Breathing into 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010 at 1:57PM Happy New Year!
The collective prana is potent in intention and inspiration right now. January 1 2010... well, it IS just another day, and yet we are what we make of it. In the light of beginning again, this offering is a 7 step program to creating real transformation in your life.
First we will chant as a recognition of the creative power and possibility in new beginnings: Sit comfortably, breath deeply, and as you offer your heart through voice connect with your most present intention for 2010.
Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha
Om Guhm Guh-nuh-puh-tuh-yea Nah-mah-hah
Om and salutations to Ganapati
We begin with the acknowledgement that we have energy patterns within our consciousness, default settings that determine our thought processes, emotions, and therefore actions. Known as Samaskaras, these energy patterns, or neurological pathways are stimulated over and over again, creating deep grooves in habits, personality, even self expression. Some of these Samskaras are part of our Karmic inheritance, while others develope through years of life experience. Not all Samskaras are negative, or of a low vibration, and certainly not all are positive. When we contemplate shift and change in our lives, we are generally speaking about evolving from one Samskara to a new way of being. The shift may indeed require a new mental state.
Step 1. Intention or Sankalpa
Shifting Samskaras requires the acknowledgement that there is something we WANT to change. Sankalpa, or Intention is the first step. Sometimes the language of intention is so clear, even obvious, and other times it is awakened through meditation, journaling, prayer, or time in nature. Offer yourself time in contemplation, introspection, and get into the heart of your Sankalpa. Your Sankalpa is the beginning of the peace, power, and possibility that is your inherant nature. Let this inspire you and then bring on the heat!
Step 2. Perseverance or Tapas
Once you identify your Sankalpa, Tapas (heat, intensity, perseverance) is a must! Lets be real... Without a whole lot a motivation how easy it is to sorta burn out and fade away? I have spent many days and years letting the heart fire burn out, because I lacked the mental drive. The head and the heart must join the process. We create Tapas by actively, choosing the work. We can generate tapas through practices in thought, word, and deed. As we renew our commitment to our Sankalpa, our Tapasic reserves are restored and we can draw from this potency again and again. We actually gain strength in living with our heart in the work, power+passion=results!
Step 3. Slowing or Shani 
Oh yes, life is urgent, so please take time to smell the roses! Tremendous insight is gained when we enter a reflective state. A slowing down of mind and body to study our tendencies. There is a reason why world class athletes watch there movements and body mechanics in s l o w m o t i o n. By offering ourselves time between impulse and action, the roots of our Samskaras are revealed. We have time to be with the unpleasant sensations that often show up right before a breakthrough. Often in the space of slowing down, our intuitition is available to guide us toward the roots below the roots. This is particularly effective in asana practice. Slow down in chatarunga, core cultivation, or backbending. Get to know your body, your alignment, and where your Samskaras show up on the mat.
Step 4. Awareness or Vidya
Awareness upgrades our ability to witness rather than judge our Samskaraa. From this witness state we intelligently train our inner worlds of anatomy, psychology, and spirit at the roots of the roots of Samskaras. Emotion or muscle, thought or fascia, awareness is like turning on the lights, dusting the blinds, and washing the windows. We begin to see how our Samskaras shape the world we perceive. How others activate our Samskaras, even our own resistance in the process of transformation. Awareness brings light to our suspicion, exploitation, and even fears. Awareness awakens us to even they ways we tend to burn out and reminds up to reignite Tapas. It is through the eyes of being that we witness our becoming. Witness yourself becoming!
Step 5. Fearlessness or Abhaya
Time to get fierce! Time to call forth your inner Kali or Virabhadra! Fierce in courage to move forward, and humility of the old Samaskara's allure. This is a time to fuel a new way of being by leaving the comfort of predictability and offering yourself to the unknown. The old Samskara is known. It is finely polished through endless repetition and karma. When we truly invoke change we open ourselves to a universe of possibility and this can be a little scary. Ending a dysfunctional relationship, leaving a dreaded job to begin a new career, or looking even deeper within to uncover a part of you that you may have kept very unconscious for some time. It requires tremendous courage to look at our stickiness. To embrace our humanness and divinity simultaneously and breath! To look the old way of being in the eye and consciously choose transformation. Yep, that's FIERCE!
Step 6. Vision or Darshana
Once you are clear with what activates the old pattern, its head and tail, envision what a new Samskara might look like. Bringing prana to what you are creating allows the old pattern to recede, heal, or wash away. Stimulating a new set of neurons that increase the life force of your new way of being through visualization, meditation, and journalling, really works. Science has proven this again and again in applicable studies. Renew your vision each time you return to your mat also. The asana practice becomes an opportunity to create space in the body and generate focus in the mind. Bringing your intention to class can be very personal and sacred. It is a sort of 'closed campus' , a space and time to read the fine print and edit as needed.
Step 7. Practice, Practice, Practice. or Abhyasa
Reinforcements please! Practice is essential. All six previous steps interweave into the seventh. Reinforcing a new, higher vibrational groove. Practice noticing what triggers the old pattern, study the places of possibility in your inner and outer world. Sculpt and polish to authentically express the purity of the Soul. Within the practice, shift takes on a life force of it's own. At some point you will notice you are no longer digging in the trenches, the energy lines are connecting, sustaining, and even self renewing. As you invigorate, and reignite all aspects of your becoming through the practice of being, the sweetness of freedom is evident. The reactive pattern may become less intense, or even in the midst of a limiting Samskara you still remain connected to your center. Most of all a deeper compassion for yourself and others rises up. You show up in your life, in the practice, as you are; a brilliant Yoga Soul.
Om Namah Shivaya.
Beauty and Blessings,
Jami
This entry was inspired by the writtings of Bo Forbes and Sally Kempton.
Reader Comments (3)
thanks so much for sharing these steps jami...i've truly been enjoying your classes (even if i have to modify a bit to make room for baby;) look forward to seeing you soon!
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