Yoga Unplugged: Breaking Free from Anger, Attachment, and Always-On Living
During our recent Yoga Unplugged sessions leading up to International Day of Yoga 2025, His Eminence Chokgyong Palga Rinpoche shared insights that changed how we understand both our relationship with technology and our inner emotional landscape. In two sessions – “How to Deal with Your Anger?” on June 15th and “Is the Problem the possession of materialism or Is the problem attachment to materialism?” on June 18th – His Eminence said something that clicked for anyone who’s ever felt anxious when their phone battery dies.
His point was straightforward:
“The problem isn’t the possession of materialism, but attachment to materialism.”
Why Rich People Can Be Poor (And Vice Versa)?
His Eminence explained that wanting things isn’t new – people have always wanted stuff. What matters is how tightly we hold on.
“A poor person overly attached to their meager possessions is poorer than they seem, while a wealthy person without attachment is richer than their wealth suggests.”
Think about this with phones. Someone who uses their device when needed but doesn’t panic when it’s not available? They’re free. Someone else with the same phone who checks it every few minutes, feels anxious when offline, or scrolls mindlessly for hours? Same device, different experience entirely.
The Hooks Are Everywhere
His Eminence talked about “hooks” – how attachment catches us and causes pain when things get taken away. Look around: notification sounds, red badges on apps, the pull to check “just one more” post. Each one is a potential hook.
This matters especially with anger, which he said hits young people hard.
“Anger is the most destructive… Sadness causes us to destroy ourselves, harming us internally, but when anger comes, it harms both ourselves and others, and we regret it later.”
Online arguments, comment sections, the frustration when something doesn’t load fast enough – digital life seems designed to trigger exactly this kind of reaction.
What Actually Helps?
The Yoga Unplugged approach doesn’t ask you to throw your phone away. His Eminence demonstrated yoga poses – Bhadrasana, Vajrasana, Ardha Ushtrasana, and Ushtrasana – while emphasizing something simple: respect your body’s limits. This same gentleness applies to how we handle our digital habits.
The Common Yoga Protocol that millions practice for International Day of Yoga includes poses, breathing exercises (Pranayama), and meditation. His Eminence pointed out how these help the nervous system, hormones, and mental clarity. Breathing exercises reduce stress and help you sleep better. Meditation clears out what he called mental “toxins” – all those reactive thoughts that pile up.
The connection is practical: when you’re less reactive inside, you’re less likely to get hooked by what’s happening on your screen. Instead of automatically reaching for your phone, you might actually choose to pick it up. Instead of getting angry at some comment, you might just scroll past.
Using Your Head and Heart
His Eminence kept coming back to balancing wisdom and compassion – thinking clearly but also being kind, to yourself and others. This changes everything about how we deal with digital frustration.
Wisdom helps you notice when you’re getting hooked. Compassion helps you not beat yourself up about it. Instead of harshly cutting yourself off from technology, you can pay gentle attention to your patterns. Instead of judging yourself for scrolling too much, you can kindly redirect your attention.
What Made These Sessions Different?
The Yoga Unplugged sessions worked because they didn’t tell you to reject phones or social media. The message was simpler: notice that the problem isn’t having things but being owned by them. Understand that anger – especially the quick, hot anger that flares up online – hurts you and everyone around you. Practice yoga not to escape from your life but to show up for it more clearly.
The sessions showed how basic practices – sitting quietly, breathing intentionally, moving your body with awareness – give you tools for relating to technology differently. They help you catch yourself before you get hooked. They create space between seeing a notification and reacting to it. They remind you that you get to choose how you engage with your devices.
Why This Matters Now?
As International Day of Yoga 2025 approaches with its theme “Yoga for One Earth, One Health,” His Eminence’s sessions remind us that some human patterns don’t change much. Attachment, anger, the need to balance thinking with feeling – these show up whether you’re dealing with possessions or pixels.
What’s useful about Yoga Unplugged is that it doesn’t ask you to choose between old wisdom and new technology. Instead, it suggests that the same practices that helped people handle their mental turbulence in the past can help us handle the particular turbulence of right now.
The hooks might look different – a buzzing phone instead of a coveted object, likes and shares instead of gold and silver – but the way out is surprisingly similar. Pay attention. Practice regularly. Choose your responses instead of just reacting.
For anyone curious about exploring this further, the Yoga Unplugged sessions continue to offer straightforward guidance for navigating these questions. Sometimes the most sophisticated response to complex technology is quiet simple: breathe, notice, choose.
Join us for International Day of Yoga 2025 as we continue exploring how timeless practices address timeless patterns, even in their most modern forms. Listen to the full recording here and here.
~ Written by Ritika S