THE ART OF BEING
September 20, 2019
For many of us, our lives are kind of hectic, our thoughts distracted and erratic. We don’t have as much energy as we’d like nor are we experiencing the peace of being wholehearted and unconflicted. Culturally, we are not encouraged to stay with ourselves long enough to experience what’s happening inside. Instead we tend to numb out, accepting as true how other people view things or ourselves, the ideas of what we should be. As a result, we have become separated and disconnected from our own true nature and essence.
“Moving into stillness in order to experience your true nature is the primary theme of yoga simply because everything about you, every thought, feeling and emotion, as well as every aspect of your behavior, is predicated on the way you feel about yourself. It’s the basic factor that determines the quality of your life.”
-Eric Schiffman
From a holistic perspective, spending most of our waking hours continually lost in thought, judging, criticizing or longing to be somewhere else, depletes our vital life force. Living in this way leads to low energy, lack of enthusiasm, depression, frustration, suffering, pain and inevitably illness. And if we have experienced trauma, which most of us have, the lens through which we experience life becomes distorted, influencing our perception and leading to even more stress.
Especially now, when we live in a time when stress and anxiety are the new normal, the holistic science of yoga is especially relevant. Science, despite its amazing benefits, offers little help when it comes to navigating our inner world. Rationalism alone doesn’t help us to deal with the changes and challenges of our lives: experiences like the trauma of grief and loss, illness, aging, addiction or finding purpose. For these deeper challenges we need a holistic and embodied approach like yoga, one that includes integrative practices to help us process and live an awakened, fulfilling life.
The process of yoga can be challenging as we consciously explore the layers of ourselves. It can be alarming to discover how much is there that is not ours, to face the wounding that needs healing. Recently, I participated in a meditation workshop where one of our assignments was to tell our life story from the 3rd person. For me, it was a tremendously powerful reminder that I am not my story, my wounding or my experiences; although they may color my perception, none of it is who I am at a deeper level.
As a yoga teacher, it is my passion and purpose to help people create more vital and fulfilling lives. When used skillfully and with intention, the practices of yoga, including those beyond the asanas, are life changing. With practice and patience, they help us to clear the perception through which we witness our experience, allowing us more creativity, fulfillment and freedom. Living in this way is true Yoga- the experience of an empowered and awakened life.