Yoga with Melissa

Acceptance

We continue our mindfulness based yoga series with the second letter of Jack Kronfield’s acronym RAIN. Last week we focused on recognition. This week we bring awareness to acceptance.

We can ask ourselves, am I free and loving? It is possible to live with freedom and compassion in all areas of your life. Through mindfulness and acceptance in particular, we can find freedom and compassion and allow all parts of our lives to be sacred.

On Sunday night for example, in the middle of the night I became aware of a headache developing into a migraine. This is not unusual for me. What came next is not that unusual either, however the awareness, then acceptance and softening that followed is. I noticed my inner critic in the flavor of The Pusher was really strong. (If you would like to know more about this I encourage you to go back to the Inner Critic Series and in particular Namaste Yoga 277)

My Inner Pusher was giving me a hard time for sharing Tim’s ice cream with him the previous night, having a milkshake and a gluten free cake the previous day, as well as skipping lunch the previous. On and on he went insisting that I needed to clean up my act so that I didn’t get so many migraines. But this is where something big in me shifted. I had a huge recognition that this was my inner pusher trying to keep me safe, free from pain. So I thanked my inner pusher, brought acceptance to the role he was playing and handed the job over to my much more benevolent Divine Mother, who lovingly tucked me into bed for healing for the morning.

Our life provides the perfect conditions for awakening, acceptance, freedom and compassion. When we meet what is arising in our minds, bodies, emotions, energy and spirit with recognition and acceptance we are able to move through the world with grace and ease. We can experience a kindness and understanding that is free of judgement.

Being present to all of your sorrows, fears and challenges is an act of courage. It is not easy. When you are sensitive to yourself in each moment and allow yourself to come to each moment with your mind open and receptive you can experience acceptance. With acceptance the stories of fear and judgement that we tell ourselves over and over again begin to relax and release.

Acceptance means to relax and open to the facts before us. It doesn’t mean that we can’t work to improve things. It just means that we acknowledge what is true for us now. Jack Kornfield says “Acceptance is a willing movement of the heart to include whatever is before it.”

Props Needed: Bolster, meditation cushion, chair or folded blanket

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Supported Fish Pose or Salamba Matsyasana, Ardha Dhanurasana or Half Bow Pose, Bhujangasana or Cobra in the center of Half Bow Pose, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Parsvakonasana or Side Angle Pose, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Side Plank or Vasisthasana, Wild Thing Pose or Camatkarasana, Childs Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Resource: Jack Kornfield Bringing Home the Dharma, Awakening Right Where You Are

Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

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Recognition Welcome to a brand new Namaste Yoga series on mindfulness. Mindfulness is a non-judging, receptive awareness. You could view mindfulness as a respectful attention. We tend to go through our days giving attention with reaction, judgment, likes dislikes and we even ignore what is happening. Sometimes we measure our experiences based on our expectations. […]

Recognition

Welcome to a brand new Namaste Yoga series on mindfulness. Mindfulness is a non-judging, receptive awareness. You could view mindfulness as a respectful attention. We tend to go through our days giving attention with reaction, judgment, likes dislikes and we even ignore what is happening. Sometimes we measure our experiences based on our expectations. We evaluate ourselves in a constant stream of criticism and commentary.

You may come to your yoga practice hoping for stress relief, but if you are in a yoga class that isn’t just entertaining you, then you may find your practice is more confronting and more of an inner struggle than you expected. Over the coming weeks we will practice a mindfulness based yoga, that is focus on our bodies, emotions, energy, spirit, and thoughts. We will bring our attention and understanding to what is present rather than avoidance.

In Namaste Yoga 211, we spoke of the monkey mind, and the acronym, RAIN (recognition, acceptance, integration and non-identification). Over the next four weeks we will break down these four tools of mindfulness practice starting with recognition.

Recognition is a willingness to see what is. It is a readiness to ask the question, “What’s happening now?” When we deny our present moment experience, we deny our own freedom. We suffer when we refuse our own anger, dissatisfaction, pain, and ambition. When we turn away from our goodness, our values, our beliefs and our longings we also suffer.

When we name and inwardly bow to our experience, we awaken to our True Nature. Jack Kornfield says all parts of your life must be included in your awakened life. Your life provides the perfect conditions for awakening to your True Self .

Resource:

Jack Kornfield Bringing Home the Dharma, Awakening Right Where You Are

Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are

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Thank you for your donations Donna, Sean, David, Ivy, Viola, Terri and Barbara. We appreciate your support immensely.

If you would like to make a donation to Namaste Yoga you can click here. You can also contribute through your time by commenting in the comments section.

Today’s question to answer in the comments is: What did you notice because of mindful awareness today that you perhaps hadn’t noticed before?

