Mystical Moments

mangala-head-shotby Mangala Allen

Have you ever been in a flurry of activity and suddenly found yourself experiencing a magical moment? These unexpected moments cause you to pause, your heart fills to overflowing and your love knows no bounds.  You want to feel like this all the time.  Mystical moments can be fleeting or they can expand to fill your life.  Yoga is the science of living the mystical reality all the time.

You think that experiences like these come from something external to you, something that affects how you feel.  But that’s not true.  Your overflowing joy springs from deep within your being.  It is your pure essence, your Self, rising from within.  Yoga develops your ability to draw from this wellspring anytime, anywhere.  Yoga abounds in ways to cultivate your capacity to live in this mystical experience in every moment of your life.

Yoga slows you down so you can find your Self in the midst of the frenzy.

Everything changes after that! — Swami Nirmalananda

When you are doing, doing, doing all the time, there is no time to stop.  But stopping is what it takes to find your Self, giving you the ability to enjoy all of life without being caught up in it.  The whirlwind of activity you often find yourself in can be exhausting.  Simply taking some time out to breathe can be a mystical moment.

Right now, notice how you feel.

Now breathe slowly in… And breathe slowly out…

Again, breathe slowly in and slowly out.

One more time slowly breathe in and out.

Pause and notice how you feel.

Has something changed?

This is a taste of what is to be revealed when you stop.  Yoga is not about continuous movement!  Or an impressive and athletic body.  Yoga is about finding your Self.  Svaroopa® yoga is slow yoga.  It helps you slow down and experience the world you live in.

ozarks-cavernLast weekend I visited a dear friend in a small town in Arkansas.  It was as if I traveled into a magical dream.  I was transported from city life to small town life in the Ozarks.  Vistas of mountains and waterways filled the scope of my vision.  The air was so pure.  I slowed down and took time to really breathe.  We visited caverns deep within the earth.  They reminded me of the beauty that lies within each of us.  I saw beauty in all the people I met, each one the Self, vibrantly alive.  I took pause in the mystical moments arising and acknowledged my Self, the Self.  I felt extremely connected to everyone and everything.

You can read this story and think, “I need to visit a small town.”  Or you can even think you need to move to a small town.  When you operate on the idea that experiences like these come from something external to you, you get trapped in manipulating the externals.  I guarantee you that, if you visited or moved to a small town, you could take your stress with you.   The point is something more…

The caverns deep within the earth reminded me of the beauty that lies within each of us.  I took pause in the mystical moments – not in the beauty of the caverns.  I recognized the inner arising and acknowledged my Self, the Self.  This is why I am fascinated with my yoga practice.  My practice provides me inner awareness that fills me and radiates into the world.  It gives me a new way to be.

You can use your yoga to discover mystical moments inside.  They become so plentiful that they become your life.  A inner fullness giving you a new life, one that does not collide with the frenzy, but flows with it.  It’s an incredible ride!  You experience all that surrounds you with enriched sensitivity and respond with unconditional love and gratitude for all.  There is no better way to live.

OM svaroopa svasvabhavah namo namah

To your inherent Divinity, again and again I bow.

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