24

for the limbs. He described to be boxes

23:27

that we check off on some spiritual to do

23:29

list. So the idea behind

23:31

the eight limb path is that it provides

23:33

structure for your life, and it

23:35

provides a way to go about

23:38

taking care of yourself, and then

23:40

the way that you show up in the world, and

23:43

then the way that you are engaging

23:45

with the energy of the world, and then

23:47

ultimately the way that you process

23:50

that energy and bring it

23:52

forth into back into the world.

23:55

And I think that when

23:57

you say eight limb path, it's

23:59

always like, okay, cool, So I've done

24:02

the first three. Once I get to level

24:04

eight, I will have figured out how to be a

24:06

perfect human. And it's like no

24:09

All of the limbs are happening at once,

24:11

and there's no ending points.

24:14

Ultimately, you're just moving

24:17

through and around them

24:20

at all times. The sutras

24:22

are just the truth. They're the truth of the human

24:24

experience, and they can be applied

24:27

in different ways depending on what's

24:29

going on in your life. Patan Jolly's

24:32

eight Limb Path was also not meant to be a

24:34

quick journey. His tips can't be mastered

24:36

in a forty five minute yoga class. His

24:38

spiritual path was meant to be a lifelong

24:41

practice, which is kind of a relief, especially

24:43

since the last four limbs described in the eight

24:45

Limb Path may require even more time

24:48

and care than the earlier ones. Take

24:50

for example, pat and Jolly's fifth limb, which

24:53

Jessamin thinks is probably the hardest

24:55

for modern Western practitioners to work through.

24:57

It's called profe yahara, the

25:00

commitment to detaching from things external.

25:02

What does Patu and Jelly mean here by external

25:04

things? Think what we look

25:06

like, how much money we have, the stuff we

25:08

own, how successful we are at work?

25:11

And all the identities we share online

25:13

on social media. It's so

25:15

hard because we live in a world

25:17

where we are constantly tapped into

25:20

everything. And I think that

25:22

that idea of withdrawal and

25:25

what it means to withdraw and how you

25:27

withdraw. Is it all your senses?

25:30

Is it only in certain circumstances? Is it for

25:32

an hour in the morning and then you're good for

25:34

the rest of the day, Like what does that mean? And the

25:36

reality is that there are

25:38

no hard and fast lines

25:41

or limits. It's really just about

25:44

understanding it for yourself on a personal

25:46

level. For me, withdrawal

25:49

of senses only happens

25:51

when I accept the fact that my senses

25:54

are alive and are awake.

25:56

And that doesn't mean trying to shut

25:58

them down or pretend that certain

26:01

things are and happening, or trying

26:03

to avoid things. It's just let

26:06

it all be there, Let every sound

26:08

be there, like every connection be there.

26:11

I'm just gonna let it all hang out. That's

26:14

when you can pull into yourself. That's

26:16

when you can withdraw. And the importance of pulling

26:19

into yourself leads us to both the sixth

26:21

and seventh limbs of the eightfold Path, which

26:23

are known as dharana concentration,

26:26

and the practice that leads to daharana,

26:29

which is diana or meditation.

26:31

If you've listened to other episodes of The Happiness

26:33

Lab, you've probably heard about the many physical

26:36

and psychological benefits of meditation

26:38

and concentrating on your internal experience

26:41

of the present moment. There's evidence that practicing

26:43

meditation regularly can lead to reduced

26:45

anxiety, less stress, better sleep,

26:48

and fewer negative emotions. But

26:50

Jessemin worries that the hype about meditation

26:52

may sometimes cause modern practitioners

26:54

to miss out on the way the practice was intended

26:57

back in Patanjali's day. Meditation

26:59

has become so trendy. I

27:01

think that it makes it seem more

27:04

complicated than actually is. But when

27:06

you assume a posture, let's say that the

27:08

pasture, you're sitting cross legged, and

27:10

you are working on your breath work, and it doesn't

27:13

need to be any kind of complicated breathwork.

27:15

It doesn't need to be alternate nostril or

27:17

lions roar or anything. It can literally

27:20

just be breathing through your nose out through your

27:22

mouth. You can close your eyes, you

27:24

cannot close your eyes. It's not that big

27:26

of a deal, but you find the posture

27:28

that works for you. When you tune in, that's

27:31

when the concentration starts, Like, that's

27:33

when that one pointedness,

27:35

the concentration derama, that's when

27:37

that begins. I think sometimes when

27:39

you sit for meditation

27:41

and you're withdrawing your senses,

27:44

that you think, oh, there's supposed

27:46

to be this magic moment

27:49

where my mind is clear and

27:51

I'm totally calm. But

27:53

what actually happens is that all your thoughts

27:55

collide and it just becomes complete

27:58

chaos inside your mind, and

28:00

that contemplation

28:03

you find that as the focus

28:06

and you just sit in a space of contemplation,

28:08

so that I always think that meditation

28:10

is like the best time to obsess over

28:12

something like as a virgo rising,

28:15

I'm here, I'm anxious and think

28:17

too much, just like anybody else, and meditation

28:20

is my time to like, Okay, now I can make

28:22

all those lists that I was thinking about. Now I can

28:24

obsess over everything. Because the reality

28:26

is that if you apply focus

28:29

and if you stay in a space of concentration,

28:32

you can't obsess over anything forever. And

28:34

the more that you just let your mind

28:36

not be clear, the clearer it

28:38

will become. When you're in

28:42

that state of concentration and when

28:44

you are really present and are

28:46

withdrawing your senses and these This is

28:48

Patiajara, this is Drana, this

28:50

is Diana, all in action. And

28:53

that gets us to the final limb of the eight

28:55

limp path, somebody or

28:57

total absorption. I think

29:00

that somebody. It's

29:02

seen as like final level

29:05

of yoga. Look at what a good

29:07

yoga I am. And it's like,

29:10

if you know that you're experiencing somebody,

29:12

you're not experiencing somebody. First of

29:14

all, potentially thought that somebody

29:17

was the ultimate goal, not just of the eight limbed

29:19

path, but of a well lived life. It's

29:21

the point at which we finally achieve balance

29:24

across our mind, body, and soul. He

29:26

envisioned it as a sense of union between

29:28

ourselves and all the other beings in the universe.