We went into detail on the teachings of the first word in RAIN, recognition, acceptance, integration and non-identification today. If you would like a beautiful infographic, with some quick reminders about each part of rain, go to melissawest.com/309 and sign up there to receive that.

If you would like more support in bringing mindfulness alive in your life then I recommend starting a meditation practice. We have a meditation group in our membership community and an Introduction to Meditation section in our community that teaches ...

Health Cultural Conditioning is the social process in which authority figures such as parents, professors, politicians, religious leaders, peers, and the media define our cultural values, beliefs, ethical systems, and ultimately the way we perceive ourselves in the world. We tend to buy into the myth the perfect health is something that we can achieve, […]

Health

Cultural Conditioning is the social process in which authority figures such as parents, professors, politicians, religious leaders, peers, and the media define our cultural values, beliefs, ethical systems, and ultimately the way we perceive ourselves in the world.

We tend to buy into the myth the perfect health is something that we can achieve, especially as yogis. Perfect emotional and physical health is something that we strive for as yogis. Through our yoga practice we tend to our physical bodies with the intention of alleviating physical pain and suffering. We also practice yoga to ease our anxiety and stress. It is not that anything is wrong with this, in fact many yogis have alleviated a lot of their suffering through yoga. The problem comes when we get attached to the outcome and find ourselves striving for results.

We need to bring awareness to this part of our practice as well. Healthcare in 2015, total health expenditure in Canada is expected to reach $219.1 billion, or $6,105 per person. A 2007 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of more than 23,000 adults nationwide reported that Americans spent $34 billion on alternative medicine including naturopathic doctors, traditional chinese medicine doctors, chiropractors and herbal remedies. Whether allopathic or naturopathic we are being sold that we can cure ourselves of whatever ails us.

Illness, whether it be physical and or mental suffering is part of life. As BKS Iyengar says, “Yoga allows us to cure what can not be endured and endure what cannot be endure. Through our yoga practice we learn how to be with our suffering, whatever form it takes. It is impossible for your body to be perfectly healthy and free from all diseases at all times. As a human beings you are vulnerable to disease at any point in your life. When you experience illness, this is a reminder of your human fragility. Perfect health is never going to be completely attainable. Your wholeness, well-being, or perfection as a human being therefore, does not mean the absence of all pain and suffering in life but instead, learning how to be with the pain and suffering that you will inevitably experience as a human being in this world.

Through mindful awareness you can notice what is happening in your body and your emotional experience from moment to moment without judgment. This allows you to see what is happening in your body and emotional landscape as it is without clinging to what seems positive, running from what seems negative and numbing out when the experience is neutral. This is what is happening in your body now, this is what is happening in your emotional landscape now, but it won’t always be this way. With practice we can bring a sense of loving kindness and compassion to our physical and emotional experience, whatever is happening.

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Thank you for your donation Donna. We appreciate your support in creating this show each week as this show is freely given but as you know not free to create. We appreciate that Squeezed Yoga Clothing and Dusky leaf give us clothes and yoga props, but their contribution is not financial and we rely on your financial contributions to create this show each and every week.

If you would like to make a donation to Namaste Yoga you can click here. You can also contribute through your time by commenting in the comments section.

Today’s question to answer in the comments is: What are you bringing mindful awareness and loving kindness to with regards to your ph...

Cycles Cultural Conditioning is the social process in which authority figures such as parents, professors, politicians, religious leaders, peers, and the media define our cultural values, beliefs, ethical systems, and ultimately the way we perceive ourselves in the world. We tend to buy into the myth of the hero’s journey. In an overly simplified version […]

Cycles

Cultural Conditioning is the social process in which authority figures such as parents, professors, politicians, religious leaders, peers, and the media define our cultural values, beliefs, ethical systems, and ultimately the way we perceive ourselves in the world.

We tend to buy into the myth of the hero’s journey. In an overly simplified version of this journey, the hero is challenged, but eventually arises triumphant and transformed to live life more abundantly than ever before. The hero lives out his days happily ever after.

The truth of the matter is that we go through many cycles in our life. We don’t simply overcome one obstacle to find ultimate resolution. We can also be in multiple cycles of growth at the same time. We are surrounded by such cycles in our natural environment, day turns to night, the moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, the weather is sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy, seasons cycle from autumn to winter, spring to summer. Yet we somehow expect our lives to be in a perpetual state of flow, we expect rainbows without rain and constant sunshine. One of the things I like to say tongue and cheek is that a constantly flowing ocean is a tsunami, not something we actually desire at all.

We exhaust ourselves going after our continual self-improvement projects. As Sara Avant Stover says, “To function with such levels of overdrive, we bury our intuition, crush our desires, and stomp over our bodies subtle signs for rest and nourishment. In driving ourselves so hard, not only do we make ourselves sick and exhausted, but we also hammer nails into our own coffins of unhappiness.”

