The Horizon Effect

September 22, 2020 Posted by Sandra Gergler Yoga

The Horizon Effect

In my last blog post, Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable, I talked about the hazards of always living in your comfort zone. Your capacity to tolerate adversity only grows through experience. If you live in your comfort zone all the time, you are using your energy to manage life so you will never be uncomfortable. My teacher Kamini Desai says, ” the circle of comfort you create, soon turns into a prison of comfort”. We avoid things we perceive as bad and seek things we perceive as good. Personally, my biggest offense arises when it’s time for me to go to the dentist. As soon as I get the checkup call, I feel the threat of pain I will experience in the future. I am no longer living in the present but I am living in fear of the future and the conflict of avoidance. I utilize all my energetic resources to maintain comfort. I reschedule the appointment several times. The morning of the appointment and the evening before are consumed by thoughts of how I can postpone this appointment and avoid it even further. It is exhausting.

Energy is the Currency of Life

How much time do you spend practicing avoidance? We avoid people, we avoid conflict, we avoid uncomfortable discussions, and we avoid painful experiences. This is not a good use of our time and energy. People say time is money but I think it is more accurate to say energy is money. It is the currency of our existence. Living in continual avoidance and conflict consumes more energy than I have and I am left feeling stressed, anxious and tired.
Consider for example a workaholic. The workaholic is always in pursuit of more financial security. His sole purpose in life is to attain this security but it seems elusive. This is because the underlying motivation is fear; fear of not having enough, fear of not doing enough, fear of not being enough. He will never reach the security he seeks because it is an allusion fueled by fear. The real lack is internal. The real fear is “I am not enough“ or “I haven’t achieved enough” . How many pursuits do we start thinking to ourselves, “After I do this, I will be happy”?

The Problem is Perception

Perhaps for you, the pursuit is not money, it is body image. Do you think, “after I lose these pounds or after I gain this muscle, I will look just right”? The truth is, even if you do attain that goal, the mind will rest for a moment but then it will go on to find the next perceived problem. In yoga, we call this the horizon affect. The perceived problem will never be solved without a new problem arising. It is the nature of having a human mind. We all experience the horizon affect.

Problems in relationships, with money and in career usually arise as unresolved experiences from childhood. I talked about this in What’s Your Karma? But we rarely recognize this for what it is. As the saying goes, we can’t see the forest through the trees. We are just too close to it. We work and fight and struggle to fix things we want to change but the problem isn’t the problem. The problem is the perception of the problem. The problem is the perceived lack.

The Road to Freedom

Just as when we practice the yoga pose, our approach should be not to make it happen but to let it happen. Release the need to control and manage people and things around you. Release the need to judge every situation as good or bad. Instead, allow yourself to observe and be filled by the moment. When situations arise that you would normally avoid or try to change and manage, take a breath and say “I allow space for this to be here”. Watch it pass like a ship on the ocean. My yoga teacher says, “everything that comes, comes to go.”

Conserve your energy by living life in the moment without judgment and without comment. Teach your children to do this as well. Cultivate your power to sit back and witness life experiences as they pass by. Contain your life force energy. It is the energy that sustains your life and is an extension of your soul. You will develop the ability to witness life’s experiences and be filled by them. The ultimate practice of yoga is self-realization and enlightenment. This starts with witness consciousness. BYSJ yoga teacher training takes you step by step through how to apply yogic principles to practice witness consciousness. This clears away energetic blockages and allows your energy to be used to reach a higher state of union with yourself and with others. It resolves negative patterns and habits that you want to be free from. The fruits of your labor are contentment, freedom and happiness in all life situations.

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About Sandra Gergler

I'm Sandy ; owner of Bhakti Yoga South Jersey. I spent 10 years as a Chemistry Teacher. My background in education is being applied to maintaining the most up to date curriculum for the Bhakti Studio’s 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Program. I use the scientific basis of the benefits of yoga as the foundation of the BYSJ instruction.. I bring professional academic instruction to BYSJ teacher training as well as workshops on yoga meditation and nutrition

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