"The Cure"

B.K.S Iyengar, to give a quick and incomplete introduction, is one of the influential Yogis and authors within the lineage of yoga. Iyengar is the author of Light on Yoga, a text we can refer to as yoga teachers and students. Iyengar introduced so much to us, including wisdom. A quote that I would like to look at by Iyengar is, “Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” I invite you to stop reading and think, maybe journal about this quote before reading how it resonates with me if you'd like. But if not, I will share how this quote makes sense to me.

When first seeing this quote, I had to break up each part to give myself space to take it in. "Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured.." So in thinking about this, I am thinking about my personal experiences with Yoga. I came to Yoga, not really understanding what Yoga was in it's entirety. I am from the western world after all and what I've seen is mostly physical (Asana). So I will start there. I came to Yoga wanting to heal myself physically. To overcome aches and pains, to build strength, and just to move. What I didn't know then is that Yoga would guide me through trauma, and challenges not in just the physical, but also intellectually, emotionally, and when I opened myself up to it, spiritually.

Yoga allows me and gives me space to cure myself in times of injury. Physical and beyond. The part of the quote "what need not to be endured" hits me deeply. Yoga has given me so much strength. I look back on painful memories and experiences and I think about what has "cured" me. It's myself and my practice on and off the mat, as well as my community of loved ones. In so many ways, activism, breath-work, non-violence, self-study, concentration, discipline, and more, all parts that are Yoga, have guided me in my healing journey and in realizing what I do not have to endure anymore, what I can let go of.

The second part of the quote, "...Endure what cannot be cured." speaks to me for the things beyond my control. The past, the future, the things I worry about that I cannot always change. Yoga allows us to calm the mind. Yoga allows us to look inward. Yoga allows us acceptance. I have learned to talk myself and breathe myself through my anxiety. I have built strength, but also tools to be able to accept and navigate things I cannot change.

“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” Yoga empowers us. Yoga allows us to accept, to grow, to heal, to connect. Whether that be trauma, relationships to others, the relationship to ourselves. I think that I personally spent so much of my life afraid to look, to look deeply at myself, and to notice. Yoga has given me tools to cure what I do not need to endure, and to have the strength to navigate hardship, loss, grief, trauma, and the things in this life I simply cannot change.