Yoga Practice 118 - Cultivating Mula Bandh

I have been practicing Mysore Ashtanga Yoga regularly (at least 3 days a week) for almost two years now. To my dismay, much as I love this style of yoga, my studio, and my teacher I haven't been able to practice six days a week mostly because of a chronic pain in my left lower hip that radiates painfully down to my knee and ankle.

The conversation with Uta from the other night was also about flexibility, pain and practicing yoga. She suggested that I ask how I could protect my hip and leg while continuing to practice....and so promptly this morning that is exactly what I did.

I offered the question to Michael, my fellow yogin, who happened to be assisting today. He said that I needed to engage and lengthen the muscles around my core while keeping a steady breadth. I was amazed why I hadn't come to this simple awareness earlier in my practice. Thank you Uta!

Leaving class, I shared the story with my teacher who happened to be outside the practice studio. John echoed Michael's advise and added that I needed to practice daily to "cultivate" mula bandh.

And therein something else clicked for me. My yoga practice is a metaphor for my life....I am very open and flexible and that allows me to move through the primary series with relative ease. However, I am not firm and strong in my core which is why I pinched a nerve and carry pain. The key is to be open, flexible and strong.......

Yoga Practice 117: Selflessness as a path to happiness

“Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.” Khalil Gibran

I have not posted anything new in a year because nothing new came into my realm of awareness until now. I have no current income at this time yet I have a sense of inner calm that there is abundance in my life, all is well and will stay that way.

A recent conversation over dinner with my dear friend Uta helped me to crystallize and pinpoint the reason for this state of being......in one word, Selflessness. When our thoughts and actions are directed towards the well being of others, (possible only when we are able access the divine within us) then undoubtedly there will be abundance.

Your mind's selfishness
Is your all-exclusive individuality.
Your heart's selflessness
Is your all-inclusive universality.

- Sri Chinmoy

Selflessness conquers pride, expands our mind, begets true friendship and is attractive....so why aren't we being less Selfish?

The transformation that is occuring in my awareness is mostly around the idea that I have been and perhaps continue to be Selfish because my way of thinking has historically been based on fear. New found thinking based on love and connection to the divine will only lead me, the spiritual seeker, to being Selfless!