Is something keeping you from the things that make your life worth living? Get acquainted with your own resistance, and see what opens up with this Free Yourself Yoga Journal article.
… You can live for years with a tendency to resistance that reveals itself in insidious ways: as an inclination to slide away from intimacy; a habit of avoiding difficult emotions by sleeping or watching TV; or simply the onset of restlessness, anxiety, or boredom that keeps you from resting in the present moment. Then, when you truly want to make a change, the wall of resistance can seem impenetrable.
This is an arena where yoga and meditation are of tremendous help. In my meditation practice, I’ve learned how to work with my own resistance to change, my tendency to hold back from moving deeper into any form of closeness, including closeness with myself. I’ve taken a hard look at my resistance to (read: fear of!) losing control and even accepting love.
(via itgivestime)
SUTRAS 500-100 B.C
Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew. Sutras sew meaning together.
It outlines classical understanding of the mind.
196 sutras = threads of yogic wisdom
Om shrim mahalakshmyai namah
Reverence to the power of sri, the great goddess Lakshmi!
Imagine the lotus flower, which thrives and blooms radiantly even in the muddiest of waters. You can evoke a similar abundance and beauty in your own life by repeating this mantra, which celebrates the power of sri in the form the the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Sri is an important concept in yoga and Tantric philosophy. The word simultaneously means prosperity, elegance, radiant power, and sacredness. Lakshmi is the exquisite embodiement of these qualities. This mantra calls upon Lakshmi as a form of the Divine that dwells within you and all beings, rather than as an external deity.
When you recognize the power of sri within you, it leads to contentment no matter what your circumstances. you’ll feel less like grasping, and you’ll be better table to experience gratitude for all that you have. As the embodiment of sri, Lakshmi teaches that the inner state of feeling that you have enough creates the experience of prosperity in your outer life, not the other way around. No matter how much time, money and love you have, you will always feel as though it’s not enough until you can evoke and honor the sri within you. When you do this, what you have feels like more than enough.
Grounding Meditations
These can range from feeling your feet connecting to the earth as if they had suction cups attached, to imagining a thread of energy flowing from the base of your spine into the center of the earth. Grounding practices are taught in many traditions (egs. tai chi and qi gong).
Born in ancient times, alive today, yoga is eternal - yet exists only in the present.
Enjoy the paradox.
