Are You Living The Life You Really Want?
The other day a University student stopped to chat with me after meditation practice. She told me she is graduating this Spring and has to tell her parents that she is not going into graduate school for an MBA. Instead, she has decided to follow her Soul's calling and go to Europe to study naturopathic medicine. She has always been drawn to healing but never dared to follow her desires until now.
More than any other time in the twelve years since I opened the Shanti Studios, my students are having conversations about living in a way that fills them up and makes them feel connected to something bigger than themselves. I am not surprised at this, but it is more prevalent now than I have ever seen.
Maybe the pandemic shifted priorities and gave us all space to reflect on this. Whatever the reason, the message is clear: Don't postpone your happiness.
There's no doubt the Fall season is a time for transformation and change. We can see it all around us as Mother Nature does her thing to conserve energy. The leaves dry up and fall to save energy for the "budding" in the Spring. It's Nature's way of knowing what's best.
You may not think about it often, but everything in Nature unfolds as it should if the conditions are right. If you plant a tomato seed, it becomes a tomato; an acorn becomes an oak tree: The intelligence is encoded in the seed; it's predictable.
In the ancient system of Yoga, we refer to the natural cycles of Nature as Dharma. Dharma comes from the root "Dhar," which means to support. It speaks to the intelligence that supports the Universe. It says there's an intelligence that supports life as we know it. This is Universal Dharma, in which you and I are part of.
But there's something else called your individual dharma or Soul. Your individual Soul has a unique dharma to play in this world, in this larger symphony of the dharma of the Universe. If you do your dharma well, it supports the whole. This ancient teaching goes way back to the Vedas, suggesting that "living your purpose" is a fundamental law of the Universe. When you are not aligned with your dharma, you feel lonely, misunderstood, and angry.
I am not suggesting it's an easy journey to discover who you were meant to become, but I can tell you it's worth the trek. I left a senior management position in an international firm to pursue my passion of helping people get closer to their self-essence by decoding the habit - forming thoughts hidden deep in their subconscious mind, that holds them back.
There is a method to figuring this stuff out; it's ancient in its approach, and it works if you work it. I know that life is busy and there are only so many hours in the day, but there is so much "power" in knowing.
The very first thing you can do is become aware of your thinking, feeling and actions. From a distance you can observe the tendencies that get in the way of getting what you want most. When we become conscious about our limiting thoughts we realize we have a choice.
Do this little exercise every day for one week, and you will be amazed by what you'll discover about yourself. It takes about 15 minutes a day, and I suggest you do it at the end of your day before bedtime.
Grab your journal or a notepad, and let's get started….
Step # 1: Getting Centered
Sit in your chair with your feet on the floor and close your eyes. Take five long slow breaths, noticing the abdomen rise on the inhale and relax on the exhale.
Notice where you are feeling tension in your body; breathe into the space you feel tension.
When your muscles relax, and your mind gets quiet, notice if you feel more at ease. Open your eyes.
Step # 2: Awareness Practice: Noticing your thoughts and feelings:
1. Ask yourself, what situation or thought precipitated your thought or feeling?
(make it live again)
2. What was your predominant emotion or feeling? (sadness, anger, fear, etc.)
3. How did it manifest? (yelling, withdrawing, judgment, etc.)
4. What is at the root of your feelings; what do you need to unravel to understand it more fully? The answer lies in your dharma and manifests as dissonance in the mind when you are misaligned with it.
5. Does it require adjustment (change something) or contentment (live with it) or
both?
6. How can you dissolve these feelings?
At the end of the week, write down what you learned about your habitual thought patterns. Notice how shifting your perspective from thinking and acting to observing your thoughts gave you space to make a different choice.
Allow yourself to stay curious about this and repeat it. Curiosity keeps us on the path to self-awareness. A little more every day.
Warmly,
Uriel
Uriel MacGillivary is the founder of Shanti Yoga Studios and Shanti Traditional School of Yoga on the East Coast of Canada. Her passion & study of the ancient teachings has expanded her view of how Yoga transforms the human condition. Uriel shares her knowledge and wisdom in these weekly posts. For more in-depth knowledge and experience you can join her in Yoga teacher trainings and retreats locally and worldwide.
For life changing Yoga, meditation and Yoga nidra, check us out online @https://app.namastream.com/shanti-yoga/product/14595/about
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