“Inner strength is the most powerful protection you have. Don’t be afraid to take responsibility for your
happiness.”
Dalai Lama
Life sometimes presents us with rocky paths, steep climbs, thorns that penetrate the skin and make way
for pain. In these moments we ask ourselves if we will be strong enough to move forward on our path or
if it is better to give up to stop suffering.
But being happy is our right and our responsibility that we cannot give up.
So what can we do to overcome our fears and find the strength to have the life we deserve?
One of the valuable teachings you can receive at the end of an Odaka Yoga session is that
“You have power on your mind, not on external events. And if you realize this you will find strength.”
The truth is that suffering is not there to destroy us but to teach us to find that strength and balance we need, necessary to achieve true happiness.
Don’t fight suffering, accept it and let it become your strength to carry out your greatest and noblest feats.
Make peace with yourself, love, and the Love will give you the energy you need and fill your mind with uplifting thoughts.
Yoga practice also teaches us this. When we remain silent on our mat we begin to listen to those deep
thoughts that shake our soul like a storm. And so we stop running away, we start moving from one asana
to another freeing our body from toxic thoughts, we remove the thorns and that pain we felt fades until it
disappears.
What freedom!
Odaka Yoga asanas and sequences shape our body and mind with fluid and light movements.
We take on new forms, we acquire new perceptions, we move and act in a new way that improves the very
way we see things and so our thoughts change too. What might have seemed an obstacle to us now
becomes our best opportunity. We finally take back control of ourselves by bringing stillness and
awareness back into our life.
That rocky ground on which we were standing is transformed into a solid, stable base from which we can
easily climb and that tiring climb becomes the summit from here to observe a wonderful horizon with
infinite possibilities. In the end we understand that every challenge, every difficulty, if faced in a
functional way, can really ignite that powerful force that is in us and lead us to reach and live our common goal to the fullest: to be happy.
Be happy and remember, that if you want, you too were born to be special!
Vivian Mil.
Odaka Yoga Teacher RYT 500
IG: @ararisko_harmony_yoga_
