Showing Up for Practice

 Wherever the mind goes, the prana follows.

Saint Thirumular

Don't listen to your mind, especially when it comes to your practice. I have a mind that says many mornings, "Oh...don't go down to the studio and do that pranayama and meditation thing.  Stay up here, have your tea, listen, write...you know you have so much to "do" around here...just get at it. It is probably not doing any good anyway." 

The odd time, I will slip away from disciplined routine and I will not begin my day with kriya ( which is a form of pranayama) or my meditation.  I will stay up where it is bright and comfy...easy. I appease my mind. I appease my self over my Self.  What happens when I do that?  Sometimes there is no ill effect and other times, most times, I will later in the day find myself all twisted up inside, more reactive than usual, lost in "little me" drama. I may even feel physically unwell like I have been feeling the last few days, caught up in the chaos of this human life. 

I realize at those times that I need discipline to stick with my routine.  My yoga  practice is the most important thing in my life because it affects all other things in my life. Hmm!

Michael Singer was more or less discussing the need for discipline in pranayama in the below linked podcast. Prana of courses is the breath but it is more than the breath- it is the vital life force that flows through all of us...a form of Shakti. Since we have lost touch with it and let it run wild...most of us have turbulent flows, turbulent minds and hearts, as well as turbulent body processes. 'Little self" has taken over in too many of us and it is running our lives amuck.  

The psyche is very powerful...like a two year old that wants to do what it wants to do when it wants to...it gets the shakti and all your energy to flow in its direction and life gets messy and out of control. And then we tend to do what is needed to get it to "shut up"...give it what it wants, feed it  junk food, listen to its rambings as if it knew what it was talking about. When we are feeling discontent we go to it and ask it to tell us how to make it better. Crazy!  That is like going to a two year old and asking, "What should I do with my life, oh 'wise one'?"  

We need to remember: 

your body...your heart...and your mind are there to serve you...to serve the soul...you are not there to serve them

Self, on the other hand, is the gentle parent that knows what is needed. We need to allow Self to reclaim the kingdom over self. The practice of doing so must continue even when little self, the personal mind, the heart, the psyche says, "Nah.  I don't want to do that today." ...Especially then. 

I love this: 

A yogi is an athlete of Life...that is your sport ...you are learning to channel and direct that shakti flow...that prana precisely...

We need to train the prana precisely...which is like training the mind because where the mind goes prana follows. I want to continue being an athlete of Life ...that means showing up for practice everyday no matter how much the psyche complains.

All is well

The Michael Singer Podcast/ Sounds True/ Temple of the Universe (August, 2024? ) Cultivating the Discipline to Free Yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46i-cd__h0&list=PLyOuAoSmZkKoESr2acNWwhznusbBkKXsT&index=1&t=1315s