Getting In Touch with my Abhinivesha
One of the strangest ironies of our times is that algorithms tend to know us deeper than ourselves.
When algorithms are continuously tracking every click, every view, and every cookie that quietly resides in our system's cache memory, we end up living with a system that knows us far better than ourselves.
I don't know about you.
Every time I get a 1% intelligent algorithmic recommendation from any system that I interact with, I treat it as an existential reminder to deepen my yoga practice.
I have been studying Patanjali Yoga Sutras for the past 2 years under my mentor in my sangha and the more I study the sutras, the more I discover how our human systems have been amazingly codified in these densely packed sutras.
Take a word like Abhinivesha from the sutras (2.3). The translation of the word is "deep insecurity". Now how does Abhinivesha manifest in ourselves?
As per Krishnamacharya, it manifests in three forms 1) Marana Bayam (Fear of Death) 2) Kala Bayam (Fear of Future) 3) Deha Bayam (Fear of Disease).
Now when you understand this deeper, you pay attention to your psyche when it is afflicted by any of these fears.
(Note to Self: Can you watch yourself when you are afflicted by Kala Bayam more than any other bayam? Can you watch yourself with compassion when your crazy solopreneurship experiments trigger this kala bayam?)
Fundamentally, Yoga teaches you one skill: Can you watch this phenomenon called life with as much aliveness as you would bring if there were a snake in the room?
Is that why we see iconography of Narayana comfortably sleeping over a snake and Shiva happily wearing a snake around his neck? Who knows?
Over the past few months, I have been running my cohort course: "Discovering YOU and Brand called You" based on this underlying design: What does it take to examine ourselves and the narratives we hold about ourselves inside?
Yesterday, someone asked What IS Personal Branding and I ended up writing questions that might willy-nilly activate one's abhinivesha.
1) Can I carefully examine who I pretend to be in the world outside?
2) When I am branding myself, am I inside the company brand I represent or the personal brand that is standing out?
3) Can I examine the underlying anxiety when I feel pressured to label myself the moment someone asks at a party an innocuous question: "So What do you do?"
4) Can I examine the Western notion of defining ourselves by the work we do?
5) Am I the work I do? Or are there parts of me that are not the work I do?
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The dates for the August cohort of "Discovering You and Brand Called You" are out. If these questions resonate with you, consider signing up for the course. Should you wish to register, the link to registration with testimonials is here
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