Yoga is the love of my life. I don’t mean simply doing Yoga asana. I mean living a yogic lifestyle.
I’m practicing Yoga 22 years now, I still think I came to it late in life (38) but such a delight when I did.
To find a way to immediately self regulate my anxiety without any fuss or long explanations. To immediately feel a deep connection to my lost sense of Self was very healing.
Yoga asana has been a 22 year journey of self exploration of the inner workings of my body. How I move now is so different, of course it should be anyway as I get to know and sense, my armness, my legness and my “wholeness.” Yes, the movement of the “whole” body not the movement of the separate parts. Thank you to my Teachers, Lisa Peterson, Donna Farhi and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen from Body-Mind Centering who embrace an embodied approach to movement.
“There are 2 ways to move the body. One is when the mind informs the body and the mind is telling you what to do. The other is when the body itself informs the mind. Your body’s impulses guide you.” Anna Halprin
Movement is part of a yogic lifestyle. How we move in daily life, how we walk, sit, and stand; eat; move through our plans and goals; follow our purpose. How our thoughts move through our mind.
Learning the kinaesthetic sense of deep subtle changes happening inside your body takes time (it’s called interoceptive awareness) and attentive attention, but the rewards are ripe. Ease of movement; finding the spaces within your body to move with ease, lightness,flow, grace and dignity; forming a wonderful mutual respect with your own body.
For many years I treated my body with abuse, by pushing it too hard and too fast, under nourishing, over indulging in toxic substances, being bullied by others. By allowing ourselves to be bullied by others we hold this trauma in our body tissues, sometimes for a lifetime if we don’t know how to let go.
Then I learned to ask my body for forgiveness when I realised that I am not my body, but my body is where I reside, and I learned by intuitively listening to it’s wisdom what a sacred Temple it is, and I learned about my inner fire, and compassionate heart; my grounding connection to the earth and the breathy aliveness of my cells.
I asked it for forgiveness for not loving it and listening to it’s intuitive wisdom; for not respecting it’s boundaries and being unconsciously abusive towards it at times.
This is what a Yogic lifestyle can teach you about your body but also that mother earth is a body, a planetary body. She is a symbol of fertility in this universe, teaming with life compared to other planets we know of. She is the Temple we live upon yet we disrespect her too and we don’t listen to her pleas for care and compassion towards her. Instead we abuse her.
When we awaken consciousness through the practice of Yoga then we can see that every sentient being, mother earth and the whole universe are divinely connected and inter-dependant on each other.
Hari Om Tat Sat
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Very open and interesting Janet.