I had this great conversation with a new friend the other day about yoga. She, like me, is traveling in an RV and living a fun, adventurous life on the road with her husband. She was lamenting that she missed her yoga classes back in her hometown. In particular, she was missing the strength and freedom she was finding in her body that we all know is a benefit of regular practice. It is a bit challenging to get to classes on the road as sometimes it involves traveling long distances and being with only one car makes it even less convenient. I can totally relate to her experience.
I asked her if she had her yoga mat with her, to which she responded “no” – but with a hint of “why DIDN’T I bring my yoga mat along with me?”. With total joy and enthusiasm, I encouraged her to go out and get a mat – they are everywhere for almost any price – and start her own self-practice.
In our discourse, I was reflecting on the supreme gifts that self-practice can provide. The gift is that you really get to experience and develop a meaningful relationship with yourself. The reflective pool of awareness always opens up for me in self-practice. It is a creative way for me to both experience and express who I truly am. I become more cognizant of all the stories that are going on in my head and I see them, feel them as just stories. In this recognition, there is freedom. It’s like a wave of pure possibility comes up underneath me and I feel myself more like an emanation of energy and possibility rather than a person doing their yoga practice, getting so many different asanas or breathing practices or meditation techniques.
All these aspects may be included in my practice but they are more like emanations and explorations of my unique creative “truth being”. There is no need for attaining, the practice is one of allowing.
It’s a huge allowing of Source to flow to me and through me. I watch to see what’s coming on the wave of awareness and then I feel into the appropriate ways to respond.
The response is like an affirmation through my body that I am free no matter what the physical situation looks like or feels like! I have said before that self-practice is like going into the Matrix of all possibilities.
I share a concept from Sunanda’s book on Source Alignment and Inner Knowing that expresses in words what happens for me on my mat:
“In this physio-energetic emanation, the physical body of each being is not the source of strength, but a conduit of strength. All the tissues, including fluids, bones and muscles have a property of tone.
The physical body as a whole has a capacity for relaying energy. When the connection to Source is blocked, all energy that the body needs must come from the physical structure. When Source alignment is available, the physical body can relay Source energy according to the capacity of the physio-energetic emanation.
This capacity has many components. What we recognize as strength is the interplay between physical tone, energetic capacity, conscious and subconscious allowing, and Source alignment.”
What benefits are you experiencing from self-practice?
