Yoga: The Journey to Your Authentic Self

This is the first post for our Eight Week Series at the Lily Pad entitled "Living Your Yoga."  We will be using the the practice of yoga in our daily lives for the next eight weeks but my hope is, that this will be a life long journey for all of you. 

You may ask, what exactly is the Yogic Journey?  The goal of yoga is happiness and transformation but what are we trying to change exactly?  What are we hoping to transform into?  Well, my friends, all that we are doing through our practice is stripping away what is NOT our authentic selves.  Yoga calls this atman.  So the question is, what happened to our authentic selves? This is what our yoga practice helps us to do.  It is essentially the quest for the True Self.  The action is in the practice itself as outlined below

Practicing to Live Better 
I first came to the mat with no expectations as a young teen seeking to try a new exercise. I had some idea of it being a "mystical" thing but no intention on changing anything about myself.  Once I grew older and found myself in college...having gone through several relationships good and bad and many challenges with school and life in general,  i found yoga to be a supportive tool to help me get through tough times.  This was the start of my yoga journey.  Now I know that I need to practice yoga on a daily basis in order to live a conscious life and see myself grow and fully live as ME.  

Life is Practice 
One of the key elements in "Living Your Yoga" is viewing life as practice.  Just like practicing triangle pose, you may need to practice patience....so do you with your "annoying" mother-in-law.  Every single situation that presents itself in daily life is an opportunity to practice.

Finding Authenticity
Your atman or authentic self is waiting to be found.  Through your yoga off and on the mat practices you will be able to uncover who is really there.  This is an important, sometimes scary journey for those of us who have never looked within but awareness is the first step.  Practice watching yourself, your thoughts, as an observer for the next week without trying to judge or change yourself....just notice where your mind goes.

Inquiries

1.) Please take a moment to reflect and share with the group why you started practicing yoga or why you want to practice yoga?

2.) What are some situations you find yourself in where you have been "practicing" your yoga already?
Are there situations that you need to find a new practice in? 

3.)Where do you need help?  What areas are not "balanced" in your life.  What is "draining" you?  Start to keep a journal or simply answer these questions in the blog.  What do you want to work on in your life "off the mat"?

4.) What part of your life is governed by your authentic self?  What part of life is structured around roles, ego, and the false self?
Next weeks Topic: Letting Go
Inquiries: "What Does Letting Go mean to you?

Living Your Yoga with Me

Hi All,
Starting next Thursday we begin our journey of "living our yoga."  I hope you are all as excited as I am.  Of course I am in practice already but it's really fun to delve deeper into it and challenge ourselves to see where we could improve, what we can learn to accept, and how we can be fully present for ourselves and others in an honest, authentic way.  This translates to how we are holding space in our relationships, jobs, parental roles, friendships, and most importantly: our relationship with ourselves.

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm in my early thirties.  There are things that I am grateful for to have at this stage in my life and things that I sometimes feel I'm lacking.  I am human just like everyone else. As yogis, we seek to find our divinity within each real life experience no matter what.  When I say "Divinity" I tend to mean our highest selves.  The parts of us that are seeing clearly in each experience setting aside ego and responding, rather than reacting to our circumstances.  This journey will allow us to open to our whole experience, letting go of labels, extremes, black and white thinking and bring real acceptance to our lives.

As we go through our eight week journey formally meeting Thursdays at 4pm, I invite you to share your thoughts on the blog post for each topic.  For instance one of our practices is "Santosha" or contentment.  Practicing contentment no matter what the circumstances is not an easy task.  Your boss criticizes your work, a relationship doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped, your paycheck isn't quite covering all the bills.  These are all opportunities to again respond with an inquiry of "what gift is possible in each seemingly "bad" experience."  Feel free to share your thoughts on the blog and I look forward to this journey with you.
Peace,
Natalie