The same way we understand that struggling while in quicksand will only sink you deeper is the same way we have to think about the mind and how we try to stop and resist our thoughts, it often makes it worse.
Another way to look at it is for a fire to give steady light; it needs to be protected from the wind. When the fire is in a windy place, the flame will flicker and cast all kinds of strange dark shadows. The same way our mind casts dark and strange shadows of ourselves due to an uncontrolled conditioned consciousness. A Sattvic mind is calm and steady, takes a moment to analyze the situation and acts only after weighing in the right response to the crisis. (Action and Reflection). But usually, our mind is filled with thoughts, ideas and theories concerning the shadow sides of personality that we don’t want to acknowledge but are there. The point is to not get stuck there.
By taking a conscious breath before action, we give ourselves a moment to rediscover (tune into) our unique inner voice and begin to make sense of what is going on around us. Life isn’t characterized by structured growth. With a steady and controlled mind, you find order in surviving the quicksand of social chaos. No matter how deeply ignorant or submerged a person is within a culture of silence, we each can critically look at the world as not merely an onlooker but also as someone who also acts in the world to change it, to make it better. Given that Yoga provides such an experience for an individual whereby a person can perceive the personal and social reality they are situated within while becoming conscious of their own perceptions of that reality, and then finally act within that reality to change it.
The place to begin is with your breath. If the breath is unsteady, the mind is also unstable. If the breath is steady and calm, the reason is also stable. You win back your right to express your unique way of seeing the world and power to change the world when you become conscious of each breath moment to moment before action.
The only way out is within.