I hope that you will enjoy reading “lessons from Monday Night Yoga“. I have learned so much over the past 7-8 years at The Shanti Yoga Center, and it doesn’t matter how many times I hear the same thing over and over, the lesson continues to grow and broaden.

This week we discussed about our personal growth and how when we are on the verge of big growth in our lives, it can feel really uncomfortable and confining. This confinement is the threshold for our own personal growth.

It is said that according to The Polynesians, the world began when their creator Taaora woke up to find himself growing inside a shell. He stretched and broke the shell and the earth was created. He continued to grow until he found himself inside another shell that he had to break through and the moon was created. He kept growing until he had to break through another shell and the stars were created.

We each grow in this life by breaking through successive shells. We come to a point in our growth where we find ourselves confined, we feel like we have no room and that we must break through our own shell in order to be born anew.

Life becomes a living of who we are until that form of self can no longer hold us. Each form serves its purpose for a time until we grow and they no longer serve us.

Quote: “From the beginning,

the key to renewal has been shedding,

the casting off of old skin.”

This sense of confinement can be really uncomfortable and a little disconcerting.  It was a fellow yogini from our studio who’s pastor said to her, “you’re in a state of divine discontent”. I think that describes it perfectly. We really need to try to recognize this confinement as our threshold for growth and know that on the other side is a newer you. A you with fresh new eyes to continue your growth journey.

This is a great meditation practice that we did in class on Monday to help assimilate this idea. It is also found in the book called The Book of Awakening by Mark Nep.

Meditation:

• Breathe slowly with your eyes closed, and feel one aspect of your current world that seems confining.
• Rather than focusing on the people or circumstance involved, try to feel this confinement as the threshold of your next growth.
• Meditate on how the piece of God/Spirit within you might stretch and stand more fully, so that being who you are more completely will break the shell of this confinement.
• Try to understand that none of this bad, but simply necessary for the growth of your soul.

I found this mediation to be very powerful and enlightening as I contemplated my own sense of confinement in my life.

Try it and please leave a comment to let me know what you think about this idea, if you can relate and if you’ve tried the meditation.

Until then, Be well and be happy,

Dianne

Every Monday night I go to a yoga class called Yin Yoga Meditation. When I return from the class, I feel that I am changed: I have a special sense of peace, ease and balance in my body. There are a few reasons why I think this class is special.

First of all, Yin-style yoga is different than most other yoga classes. It’s not a movement, “flow” or “Hatha” style of class; it is very quiet, with long pose-holds of about five minutes. Typically, the poses that are done are on the floor such as child’s pose, pigeon pose, forward folds, etc. The Shanti Yoga studio in Vancouver, WA describes yin as: “Taught as an embodied meditation practice, this class offers students a different kind of practice from the more active style of Hatha classes. Here the challenge arises from exploring longer seated holds of up to 5 minutes in the Yin style/Taoist Yoga tradition, deeply stretching and nourishing all connective tissue while steadying the mind through a variety of pranayama practices. Patience is acquired as we practice stilling the restless mind through passive holding, concentration, and meditation in a very quiet but gently challenging and deeply nourishing setting” (www.shantiforeveryone.com).

Another reason my class is special is because of what I learn every evening. What I walk away with changes the way I move through the world, and on this particular tonight, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be nice to share this with our community here, so that you, too can have something to consider about how you might want to be in the world.”

Every session, we take a yogic topic and concentrate on it intensely. One of my previous posts was inspired by one of my classes in which we discussed truth consciousness and bliss. What I am going to do is share with you these simple lessons that over the past seven years have really helped to shape me—probably more than anything else.

Each lesson will be brief, but hopefully thought-provoking. Some will resonate more than others. Don’t feel pressured to understand everything all at once. There are no wrong or right answers or questions. I will also try to give you a step you may want to take or consider during the week

This session, we are discussing aversion, attraction and attachment, or more precisely, awareness of not being attached.

Today, we’re just planting the seeds of considering the things to which we are attached. What are the things that hook us in and trigger us to judge and react? Can we consider that there might be another way?

When we find ourselves getting triggered and starting to judge, one way to release the trigger is to pause—in yoga it is called Shani. So, we pause, followed by conscious breath. When we are trapped in the “triggers”, we eventually become aware that we are not in our breath, so we pause and breathe.

Be gentle with yourself and please, do not judge yourself. Just continue the practice and return to your breath.

My dear friend and teacher Yvonne often uses poetry to help us consider our topic. Today’s poem was awesome and just right when considering attraction and aversion. It’s called ‘For a New Beginning’ by John O’Donohue.

For a New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

This poem is powerful when we are trying to step out of our own comfort zone. When we are mired in our attachments, we feel safe, but are we really living fully? Step out onto new ground and see with fresh eyes.

