Look Around, Look Around At How Lucky We Are To Be Alive Right Now: Pratiphaksha Bhavana
The Hamilton + Yoga blog series explores the tenets of yoga philosophy through the lens of the Broadway musical, Hamilton. All Hamilton quotations included in these blog posts are the work of creative genius, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Please be aware that these essays include spoilers for the musical, Hamilton. If you haven’t seen or heard the musical, you can buy tickets here, listen to the music here, or read the libretto here, and then come back and enjoy!
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Throughout the musical, Hamilton, a mantra of hope and optimism is frequently repeated, “look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!” It is most often said by the main female protagonist, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. This line appears first when she is exploring New York City surreptitiously with her sisters, later when reassuring her husband, Alexander, that he is good enough to be her husband, and once again in an effort to overcome her disappointment that her husband has chosen work and the needs of a burgeoning nation over spending time at home with her and her newborn son. In that moment, it is actually Alexander who tries to manipulate Eliza with her own uplifting words, “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now!” while she plaintively implores him to be content with their life as it is, “Isn’t this enough?”. In that moment, Eliza asks her husband to choose contentment in this moment, what the yogis call, samtosha, but Alexander is never satisfied with his life as it is, and is unable to take in her sage advice (as usual and to his own future detriment).
Later on, during their time of deepest despair, after the death of their eldest son, Alexander brings back the mantra/refrain as a way of trying to bring hope and life back to his relationship with his wife and trying to remind her of the optimism and affirmation she once so freely expressed,“look around, look around, Eliza!”
The interesting thing about this refrain is that the outward circumstances of life during the Revolutionary War-era America and New York specifically, was objectively challenging; colonists were being killed, British ships were surrounding New York City, the threat of war loomed (and then materialized), and citizens were being oppressed by unjust laws and taxes, to name just a few of the bleak realities of the time. Yet despite the external chaos and upheaval, Eliza is able to see the good in her experiences and implores others to find her level of optimism, too. This lyrical ray of sunshine builds momentum and power each time it is repeated and encourages the listener to feel uplifted, too. In the book, Hamilton The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda states that he repeats this line to himself every day. It’s no wonder that he is such a positive, inspiring person!
The Yoga Perspective:
Verse 2.33 of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali states “When presented with disquieting thoughts or feelings, cultivate an opposite, elevated attitude. This is pratipaksha bhavana. - (translation & interpretation from The Secret Power of Yoga, Nischala Joy Devi)
In this sutra verse, Patanjali instructs that when you have upsetting, negative, or disquieting thoughts, you should flip those thoughts upside down and find more positive, uplifting ones. In effect, creating an affirmation or mantra to give more power to the way you WANT to feel; thereby creating a more positive reality to live in through the power of positive words and thoughts. This certainly seems to be what Eliza is doing when she repeats this musical line, easily at first with unbridled optimism while exploring New York City, and then with more and more difficulty as her personal circumstances become more complicated and painful.
THE KEY TAKEAWAY: The more we repeat thoughts and stories, the more power they gain in our minds, so when given the choice, repeating positive, uplifting phrases and refrains leads to a calmer, happier mind.
Some people think of this as the “fake it till you make it” sutra or the “whistle a happy tune” mantra. One of the great things about Sutra 2.33 is that it reminds us that we don’t have to BELIEVE the positive, uplifting thought in order to repeat it; if we’re dealing with a very difficult emotion or situation it can be extremely hard to believe a positive thought, but if we keep repeating it over and over again even if we don’t believe it at first, it gains power in our mind and vanquishes the negative thoughts and story loops that we all inevitably get caught up in from time to time. This is the power of verse 2.33 and this is the power that Eliza harnesses and shares with the audience throughout the musical.
This sutra helps to remind us that we can take our power back from the wandering, anxious mind; We get to choose which thoughts get planted in our minds, which ones we will continue to water and allow to grow and which ones we will weed out. We get to take control of the narrative in our minds, instead of being passive actors, we become the active creators of our reality. As Eliza might say, "I’m erasing [disquieting thoughts] from the narrative."
The next time you are feeling upset, angry, or unsettled, challenge yourself to find an affirmation that embraces the opposite thought or feeling. By practicing pratipaksha bhavana we can feel “lucky to be alive” today and every day.
Until next time...
A. Creel
Andrea Creel is an avid musical theater fan, former professional actress, yoga philosophy nerd, and longtime yoga instructor with over 15 years of teaching experience. She loves singing, dancing, and sharing the benefits of yoga with others. Andrea combined her passion for singing & yoga as the lead singer of The Shaktis, DC’s all-female kirtan band, as well as performing featured vocals for the kirtan album Going Beyond featuring Adi Aham. She is the founder of Inspiration Yoga & Wellness and Shining Kids Yoga. When she’s not busy teaching yoga, Andrea loves singing along to the Hamilton cast recording with her son, Quinn, performing at open mics with her partner, Ben, and keeping up with the tweets of Lin-Manuel Miranda.