lachīlāpan, Resilience

Every June my teacher offers a series of virtues to contemplate and practice. This year we are exploring them all. I have been learning a great deal, not only about the virtues themselves, but also about the ways I am already practicing them and consciously choosing to continue doing so.

This week we turn our focus to resilience through the Hindi quality of lachīlāpan: flexibility and adaptability. We sometimes think of resilience primarily as the ability to endure difficulty. Lachīlāpan is not merely endurance. It is also our capacity to adapt under pressure without losing what is essential. If steadfastness, the virtue we explored last week, gives resilience stability, lachīlāpan gives resilience its adaptability. This kind of resilience allows us to change what our practice looks like from day to day. What stays consistent is the practice.

As we get together to practice yoga this week, we will be exploring more consciously some of the variations available to us in many poses.

I look forward to seeing you in class.

Breathe easy,

Blessings,

Jorge Nihāl