We would like to begin by sharing a small example on how Viniyoga® works. One of our student was suffering since a long time from back pain. Rather than taking rest, reflecting about her life, she used to take a pain killer right away in order to come back immediately to her numerous daily activities. This lady has been raised in a familly where one should first worry about others, where woman would only serve familly expectation and work. She had not learned the meaning of taking care of oneself. Rather, she felt that taking care of other was a duty and she felt guilty and selfish everytime that she wanted to make something for herself. Fed up with the situation, she decided one day to take private Viniyoga® classes. After meeting the teacher, she received a very relaxing practise with some peaceful chants to listen. Slowly, after few months of reviewed practises, she began to think about herself. She is now taking some trainings on interesting subjects, beginning to read books that she likes, going to see some friends, going to cinema, to theater, etc. What a beautiful transformation ! And now, she realised suddenly that it is one year that her back problem nearly totally disppeared ! She didn’t even realized that this problem has been gone !
How did it work really ? Is Viniyoga® working magically like a pain killer ? Is the practise working like a medicament itself ? The first thing to understand is that a Viniyoga® practise is not a prescription. The Viniyoga® teacher takes time to give a practise to a student. They share together an open conversation, where both individuals are reflecting together on the problem. This is the first difference with a simple prescription. This conversation is the first step where the care seeker is actively involved into by reflecting along with the care provider about his own problems. Slowly, he may get a wider picture on his problems throught the conversation and can make some connections with some parameters linked with the problem. These parameters were hidden before from the conscious level. Slowly, she started to realize that her back problem may have been linked with her inability to take care of herself, and even more, she realized that without taking care of herself the care she could offer was not really well received in the familly. Her behavior was even creating some kind of problems even thought it was coming from a good intention. At a point she felt that she was wasting her own time and started to change completely.
Secondly, the practise given was a very relaxing practise with some breathing while she was lying down on her back and listening to some chant. This gave her some good feeling by removing her fatigue, but mainly the practise gave her a sense of acceptation and a sense of being herself. This lying position while listening some chant is a very passive practise. This passivity has been extremely good for her as it was compensating her own habit of keeping herself really busy always.
This lead us to the third point, a simple discussion with the Viniyoga® teacher may not be enough. By practising everyday, not only she remembered consciously and focused consciously on her intention to hea her back, but also she is working on all the different constitutive layers (pañca-maya) of herself by sending into her whole system throught this particular practise a message : « relax and receive » ! Slowly, her unconscious pattern (samskāra) of being always active is encountered and all the changes in her life could slowly happen.
Article by: Philip Rigo, Viniyoga® Teacher