All of us have a part of ourselves known as the Inner Witness. Developing this neutral aspect of ourselves, that can watch our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and experiences without judging, is essential to releasing stress, finding inner peace, and spiritual awakening.
The first step to overcoming debilitating emotions or agitating thoughts is cultivating the Inner Witness.When we want to create positive change in our lives – and especially in our emotions – it’s important to recognize that thoughts exacerbate those emotions. Often, when we believe we’re feeling an emotion, we’re actually thinking the emotion. We’re repeating thoughts over and over again that feed into the worry, anger, sadness, or overwhelm.
Anyone who has been on the path of spiritual growth knows that obstacles are part of the journey. We all have things that get in the way of practicing meditation, yoga, prayer, or any other form of connecting with the Divine. For that matter, obstacles are part of life, and if we don’t want them to hinder our endeavors, it’s helpful to recognize what they are and what we can do to overcome them.
According to the sage Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras and preeminent yoga philosopher, there are 9 of these obstacles to our spiritual awakening. The first one is the most obvious: Vyadhi, or physical illness.
It’s so obvious that any kind of physical disease or injury can be an obstacle to practice that we may take a cursory look at this and move on to the next obstacle. But it’s worth a closer look.
