Does your heart light your path through life? Here’s a practical example of how yoga and meditation can radically change your outlook and your experience of today.
Although many of us are initially drawn to yoga as a physical exercise, most of us find that there are many other life enhancing benefits of maintaining a practice. For me it’s all about connection. Connection to self, connection to others and connection to source.
Practice on the yoga mat or meditation cushion prepares us to bring yoga into the rest of our lives. When we take these ideals of compassion, patience and equanimity into our day, how does our reality change?
Last week I had a technical problem with a large company and I was dealing with a support person via email. He was trying to help me but we weren’t getting far. I could have expressed frustration and anger but instead I thanked him for trying to help and left it with him, trusting that it would work out. As I often do, I signed off my email with the word ‘namaste’. I got an immediate and excited response.
‘Namaste, namaste, namaste. Thank you for your kind words.’
I’m sure we both enjoyed that simple human connection and it reminded me that each day is shaped by our attitude. When we smile at people they will usually smile back, the same is true for frowning.
Leading with our hearts gives us an opportunity to connect. Our openness encourages the same response from others. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,
‘What is uttered from the heart alone, will win the hearts of others to your own.’
I invite you to try this today; smile at strangers, be quick with a kind word. Find space for you and for the people around you. Don’t react, pause to smile and remember that they are just like you, then respond. Be compassion and kindness, lead with your heart.
To cultivate an open hearted approach to life try this technique:
- Sit comfortably with an upright spine and gradually slow your breath.
- Breathe into your heart, imagining a green light in the centre of your chest that glows brighter with each breath.
- See that light getting bigger until your whole body is filled with compassion and love.
- Allow that compassion and love to radiate out into the world.
I hope that this practice will assist you in your interactions and perhaps even begin a quiet revolution in your life.
Wishing you joy, love and an easeful life.
Namaste,
jacquelyn
Join me at Balanced Life Yoga in Uxbridge on Friday 6th May for Heart Centred Meditation. (7.30 – 9.00 pm)
In this special workshop we will come together as a community to explore the fundamentals of breath meditation, a practic which leads us to stillness, peace and calm. Participants will leave with the knowledge required to begin a daily, home meditation practice. We will also work with meditation techniques designed to open the heart and harness it’s transformative power, making possible dramatic shifts in our responses to real life situations. All welcome. $25 plus HST
http://www.balancedlifeyoga.ca/home-pages/retreats/uxbridge-workshops/
Jacquelyn is a 500 hour RYT and Reiki Level Two practitioner. Yoga has helped her to overcome paralyzing fears and chronic pain and find her true purpose in life. Her focus is on encouraging those around her to have patience, kindness and compassion for themselves and the courage to stand, fearless, in their own light. Jacquelyn teaches Gentle Yoga, Flow Yoga, Beginners Yoga, Seniors Yoga, Learn to Meditate and a variety of workshops.
