July 2016 – Magdalaya Yoga

Yoga means Union.

There is no separation between body and the mind and everything is related and connected. The aim is to heal the body in order to quiet the mind and finally to connect to the soul (Purusha). ‘Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah‘ (to cease the fluctuations of the mind) as Patanjali wrote in Yoga Sutras.

The real aim of Asana (physical aspect of yoga poses) is to make body flexible and strong in order to allow prolong sitting in meditative pose to achieve Samadhi.

The western world sees yoga mainly on physical aspect and the real purpose of yoga in West in quite often ignored. It does associate yoga with beautiful models in challenging but yet beautiful poses.

If the performing of the advanced poses was the real aim of Yoga all gymnasts and Circus de Solei performers would be the advanced yogis and yoginis, but this is not the case. The yoga in Western word just become another product for consumerism and fashion. It is mainly about look, clothes, accessories and Instagram models.

But Yoga should be and is available for everyone. It will improve your physical body but this is just the side effect. Do not worry that you will never be able to do certain poses. It does not mean anything. It is not about the competition with others or yourself. Yoga will make you a better person and you will notice this for yourself. You will become more connected to your body and mind. And this is the biggest benefit to the world and people around you. When your friends and loved ones notice the change in your personality as you will become a more patient and understanding they will ask you how you did it and everyone around you will benefit from it. Maybe you will be able to convert few of them as well 🙂

On the other hand if you manage to picture yourself in difficult yoga Asana and post it on Instagram or other social media platform it will look beautiful but everyone just look at it for couple of seconds and scroll it down to see others doing the same thing. It does not change anything. So do not be scared to start. Yoga is not about advanced yoga poses. The first thing you need to do is to follow your breath while you practice and this will connect you to your inner self. You can practice Yoga with simple poses but with the connection to your breath and it will be sufficient. However if you practice difficult Asana when you are not ready for it and without connection to your inner self and to the breath you just perform some gymnast exercisers. It will do nothing. It is not Yoga.

And remember you will improve through time like with everything. We have to be beginners once to be advanced one day. Yoga is a long journey so make it fun and worthwhile.

Picture below was painted by my friend Claire . I received it from my fellow yoga friends in Mysore as a Birthday gift last March. Love it. Now it hangs in my living room.

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Since I was a child I have always attached colours and vibrations to people who I met on my path or rather it was my mind which attached colours and textures to them. Just the colorful feeling I sense around them and the energy they were projecting on me and others. But I noticed one thing: these colours and textures were not constant…they were changing.

Do you notice your mind shade or vibration which changes during the different mind and body states? How do you feel and what sensations you can see when you are healthy and happy or when you are depressed and sick? The shades, textures, vibrations and colours of your own mind. They are different every time you observe them with their little nuances and conversations: always changing. When you feel happy you are light, bright and spacious or you can also be rich in texture which is light, multi coloured and thick. When you feel sad, your mind and aura are dark and grey without many colours around you. It is also dull with slow vibrations. Just the feeling of the different shades of grey or even worse: horrible brown shades. Anxiety vibrates high and fast whereas fear is low and slow. Or maybe you lost the ability to notice anything around you anymore…

The major problem is that nowadays we are living very fast paced lives and we are unable a to tune into our bodies anymore in order to feel the different states we are in. We lost the connection between body soul and mind.

We are distracting ourselves with TV, work, loud music and we are occupying our mind with something all the time (lists, comparisons, needs, feelings, things, past and future). There is the activity in our head all the time. It is like an addiction. We are thinking that if we stop thinking we will die. But it is exactly opposite. We will start to feel alive. We just need to create the space in order to start noticing changes in our minds, connections between our body and soul and it will help us to remove this thick dark armor from our mind. We should let our mind to rest in the light and spacious room with no thoughts or bad emotions and I promise you: it will feel wonderful and it will be a great ride.

To control these bad vibrations you have to act quickly. Do not let it transform into something gruesome which you cannot control. Firstly use Yoga, pranayama and meditation which will teach your senses how to recognise these dark patches and will help you quickly to move away from them. Do not analyse, do not overthink the state you are in, just strive to change it into opposite as quickly as possible. This state does not serve you. When you notice that this dark trigger comes do something different instead. Ignore it and move on quickly . You can take few deep breaths, go for a run or walk , do a quick yoga or pranayama session, paint a picture or look at the beautiful art. Do something what feeds your true soul not the rubbish you create in your mind . Our mind activity is not real, we see things differently to other people, so we can think differently as well without falling into these deep holes and dragging ourselves down.

I will be looking into these dark and light patches of our life constantly but firstly we will learn how to control and unleash them at the same time ( I know all these dualities).

Namaste.