How to add small practices to keep you connected, deepen your awareness and lighten your load.
A question asked often by yoga students is how can you get the connection and depth outside a yoga class. Living in a western world where we have little in the way of rituals, community rapport and camaraderie, many of us rush from our jobs, strip off our clothes, slip into our yoga gear, fight traffic lights and work against the clock to get to class. We then set ourselves up on the mat with the intent that we obtain a state of peace, interconnectedness with source energy.
As we float away from class feeling lighter, connected and in a deep appreciation of all that is and all that you are we try to hold onto that feeling for as long as possible. Before long for many of us (including your yoga teacher) a switch gets flicked and the drone of everyday mundane activities takes place and we have disconnected again.
There are simple techniques you can weave and thread into your daily life to top up your spiritual practice. Below is an outline of techniques – some take a few moments and others a few moments longer. You can pick and choose and create a series of practices that work for you.
The Journey to Yoga Class – whether you drive, get a lift or walk to class take the journey time to reframe and set your intention. It’s quite potent to visualise a derobing of the days activities and challenges as your destination nears. Take deeper breaths and feel your eyes softening with the exhale. Take in the surroundings and feel a connection with the tree scape sheltering the footpaths, the telephone poles providing communication channels, the birds dotting our sky, the people walking by. Sense your mind chatter lowering and the eyes presenting images to you – one flash at a time – as you take in the beauty of the environment around you. You will find you are much calmer when you get to class and ready to immerse yourself into practice.
Red Light Pulse Action – A favourite of mine! When coaching students whether it is Yoga or Personal Training pelvic floor health is always discussed. Both males and females get the Red Light District chat. Your pelvic floor health is paramount for vitality of sexual and sensual energy, creative power and visceral it keeps the organs in place and not caving to gravity. How is this spiritual I hear you ask? Your base chakra and sacral chakra make up the first two main chakras of the body. They are foundational in supporting the body and the upper chakras. So pelvic floor health does not only benefit the physical body but also the energetic body.
Sahajoli Mudra (for women) and Vajroli Mudra (for men)
- When stopped at red lights, take your intention (sankalpa) to your pelvic base. For females this is located at the vaginal opening . For males this is located at the perineum (the area between the scrotum and anus)
- Inhale, hold the breath inside and draw the urethra upward. This action is similar to holding back the intense urge to urinate. The testes in men and the labia in women should move slightly upwards during this contraction. hold for a few moments and release. Repeat for the duration of the red lights.
- The befits of pelvic floor squeeze regulates and tones the entire uro-genital system. In helps overcome psycho-sexual conflicts and unwanted sexual thoughts. It conserves and redirects energy, enhancing meditative states.
Om Tat Sat – God here, God above, God below, God everywhere. God is used as a word interchangeable with universal energy, source energy or any other word that resonates with you. The word God and the description of Om Tat Sat is taken from the Vedic scriptures of the Bhagavad-Gita. Om is a sound that commences prayer, meditation and worships. It is a vibration that creates all substances constituting the universe. Tat is transcendence. Denoting beyond the reaches of space and time. Sat is goodness, auspicious. It is the hereness that you see, feel, taste and smell.
Om Tat Sat is also referred to as “I am that” in referencing your whole physical and spiritual self as being here, above, below and everywhere. It is a communion with God energy itself living through your physical existence. An easy way to commune with all that there is is to mouth the words in relation to objects you see
- As you walk to a destination, or at work, or around the house doing your chores and activities, you can bring connection to the activity by mouthing or saying “Om Tat Sat” or “I am that”. I am the tree. I am the car. I am the person holding the groceries. I am the dog. I am the bird. I am the bus. This draws depth and substance into every object you see as you acknowledge we are all connected. Work with your senses as it is a gateway between the mind and the external world. Redirect your attention to a chosen sense. Lets say its hearing. Start with close sounds and allow your attention to expand outwards as you hear far away sounds – now draw it back to close sounds. Sense the connectedness with the sound vibration . Sense the hum of life around you.
The Pause – Our breath has a natural internal breath retention (Antar kumbhaka) and external breath retention (Bahir kumbhaka). In yoga practise the main focus is ont he inhale and the exhale. And the breath retention has equal merit and spiritual benefits. Antar kumbhaka signifies the fullness of the breath – abundance – flowing to the brim. When we pause the breath at the top of the exhalation we sense what satisfaction feels like. The body has the benefits of the fullness of our breath, before it exhales it from the body making room for another full inhalation.
Equally with Bahir kumbhaka we sense what it feels to have little breath in the body. A vacuum is formed. There is a sense of vastness in the pause before the body spontaneously draws fresh prana into the physical body, flooding all organs and cells with life.
- The morning stretch – take time stretching the body fully in different directions whilst still in bed. Breath deeply holding and pausing the in breath. Set an intention for the day and as you pause the in breath, feel the intention being fulfilled. Similarly with the outbreath connect with the whole body as a vacuum is created, emptying it making room for the fullness of life and vitality to flood your being.
The Forever Pose – Find a pose that you feel you can stay in forever (or a very long time). It may be Downward Dog (as it is for me) or Vadrasana, Supta Bhaddha Konasana or many others. The Forever Pose is great for realigning you and grounding you.
If you need to make a decision or need to create space for yourself you know by getting into your Forever Pose with an intention, you will work towards achieving it. Sure you may be in a work situation that may seem inappropriate that you get on hands and feet and proceed to lift your sitting bones up towards the ceiling. But when you have practiced your forever pose and received its benefits – visualisation can be beneficial too.
Practising in small informal ways keeps the spiritual alive in everyday moments. Create your own attunement and rejoice in he delight of uplifting yourself throughout the day!
In love and gratitude,