Metta meditation (loving kindness meditation) teacher Sharon Salzberg says, she used to think, I’m struggling now, but I’m going to come to this great break through experience and then my life will be smooth sailing. She goes on to say that is just not true. Sharon Salzberg explains that when you are present to your experience you will have compassion, you will lose it and you will begin again. Those are the cycles.

When things fall apart, we think we are doing something wrong. However, these cycles from the death of a loved one, divorce, depression, being made redundant at work, miscarriages, illness, anxiety, relationship breakdowns, are all part of being human and will happen to all of us at different and multiple points in our lives. They are part of our lives. They are part of how we get to live fully in our life.

Our yoga practice is a beautiful place to connect with the cyclical nature of our lives. Reflect on where you are in the cycle right now, are in you birth, life, death or rebirth? Do you have multiple cycles going on in different areas of your life – physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically, or spiritually? What would you like to receive most from your yoga practice today?

Props Needed: yoga strap, yoga blocks, meditation cushion, chair or folded blanket

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Supta Padangusthasana or Hand to Big Toe Pose, Keyhole or Figure Four Stretch, Easy Pose or Sukhasana with Yamapasha Mudra, Moon Salutation or Chandra Namaskar, Tadasana or Mountain Pose, Ardha Chandrasana or Standing Side Bend, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Five Pointed Star, Triangle Pose or Trikonasana, Side Angle Pose or Parsvakonasana, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Star Gazer or Reverse cor Peaceful Warrior, Parsvottanasana or Pyramid Pose, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Malasana or Garland Pose or Full Squat, Cow’s Face or Gomukhasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

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Spiritual Ecology Intake: Injuries, medical conditions, permission from your doctor to participate in yoga, exercise program? What movements will make my condition worse? What movements will make my condition better? The yoga postures we practice today were created by yogis who lived far away from cities as we know them now. They surrounded themselves in […]

Spiritual Ecology

Intake: Injuries, medical conditions, permission from your doctor to participate in yoga, exercise program? What movements will make my condition worse? What movements will make my condition better?

The yoga postures we practice today were created by yogis who lived far away from cities as we know them now. They surrounded themselves in nature and observed the natural world. They watched nature closely and learned how to live simply, harmoniously, inspired by the environments, oceans, forests, mountains, stars, sky, sun, clouds, rivers, plants, animals, environments, sights, sounds, aromas and light that was non-built and non-synthetic.

Spiritual ecology is the interrelationship between our outer, physical world, our awareness in the sacredness of all creation and our inner relationship to our symbolic world of our spirit and and how this affects our own spirit and the spirit of the world.

The word yoga means to yoke or to join, it speaks to the interconnection between all things, including our interconnection with nature and all living beings and organisms on our planet. Our yoga practice is a perfect opportunity to unite our relationship with nature.

By connecting with the four elements in nature, earth, water, air and fire and their corresponding qualities in our body we find harmony and interconnection in a world of disconnect and alienation. We will also connect with nature through yoga poses inspired by nature to restore balance internally and heal the split between our spirit and natural world.

Props Needed: wall, yoga strap, yoga blocks, cushions

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Guided Relaxation and Centering, Sunshine Arms, Keyhole stretch, Cat pose or marjaryasana, Tadasana or Mountain Pose, Tree Pose or Vrksasana, Cloud Salutation, Legs Up the Wall or Viparita Karini, Locust or Salabhasana, Matsyendrasana or Lord of the Fishes Pose, Baddha Konasana or Butterfly, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Did you like today’s show?

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Thank you for your donations. Leah and Eva.

If you would like to make a donation to Namaste Yoga you can click here. You can also contribute through your time by commenting in the comments section.

Today’s question to answer in the comments is: How is it with you today? Tell me about the earth, wind, fire and water in your environment inner and outer.

If you benefited from today’s class we have over 30 beginner yoga classes that I will link to in our show notes:

Today we did a lot of things to create an interconnection between your internal and external environment today. To see your body as a microcosm of our macrocosm. If you would like to receive 3 simple ecotherapy practices that you can easily incorporate into your life then signup below.

If you would like more support in connecting with nature, then I would highly recommend our membership community. We have seven walking meditations in our membership community designed to help relieve stress, calm your body and focus your mind. Walking meditation can be incredibly relaxing, especially during times of high stress. Mindful walking can help to relieve arthritis, improve your digestion, and bring peace of mind.

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Wholehearted Dedication Members Practice First: Upper Back Rehydration Sequence We are going to do a lot things to release your shoulders today in our class. If you would like a super quick actionable checklist of 3 ways to release your shoulders, I will be sharing at the end how to get that. Namaste Yoga 305 […]