teacher training fall 2007

September 14th-16th,

October 5th-8th, and 12th-14th,

November 10th-16th,

December 13th-16th.

my email address

gopimanjari@hotmail.com

Friday, August 17, 2007

Moving with Prana


How you move on your matt, how you position yourself on your matt reflects how you move, interact and position your self in your daily life.

Moving with the flow of prana or energy in the body, allowing the prana (life force) to reveal and unravel the yoga pose, will result in the yoga posture being “sukha, stira, asana” (yoga sutra). 'Sukha' means with ease, comfort and happiness, and stira means with a fixed, attentive mind. The prana will bring lightness, space and freedom into the mind and body while in a yoga pose.

When moving into life’s situations one has to allow the larger Prana force to be the guide, this means allowing ones life to flow according to a Higher and Greater life force, Divine power, without pushing ones personal agenda. Then the opportunities and situations that unravel, and the doors that open, will allow one to experience greater happiness (sukha), space and freedom.

The transitioning from one yoga pose to another is equally as important as the pose itself. In our western culture we are so goal originated, the result is the only thing that matters, this state of mind is often reflected in ones yoga practice. We push our bodies with strain and stress into a pose that looks like yoga but is devoid of life and of the vitality of prana, thus we cut ourselves of, both physically and mentally from one of the greatest sources of power that reside within ourselves. While practicing yoga one should allow the pose to unfold organically through the prana or breathe, letting go of the attachment to the pose.

Similarly moving from one life situation to another, if done with attachment to the results, we again push our lives into an un-natural flow that only create dis-eas in the mind and body. Moving against the natural flow is like trying to swim upstream, we move away from our inherent nature. Instead our actions should be in harmony with the nature of the self, so that our journey of self-discovery is unraveled gradually with ease. learning to move with the sequence of life, and allowing that sequence of life to organically unfold is a challenge, it means the ego needs to let go of endeavoring to be the controller. Trusting in Divine will, empowers one with the vision to see the opportunities arise, and allows transformation to take place. The flow of life may not unfold the way we desire, but learning to observe and to accept with out being attachment, but remaining peaceful, will reveal a greater lesson to the individual.

3 comments:

Cory said...

Fantastic Gopi --- you're teaching is very much in-line with this discussion and I greatly appreciate your efforts to help us make that connection on and off the mat! Namaste, Cory

jindi said...

Yoga holds that a person’s health condition depends on himself. It lays emphasis on physical, mental and emotional

balance and development of a sense of harmony with all of life. There’s nothing mystical about it.Nor is it external.

Rather it is an inner faculty. Yoga endeavors to re-establish inner balance through a variety of ways, ranging from the

gross to the subtle. Which is why it is considered a holistic art.Rather than prescribe treatments, yoga therapy

encourages awareness. Through age-old yogic techniques, we get to know ourselves better.From that knowledge,

comes the ability to more easily accept and adapt to change, resulting in enhanced well-being in body, mind, heart

and spirit. Hence its applicability to almost all chronic conditions.

What approach does yoga therapy take?

Contrary to modern medical science that tries to identify the pathogenic factor (be it a toxic substance, a

micro-organism, or metabolic disorder) then eliminate it, Yoga takes a totally different point of view. It holds that if a

person is sick there must be a deeper reason behind it – that illness doesn’t arise by chance. It is the result of an

imbalance, a disruption in the body-mind complex that creates the condition. Here the symptoms, the pathogenic

factors, are not the issue. Yoga believes that the root cause lies somewhere else.
yoga therapy

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