#207 The Teaching that Changed How I See My Mind
Last Call for Resting with the Sutras - Starts Tomorrow (Tonight in EST!)
The Vrittis, Thought Spirals and Learning to See Clearly
Last Call - Join us Tomorrow for Resting with the Sutras
Last year, I became obsessed with teaching the vṛttis from Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
I don’t know exactly when this teaching became so potent for me. But at some point, it stopped being philosophy and started becoming experience.
It’s not something that’s commonly emphasized in 200-hour yoga teacher trainings. I don’t remember learning it in mine.
In my 300-hour training, it was taught - I remember sitting in Bali, listening to my teacher go in depth into the sutras - but it didn’t land the way it does now.
Which is wild to me… because I now believe this is one of the most important teachings in all of yoga philosophy.
Because at the very definition of yoga, in Sutra 1.2, we are told:
Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.
(yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ)
Where It Really Clicked
This teaching didn’t fully land for me until I studied with my teacher Anvita.
She introduced me to Sutra 1.5:
vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā akliṣṭāḥ
There are five kinds of mental fluctuations, and they can either be painful or not painful.
But it wasn’t just the translation, it was the practice she guided me through.
She had me draw a chart.
Then we meditated.
And afterward, we mapped my thoughts into the five categories of vṛttis.
I remember sitting there, looking at my own mind on paper, and realizing:
Oh… this is a pattern.
This is a system.
This is a narrative.
The Workshop That Came From That Moment
That one exercise became something I now teach in almost every retreat and every training.
The Vṛttis Workshop.
I ask students to bring up a recent thought spiral - a recent experience they’ve had in their mind.
And then we map it.
We take their thoughts and place them into the five categories.
And what happens every single time is this: they begin to see that their thoughts are not truth. They begin to see that their thoughts are stories.
Why This Teaching Is So Powerful
Students who have done Cognitive Behavioral Therapy often tell me how similar this is to what they’ve learned in therapy.
I have never done CBT so I don’t know - but I know that the core teaching of this is awareness. Not all thoughts are the enemy: some lead us to clarity and some lead us into confusion.
The practice is learning to discern:
Which thoughts are helpful
Which thoughts are harmful
Which thoughts are true
And which are simply… habits of the mind
The Real Shift
The deepest teaching here is this:
We are living inside a narrative that is constantly shaping our experience of reality.
And most of the time… we don’t even realize it.
Our judgments.
Our opinions.
Our assumptions.
They become veils.
And those veils block us from seeing clearly.
Even With Awareness… It Still Happens
What’s humbling is that even with all the awareness I have now, I still get caught in thought spirals.
Every time I teach this workshop, it brings me back.
It reminds me:
Awareness isn’t something you achieve once.
It’s something you return to, again and again.
What We’re Exploring Starting Tomorrow
In the next round of Resting with the Sutras, we’re going deep into these teachings.
Tomorrow’s sutra is 1.5 - the doorway into understanding the vṛttis.
It’s the moment where we begin to see:
I have a narrative.
And I don’t have to believe all of it.
Through practice, we begin to soften the thinking mind…
and gently lift the veils that keep us from truth.
The Practice
Each Resting with the Sutras class includes:
A teaching on the sutra
Chanting the Sanskrit
A yin yoga practice
A 20-minute meditation
This isn’t academic.
It’s experiential.
It’s about feeling the teachings in your body.
Our 10-Week Journey Through the Vṛttis & Stopping the Vrittis
April 9 — Sutra 1.5
April 16 — Sutra 1.6
April 23 — Sutra 1.7
April 30 — Sutra 1.8
May 7 — Sutra 1.9
May 14 — Sutra 1.10
May 21 — Sutra 1.11
May 28 — Sutra 1.12
June 4 — Sutra 1.13
June 11 — Sutra 1.14
Sutra 1.5
vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā akliṣṭāḥ
The fluctuations of the mind are fivefold; they are either painful or not painful.
I’m so excited to start this with you.
This teaching changed my life—and continues to change it every time I return to it.
If you feel like you’ve been caught in your mind lately…
this is the practice.
Join us tomorrow.