Visāda – dullness

«The modes have a joyous, grievous, and stupefying nature. They serve for manifestation, activity, and restraint: they mutually subdue and support each other, produce each other, consort together, and take each other’s condition» (Sāmkhya-karikā, 12).

There are many ways to refer to the quality of tamas. In Sāmkhya-karikā visāda is used, here translated as “dullness”. In other cases it is translates as “inertia”, “apathy”, “opacity”.

Visāda is neither tranquility nor agitation. The word comes from the verb visād which means “to be exhausted”, “to be discouraged or dejected, to be afflicted or sad” and also “to be afraid” as a consequence or cause of discouragement.

You are in the exact opposite period to your birthday, Libra, and the trials of this period can actually cause you some discouragement. As you don’t have a fighting spirit at this time, the risk is that you live everything passively and give in to pessimism. Remember then that you can compensate the visāda by working on the other two gunas that lead to action and lighting.

Stimulate action with this short sequence:

Pārśvakona-āsana, side angle. A stimulation for the heart, this pose makes your body mobile and dynamic. // 1-2 min. per side.

Baka-āsana, crane pose. Not so easy to perform, this pose stimulates your physical energy. // From 30 sec. a 1 min.

Anuloma-Viloma prānāyāma, literally natural-unnatural breath, also called nādī-śuddhi or nādī-śodhana, that is cleansing of the channels. For awakening your mind and keeping it stable and calm. Try to exhale twice the time of the inhalation! // From 3 to 10 min.

TOTAL TIME: from 6 to 15 minutes.

MANTRA OF THE MONTH: «React with calmness».