Day 19: Moving through the (energy) body

Yoga can be a physical practice.  That’s why many of us find it in the first place.  As we practice, we realize that it is also a mental practice, building strength of focus.  Yoga is also an emotional practice, or an energy practice.  Have you ever felt an emotional release during or after a posture?  Cried after a handstand? Laughed after a twist?  That’s because when we practice yoga, we are releasing energy stored in the body.

How many times during eka pada rajakapotasana (one-legged kind pigeon or half pigeon pose) have you heard an instructor say, “Our hips are our emotional suitcase.”  If I had a dollar for every time someone said that without further explanation, I’d be a wealthy woman.  Today, Gates talked about how when we practice, we begin to move back in time, unraveling the layers of our former selves.  Sometimes, this can be difficult as we stir up emotions or memories that are uncomfortable.  Other times, this can be exhilarating as we move beyond limits or beliefs that kept us stuck.

Our hips may in fact be our emotional suitcase, but why?  If you take a look at the chakras, the hips are adjacent to the first and second chakras--the root and the emotional center.  Our root chakra contains our survival information--everything from the basics of how feed ourselves, find shelter and make money, to the more complicated issues of what kinds of foods to eat, what type of house will satisfy us, and if it’s okay to make money the way we’d like to make it, rather than how Dad wants us to.  The second chakra stores our emotional and sexual information, as well as our clairsentient abilities, or our abilities to feel others’ energy and emotions.  So yes, that area is quite a suitcase, isn’t it?  

Have you ever had a stressful week and found that by Friday, your shoulders were up around yours ears and you couldn’t look from side to side?  Or alternatively, you had a tough week with your boss and had a constant headache?  These are the other common places we store stress, and in these areas, it is often easier to see the causal relationship between emotions, energy, and stiffness in the body.  

When we first start to practice yoga, we ask certain areas of our bodies to open up, to be more flexible.  As we dive deeper into the practice and begin to focus on our mental and emotional well-being as well as the physical, we can start to see the links between what we think or feel emotionally and where our bodies require attention.  Sometimes the connection is more obvious--a boss who likes to micromanage and tries to get in your head?  Headache.  Sometimes the connection takes longer to uncover--a limit in your space that says you are only supposed to make $14 per hour?  Really?  How odd and how did that get there?

The point of this energy lecture is that yoga is the perfect physical medium for moving and releasing energy in the body.  As we learn to become more aware of where our bodies are in space and how they are feeling, we begin to create a subtle line of communication between the physical and mental bodies.  As we deepen our practice and include meditation, we can forge a line of communication between our mental and energy bodies (sometimes called the subtle body).  When this happens, all information is available and, with time, attention and practice, the body and aura can be set free.

If you are interested in learning more about energy, auras, and chakras, contact me.  As a clairvoyant, I can help you learn about energy in and around your body and help you become more aware of your space.