Yoga and meditation are not methods of anaesthetising your experience in life, rather yoga and meditation techniques are tools of managing those experiences. The anger, the anxiety and grief of the life experience are all real just as the joy, curiosity and happiness are real. However. they are also passing waves that do not define who you are. This practice explores who you are behind these emotions and focuses on discovering the essence of you.
Yoga and meditation are not methods of anaesthetising your experience in life, rather yoga and meditation techniques are tools of managing those experiences. The anger, the anxiety and grief of the life experience are all real just as the joy, curiosity and happiness are real. However. they are also passing waves that do not define who you are. This practice explores who you are behind these emotions and focuses on discovering the essence of you.
A bit of ‘awakened sleep’ will offer a chance to rest and take in all the benefits of the physical practice (Part 2). The 61 point practice will have us working with our resentment and learning how to manage the opposite feelings and emotions that arise. The final stage to the practice is a forgiveness intention opening us to isvara pranidhana and letting go of that resentment that holds us in negative attachment. As we surrender and trust, grace arises leading us towards peace, contentment and serenity.
‘What asana is for the body, pranayama is for the mind’ to achieve the ‘state’ of yoga we practice yoga directing our attention to the shaping of the breath while refining the relationship between the body and mind. This practice will focus on breath retention, suspension and progression in order to purify and create clarity in our ability to occupy our embodiment while enduring negative thoughts and emotions that may come up. Calm and ease brought into existence during dis-ease can be an incredible life hack. Come back to this practice anytime the world is feeling a bit overwhelming and centre yourself within the wisdom of your inner-teacher.
This practice will apply Kriya Yoga (Tapas, Sva dhyaya and isvara pranidhana) as we move, connecting to the strong feelings, thoughts and reactions that may have come up during the work focused on addressing our resentment.
It’s a new year and everyone is feeling a bit of motivation for manifesting a new start. Zephyr’s message in this podcast is a focus on encouraging us all to look at our past and recognise our experience and how it has become helpful or has hindered our evolution and our ability to move forward. A meditation to set the tone for a four-part lecture and practice that will welcome you into a new year of self reflection and purification.
The brief meditation at the start of this podcast is a great way to prepare yourself to plant seeds of purpose and help reduce seeds of suffering that have been planted through your own experiences throughout your life. The clarity to our path forward is often blurred by experience and our reactions to life are just that, reactions. Use this meditation anytime you want to comeback to these themes and practices of self-reflection and moving through life with purpose. Whenever you find yourself reacting rather than responding to life’s obstacles, come back to this practice and work on continuing to build skills that help you see life more clearly and navigate through it.
Zephyr has shared the slides from this lecture with you below, so when you have time you can follow along with her.
As a Yogi, we are all working to to find stillness. It is in fact the definition of Yoga (contrary to the popular belief of many of my contortionist colleagues). The whole reason the modern day Yogi movement is such a popular and well populated movement is because when we get the message, when we (sometimes just for a fleeting second) lose ourselves and enter the presence of the moment it tends to feel really, really good and we look for it again. When we find the presence, we can navigate the rest of our day and take the lessons from that experience with us. The hard part, however, is getting to the presence.
In this podcast Zephyr lets us all in on a little secret to help bring a bit more presence to our practice. She describes how skillful movement whilst being present is not rushed and is certainly not anticipating the next pose. 108 Sun Salutations can bring discipline, but rarely does it bring presence. It takes a Buddha smile and an intention on letting go of what you stepped on to the mat with. Only then can you step off the mat with a clearer presence and be ready to face the day “here and now”.
Granthis are “knots” binding the physical body and the psycho-emotional subtle body together. There are three Granthis covering 6 out of our 7 Chakras. These “knots” inhibit a healthy pranic flow of intelligence and function in these centres. Each of these Granthis are said to be the embodiment of 3 Hindu God-Heads, Brahma: The Creator, Vishnu: The Sustainer, and Rudra: The Roarer/Destroyer.
Using storytelling of these archetypes we will unravel the complexity of why we get knotted up in certain areas and how to use the Yogic technology to assist in our unfolding and creating a free-flowing current towards seeking contentment, serenity and stillness.
Expect a lecture, breath-centric asana, pranayama, kriya, mudra, mantra and meditation.
I have known Lucy Edge for many years now as we orbit around the same yoga circles in the UK. With a genuinely warm and affable nature she has always been one of those people one feels safe opening up to. She is known for eliciting insightful discussions and interviews that uncover interesting perspectives from people within our community. Recently we had an honest discussion about loss and love, addiction and recovery and how Yoga and the Twelve Step Fellowship are some tools to create lasting happiness through practice. I hope you find it helpful and that it inspires you to keep growing, seeking and thriving in life!
Lucy has kindly offered a 20% Discount to her shop using the code ZEPHYR20 till the end of January! Click here for Yogaclicks
Lucy Edge is a yoga advocate, a champion of yogi makers and creators, and the founder of yogaclicks.store. She is also the author of three yoga-themed books including the bestselling travel memoir Yoga School Dropout and her first novel Down Dog Billionaire.
For further support & ways to practice
On average, for 1 addict it affects 10 people. Their is AA, NA, DA, OA, ABA, SLA & Alanon too. We heal together, as a community with a common denominator in which we courageously face our stuff with a great amount of compassion and empathy. Go to http://www.al-anonuk.org.uk/to find out more about Ala-teen and Alanon. We are an anonymous group, however not secret. I am consciously breaking my anonymity to make london aware these groups are here to support if needed.
I will be teaching a 4 part workshop the 22nd, 29th April, 6th, 13th May at Triyoga Teaching Yoga to help with Addiction and Recovery Workshop with Zephyr Wildman click here to read my blog “I am an addict.”
