September 2013 | Essential You Yoga

Japa Japa Japa Jai!

Many people talk to me about the struggle of overcoming the mind. It’s interesting to note that this often appears to be a unique problem that we each are struggling with much more than other more well-adjusted people. Luckily, that this struggle is unique and separate is only an illusion. The busy chatter of the mind is one of the blessed challenges that we’ve been gifted with overcoming as part of the One Human Condition.

We’re offered many options from different cultures and religion for how to overcome the monkey mind, from devotion to others, keeping too busy in our external worlds to listen to the internal messages, and of course, prayer, yoga, and meditation. Patanjali speaks of using a mantra as a connection to the divine by repeating mantra while seated in meditation and throughout your day. This is called Japa Yoga, and I’ve found it to be very helpful in interrupting negative or repetitive thought patterns.

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Anahata Heart Chakra

While the lower three chakras are mainly concerned with issues of the ego and how we relate to ourselves – first chakra being concerned with issues of home, health, and family, second chakra with sexuality and how we are able to creatively express ourselves, and third chakra entwined with how we feel about ourselves and how we are able to access and express our personal power – the heart chakra is the point at which the energy flow begins to expand to include the ever-loving world around us.

Located at heart center, the heart chakra is all about how we relate to others. It vibrates to the color green, which is a beautiful color to resonate with seeing as it, of all the colors of the rainbow, is most present in our environment. Grass green, flower green, and the many varying shades of green that make up the bushes, plants, and trees that populate our world.

The Sanskrit name for the heart chakra is Anahata, which translates to Unstruck Chord This name is relevant because our heart needs another soul to reach out and touch it. When the heart chakra is able to connect with another being, the unique tone resonates within to create it’s own blissful sound to fill up the soul.

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Back in the States

It’s been a week of travel and adventure making my way back to the US. Flights out of Nicaragua were less expensive, and more convenient than flying out of Costa Rica, so I set about traveling north, this time twith some people.

The thing about traveling with others is that we’re a bit slower together, and there are more opportunities for frazzled nerves. There is a quote about that:

If you want to walk fast, walk alone.

If you want to walk far, walk together.

~Unknown

And so true, we did travel further together, albeit a bit slower, than we would have alone. The highlight of the bumpy bus rides and dirty hostel rooms located over noisy bus stations (read: no sleep!), was the car rental. My friend and I decided to splurge on a car rental since they are so inexpensive in the low season. We had many mochillas and maletas, backpacks and suitcases with us, and the ride north to our final destination promised 3 crowded chicken buses and seven hours, versus a cool 3 hour ride in a rental car.

And cool it was. Our little Corolla, which only costs us $40 for the day, came with air conditioning, a smooth steering wheel, and a radio with a spot to plug in a memory stick. “Music! We get to pick our own music!?!” One half hour of instruction booklet reading later, and we were jamming to reggae and latin and world music as the beautiful green mountains of Nicaragua rolled by.

Mountaintop Trikonasana in the hills of Esteli

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Stepping Out of Your Own Way

I’ve recently joined the gluten free world, and it’s given me some revelations. Don’t worry, I’m not here to convince you to give up gluten. I don’t believe there is one diet plan that fits all the bodies out there, so I will leave the experimenting, or not experimenting, for you all to decide.

What I’ve noticed as I’ve given up gluten is a dramatic change in the inflammation I was carrying in my body. As swollen glands, sinuses, and muscles shrank back to normal size, I noticed a marked increase in the energy that was suddenly able to flow freely throughout my body. All that gripping meant that I wasn’t truly able to come into alignment!

It made me sit up and pay attention to other areas of my life where I’d been creating unnecessary roadblocks for myself.

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Find Your Path

When you align yourself with intention, the universe begins to open for you. That’s not to say that suddenly your days become easier, the dishes do themselves, and responsibility fades away. However, when you begin to take action towards a goal – no matter how small the action — the goal gets closer to you.

“When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.”

~Yogi Bhajan

Sometimes it’s difficult to take action because you don’t have a clear idea of what the goal is. In those instances, quiet yourself.

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