meditate Archives | Essential You Yoga

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.

Continue reading “Find Your Path”

Shadow Work

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana from Lesley Kaminoff's "Yoga Anatomy" — Eka Pada Rajakapotasana from Lesley Kaminoff’s “Yoga Anatomy”

As we stretch the body, we stretch the mind, which in turn stretches and thins our boundaries creating a stronger divine connection to all. I’ve been doing some deep hip work lately in my asana practice. The hips tend to be a place where many people, women especially, store unresolved emotions. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the emotions brought up in my asana practice have been reflecting in the world off the mat. The universe has given me some very clear mirrors in this work in the form of different interactions that bring up the same emotional patterns. I was hashing out the latest form these patterns have taken with a dear friend, and he suggested that it sounds like I’m being called to do some shadow work. Continue reading “Shadow Work”

People Pleasing

I’ve had cause to disappoint some people this week. This brings feelings of stress and tightness in my heart center, as I always want everybody to be happy in general, and especially not to associate disappointment or bad feelings with me. There are a few good lessons to be learned from these situations.

One is that we are never ever responsible for anybody else’s feelings. This is easy to say, but more difficult to remember when we are wrapped up in the moment. It’s worth bearing in mind, though. We are each our own little universe of experience, emotions, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and memories. That said, when one person has a reaction to another’s words or actions, there is no way to tell as an outside observer what was the root cause. Continue reading “People Pleasing”