Mantra for Compassion, Metta

I'm feeling on Deva Premal's Tara mantra right now. Notice what it's like to listen to it with your whole being. 

Here's the words so you can chant along:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

This is a mantra of compassion and liberation. It came up in my awareness yesterday as I was having one of those being-a-paradoxical-human kind of times. I saw that while at times I feel at home in my body and connected to my truth and power, there are others when I'm restricted by negative self images. 

The beauty in allowing myself to be with pain is that it can be a river flowing towards an ocean of connection. I know I'm not alone in what I feel. How many other people share these ranges of being in relationship to themselves and the world around them? How can I embrace this opportunity to cultivate compassion for myself and all beings? I do my best to be with what's happening now as fully as I can in a welcoming way. I lean into my edges. I notice how the caring touch of a friend helps me soften into it with a sense support. I notice the actions that naturally want to arise. Of them is a practice of Metta, also known as loving-kindness or friendship.

Try this now, or the next time the waves of emotion have softened your armor. Use whatever words or phrases work for you right now. 

May I be truly happy, free and peaceful.

May all of us who feel inhibited by our body image be truly happy, free and peaceful. 

May all of us who notice restrictions in the ways we live because of harmful inner narratives be truly happy, free and peaceful.

May we all be truly happy.

May we all be free.

May we all be peaceful.

In Metta,

Namaste

Jessica

Holding space for opposites

Is it time that your internal opposites faced each other? 

It's a good thing that I've learned a bit about duality/non-duality/unity through some Eastern philosophies. Otherwise, I might still be completely convinced ( I still am a little) that I was at least a tad nutters for all the ups and downs and opposites I would oscillate between. 

I've learned two main things. 

1) That's OK. You're Human. 

2) Congratulations, you have tools and toys for exploring what that means. 

Here are two of my favorite ways to explore dynamic duality. 

1) Alternate nostril breathing. 

A breath that flows in one side of your body, and out the other. A way to explore the right and left sides of your body, balance the hemispheres of your brain, and soothe your nervous system (among other benfits). After practicing I like to breath deeply exploring my body again as one whole. 

2) Two Part Dialogue 

A technique I learned as a part of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. In a nutshell, one witnesses two different sensations in their body. Give it a try.

 First, sense in to a part of your body where you notice sensation. Stay with it for a few breaths and get really familiar with it. 

Then, find another spot in your body with very different or opposite kinds of sensations. Stay here and explore. Keep noticing what's happening now as you go back and forth between the 2 kinds of sensations. Notice what it's like to hold space for both. 

Let me know what this was like for you, or if you'd like instructions for the Alternate Nostril breath by e-mailing me at jessicawynyoga@gmail.com

Have a balanced day. How are you going to play on the teeter totter today? 

"It's ok to have too much fun"-quote on the door at PRYT training center

Picture from http://thefoxesclub.yolasite.com/fox-chat.php