Manomayakosha: Our Emotions

Emotions are like the soap buildup in your shower. Slowly over time little things can build up. These things, or emotions, tend to form us into who we are and how we react to things. However, like our shower, we can clean out our emotions and start fresh. 

In yoga therapy we believe every emotion we feel is engrained into our body and it will remain there until we process it and let it go, the key phrase here being "let it go". So that bully that picked on you as a child, if you never dealt with those emotions it most likely will have turned you into a pushy adult always feeling the need to stand your ground or perhaps you still feel like that weak helpless child.

You may never have made the connection between who you are now and what has happened to you in your past. Therapists couches are full of people talking their way through their past, trying to let things go, hoping it will free them of their pain. They are working on their Manomayakosha. This kosha consists of our mind which refers to our personality including our likes, dislikes and habits. It’s how we deal with anger, fear and our flight or fight response.  In yoga these feelings are assessed as the Gunas which can be raja (aggressive), tamas (lethargic) or sattva (balanced). In yoga we strive for sattva.

Talking is a great therapeutic for this kosha, but more is needed to instigate change. Building awareness of these emotions and the patterns they create is a great start. Letting go is the next. Often the things that happen in our past can’t be erased. Perhaps the person or event that hurt us is no longer accessible to confront. Our minds like to hold on to things and let them fester. This will eventually lead to issues in our physical body. Stress caused by our mind leads to weakening the systems in our bodies. Once an area of our body is weak, this is when disease can creep in. 

Mindful physical movements such as yoga can help get the emotions out of our bodies. Emotions not only live in the brain, but in our body. You’ll find that once you’ve worked through a strong emotion that has been with you for years that the chronic tension in your low back has suddenly lessened or disappeared. 

Mantras and meditation are great tools for this Kosha. You are focusing the mind in meditation, learning to let go. Mantras, which is a positive repetitive phrase, helps to pull the mind away from the pattern of negative thought into a more positive one. Some mantras may be repeated hundreds of times a day. Take a day to notice how often a negative thought about yourself creeps in. Each time one does, say your positive mantra.

You may never get closure for the emotional hurt you’ve experienced in your past. But you do have control over the present. You have a choice to either focus and dwell on the negative or to choose forgiveness and let it go. It’s not an easy thing, but it does get easier with time and eventually those negative emotions will replaced by good ones of your own choosing.

This leads to wisdom, which is the next kosha, our beliefs and how they form us.