Equanimity in Emotions and Yoga Practice

Equanimity is finding balance between the pair of opposites, much like the concept of following the golden mean. It is often associated with not being affected by the elements and physical circumstances, such as cold and heat, happiness and sadness, etc. Today, I realized that equanimity also goes even deeper than controlling yourself in these physical situations. It also is important in your internal processes, mainly in balancing and regulating your emotions and thoughts and in  turn, your reactions to events. For instance, it is important in keeping a balance where we are not too prideful, but also not too self-sacrificing. When we are prideful or engrossed in our false ego, we do not allow ourselves the openness to improve and grow. When we are too self-sacrificing, we give away all of our power to others, when we could be using some of that power not only to improve ourselves, but also to assist others as well.

Today, I confess that for a few minutes, I lost my bearings and reacted too strongly when someone said something to me that questioned my abilities. I felt as if myself worth was affected, and I reacted in defensive words. I realized my error afterwards, and apologize for my overly intense reaction 15 to 30 minutes later. However, I continued to be upset at myself for slipping. I then got to the point where I realized that being caught up in emotions and not being aware of my reactions was detrimental, but so was beating my head on the wall for my mistakes. I then decided to make this a learning experience - one in which I acknowledge that I had come far to realize my error and take responsibility so quickly, but also where I realized that I need to work more mindfully in regulating my emotions in reaction to the words of others.


We can also take this equanimity onto our mats and control pain as well as pleasure in our practice. We want to seek a balance in our reactions in our practice as we don't want to  get too puffed up and proud when we are succeeding at certain poses nor do we want to be discouraged when we are not achieving strength or flexibility in other poses.