A place for mindfulness and healing
Out of the star silence
Of the candle flame
And incense curling into air
Comes wolf vision,
Floating in amber mystery.
All that is known of the moon
Unwinds as the ammonite
Spirals to the time before birth.
And out of my observation
Of myself observing
Who I thought I was –
I am no longer.
I am on the return journey –
Discovering what it means
To be alone and without fear,
My body and all thoughts
Dissolving in distant stillness.
Sharon Emery
The wound is where the light enters.
Be an empty page, untouched by words.
Oh Soul, you worry too much, Your arms are filled with treasures of all kinds.
Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.
Step out of the circle of time, and into the circle of love
Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
What is planted in each person’s soul will sprout.
Yoga is many things to many people. Some people practice yoga to gain strength, while some practice to gain flexibility. Others practice yoga to increase circulation, which creates a deep relaxation and healing of anxiety and stress. Whatever the case, whatever our intention is, if the postures are practiced on an ongoing regular basis all the benefits mentioned above and more will happen as a bi-product of practice.
Go to your yoga mat like a baby crawling for the first time. Come with a fresh, curious mind open to what the practice has to bring you. Allow your body to stretch, allow your mind to become quiet, enjoy the process of relaxing muscles, softening mind, and expanding your awareness. Feel the opening of both mind and body. Watch through your third eye how your energy expands. This expansion will take you to a higher state of consciousness. Pay attention to your daily activities and notice how the body and mind remain soft and open, and align with spirit. Feel a deeper love for all people and situations. Know the way before you is unfolding perfectly. You have only to watch, listen and take one step at a time.
Hatha Yoga, the yoga of movement, also known as asana (posture) practice is taught widely throughout the world. You can find asana instructors at conventional yoga studios, in gyms, community centers, colleges, and now the medical industry is looking at yoga as a tool for alternative healing. Yoga means union with self. The term Yoga is a philosophy of life. Asana practice is one portion of that philosophy into the realization of self. Self-realization is consciousness, waking up from who we think we are to who we truly are.
The postures are designed to slowly over time move a body into alignment, into clarity and truth realizing self. Every individual, no matter from what walk of life they come, are all different.
Private instruction is no different than a class in the sense an instructor teaches the student yoga postures, but in a private session there is a lot more hands-on making adjustments to the postures. A by-product of the postures teaches the student to go within and listen to what his/her body is saying. The student will eventually learn when to stop, back-up, or move deeper in a posture.
Private instruction includes, but is not limited to:
– Boundaries
– Trust
– Intuitive insight
– Presence
In a private session, the teacher’s job is to draw the student out, moving the student to focus within, using their innate ability to feel, listen and act upon what their body is telling them. A teacher will suggest postures based on intuitive insight, asking questions of the student hoping to increase the student’s awareness from within. “Is there any pain or discomfort?” “Where are you feeling the stretch?” “Can you go deeper into the stretch?” “Do you need to back off or come out of the posture?” “Is the muscle pulling or stretching?”
Moving a student through postures may also stir up trapped emotions. And while not all tight muscles point to emotions a teacher must keep constant vigilance on a students mood and emotions. After a couple years of a consistent posture practice, a student may have déjà vu, disturbing dreams, or even agitation within the body. A teacher should know and be prepared to help guide a student to consider professional help, especially if the emotion is unresolved trauma stored in the body as cortisol and adrenalin. There are many tools to assist with the releasing of emotions, maybe as simple as holding the space for a student to experience stuck emotion. Of course, there are energy modalities done with a qualified individual such as, talk therapy, Somatic Experiencing (SE), EFT, and Cranial Sacral, Reiki healing, just to name a few. Once again, the student decides based on how he/she feels what technique and professional tool is right for them.
Above all, a teacher needs to stay present with the student while instruction is given. If the instruction is for an hour then an hour presence is needed. Presence means to be right there with a student as the student is stretching, to place awareness to where the student is feeling the stretch. To place awareness of what emotions the student may be feeling. Being there for the student is also being there for the teacher.
This will be the most adventurous, self-rewarding time filled with discovery and well-being.
I wish for all sentient beings to know the peace, happiness, and stillness asana practice activates in ones life…Namaste’
This year why not turn your focus and energy inward and give yourself the gift of yoga.
We have often heard yoga isn’t for everyone, but I feel it is. Not only does it strengthen your body and its flexibility, but yoga quiets your mind and increases awareness.
Hatha Yoga relates to the physical body, consisting of relaxation, breathing exercises, and physical postures called asanas. Hatha Yoga strengthens your muscles, increases flexibility, increases circulations, encourages deep breathing, facilitates a better posture, balances hormones, and gives one a sense of well-being.
Routine practice of yoga will delay aging by keeping muscles and ligaments moving. By stretching muscles and ligaments the skeletal system becomes less rigid thus enabling the body to move into its natural alignment. Deep breathing practices increase circulation. This in turn oxygenates the blood, pumping it more effectively to all organs while revitalizing and expelling toxins from them. The regular practice of Hatha Yoga will help keep you free of aches and pains, relieve stress, and enable you to regain your sense of well being.
Through breath and inner focus, yoga calms the constant chattering of the mind. The process of quieting your mind is slow, but over a period of time you are able to maintain a clear, quiet mind concentrating only on feeling into the stretch through focused breathing. This quieting of your mind will eventually seep into your daily life. For each of us, yoga touches our lives in a most profound way.
Today isn’t any different from 5,000 years ago in our need to find something higher or more permanent than ourselves. We can start to develop spiritual awareness by living in the moment. We can note how we are feeling at any given time, not in a judgmental way, but in a detached, objective way.
The disciplined practice of yoga makes this fully conscious state a permanent part of your daily life and enables you to develop the intuitive art of finding balance in any of life’s situations.
So come and step on the yoga train. I promise you the journey will be full of twists and turns, some ups and some downs, tall cliffs barely seeing the light at the top, free falls where the bottom takes days, weeks, months or even years to reach, but know all is worth it because we are consciousness, the journey is clearing the way… Namaste’.