This text was written for the European Yoga Congress in 2026
Breathing balance into emotions
by R. SRIRAM AND ANJALI SRIRAM
The workshop is designed towards helping the participants to understand the nature of emotions and learning to use Yoga practice to cope with them.
The contents are based on the ideas of Bhāva and Bhāvanā in the arts (Nāṭyaśāstra) and in Yoga (primarily Yoga Sūtra).
As a couple involved in the subjects of dance and yoga for more than four decades, Anjali and Sriram have worked closely on this subject and also published the book Natyayoga.
Perspectives which will guide the contents of our lectures and practice sessions:
Quietening the thoughts quietens the emotions and vice versa. Thoughts may lead to understanding, but it is emotions that help to go beyond the limits of thought-based understanding.
Śānta, calmness, our prime emotion is based on the absence of desire and our disposition towards liberation. It will help us experience an emotion and experience its, the rasa-anubhāv.
We shall learn to behind the dynamics of emotions, reflecting on the core emotion (Sthayibhāva) and the 33 wandering emotions (sancharibhāvas) – enyoy the wandering emotions as a play, but take the root or core emotion seriously and learn to reflect upon this with a meditative mind.
We shall try developing a Yoga practice to sensitise the body & stabilise the mind to stay in balance and practice the bhavanas.
Human beings are blessed with detachment as well as with the will to love and enjoy the world of experience. The Yoga practice is the playground on which we can develop the skill of dispassion. It can help us stay connected, to live in society but at the same time be free of its invisible design.
