The Healing Power of Yoga

When I began yoga in 1997, it was at the onset of a serious illness. Although I'm now in recovery, I continue to find the healing power of yoga during almost every practice. Over the years, I have read piles of books on both my disease and yoga, underlining excerpts I found meaningful and relevant. Today, I share the readings while I teach and found that although I originally saved them for my personal journey, they relate to others' journeys as well.

I've included a handful of them below.
Enjoy them. Heal from them. Share them.

"That's why the process can take years and years and years because it's just giving yourself the opportunity to try different things and allowing yourself to fail and allowing yourself to just keep on plugging. That's all you can do." - From Sensing the Self

"I believe that only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend 59 minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys, or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening) - or in a future which we either long for or dread. Yet the past is gone beyond prayer and every minute you spend in vain effort to anticipate the future is a moment lost. There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute - here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable." - Storm Jamseon

"I am no spiritualist and I grew up without religion, but that ropy fiber that runs through the center of me that holds fast even when the self has been stripped away from it: anyone who lives through this knows that it is never as simple as complicated chemistry." From The Noonday Demon

"Time passes. There is nothing we humans can do to hinder or promote that process. It will pass. No joy or pain will last either. It too will pass. So relax, just be here. Experience this time fully. If it is painful, know that it won't always be so. If it is joyful, savor it. File it in a handy spot in your heart so that you will be able to find it again." - Gruffle Clough

Yoga Nidra

Recently I have started practicing Yoga Nidra (Nidra=Sleep). In Yoga Nidra, you bring your consciousness between wakefulness and sleep through a systematic guided relaxation. It is an aspect of pratyahara, and eventually leads to Samadhi. Every source I have looked at says something a little different, but 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to approximately 2 hours of ordinary sleep! There are three kinds of tension that we accumulate; Muscular, Emotional, and Mental. Yoga nidra helps to release these tensions and cultivates peace within ourselves which we can then radiate out.

In the book I have on Yoga Nidra there is a table with the “States of Consciousness” on it…

1. Awake > Conscious mind > Sensory awareness, external knowledge
2. Yoga nidra > Superconscious mind > deep relaxation, visionary states
3. Dreaming sleep > Subconscioius mind > release of emotions
4. Deep sleep > Unconscious mind > Awakening of instincts

Om,
c

Returning

The holidays have pulled me from regular things. Practice included. So (and I don't know why) I'm afraid something won't be right when I return. Tonight, after work, I will recall this story as I settle onto my mat.

A father was rightfully proud of his daughters progress on the paino. He asked a well known composer, with whom he was acquainted, to listen to the girl play. The composer listened and when the girl finished the father asked, "Isn't she wonderful?" After a pause the composer observed, "She has amazing technique; I have never heard anyone play such a simple piece with such great difficulty."

Mike

Drishtis

Drishti - point of gaze or focus

Nasagrai - tip of the nose
Ajna Chakra - between the eyebrows
Nabi Chakra - the navel
Hastagrai - the hand
Padhayoragrai - the toes
Parsva Drishti - far to the right
Parsva Drishti - far to the left
Angusta Ma Dyai - the thumbs
Urdhva or Antara Drishti - up to the sky

Atma Drishti - keep your gaze on God / all you see is divine

Yoga in another form: Shaolin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6akulareVQ

Eka Hasta Urdhva Dhanurasana

Solid Potato Salad - The Ross Sisters - Awesome video clips here

new year resolution

for the holiday my mother gave me a journal -
on the first page she wrote...

"this is a gratitude journal for you. whenever you make an entry, write down the date and then list a few things that you are grateful for. one day, you will look back over your journal and you will see just how blessed life has been."

this is my new year's resolution.
taking a few minutes at the end of each day
looking back and seeing how wonderful it was,
and writing five things i am grateful for.

for example,
an entry for today:

i am grateful for triple A coming and starting my car after 3 days in the cold snow :)


XO, ashley

Sabian 2010

Sabian's New Year's resolution is to feed the squirrels in our back yard an apple every Sunday.

You don't find Yoga , Yoga finds you

As i was driving to work this morning, this thought popped into my head so i thought id share.


As much as you practice, as much as you study, as much as you learn from your teachers and life, try as hard as you might you never really find Yoga.
It is not out there to be found, it is not a concept to one day grasp, it is not an experience to one day have.
It is right now, in each moment, what ever is, exactly as it is.
All of the information out there, is just a hint on what Yoga may or may not be like for you.
Every one of us are unique expressions of the same whole.
Although at its source Yoga is the same we each have our own unique perception and experience of what it is to us.
So stop looking for Yoga you cant find it. It will never meet some kind of theoretical, conceptual expectation you may put on it.
Let Yoga find you, be completely open to this experience right now. That's all there is ...