Guest blog by Leah DuBois
Ram Dass, the Western spiritual teacher and beloved guru by many, had a saying: you can’t force a snake to shed it’s skin.
This applies to a human being’s spiritual awakening. Just as nature and natural occurrences have their own force and energy, so too does the force that comes to stir an unaware mind towards awakening. With this in mind, all a person has to do is simply be- an awakening will eventually occur, as the universe is ever-changing and the progression of consciousness is absolute.
If we have not experienced a change that has been large enough to force a fresh perspective forward, chances are we are still hanging back until our time is right. This is the natural way-it takes a mature blossom to open, and that opening can’t be forced.
For some, the awakening is loud and in their face, ripe with escalating emotions and drastic upheavals into the polarities. Previously unthought thoughts manifest to the surface, “who am I?” “what am I searching for?” “how do I really feel?” “what do I really need?” and further still- “what will allow me to grow?” “how can I calm my mind?” “how can I heal my body?”
We start on the path- we start to seek.
One path on the many paths through the forest of the mind- which will undoubtedly bring us up against the roots of our deepest fears and biggest emotions with the purpose of healing them-is yoga.
It has been my experience that yoga draws in Seekers due to the exceptional physical release experienced post yoga session. The heart beat is quickened, the blood is flowing, endorphins are flooding the system AND there has been an energetic shift. Especially to a critical person, these physical responses are necessary to note the changes and shifts in the body and mind. In yoga, we are uniting our mind with our actions, meaning, we have total and complete awareness with each movement. We move with our breath. Inhle, lift the leg, exhale, place the leg between the hands. Inhale, raise the arms towards the sun. Exhale, lower the arms down. We begin to recognize a pattern of breath that makes sense with our movements. Our breath’s become those movements, and those movements become our breath. We move as we feel guided to, and we lean into (rather than away from) sensations that arise within this process.
Sensations that arise within this process include, of course, physical tension with the extension of tight muscles, and emotional responses like laughter, yawning, crying, or anger. This is because as we move our muscles in ways they are not used to moving, we uncover memories of traumas that have been suppressed and stored within the energy pathways of the body. Yoga is a physical practice that allows us to deconstruct the walls we have placed around our hearts and minds. Each time we step on the mat, we are opening ourselves up to unity-to the unlimited, to Stillness, to Consciousness, and ultimately, to pure love.
My studio website is: aquariandreams.com
My photography website is: leahdubois.com
And an email for private yoga sessions is: leahdubois@gmail.com