New Year ~ New You…..

cOMe back to yourself, ground and set an intention for your year ahead and through your yoga practice bring all your desires to fruition ~

.....As we say good-bye to 2012 and welcOMe 2013, what are your feelings? are you grateful for the year you've just experienced? what have you learnt? what do you want to bring forth into 2013 and let go of?

these are sOMe questions i've pondered in December, especially as I've been preparing for my New Year Urban Day Retreat at YogaRelax… and How Yoga really helps you move forward with your life...

'In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.' Krishnamurti

are you ready to give yourself the key and open the door?

So welcoming in 2013, through the practice of Yoga, I will help to support you to find the door and use the key on the new journey.

Tools you need to achieve your goals

Yoga gives the time, space and opportUNITY to cOMe back to yourself again and again to create yourself again as conscious being that is in harmony with the One consciousness of the Universe. Everyday life you may find pulls you in different directions and you can lose your centre or forget your true nature, your essence, ultimately you may forget your magnificence ~ which ultimately is free and Divine, and yoga is the tool for you to reconnect, re-awaken.

What you seek is SEEking you ~ Rumi

Tantra is a cOMplete and glorious approach to Yoga, Tantra acknowledges the body as a temple, where the god of your own unique awareness resides and teaches the worship means to learn, be open to and master the dormant force of Shakti. Like the thread of a necklace, Tantra links all the gems that are the diverse aspects of Yoga into a united whole; mantra, mudra, asana, pranayama, meditation, bandha, bhakti.

Thresholds & Intentions

New Year is a time of threshold(s), as the global cOMmUNITY ventures into the newness of 2013, letting go of the last year and embarking on a new one… and embracing all it holds wholeheartedly. Events and situations arise its how you respond or you choose how to respond –I invite you to do it differently rather than the habitual. New Year opportunity to start afresh = YOU CHOOSE let go of habitual patterns, LET GO of the old year, respond differently RESPOND from your magnificence, for if you make a difference this will have an affect on the global community. 
 


So at New Year people make new years resolutions that tend to be forgotten, much like the forgetting of your true nature… I want to introduce you to a sankalpa. 

A sankalpa in Sanskrit means resolve, determination and intention – it is;

•    What you really wish to fulfill in this life.

•    It resonates precisely in your core and aligns sublimely with your essence.

•    It is a will power that is flexible and fluid enough to account for changing circumstances as the sankalpa begins to manifest in your inner and outer world.

A Sankalpa is more conscious than a new years resolutions, it is an intention for your life to come to your fullest potential. 

It all begins with intention. Conscious change is composed of attention, awareness and intention

Sankalpa

Your intention can be multilevel in its purpose ~ physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. A sankalpa helps you realize and awaken to your Divine nature, and co-create your life.

Why:  Setting an intention is a powerful way to harness the energy of your practice towards your highest purpose.  Just as we work with the alignment of our joints and muscles in yoga asana, we can also align our spirit through sankalpa. It shifts your attitude towards the positive and that creates a change within you

The Upanishads state, “You are your deepest desire” [sankalpa].

As is your desire so is your intention. As is your intention so is your will. As is your will so is your deed. As is your deed so is your destiny. ~ Deepak Chopra

Set an intention on what we wish to see happen – not based on fear – it is an intention that SEEks the highest – the sacred

Your yoga practice is the tool for understanding the body and mind more fully, to experience yourselves more completely and to be present to the depth of who you truly are.  It is an opportunity to set an intention to step into the sacred, to experience your self beyond the body and invoke into your body the space for your awareness to experience freedOM.

It is through your moment-to-moment awareness, choosing to move from the sacred that you act in ways, which reveal the highest and deepest offerings from within yourself.  Every moment presents you with a choice, every interaction, every relationship offers you the chance to move the sacred from within, into the world.

When you begin to move with intention on the mat, and also gratefully using an intention it becomes a ritualized practice; yes it stretches your body and mind to become stronger and more flexible, yet beyond this it gives you the opportunity to step deeper into your heart and into the heart of Yoga.

Vinyasa means link movement with breath or place in a special way. When you place your hands and feet and move in an out of each asana with the breath leading the way, this moves the practice into one in which it becomes an embodied prayer that holds you in the present moment in your own divine heart. The whole practice becomes a meditation in motion with divine intent, you become one with the Divine and your own divinity ~ they are One! 

"It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity." BKS Iyengar

Sadhana

"What is sadhana? It’s a committed prayer. It is something that you want to do, have to do, and which is being done by you. … Sadhana is self-enrichment. It is not something, which is done to please somebody or to gain something. Sadhana is a personal process in which you bring out your best." ~ Yogi Bhajan

Sadhana is a daily spiritual practice designed to allow you to turn inward and perceive your life as it truly is; it is the foundation of all spiritual endeavor. Sadhana is your personal, individual spiritual effort. It is the main tool you use to work on yourself to achieve the purpose of life. Sadhana is whatever you do consistently to clear your own consciousness so you can relate to the divinity within you. 

A spiritual practice allows you to interweave your spiritual identity with your worldly identity, make your spiritual life one with your worldly life…

Iyengar describes sadhana in terms of practice ~ abhyasa and completed action ~ Kriya i.e. meditation, neti, kapalabhati, nadi shodhana, mantras

Sadhana is a discipline undertaken in the pursuit of a goal. Abhyasa is repeated practice performed with observation and reflection. Kriya, or action, also implies perfect execution with study and investigation. Therefore, sadhana, abhyasa, and Kriya all mean one and the same thing. A sadhaka, or practitioner, is one who skillfully applies...mind and intelligence in practice towards a spiritual goal

As you commit to a regular sadhana, say for 40 days, every day this creates discipline, you evolve, and plant seeds of intention that grow and become the foundation for your life and so you open the doors of experience. I invite you to cOMmit to meet your higher Self each morning as you awaken…. simply lie in savasana before you get up and ask, your higher self…

•  Where do you wish me to go?

•  What do you wish me to do?

•  What do you wish me to say and to whom?

As you begin to cOMmune with the universe, your life will begin to witness the essence of your soul; your radiance will express the meaningful intimacy of the Divine in each moment from waking. Imagine immersing yourself in the joy of victory that cOMes from starting each day with a POWERful sadhana and intention and every challenge becomes opportUNITY… as you choose to begin your sadhana, use your sankalpa every morning as well, with the knowledge that as your sankalpa is in the service of something much greater that you or your life. 

As you embark on this journey or rekindle or deepen the journey, acknowledge that you are part of and an expression of consciousness that is one with Divine consciousness that permeates everything….lastly always expression gratitude from the love in your heart for your sadhana, your sankalpa, your practice, your teachers, gurus, you life and all that fill it…

Namaste

Michelle

PS dive into 2013 with enthusiasm and make it an awesOMe year!