Yoga Mind, Week 19: Jedi Mind Tricks
Using the power of Yoga to change my own mind, if not someone else’s.
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Last week, one of my newsletters went out into the world, per usual. A few people clicked the little heart signifying that they liked it. A couple of people left comments. One person responded directly to the email, which people do when they don’t want to leave a comment or ask a question in public. That just makes them feel more comfortable, and in this case, it made me more comfortable too, given that the message read “UNSUBSCRIBE… I’m tired of asking.”
Apparently, this person did not click the little heart.
I went right to the subscriber list, because I didn’t want to torment this person any further (or get another email like that). I may write about spiritual tools, but that doesn’t mean I’m impervious to the effects of messages like that. While 99 people could’ve said they loved that newsletter and that my heartwarming prose changed their lives, that one message would still have stung.
Still, I’m grateful for that email. I’m not saying that in a lofty spiritual sense, as though I can instantly find the character-building value in every crappy thing that happens, because I can’t; maybe next lifetime. No, I’m grateful for that message because I didn’t really know what to write about this week’s Yoga Mind tool, Pratipaksha Bhavana, or, as my teacher Rashmi called it, the Yogic Thought Swap Trick. But that email gave me a new chance to see how that tool works and to actually use it, because I needed it.
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