If you want peace upon earth first establish peace in your heart. If you want union in the world, first unify the different parts of your own being. Change yourself and the circumstances will change.- The Mother
Yoga teaches philosophies based upon the principals of nature. Even the poses are named after things we find in our natural world. Tree pose, frog, and scorpion. Everything in our world mimics nature. It's been said that a study of nature can bring man his greatest wisdom.
I used to teach my yoga students that we are all like our own little planets. We have 4 bodies, just like the earth. Our water is our emotions, our bodies are the land, our mind is the air, and our fire is our spirit. If we think of ourselves this way, we can come to know what we need to do for ourselves to heal our own little planets. When we do, we effect the other planets orbiting around us, and on a larger scale, the whole.
Yoga means yoke or union. This is the union that the mother is talking about in the above quote. Before this union can occur, however, our old patterns must be broken down. The old beliefs that we hold about ourselves need to be shed.
Most of us lead our daily lives with the belief that we are our thoughts. That what we think is the real us. The truth is, is that those thoughts are actually just the ego. It's the outer casing the envelopes the inner self of who you truly are. By knowing and recognizing this we can take a back seat to our thoughts and begin to recognize our patterns with unattached observation.
There is a quote in the bible from Matthew that talks about children. "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven"
I don't think I need to tell you that Michael himself was like a child. Everything he looked at he viewed as if it was magical. He viewed it with curiosity and wonder. Looking at things this way allows you to detach from any preconceived ideas about what it is you are looking at.
Yoga is not just stretching as most people believe. When you are doing yoga there are multiple things happening. First, you are concentrating on your breath. For each movement your body makes, your breath coincides. Your are joining breath with movement. But there is more that is happening on a deeper level. Your body is moving in ways it's not used to. By the movements it makes you are allowing your "earth" or your body to stretch. If you visualize a rubber band stretching, what happens as the band gets longer? The actual molecules or atoms that it is comprised of move way from each other, creating space. As your body does this same thing, the space that is created allows any stored emotional and mental tensions to rise to the surface to be released.
Being present in the pose you observe. You don't judge how far your body goes in relation to the person next to you, you only observe how your body is reacting to the pose. You are also observing your mind. Where your thoughts are and what they are thinking. By observing your thoughts like a child, with wonder and curiosity, it becomes easy to laugh at them. You realize that when you think "I can't do this" you no longer can. When you think "this is easy" you suddenly soar.
We all have yoga already built into us. Our thoughts already affect the rest of us - our bodies, our breathing, everything. It's just the realization of that yoga that can truly change what you create for yourself.
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Michael Jackson Turns To Yoga To Calm Nerves
In Touch magazine reports that Michael Jackson has recently started doing yoga to calm his nerves while on trial for child molestation. “Michael’s really nervous,” an insider revealed. “All he can think about is his trial and the possibility of jail.” The source added, “He’s becoming quite good at it and is learning how to relax a little.”
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