We've been exploring embodied awareness through movement. We'll continue in that spirit in the next few weeks but also focus in on building our interoception, proprioception and sense of integrity as a whole being when we are not moving through the use of body scanning techniques and pratyaharas. Our quote is adapted from the brilliant mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat Zinn:
Through repeated practice of the body scan over time, we come to grasp the reality of our body [and our Self] as whole in the present moment. This feeling of wholeness can be experienced no matter what is wrong with [our] body. One part of [our] body, or many parts of [our] bod, may be dis-eased or [experiencing] pain or even missing, yet [we] can still cradle them in this experience of wholeness. Enjoy your practice :-) We've been exploring being present and feeling our Presence, and we'll continue in that vein. It's much easier to be present with that which we find pleasant (though then we may become attached to or crave it) than it is to be with that which is painful, unwanted or unpleasant. And it's so tempting to slip into resistance, exaggeration, storytelling rather than staying with what is as it unfolds breath by breath...
Today's quote - beautiful in its simplicity - is from meditation teacher James Baraz on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness (which we as yogis might interpret as something like embodied, multi-directional, multi-sensory witnessing awareness)..."Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing that it will always be this way (which it won't). |
AuthorMisha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC Archives
April 2024
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