A Way Back into Relationship with Yourself

A very practical way back into relationship with yourself is through your body and breath.

From your hands and knees, inhale.

As you exhale, bend your elbows toward your knees and take your chest toward your thighs.  Fix your attention to your back, knees, hips, shoulders,  and neck without any judgment.  Do several repetitions.  Just notice the physical sensations.

Then focus on your breath.  Is it shallow or deep?  Is it “jiggedy” or smooth?  Can you begin to make the breath smooth and flowing?

Then focus on your mind.  Can you keep it focused or is it wandering?  As you smooth out the breath, does your mind begin to focus?

Then focus on any emotional content that is present.  Acknowledge it and be present with it until you can start to breathe right into the center of it.  As you breathe into the center of emotion, it creates space.  It’s like throwing open the windows in spring to dilute out the stale air that builds up in your house over winter.

Our personal practice provides this amazing playground to be with ourselves, to be aware of our structure, our breathing, our thoughts and thought patterns, and our emotions.  It allows a space to continually observe and reconnect with our true selves.

You don’t need to travel to faraway places to find this playground.  It might just be 10 minutes a day that you do a few yoga postures focusing on the breath and take a few minutes to sit, breathe and observe thought.  Sometimes nothing happens and sometimes deeper insights arise.  The point of personal practice is to return again and again to experience your true self.