Alchemy
OFF THE MAT
Weekly Thought Offering:
I am here to keep becoming truer, more beautiful (more joyful) versions of myself again, and again, forever…
Everything I need to become the woman I am meant to be next is inside my feelings of now.
Life is alchemy and emotions are the fire that turns me into gold…If I can sit in the fire of my own feelings, I will keep becoming.
~Glennon Doyle~
Weekly Journal Prompts:
I am not my feelings but my feelings point my way, right now they are showing me…
Feelings of mine that I avoid are…
I’m having a big reaction to_____
This reaction is a situation giving me a chance to let go of this feeling that I buried when_____
Weekly Mantra:
I can do hard things.
These feeling washes through me.
I am not this feeling.
I AM Love.
I AM Light.
Hello Sadhakas!
This week is our final week with Prasarita Padottonasana. This week, as we do most months, we are spending the last week exploring the energy of the shape. This shape (like many of them) is a juxtaposition of a big feeling and a surrender feeling. We are asked to both experience a big sensation and a surrender at the same time. Given how often this shows up in the asana, I would say it warrants not only a mention, but deep dive into. This week we do just that.
Despite what most people know of yoga, the physical practice is just one of the many practices. The physical practice is just one of the many gateways into the spiritual and mental practice. For many of us, it is the easiest entrance point. The mind is very complex and tricky. The ego is very powerful, and it can seem impossible to contemplate being able to change our own minds. So, we start with the physical gross body and slowly, slowly, slowly, we start to move the more subtle bodies.
I believe the physical practice gives us so many chances to practice being present to our own physical discomfort so we can begin to exercise the same ability with our thoughts, our choices, and ultimately the consequences of those choices. All which add up to the lives we are living.
ON THE MAT this week we are in the big sensation of the lengthening the backs of the legs, assisted by gravity. If you work all of the steps highlighted from the previous weeks, these feelings only increase. Those big feelings are highlighted by the surrender of the spine. In fact, you might notice that the more you surrender the spine and neck, the bigger the feeling in the backs of the legs becomes. But I tell you what, it’s not about how much discomfort you can bear that makes this alchemy, it’s about training the ability to be present to these moments. To observe your knee jerk reactions and to make different choices where different choices are warranted that will connect you to more joy. ON THE MAT that might mean that you can observe if you seize up and stop breathing and make the choice to breathe, soften and actually allow the release you are seeking, rather than just locking up and not making progress toward lightness.
OFF THE MAT my hope is that at some moment this week (and many more moments after ;)) you catch yourself in that moment of discomfort or pain, and rather than attach to that feeling as being who you are, you are able to practice surrendering to it. Observe it, learn it’s lessons, hear its messages, and just maybe make a different choice that will lead you to your highest joy.
Just like that you can transform pain into your very own journey of becoming. Just like that pain loses its grip on you. Just like that, the fear of pain gives way to the knowing that all things are here to serve you in becoming what you have always been but what has been until now covered by fear.
You become…your Self.
With Great Respect and Love,
Nicole
