YOGA means union
My spiritual awakening started when my grandmother passed away. It was then that I was sent into a spiritual trajectory in search of finding the unconditional love I received from her. At the start of this journey, I was desperately trying to annihilate my ego and arrive somewhere transcended. I read many self-help books on spirituality, conscious awareness, self-improvement, inner-work, etc. Every book and great spiritual teacher shared that connecting with God/Universe is the ultimate unlimited, abundant source of unconditional love. Thus, I began a journey exploring holistic avenues to start the process of healing to reconnect with God. I dove into meditation, therapy, religions and yoga. It was only through the practice of yoga that I was given the greatest gift of connecting and loving self through mind, body, and spirit. Freeing the mind of attachment and judgement by way of yoga is a parallel that I found in myself. Regularly practicing yoga in a safe, non-judgemental environment, I was able to be fully present in my body & mind. Yoga first grounded me into my body through Asanas (poses and movement). It then expanded my consciousness in Savasana (dead-man's pose/stillness) to be able to quiet my mind for meditation. Connecting body and mind through yoga helped me align myself physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Practicing yoga was the only time in my life I truly understood what it meant to feel grounded and aligned. In the one hour of practice I fully focused on my body by quieting my mind. It is a moving meditation, the racing thoughts and comparisons were always there in the beginning of practice but by the end, the mind was quiet and in savasana both the mind and body were able to rest and heal. The racing thoughts usually started off externally, "am I doing this pose right?" ; "the person behind me is so much more flexible" ; "is the instructor calling me out with their comments?" - slowly these thoughts would melt away throughout the practice and the focus became internal- feeling into where there was discomfort, settling into poses, and then releasing the tension. I'd push through the practice with the quote "stay for the savasana" ringing through my mind. When it was time for savasana my mind was quiet, I felt relaxed, grounded, good, the rush of dopamine kicked in. I'd leave feeling "high" but most of all content and present. The definition of yoga is "union". Yoga is not just a physical practice but a practice of aligning and integrating the mind, body, and soul. Through yoga I was able to feel grounded first by feeling into my body, then, mind and spirit. As my physical external body became more aligned, I noticed the internal mind and spirit also became more aligned. Yoga= Union
"Death is but a change of clothing" - Gita Wisdom (interpretation of the Bhavagad Gita) by Joshua Green
The Bhavagad Gita is ancient yogic text. I consider it the Yoga version of the Bible. In the book Gita Wisdom, there's a universal message that Krishna (Supreme Being/God) is unconditional love and that by connecting with spirit (your higher-self) there is freedom in “letting go of” the attachments we form in our minds. When I started practicing yoga, I noticed the colors of the physical world around me became brighter and sharper and I started to understand that "everything is spiritual/energy". The quote above from the Gita, is one of my favorites because it touches on the idea that life/spirit is eternal and death of the physical body is like changing one's clothes. In some interpretations of both Christianity and Buddhism they both mention the idea of “eternal life”. Likewise, there are parallels in Gita Wisdom, the Bible, and other spiritual texts that mention "eternal life." Like the Bible and the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita was written by humans with different human experiences. These ancient texts, stories, ideologies seem to solidify the notion that there are many avenues to the same God or Supreme Being who is unconditional love. Thus in aligning my physical body through yoga, I was able to align my spiritual and mental bodies and gain spiritual clarity to open myself up to creating my own spiritual path and beliefs.... I saw the spiritual union of religion/God/Higher power through studying and practicing yoga. A microcosm of self within the macrocosm of religion/God.
FINDING BALANCE
My path to yoga came about when my life was out of balance. Yoga has taught me so many life lessons through aligning body, mind, and soul....finding balance and feeling grounded when the world around you is falling apart. Over the past few years I have been integrating what I have learned through yoga. Recently however, I was not necessarily practicing the physical (asanas) or mental (meditation) aspects of yoga and found myself unaligned and unbalanced in both my physical and mental state of being. I am realizing that these shaky, uncomfortable moments of life are all part of being an imperfect human and that's ok. Like the quote above no matter if we practice yoga or not the solution to living a more balanced life is to fall and get back up. Yoga is a union of mind, body, and spirit and the quote above is reminding us that we are all humans who will fall....getting back up and aligning your "posture" is what makes one a yogi. Being present in body & quieting the mind leads to alignment & balance....until we fall and get back up again because we are all imperfectly perfect humans. If any of this resonates or even if it doesn't feel free to leave a comment or question.
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