Please let me know what you think about attachment and aversion. It’s a big topic and will be discussed for the next seven weeks. Also, let me know what you think of this poem: what does it say to you?

Future posts will be categorized under “Monday Night Yoga” and will not be this long, as today, I wanted to share with you my intention for these posts.

Namaste

Dianne

Welcome to our very first Dharma discussion. I am calling it a discussion, because what I share on this day will merely be the planting of seeds of thought for you to ponder.

My hope is that all of you who read this will have additional thoughts to share so that we can all gain a greater collective wisdom and insight.

Most of what I will share here will be derived from my own Yoga practice. I am incredibly fortunate to receive my yoga training at, what I consider, the best yoga studio on the planet…I am a little biased, but believe it to be true. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in Portland, OR or more specifically Vancouver, WA, please visit my dear friend Yvonne Edes yoga studio call The Shanti Yoga Studio.  You can visit her beautiful website at www.shantiforeveryone.com. For those of you who may not know, Shanti is Sanskrit for Peace… I will occasionally be using some Sanskrit terms, but I will always translate them to the best of my ability.

Most importantly, I hope that what I share with you will serve as a great source of inspiration.  I hope that it will help you move through your day a little easier and help you open up to the possibility that everything that you need already resides within. I am very much looking forward to some “juicy” discussion… Namaste.

Peace already exists within, or as Thich Nhat Hanh states in the title of one of his books, “Peace is Every Step“. In the Foreword of this book, The Dalai Lama says, “Peace must first be developed within an individual. And I believe that love, compassion, and altruism are the fundamental basis for peace.” Thich Nhat Hanh’s message states that “peace is not external or to be sought after or attained“.

Living mindfully, slowing down and enjoying each step and each breath, is enough.” Peace is always available to us because it is always present within, the question is, are we in touch with it?

I want to talk about a Sanskrit term that we discussed in our yoga class the other night, the term is called Satchitananda. (Sot chit a nan da) don’t be overwhelmed or worried about the name, mostly think about it’s meaning.  If you break down the word a little, the meaning is fairly clear, although let me emphasize, Sanskrit terms can have many interpretations, so please understand that this is my very basic understanding and interpretation of the word.

Sat – means “truth” or “essence“.

chit – means “consciousness“.

ananda – means “bliss“, or extreme happiness.

The vital essence of truth, consciousness and bliss are always present within all of us. We are never absent from it. It is there for us in times of joy and in times of turbulence, it does not choose or discriminate when to be available. You can access it at any time.

Here is a short poem by  Dawna Markova that Yvonne shared in class that I believe captures the essence of Satchitananda.

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

Of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

To allow my living to open me,

To make me less afraid,

More accessible,

To loosen my heart

Until it becomes a wing,

A torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

To live so that which came to me as seed

Goes to the next as blossom

And that which came to me as blossom,

Goes on as fruit.

Our modern world can easily pull us away from our truth, consciousness and bliss.

Some questions to ponder:

1. What do you do when you’re being pulled away from knowing or accessing your truth, consciousness and bliss?
2. What is it that you value most in your life? And…
3. What patterns of support have you set up in your life to support what you value most?

There are no “right” or “wrong” answers here, just ideas to contemplate.

When we’ve become aware that we are not in touch with or being pulled away from our truth, consciousness and bliss, we can consider “emptying” out.  Our minds are constantly busy, filled with daily thoughts, worries, activity and stressors. One way to get in touch with Satchitananda is if we try emptying out our minds to find some clear pathways.  This does not mean shuffling thoughts from one compartment to the next, it means clearing your thoughts out. This will give us the opportunity to remember and recognize what it is that we value most as well.

This does not mean you can’t feel whatever it is that you’re feeling, you shouldn’t deny it, but it also means not to completely immerse yourself in the story line.

Try to give yourself some time to empty out your mind, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Try this simple breathing technique.

• Lie comfortably on your back with your chest slightly raised with a rolled up towel under your back,             either vertically or horizontally, which ever is the most comfortable.

• If need be, place a pillow or bolster under your knees for low back support.

• Rest your arms comfortably at your sides, preferably palms faced up.

• Begin by breathing in “light” through your heart center, make this a “non” forced slow and easy inhale.

• Exhale slowly from your heart center, down your arms and out through your hands, attempting to                 exhale the chatter in your mind.

• Continue this slow rhythmic breath for about five minutes to begin with lengthening the time when               you feel ready to.

This is really only a taste of Satchitananda, but I look forward to read any of your thoughts about it, the questions to ponder or even the poem.

I hope that you have found this valuable and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

I also recommend that you subscribe to this blog so that you may continue to be updated with valuable tips for your greatest well-being.

Until then,

Yours in Health, Peace and Joy,

Dianne

The Anti-Aging Artist