ecstatic yoga

Yoga as Ritual

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india-yoga_1666113iWe step into class.  We roll out our yoga mats.  We gather our tools: blocks, straps, blankets.  We set the tone for the journey that is about to unfold before us.  Yoga is a beautiful thing.  We each come to class for our own reasons, we set our individual intentions, and we bring the mystery of our lives to our mats.  As the class begins, we harmonize with others and begin to share our journey.  Yoga is community.  Yoga is much more than just physical movement.  Each time we do a downward dog, or take a deep breath we are breathing with everyone that has ever done those things, is doing those things.  Showing up is the first, and often the hardest step.  This is where the magic of your journey begins.

 

Yoga means to “yoke”, to unite, to bring together.  What in your life are you coming into union with?  What needs to be balanced?

One of the things that I hope to explore through this blog is how yoga can be used to enact magic in our everyday experience.  Yoga is breath, connected to movement, connected to energy, connected to will, engaging desire, and blessed with beautiful uncertainty.  Yoga is a lesson in learning to trust.  We learn to trust the instructor.  We learn to trust our own bodies.  We begin to step into a process that may be new and dangerous, but that is life… and what keeps us moving.

Our yoga mats are sacred space.   I often encourage my students to lay on their mats at home if they are facing struggle and uncertainty.  Our yoga mats are places of power, they hold the energy of our classes and are blessed by breath and sweat.  Just taking a moment outside of class to find where our practice intersects with our lives invites our practice into the other parts of self.

What is yoga to you?  What questions do you have?  Feel free to ask them below and I’ll try to address them in future posts.

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

Namaste 🙂

Mike Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.soulinteraction.com

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www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

Moving the Body, Engaging the Storm

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indexThe storm is upon us.   The body follows the mind, and right now stress seems to be permeating the global experience.  Now, more than ever physical body spiritual practices important for connection and stepping into the storm.  Things are not easy for many right now (but when are they truly ever easy).  We are getting to step into our tests in new ways, and as we step into engaging spirituality, the divine, and intuition we cannot forget to include the body.  The body follows the mind.  When we are crippled by stress or overwhelmed by life the body reacts.  For many this means sore backs, achy joints, loss of mobility or even sickness.  The phrase “I’m worried sick”, become literal.

When we move the body, we are moving energy.  When we sweat we are building heat, we are breathing, we are engaging stagnation that might reside in the body.  This all helps us to move into the life experience we are facing off our yoga mats.  A lot of times I know my students come to class to get away from the storm.  They hope to leave it behind for the 90min that we are together.  They hope that by avoiding the chaos that it might disappear.  I encourage a different approach.  When we invite our chaos to the mat, when we invite it to the practice we engage the storm, we get to play in the puddles, and we move the energy.  We are not empowering the chaos, but we are proactively engaging it.  We burn off the physical and mental stress, and invite the body into the spiritual process.

You can use any physical body practice to do this work.  I recommend yoga because it elongate the body, opens the joints, we are engaging in focused breathing, and each asana is a meditation.  Spirituality is built into the yoga practice.  Start your practice with an intention.  If you are inviting life to the mat you could start like this: “Beloved chaos, I invite you to the mat… flow through me, ignite my body,  bring clarity to my mind, and let’s be at peace.”

Yesterday as I was walking home, my umbrella fell apart.  For a moment, I felt anger surge through me.  I did not avoid or run away from being angry, I sat with it.  Then I looked at my mangled umbrella, the up at the gray sky and laughed.  I l asked the rain to cleanse me, and perhaps that was the gift my umbrella was offering me.   I was able to engage the storm in a literal experience, and it was beautiful

Where is the storm in your life?  What do you do to engage the storm?

You are loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Namaste.

 

Mike Brazell

Touching Oneness

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onenessThe other day at the metaphysical shop I manage I had the joy and opportunity to talk to one of customers about oneness, and what it means to be connected to “the all”.

The conversation started with him asking me about meditating and using meditation to enter into higher states of consciousness and alternate realities.  Usually when someone brings this type of discussion to the table my first question is, “Why do you want to go to those places?”   His response was, “Because I want to feel like I am one with everything.”

Often in “new age” paradigms we look at these “jumps” in consciousness as ways to access a higher state of connection to those around us, to the world, or to God Herself.   Ram Dass states it best, that as we move “up” through these realities we are actually just entering into other states of illusion.

So, as we sat, I aligned my souls, and asked my intuition what the best answer would be in this situation, and this is what she said:

“Beloved, as your feet touch this beautiful earth you are connected to all that is.  As your lungs take in the air that sustains your life force you are connected to all that is.  All that is exists here, and now.  The leave the beauty of this reality is to escape true oneness, here oneness is tangible.  When you leave the body, the oneness you are feeling is temporary, brief, and powerful.  Your purpose is to find that same connection here.”

We both sat with this for a few moments, and took a deep breath… made a point to feel the earth beneath our feet and appreciated the oneness we were able to encounter.

We often forget that we live life in this reality.  We have to find those moments of connection here in this plane of existence.  Everything on earth is connected beneath our feet, our sacred Mother Earth holds all.  Our breath is our shared religion.  We all breathe and share the air around us.  The universe pulses to that primordial exhale, that big bang of creation, the inhale was the gathering of the forces needed, and here we are… an extension of that initial orgasmic breath.

