Shine Your Sacred Self
As our Summer in Florida finally transitions into Fall, I find myself and my daughter coughing and feverish as our bodies catch up to the changing seasons. 
Sick happens to everyone, and even more so to people who interact often with others! Below, I’ll share some of my favorite preventatives and remedies, and how my yoga practice shifts when I’m feeling under the weather. Continue reading “Staying Healthy During Transitions”
Creating any healthy new habit is not easy. It’s heartening to me that Patanjali acknowledges this in the Yoga Sutras. As he’s espousing the many benefits you’ll gain from your new yoga practice, he stops to mention the barriers you will encounter.
As with other truths discussed in the Yoga Sutras, these obstacles are as relevant for people today as they were for yogis committing to the practice thousands of years ago.
All nine obstacles are disruptions to the heart-mind field of consciousness (citta) and can be debilitating to a practice, because distracting thoughts and emotions (vrtti-s) arise when antarāya-s are present. These nine obstacles are:
Disease
Apathy
Self-doubt
Carelessness
Fatigue
Regression
Sexual preoccupation
Erroneous views
Ungroundedness
~Nicolai Bachman, The Path of the Yoga Sutras
It’s great to know that these obstacles are out there, because, with planning, you can anticipate them and stop them from disrupting your practice.
“The yoga tradition tells us the mind and breath are twin laws of life, they travel together. When the mind is calm and clear, the breath flows smoothly. Conversely, when the breath flows smoothly, the mind calms and clears.
The condition of one determines the condition of the other….We experience the boundless joy deposited within the mind itself, which manifests when the mind is able to plumb its own depths.”
~Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, The Secret of the Yoga Sutras
When I started my yoga practice, I was regularly not breathing.
Crazy, right? But my body’s reaction to stress was to tense EVERYTHING up, including my abdomen, and just hold my breath.
In that state, my feelings of stress would increase to feelings of panic, and everything would feel like a life or death situation. Psychologists call this “fight or flight” syndrome, and it’s a classic reaction to stress.
We complete our study of the chakras with the seventh chakra, known as the Sahasrara Chakra. Each chakra has been a progressive journey from our connection to self and the world to a union with the more subtle aspects of interconnection. This chakra, located at the crown of the head, governs our connection with the divine. Some say that as yogis practice consistently and awaken the kundalini energy within, this travels up the Shushmna, or central channel of energy within the body along which all seven chakras are aligned, and bursts through the crown chakra to complete the union of our earthly selves with the limitless that is the divine within and around us.
The sixth chakra is located between and above the eyebrows. Most often referred to as the Third Eye Chakra, the sixth chakra gains the moniker Ajna in Sanskrit meaning “to command.”
The Third Eye Chakra governs the neutral mind, allowing us the perspective to balance the warnings offered by the negative mind with the optimism of the positive mind and see reality for what it truly is beyond the veil of maya. The gift of the sixth chakra is to see beneath the surface. A balanced Ajna chakra gives insight and strong intuition – the ability to perceive what is, and a strong imagination – the ability to see what is possible.
The fifth chakra vibrates to the color blue and governs communication. This chakra sits over our throat and literally gives a voice to our internal inspirations and creativity. Thus, the Vishuddi chakra is a chakra of manifestation; connecting Shiva with Shakti, limitless potential with life-giving energy and consciousness.
The throat chakra finds expression through speaking, chanting, and singing. When one is able to clearly state one’s unique view on the world, the throat chakra is open and energy is moving freely. Continue reading “Vishuddi, The Throat Chakra”
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.
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.
A practice I find myself constantly refining is a return to the present moment. The more I learn about this world and people, the more I believe that the secret to happiness is moving our consciousness away from the constant chatter of the mind and into the here and now.
I know I’m not revolutionary for thinking so. All of my inspirations essentially say the same. Whether it’s Patanjali saying “yoga chitta vritti nirodha,” yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind, or it’s Ram Das reminding us to “Be Here Now,” this simple teaching is oft repeated by teachers throughout the ages.
This is a good an helpful thing. Because of the fluctuations of the monkey mind and the strong distraction from the present moment, we often need to hear something said multiple times in different ways before it sinks in and we can integrate it as truth.
I had this realization in the middle of a yoga class when a teacher was offering a refinement cue for Warrior Two. As I worked to ground my back heal into the earth and inner spiral my back thigh, it suddenly hit me that *this* is what my other yoga teachers had been trying to correct. It just took a different combination of sound bites and a mind unclouded by what to buy for dinner for the wisdom to sink past the thought bubble and into my body.
It’s no accident that I consistently return to the practice of yoga. Revelations like this on the mat reflect right back to life experiences. Continue reading “Mat Revelations”
The third chakra is a ball of vibrating fire that sits behind the navel. The Manimpura chakra vibrates to the color yellow and is tied up with issues of personal identity, ego, self-esteem, and will power. Because of it’s location at the solar plexus, this chakra is relates to digestive issues and how we are able to nourish ourselves physically and psychically.
A person with a healthy third chakra radiates confidence, has a resonant voice, good posture, and can make ideas happen. Also called the “lustrous jewel,” this chakra gives you the confidence to put yourself out there, showing your authentic self in a risk to achieve your dreams and make them a reality.