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| Something more permanent and profound |
Why do you come to your mat to do yoga? Fitness? Health? Focus? A deeper understanding of self and body?
Through exploration of traditional teachings over break, I have found a way to inspire more conscious movement.
I have been mapping how to communicate the Koshas, or the sheaths of being in my teachings of yoga practice. What are the Koshas? They are five bodies that each of us possess, the physical, energetic, mental, intellectual and blissful or soul bodies. When all of these align, there is an integration of profound transformation through awareness.
We are all seeking a balance between the known and unknown, living between what we know to be practical, material, and incarnate over what we are unsure or undecided over, that which we cannot see or explain. By seeking a point of balance, such as an unchanging coordinate like the North Star, we gain direction. For some, this contains a steady, contained energy, such as God, or our own inner light.
My ah hah moment translates as such: yoga with purpose. This yoga is that which any school of thought, or anyone can find, the proper intention must be present, and the energy must flow in a way that creates lightness, healing, growth, peace, and true joy.
How do you experience this?
I want you to create a space to open your mind:
Imagine whatever sport you once did for fun, biking, running, swimming, tennis, gardening, and so on. Picture the elements of nature, the earth, water, air, fire, and space. You are in the place, for me it was running. As I began, I could feel my heart rate elevating. My breathing became very labored, as I could feel my muscles becoming warm. I pushed through. The sound of my heart reflecting the rhythm my tennis shoes made as I pounded the gravel. The smell of grass and all of the wild plants carried through the air. The sweat began to roll off of my forehead. I licked my lips and tasted the salty discharge from my skin. I could feel the wall entering my mind, “I need to stop,” the sensation of breathing and aching climbing over every surface area of my body. This is the point where we could all quit, grab for water, and stop. This day, I kept going. A clean energy filled me as cold sweat is exiting my body. Though the outdoors is hot and clammy, my white and gray sports bra was soaking wet, shorts sticking to my legs covered in gravel. Everything began to blur into one color, as thought was as a distant echo, and I was one in the moment.
This is what we should feel when we tap into our own force of energy. No experience will be the same, but we should come into a point where we go somewhere from when we step onto our mat, to where we leave and exchange our Namaste with ourselves or our teacher.
Yoga was designed so that anyone, any shade, any denomination, male/female, any orientation can practice. We all know when we “fall in love” with the movement. It is so elementary, we did yoga as babies, we felt wonderful after our first yoga session. Why? We release energy, and gain new energy from our practice.
What is energy? Energy may be food, the nutrients we digest to equal ATP, the bodies energy currency. The electromagnetic impulses of our neurons in our minds emit energy. Sensations and moods can be tracked to show the different frequencies of energy. Energy may be money, the exchange we use to gain the resources we need such as our home, electricity, clean water, food, knowledge, etc. We live in a technological driven society where we carry little devices like iPods, cellular phones, TV’s, and so on that would not be without energy. Energy is everywhere.
Yoga is a practice of our inward journey where we align our energy, physical, mental, intellectual, and soul/spirit bodies to clarify our meaning and purpose in our lifetime.
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Posted by omyoga82 on 2008-12-29 13:43:45 | Rating: | Views: 59
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