ecstatic practice

Engage Your Inner Warrior: Standing in Balance

/ soulinteraction / Leave a comment

Many of us are entering this new year shedding off the old.  The dust is finally settling and it is time for us to move into greater states of connection with what we want from life.  So, here are a few questions to sit with:  What do you want from life?  What are you doing to achieve it?  What is your resistance to making these desires manifest?

As we move into this new year I want to bring a bit of warrior energy into our practice.  In yoga, warrior postures take us into places of strength, balance, focus.   I will however point out that too often we hold these posture with too much rigidity.  Warriors have to be flexible, they have to move with the elements, with life itself.   Engaging the practice of asana work helps us to embody the warrior.  When we move our bodies into a posture that represents our warrior nature we are calling that force into all of our parts.

Here is a quick and simple mediation that you can do to help you find balance.

Warrior 2-

Step one leg forward into a lunge.  Your back foot is at a slight 45 degree angle.  Your front knee is either above the ankle or slightly behind.  You can lessen the intensity of the lunge depending on your fitness level.  Your hips are turned outward.  One hand is moving forward, the other back.  Look forward and back and your hands should be aligned through the center plane.  Here is a video to help work your into the posture:

Once in the poster here is a meditation to help you get the most from the power of this posture:

This warrior posture represents standing in the center.  Being fully in balance and in control of our experience.

STR_Warr2

While standing in warrior two, listen to your body.   Where is your mind drifiting?  How does your body feel standing in the posture, do you feel strong, weak, small, big?  Sit with these thoughts as they come up.   Where do you need warrior energy in your life?

Now shift your focus to the rear hand:

STR_Warr2

What in your past is still binding you?   Do you find yourself drifting through the your past?   Where do you feel that you need balance in your past experience?   Send light and energy through your fingertips to those areas of your life.

Now Take your focus to the front hand:

STR_Warr2

Where in your current experience do you feel bound?  What do you feel about your future, does it bring fear or joy?   Where in your current experience do you need energy, balance, strength?  Send energy through your fingertips to those parts of your life that need it?

Switch sides and do the same thing with the opposite side forward.  This becomes a practice of balancing our bodies and engaging the mind/body/ and spirit connection.   After you do this practice, take a few moments to journal your experience.  What thoughts came to mind?  What came up for you?  Do you feel powerful, do you feel like a warrior?  If not, touch the solar plexus, ask the body what it needs in order to bring that energy into your life?

Blessed be warriors!   Practice, connect, love, and stand in your power!

and remember… You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Michael A. Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.facebook.com/yogawitch

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.soulinteraction.com

theyogawitch@gmail.com

Ecstatic Yoga

/ soulinteraction / Leave a comment

EcstaticDanceYoga means union.  Union with the breath, union with movement, union with the divine, union with others in your class, union with your many parts, union with your imperfections, union with your perfection, union with your emotions, union with your physical body, and union with your soul.

Yoga is an ecstatic practice.

Ecstatic is a word that is making growing rounds in modern spiritual circles.   The definition of ecstatic practice is a profound and overwhelming sense of joy, or mystical experience.  I like to define it as a full embodiment of an experience.

Yoga can be rigid.  We run through our sun salutations, we may hold or pause in certain spots, and at times the practice might feel more routine than fully embodied.  There are ways to take your yoga practice a bit deeper that we often forget to incorporate.

Most yoga postures are meant to be held much longer than most modern class structures.  Imagine holding down dog for 6-15 min, or warrior for 10 min.  There is a moment when the asana lets go completely, when the body and mind separate from the asana spirit moves in.  Many forget that the purpose of the asana (postures) is to prepare for final meditation.

You can also add dance to your yoga practice.  Move your body, allow music to move you.  Move around in a dancing pattern, then drop though the yoga postures, then back into a dance, then back into a yoga sequence… don’t spend a lot of time thinking, just let your body move as it wants.  Don’t choose the asana, let them choose you.

You can also try to change-up the music that you might use for your practice.  If you normally use kirtan music, try rock-n-roll, or something completely different that you would normally use.  Shifting music can also shift your consciousness.

I’ll go deeper and give you specific practices to help you move your practice into embodied states.  For now, breathe fully… live fiercely… and be present in your divine experience.

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.