Svastha Yoga Online

What are feelings and emotions? • How we may understand desire through the lens of yoga? • How desire is connected to anger? • Contentment as a key to balancing desire • The nature and experience of contentment • The need for possessions and its result • The importance of watching over our desires • Desires for what we have not experienced, and what we already have • The cycle of happiness and unhappiness vs. happiness and peace • Desire as a natural part of life—moderating, not fighting • The difference between raga and kama in ancient wisdom • Why we are impelled by desire—insights from Samkhya, yoga, and the Bhagavad Gita? • Practicing mantra and ritual to manage problem desires • The connections between desire and other feelings • The states and stages of desire • The fire of desire, as described in ancient wisdom • Reflections and narrations from the classical texts • Interactive session for Q&A, clarifications, and assorted related topics • Practicing contentment: reflection, bhavana, and pranayama

How anger is connected with desire and fear? • Defining and describing anger from the yoga perspective • Patience and tolerance as the foundation of non-anger • Stories and reflection on the qualities of tolerance and patience • Suffering (duhkha) as a cause for anger • 3 types of duhkha • Suffering in the body and in the mind • Yoga as the basis for freedom from suffering • How to avoid self-reinforcing anger and suffering? Practices: Building non-harmfulness in our words and speech • Calming anger with mantra • Clearing the seeds of anger with mantra • Stages of how anger develops • Why is it difficult to free ourselves of anger? • Understanding how freedom anger is freedom from suffering • Stories and reflections on letting go of anger and cultivating forgiveness and goodwill • How anger can become a habit • Understanding the nature of karma and the binding of anger • Laying the foundation for long-term transformation away from anger • Deepening the key practices • Interactive session for Q&A, clarifications, and assorted related topics • Practicing bhavana and pranayama to calm anger and grow tolerance and patience

Two foundations of fear: losing life and losing possessions • Understanding fear (abhinivesha) from the yoga perspective • “I” as the basis of fear • Transcending fear—the timeless and unchanging self • Connecting to the feeling of inner permanence with mantra, light, and pranayama • Disease and decreased life span as drivers of fear • Prana as the subtle self beyond the physical body • Pranayama for longevity and connecting to the subtle body experience • Practicing pranayama, lahari, nadishodhana with bhavana and inner experience • Fear in the perspective of Samkhya • Connection and projection of self and attachment as the basis of fear • Reflection on managing self-projections in one’s personal life • Practice of letting go with mantra • Connection to something greater than us, with devotion • The concept of devotion and surrender • Vedic mantras for going beyond fear by connecting to the transcendent • Breathing practice with bhavana of protection and surrender • Interactive session for Q&A, clarifications, and assorted related topics and practices