29:31

So, yeah, somebody is pretty intense,

29:34

not for the beginner, the deepest form

29:36

of somebody. Ultimately, it is death.

29:38

It is to move beyond this world. Thinking

29:40

of the eight limb path, it's not the same

29:43

as like eight steps to a great life.

29:45

It's this is just what

29:47

it means to be alive. Ultimately,

29:50

it's not really more complicated than

29:52

that. As long as you practice

29:55

the first few limbs, the others

29:57

will come naturally. You've

29:59

been thinking about the sutures for a long time. You

30:02

know, what have you learned from following the eight

30:04

limbed path? Any big insights that have come

30:06

along the way, summarize,

30:09

But my biggest takeaway

30:13

is that everything

30:15

is okay. Everything is

30:17

exactly where it needs to be. The

30:19

bumps in the road are supposed to

30:22

happen. The darkness has

30:24

to be there. If you don't experience

30:27

a darkness, you cannot understand

30:29

the light. You cannot appreciate it. There

30:31

is no love without the opposite

30:34

side. There is no love without fear and

30:36

hate. And when you

30:38

can just accept

30:40

it all, there

30:42

is so much beauty in this

30:45

world. There's the beauty becomes

30:48

easier to see because

30:50

you're not trying to pretend, you're not obscuring

30:52

it with nonsense. And

30:54

also a part of that is

30:56

that the practice is going

30:59

to ebb and flow with time, and

31:01

that it's just going to change.

31:03

It's always changing. Your

31:06

needs and understandings are

31:08

always involving. And if

31:10

you can say, like the difficulty

31:14

is why I'm here, I

31:16

was built to withstand it. And

31:19

actually it's not even

31:21

being built to withstand it, because some things

31:23

you're not built to withstand. Some things

31:26

you are meant to fall to the floor and

31:28

to melt into the pavement.

31:31

It's supposed to be hard. That

31:33

was the point, And it's about

31:36

awareness and losing

31:39

the need to perform

31:41

any aspect of yourself, and

31:44

ultimately like, as

31:46

long as you're in a state of acceptance

31:48

of all that is, no matter how

31:50

you are, you're really living

31:52

the eight mon Path, doesn't

31:55

It admits that committing to Pat and Jelly's Eightfold

31:57

Path isn't easy. She's quick

31:59

to remind us that it's called a practice for

32:01

a reason. I think that I am

32:03

on a journey for the rest of my life to

32:05

accept what the universe has brought

32:08

me, and that the more that I

32:10

can just accept that it's an ongoing

32:12

journey and that there will always be

32:14

new ways that that journey

32:17

looks, the more

32:19

that I can accept that the better, because

32:21

it's never going to end. Potentially,

32:24

knew that following the path would take a lot

32:26

of work and that you probably wouldn't

32:28

fully reach somebody, But Jessamin

32:31

will attest that sticking with this lifelong ancient

32:33

journey, both on and off the yoga mat

32:35

is worth it. It's like these

32:38

truths of being revealed to me in

32:40

different ways in every moment

32:43

of every day, and it's

32:45

beautiful and I'm grateful because

32:48

to live is such a privilege,

32:50

and there's so much dope

32:54

shit that happens every day, and

32:57

if it means hitting the pavement every

33:01

day, it's worth it.

33:04

Talking with Jessamin has reminded me that there's

33:06

so much more to yoga that a bunch of twisted poses

33:09

on some colorful mat and that committing

33:11

to a broader version of the yoga path can

33:13

pay real dividends. So

33:15

why not take a few steps down Patanjali's

33:17

ancient path. You can start by thinking

33:20

more intentionally about the responsibilities

33:22

you have towards other people and to your own

33:24

body and spirit. You can try to find

33:26

a space to meditate and breathe, either

33:28

in a tough yoga posture or just lying down.

33:31

You can think more critically about your relationship

33:34

with all things external and commit

33:36

to getting back to that meditation practice you

33:38

know is pretty good for you. And remember

33:41

it's not about striving for the next level like

33:43

in most modern practices. It's

33:45

more about accepting that the path is there

33:47

to guide you on a journey towards better health

33:49

and happiness that will last a lifetime. Next

33:52

week, the Happiness Lab will continue its investigation

33:55

of spiritual traditions from South Asia.

33:58

We'll meet a scholar who will help us explore the

34:00

tenets of Sikhism, and we'll see

34:02

that committing to the full humanity of all people

34:05

may be a quicker path to well being than we expect.

34:08

So I hope you'll join me back here next week for

34:10

the next episode of Happiness Lessons

34:12

of the Ancients With me. It is Doctor Laurie

34:14

Santos. The

34:18

Happiness Lab is co written by Ryan Dilley

34:20

and is produced by Ryan Dilley, Courtney

34:22

Grano, and Britney Brown. The show

34:25

was mastered by Evan Viola and our original

34:27

music was composed by Zachary Silver. Special

34:30

thanks to Greta Kone, Eric Sandler,

34:33

Carl Migliori, Nicole Morano, Morgan

34:35

Ratner, Jacob Weisberg, my agent,

34:37

Ben Davis, and the rest of the Pushkin team.

34:40

The Happiness Lab is brought to you by Pushkin Industries

34:43

and by me, Doctor Laurie Santos.