Here is a quick exercise to embrace the oneness all around you:

  • Stop and breathe deeply.
  • Exhale just as deeply.
  • Feel the earth beneath your feet.
  • Take a slow step forward, feeling your foot fully connect to the earth.
  • Now the other foot.
  • Breathe in.  Feel connected fully to the air filling your lungs
  • Breathe out.  Feel the air you exhale fill the space around you.
  • Feel the limitless earth kissing your feet.  Feel the presence of all that walks this earth, all that has come before, all that will come after.
  • Feel the air around you embracing the limitless space around and above you.

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

Namaste and Blessed Be.

Mike

 

 

Fueling Practice with Intention

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yogablog2Most people come to yoga class for the physical workout.  The body feels alive after moving through the asanas, energy is raised, and we settle into meditation to close practice.

At the beginning of class I like to have my students take a moment to center on the breath and set an intention for their practice.  On the inhale we bring intention into alignment with the breath, on the exhale we extend intention out into the world around us.  Setting an intention as we go into our practice allows us to practice with purpose.  We can also dedicate the energy of our practice to a place in the world, or someone in our lives that might need a little extra energy.  When we move with purpose we have a greater connection to our bodies, our minds and our spirits.

I also recommend my students keep a yoga practice journal.  Writing down the intentions back into the world when we leave our mats.  With each breath we take we pull our intention down into our bodies.  Each out breath pushed intention into the world, and fueled with movement gives birth to creation.  Yoga means “to yoke” or “to unite”, but what are you yoking yourself to.  Often people come to class to escape, or they bring their problems to the mat hoping to work them out.  If you focus on a negative thought as you move through practice you’ll be breathing that thought into all aspects of your being.  Shifting to a positive affirmation allows us to align with purpose and not defeat.

You don’t have to wait for class to set and breathe in intentional space.  Take a moment right now and do this simple meditation:

  • Focus on an intention, a positive word, an affirmation
  • Take a deep breath into the body, down deep into the core of your being
  • Hold the breath for a count of 4
  • Exhale just as deeply as you inhaled, let your intention embrace the reality around you
  • Continue this process for as long as you need.
  • Even just doing this for a single round is powerful.

Doing this process at the start of the day allows you to bring connection into the start of your day, the same is true if you do this before bed and take intention into the dream world.

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

Namaste

Michael A Brazell

http://www.soulinteraction.com

http://www.facebook.com/yogawitch

http://www.michaelbrazell.com

michael@michaelbrazell.com

 

NaPoWriMo Poem

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I asked the moon to shine, she blushed bright beautiful golden yellow…  Her light kissing my cheek, sneaking trough the clouds, the stars, they danced a jig to the pitter patter pounding of my feet, I am a promise break dancing its way across he sky…Bright beautiful speck of start dust, spinning tornado of infinity… break me open like a piñata.. I am sugar sweets on the inside, hurry and get your fill… There isn’t much to go around, but my pieces if planted in a garden will grow roses… and thorns… Pricking fingers.. My petals kissing your nose… the Moon… she’s still blushing.. Beautiful

Day 4 & 5 Napowrimo

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So, yesterday got a bit busy, but today I’m making up for it with a double poetry post

 

Day 4

There are poems here, if you close your eyes and open your heart you can hear them.. They fly like fireflies through my caverns, little blinking illuminations, like snow globes you shake to remind yourself to “shake it up”… and each poem I bleed on to paper is shaking it up…  I write until my pen runs out of ink, my poems never run out of memories to fuel them… they are speed cars racing around tight bends, and crashing something beautiful into kaleidoscopic fragments… You might not get them, and I’m okay with that…. I’m not writing these for you, they are my poems, and they are hear… so close your eyes, and open your heart so you can hear them…

Day 5

Spring has sprung, and the birds… they are singing life back into the blossoms, and the grass, she is kissing our feet.. Dancing clouds move from images of cotton balls to animals and soon we’ll be blowing wishes on dandelions…  The crispness of the air gently reminds that winter, she’s only napping…  The clouds dance fiercely in the sunlight, and my feet… kissing the earth.

 

Namaste Mudra- Engage the Sacred Elements

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namasteNamaste mudra is a powerful hand position.  We often begin and end our practice with it.  It is also called prayer position.  Namaste is a common salutation that is offered in many yoga classes, it means “I bow to you”.  It is an offering of self to those that share the class and the space with us during our practice.  It is also a term that has grown in popularity thanks to yoga becoming more mainstream.   The hand gesture is a physical extension of this greeting and salutation.

This hand position is much more than meets the eye.  When you are able to create deeper connections to these simple (and often taken for granted actions) you see the power that simple gestures hold.

First the action of bringing the hands to heart center.  Many of us first meet this hand position as children.  When learn to pray into our hands in the hopes that the divine will hear our prayers.  The beautiful thing about this idea is that it is true.  When we pray into clasped hands held at the heart we are praying down into the hear center.  Think of the fingers as the tip of the microphone, and the heart being the seat of the soul (or that place where God Herself sits within us).  Praying into the heart center is taking the prayer into the body so that the divine can hear it, and since we are extensions of divine will we hear our own prayers, and so does God too.

The five fingers in namaste mudra represent the five sacred elements as they move through us.  Sacred air as it moves through our lungs.  The sacred fire that burns deep within our hearts.  The fluidity of our blood, bones, muscles and joints.  Sacred earth as it supports, grounds and protects us.  Spirit as it move in and through us.  Bringing the hands to the heart in this position is bringing awareness and connection to those primal elements that make up our sacred being.

The all that is within me, acknowledge and bows to the all that is within you.

Take a look at these simple actions.  See the power in all of our gestures, and look for meanings beyond the initial layers of experience.

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

Namaste.

Michael A. Brazell

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

www.facebook.com/yogawitch

 

Engage Your Inner Warrior: Standing in Balance

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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

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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.