Turning

“As we begin to shift our sense of what our lives are about, we’ll notice that our focus starts to change. Instead of always pre-occupying ourselves with trying to get what we think we want or need, we’ll start to quiet, we’ll start to listen. We’ll wait for that inner prompting. We’ll try to hear, rather than decide, what it is we should do next. And as we listen, we’ll hear our dharma more and more clearly, and so we’ll begin turning more and more of our acts to that place of deeper wisdom. As that happens, all our fascination with our roles and our plans and our desires and our melodramas will begin to fall away. More and more, we will open ourselves to just being the instruments of the dharma. And then we’ll discover that we’ve lost our lives – and found them. “  - Ram Dass

As we transition from working with the yamas (restraints) into the niyamas (observances), we let go of assuming the role of school marm to an untamed mind. We are starting to get a sense of what’s external, including our bodies. We’re getting that it’s not really wise or efficacious to boss our bodies or others around (ahimsa), to be fake (satya), to take what’s not ours, including a deep forward bend when our low back is sore, (asteya), to direct energy towards our most magnificent self as well as the MMS of others (brahmacharya) and to get in our bodies and in our closets that more, more, more of anything doesn’t serve (aprigraha).

We now observe within – we look inward to our natural state – a state of purity, contentment, austerity, self-understanding and surrender.

Oh, no. It’s really there. Trust me.

But, in order to make that transition, we have to take a 180 of sorts. Instead of the arduous discipline of excavating our deepest held violences, falsities, thefts, lust, and greed, we are now just allowing the cleansing wind (prana) to blow all excess away as we watch and listen and begin to open our internal eyes to just how magnificent we truly are. To our innocence, joy, dedication, beauty and absolute and unshakeable support. We won’t decide to be any of these things. We’ll just accept that we are.

In preparation, try this:

Begin by finding a comfortable seated position, closing the eyes lightly, loosening the shoulders down away from the ears, and settling in to focus on the breath.

Deepen your interaction with the breath by drawing the inhale fully into the whole torso – to the front, the sides, the back and all the way down to the tailbone. Let the exhale release its way up the spine. Feel the crown of the head draw up and the spine lengthen. Continue this way as each breath lengthens the spine, creating space between the vertebra. It’s as if you are growing taller with each breath.

Now, begin to open up to the full capacity of the breath, the fullness of life energy (prana) circulating through you. Take a full inhale. Pause and take in an extra sip of breath. Now release the breath, letting go completely. At the end, pause, and, using the strength of your navel chakra, pump the last bit of stale breath out of the body. Repeat this process, and, as you inhale, imagine bringing in everything that’s available to you – breath, and also support, ease, joy: more than you could have imagined. As you exhale, visualize releasing all that doesn’t serve your body, heart and soul: discomfort, toxins, self-limiting beliefs. Actually feel these things leaving your mind, your heart, your body – releasing down into the earth.  Repeat this cycle 10-15 times.

Release the breath work and move back into a steady, easy inhale and smooth exhale. Notice the change in the quality of your breath and your energy (prana). Use this technique whenever you are holding on too tightly or feel blind to your blessings. Know that you have enough, you do enough. You are enough.

xoxoxom

Namaste,

Amy