Sutra 2.33 — vitarka-bādhane pratipakṣa-bhāvanam
“When disturbed by negative thoughts, cultivate their opposite.” — Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra 2.33
Pratipaksha Bhāvanam - the idea of cultivating the opposite - is one of those teachings that lived in my mind before I was conscious of it’s real-life practice.
I first learned about it three years ago from my teacher Anvita while studying the Yoga Sūtras intensively one-on-one with her. She explained that it’s directly tied to the yama and niyama, the moral foundations of yoga, but it often gets overlooked because there’s already so much depth in each individual yama and niyama.
At the time, I understood it intellectually. But I didn’t feel it. And I’ve come to believe that things have to be felt before they are fully understood.
Over the last year, through meditation, recovery, and living in Bali, I’ve been learning to practice Pratipaksha Bhavanam as a daily way of life. Here’s what that looks like for me.
Limiting Beliefs → Confidence
The idea of integrating Pratipaksha Bhavanam in everyday life began last December, when I went to my teacher Rolf’s yoga and surf retreat in Costa Rica. I didn’t go because I’m a surfer - I went because I wanted to spend time on a retreat or training with Rolf, and I had the opportunity for this one. But since everyone was doing surf lessons, I figured, why not?
After my first day, I told myself I was terrible. I kept falling, so I concluded: I’m bad at surfing.
The next day, Rolf said, “Alexandra - I saw someone in a maroon shirt absolutely killing it yesterday, and today I realized it was you!”
I laughed, went back out into the waves, and suddenly felt like the ocean and I were playing together. I was good at surfing - not because my skills changed overnight, but because my perspective did.
That’s Pratipaksha Bhavanam. Cultivating the opposite.
Choosing faith over fear, capability over self-doubt.
Bhagavad Gītā 6.5: “Let one lift oneself by oneself; let one not degrade oneself. The self alone is friend and enemy of the self.”
Worry → Prayer
One day this summer, I was stuck in Bali traffic when a car came barreling down the wrong side of the road. “What’s wrong with that driver?” I thought - until I saw there was someone laying in the back with a blanket who looked ill. I realized the car was acting as an ambulance rushing someone sick to the hospital. Suddenly I was angry that people weren’t moving out of the way. Then anxious - What if the person doesn’t make it to the hospital in time?
I caught myself. I realized that my worry was a prayer for the worst outcome.
So I shifted it - I started silently praying that the car made it safely to the hospital and that the passenger was ok.
That moment changed something in me. I realized that worry and prayer are two sides of the same coin - one rooted in fear, the other in faith. When I pray instead of worry, I cultivate the opposite.
The Buddha said, “Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of their mind.” (MN 19)
Disappointment → Acceptance
A few years ago, when I ran some yoga classes from home, I’d feel crushed if no one showed up. I took it personally and feared my business would go bankrupt. These days, at the shala I built on the roof of my villa, sometimes I still cancel classes for the same reason - and I honestly don’t mind. I usually think, Great! I get to go to Pilates instead of teach yoga this morning.
The outer situation is the same. The inner attitude is different.
That’s yoga. That’s Pratipaksha Bhavanam.
Bhagavad Gītā 2.47: “You have the right to your actions, but never to the fruits thereof.”
When we let go of outcomes, disappointment loses its power.
Trauma → Compassion (TW SA)
I’ve written a lot this year about the violent flashes I’ve had from my assault in February. I don’t know exactly what happened while I was drugged, which is why I have some really extreme imagination flashes that will suddenly come over me when I am going about my daily life. But recently a different image came into my mind whilst in a restorative pose at the end of a yoga class I was taking - a flash of my attacker gently patting my head while I was unconcious, as if I were his sick child.
It startled me. What a weird image to flash in my mind. But it was also a gentler vision of him and what he did to me whilst I was unconcious, than any I’d had before.
I see that moment as my nervous system beginning to soften - finding a way to hold him and this moment in a more positive light. Almost like an opportunity to see the good in this person that I’d only ever seen in the bad in. An opportunity to try to imagine his heart and humanity amongst the horror of what he had done.
