2.8 Aversion is the magnetic pattern which clusters in misery and pushes one from such experience.

This Samskara is self explanatory, and in my opinion, the easiest to identify. Aversion is simply avoiding things that we need to confront, but refuse to, so life keeps putting them in our path until we deal with them. This is also a difficult Samskara to deal with because it often buried in the same pile of emotions as attachment.

Aversion and attachment are different sides of the same coin as far as Yoga is concerned. Think of aversion as sort of a reverse attachment. Anything that we give our attention to and causes us to take an action is attachment. In my case, I do not like bees that much. Yellow jackets seem to have an affinity for stinging me. While I was living in Wisconsin, I worked for the Milwaukee County Parks system. People would rent out picnic areas and I was in charge of emptying the trash cans at the end of the day. Yellow Jackets were always there, feasting on the leftover soda. I never got stung emptying a trash can, but the fear of the bees followed me. Fast forward to my first home. I had a fairly good sized yard that ground squirrels would dig holes in. After the ground squirrels left, yellow jackets would make their home inside these holes. Here comes innocent me, mowing the lawn, and all it took was running over the hole to get stung a few times.

I thought I was out of the woods when I moved to northern Arizona, I sat on my front porch thinking "there is no lawn to mow! HaHa!" Well, a nest of yellow jackets decided to make their home under the porch, and I got sung with a whole bunch of irony.

I still don't like bees all that much, but I was able to work through some of my irrational fear. Aversion can be a good thing, if it is rational. I'm sure you avoid sticking your head in the oven on full blast, that is common sense. Do you actively avoid using your oven though? You learn how to use it correctly. In my case, I developed a health respect for the bees. I also will not buy a house with a lawn ever again.