Attunement

Meditation in Ashtanga Yoga Practice

Attunement

Moving towards the New Year here in Paris, we’ve felt the shift as the cold settles and daylight softens. Early risers walk through the hushed morning in a world that seems to have slowed to the pulse of the season. Days have shortened and nights’ curtain falls before we’ve completed our endless missions. It almost feels as if, with a divine touch, Nature reached down and paused this constant spinning; decelerating our usual manic rhythms.

Our Earth Mother is nudging us to embrace this time to realign with the deep rhythms that are our primal knowing. It is an intuitive permission to decelerate, rest, release, and surrender all that can be left undone.

Entrusting a pause of our pressing engagements or unrealistic stacks of goals and achievements, may initially be met with resistance as we continue to search for distraction and occupations. In this transition from activity to stillness we guide ourselves toward a state of conscious observation. Bringing attention to habitual patterns allows a softened filtering to occur clearing space to enjoy subtle perceptions with more interest.

Each mindful thought is a step towards attuning ourselves with the omnipresent elemental cycles. Inviting instead of fighting natural rhythms, can open us to our innate inner guide and lead us to personal balance.

Attunement transforms the mundane into sacred acts of living in harmony with the world within and around us.

My dear teacher Kia Naddermier, teaches the profound value of cultivating an environment where practice can unfold in stability and ease; she calls this Kaya Bhavana. It is a precious offering of time for awareness to awaken; allowing us to feel into the intimate frequencies that resonate throughout us.

Typically, in an Ashtanga Mysore room, we move into Asana practice quickly after chanting the mantra. Today, at Maison Mysore, we settle into the room and begin our practice lying down in Kaya Bhavana; welcoming deep listening and holding space for spontaneous sensory inquiries to surface.

We lie in stillness, allowing time for full observation as we begin reviewing the curves of our spine, the sensations in our sacrum and the levels of energy flowing through our bodies. As the fist rays of light illuminate the winter sky, the shala livens as more students quietly join and the naturally attuned gathering expands; sharing energy, breath and practice.

A yoga practice that begins with mindful movement warms our body; inviting honesty, safety and agreement onto our mats.

We continue our Kaya Bhavana sequence through gentle spinal spirals that gradually inspire our following movements until we’ve roused all of the joints in our bodies. We follow the body’s request for more expansive motion as I guide the small group towards samasthiti. We rise to the front of our mats in harmonious union; a softened strength vibrating in the room as we open the morning with OMMMMMMMMMM.

In these sacred moments of stillness may your practice attune you to your hearts prayer.