Yoga Among Friends

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Embracing Autumn's Balance: A Journey to Oneness

Welcome to the autumn season in the Western Hemisphere. No matter where you live, it’s the time when all is in supreme balance. This brief moment of time offers us the opportunity for the celestial blessings of oneness. Inspiring all of our experience with the divine intelligence behind all of life. This merging between the endings and beginnings, between the light and the dark, between the heat and the cool.

This oneness is not separate from us and the actual feeling of being present as a state of balance. When we feel at peace in this quality of stillness, the welcoming of this shift of perspective is one of gratitude and joy. We’re able to quiet the imbalance of the chattering outer world and focus on the ease of bringing the mind inward.

The balance between the outer mind and the tranquility of the inner heart is a fine-tuned instrument allowing for the mind to feel and listen to the pulse of this oneness. We’re able to sense that our body-mind is not actually who we are. We are more than our thoughts, personalities, behaviors, or moods. We are actually life experiencing itself. Our true natural state of being is love and goodness. A cloudy day does not mean the sun has disappeared. The clouds change and move through, but the sun is always there, and its nature is unchanging.

The fall equinox symbolizes harmony and connection. It is a reminder that all life is unfolding beautifully. This might sound appealing and nice, but it takes a greater desire to experience it. Notice how your physical body feels when your mind is chattering constantly with thoughts of doubt and worry. Notice the tension in your body when you are racing just to survive.

What happens when one can actually rest and feel the physical breath of inhaling with ease and exhaling with the feeling of being supported? Our physical nervous system becomes balanced, our mind becomes more focused, and our mood lightens. We feel supported and experience overall calmness. This is the life force of prana, which rides on each breath. How does the body feel when you exhale with the trust of falling into something greater and experience a glimmer of relaxation?

This shift in body-mind awareness opens the space to embrace the ease of letting tension drop away. The space around the heart softens, and gripping drops as the mind becomes less disturbed and more stable. This experience is real! The portal is open, and we can see into the depths of our being. Celebrate the possibility of being so much more as we embrace our true radiant aliveness, to embrace one’s soul.

Meditation is a refined mind able to sustain a direct focus, a one-pointed mind directed on a particular object. What if the object is the breath? What if the breath is effortless, and the mind actually enjoys just being present in the experience? This takes practice since the nature of our entire existence is self-preservation. We are wired to roam.

Yoga is a state of balance, and it takes practice to experience this inner balance in a very unbalanced outer world. The distractions of fear and the habit of worry become our need to control. The desire or passion to keep practicing must be done with reference to something greater. The passion keeps the soul growing as the attachment to our identity begins to gradually drop away. The sweet feeling of not taking everything so personally.

To experience this balanced state is peaceful, calming, and expansive. The opposite is tension, stress, and agitation. Healing comes from the right action to move inward and appreciate the incredible gifts of a quiet mind. The oneness of being present to life itself.

Let us find opportunities this season to enjoy our practice and trust we are all able to expand our compassionate nature to meet this opportunity.

We have so many wonderful teachers, classes, workshops, and retreats. Commit to global healing and say YES to the path and, in loving kindness, offer your light as a vehicle to see clearly all the beauty of this auspicious experience of ONENESS.