This is cultivating the opposite.
Stress → Simplicity
Yesterday, I sat to meditate and realized I was overwhelmed.
Old me would’ve stayed in the stress spiral - assuming “this is just life.”
Stress is normal. Busyness is normal.
But I paused after the meditation and thought to myself, Do I want to feel this way? (The answer was no.)
I asked myself, What would the opposite of this feel like?
My nervous system is giving me the feeling of overwhelm as information. It’s telling me: you’ve taken on too much and you need to call things back.
Then I made a few small, grounded decisions - canceling commitments, clearing a few payments, finishing what was pending. Each action I took dissolved a layer of stress. I still have some things on my to do list, but it’s getting smaller and smaller each day.
Sometimes cultivating the opposite isn’t conceptual - it’s practical.
You don’t just think differently; you live differently.
Not Belonging → Belonging
I’ve had moments in Bali over the last four years where I felt like an outsider. Ubud can feel that way - so spiritual, yet so transient.
This year, instead of sitting in the loneliness, I decided to actively cultivate the opposite.
I joined circles, established rituals, and committed to community.
I started learning Bahasa Indonesian, the language, taking two to four private language classes a week - slowly, consistently, imperfectly.
After ten months of actively studying, I still feel like I know very little Bahasa Indonesian and it’s easy to be hard on myself (Why is the only thing I can think of to say right now is that I have an “abu abu cucin” (a grey cat)? Why can’t I remember the words for near and far or earlier or later? Why, when Tata asked me what day was the wedding, did I say ribu (thousand) and then ratu (queen) when I was trying to say rabu (wednesday)?) Recently, I sat down to organize my notes - a full year’s worth of scribbles - and realized: I’ve actually learned a lot of this language and my progress is something to be proud of, not beating myself up for!
Before, I’d thought I wasn’t learning quickly enough. But looking back, I saw steady progress - the result of showing up again and again, even when it didn’t feel like much was happening.
That realization itself was Pratipaksha Bhavanam - replacing self-criticism with appreciation, separation with connection.
Resentment → Love
Sometimes I get caught in little resentments - over something as small as a text or email that didn’t sound right. These days, when that happens, I pause and send love towards the person or situation I am ruminating on instead.
I don’t need to judge anyone for being in a reactive state because I remember what it was like to live in a state of reactivity even as close as a year ago. I think about the version of me ten years ago who might’ve written a reactive message to something, and I send her love too.
I don’t need to shame this old version of me. Everyone and everything that I see a resentment within myself for, I just try to cultivate a feeling of love.
Jen Pastiloff: “When I get to the end of my life, and I think ‘What have I done?’ Let my answer be love. ‘I have done love.’”
Victimhood → Purpose
One of my teachers told me recently that her friend once said, “Life is a series of problems, one after another.”
She mentioned that she needs to help her friend reframe that belief.
I said to her I definitely could relate to that belief - because I’ve been there - feeling like life keeps happening to me instead of for me.
But what if every challenge we face is a part of our spiritual curriculum?
That’s Pratipaksha Bhavanam - choosing to see purpose in pain. Choosing to see a lesson in everything.
In Buddha Dharma, this is right view: understanding that suffering itself can become the path to awakening.
In 12-Step language, it’s shifting from “Why me?” to “What is this teaching me?”
Living the Sutra
Yoga philosophy only changes us when it moves from the intellect to the heart.
From the page to the practice.
From the mat to the mind.
I personally believe one has to be regularly sitting in meditation in order to allow these shifts to occur not just in our minds intellectually, but in our hearts, spiritually.
Pratipaksha Bhavanam is one of the simplest and most powerful tools I know for daily wellbeing - whether it’s a surfboard, a traffic jam, or a trauma memory that brings us to our edge.
Every time we choose the opposite - love over fear, prayer over worry, belonging over isolation - we free a little more space inside the heart.
This is how I work on dealing with tough emotions.
We cultivate the opposite - again and again - until peace becomes the natural state.
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