The Fourth Yama (Yoga rules to live by for Optimal Health) is Bramacharya: Non-Excess

The fourth Yama is Bramacharya and translations include "non-excess" and walking with God or the Divine; finding the sacredness in life and everything we do. In other words, Carpe Diem.

This Yama teaches us how to walk with and experience the Divine within. It shows us how to trust that you are enough. It helps us to find the middle way. Like goldilocks...not to hot and not too cold, not too soft and not too hard.  All of the Yamas and Niyamas are a path designed to eliminate personal suffering.

To help you contemplate this, here are some thought provoking questions to ask:

Do you create personal time and space to dream and manifest your own intentions? Time for you own personal spiritual growth?

Do you have a hard time prioritizing self with all your roles and responsibilities?  Do you give so much to others that you find there is little time and energy left for self?

Do you sometimes say yes when you really want to say no?  Do you find yourself overworking or overeating versus doing what you really want to do?  Do you even KNOW what you really want to do?

Or do you sometimes over indulge in self-health and self-care trying to “fix” parts of eindulgence when you are working on changing habits.

Can you develop compassion for yourself in the process? Can you delete the need to beat yourself up?

Can you have faith that your self-care will yield positive energy that will fuel yourself and others?

I recently did a two hour workshop for fellow yoga teachers titled, “Healing the Healer” emphasizing the experience of Bramacharya. I thought I would share my introductory notes with you to see if this resonates with you.

The Experience:                                                                 

1. Experience the Divine within; Trust that you are enough. “Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are… It’s a matter of listening inwardly for guidance all the time, and then daring enough and trusting enough to do as you are prompted to do...” Eric Schiffman
2. Experience the practice of accepting, forgiving and loving all parts of us including our aches, pains, ANTs & SLBs Ask not what’s wrong with me, but what is right with me? What is my loving body trying to tell me? 
3. Cherish yourself as sacred. Use the beginners mind to open yourself up to the wonder that you are. Seeing everything as sacred “roots us and balances us”

The Messages:

1. Movement to music is powerfully healing
2. Emotions are merely energy in motion, it is safe to feel them and let them go.
3. Trust in your body’s innate ability to heal from within and become a witness to your own personal transformation

I mentioned in the last post how several years ago when I was studying integrative nutrition to become a certified health coach, my coach asked me what I did for fun.  The only thing I did for myself was get up at 5:30am to practice Bikram Yoga in a 110 degree room.  It made me cry. What started out as a healthy discipline, suddenly felt automatic and abusive.  I realized that this yoga no longer served me and that I needed something more, something that would stoke my passion.

My first love was dance. By the time I was 10, I had been on toe for 3 years and danced every dance in the nutcracker suite.  At 12, I was asked to audition for the Washington School of Ballet. When my parents said no, I quit dancing and even sold my hand-autographed photos from the beatles. I literally deprived myself of music for over 40 years!

I went on to live the life my parents thought I “should lead” I was the good girl. I rejoined my friends who had quit dance long before I did. I became a cheerleader, was the social butterfly, got married and had children.  Every time I shared a career goal, I was told why it was not a good idea. When I told my father I was going to be a writer, he said I was too undisciplined. When I told him I wanted to become a therapist he laughed and said I was too emotional, the same response when I announced I was going to be a nurse.

Even in school, my HS Math teacher said to me, “Lisa, I know that you get this and find this all too easy, but you are keeping the boys from learning, so if you don’t stop talking, I’m going to have to move you to the front of the room.”  Could she not have moved me to a more challenging math class instead? That was the last math class I ever took.

Many of us have felt disempowered by our culture and our well-meaning parents and teachers.  Not following our passions can be disempowering and energetically draining.  Not recognizing your inner light, your inner passions, can make life feel dull and automatic.

So who would like more joy? More peace? More Energy? Who would like to feel empowered? 

Today we will explore ways to find balance and self-nourishment through the wisdom of the Yama, Bramacharya: to live and walk with the divine. Finding contentment in having and being enough. I often over-function and struggle with the notion that I don’t have enough, enough food for everyone, have not accomplished enough at the end of the day, or basically not being enough.

How do we experience the divine with in us?

We practice accepting, loving and forgiving all parts of us. We look at our aches and pains, our ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) and SLBs (self limiting beliefs), and we learn to reframe them.  Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” Ask, “What’s my loving body trying to tell me?”  As a health coach, I share the first step in my seven steps to optimal health, which is to take an honest personal assessment. We practice with a beginners mind.

So close your eyes, take some deep breaths and spend a few minutes in silence thinking of some part of you that you would like to accept, forgive, or let go of. Whether it’s procrastination, a bad habit, an addiction, a feeling of anxiety, or the belief that you are just “not good enough.” What no longer serves you?  What keeps you on the hamster wheel or from giving yourself the gift of time and space?

The next hour and 15 minutes, I’m going to share what I’ve got, my own struggles and vulnerability to hopefully inspire you to do the same, to recognize that we are all one, all the same with the same self-doubts, struggles and aspirations. 

We will demonstrate that we all also have the innate ability to heal from within.  My gift to you is my book, which is a love story. “It is written and given with love to those I love, in hopes all of us will learn to have the biggest, most passionate and life-affirming love affair of our lives with…ourselves (and the divine within each of us). 

I hope to demonstrate that the most important person in your life must first be you. When you are operating on all cylinders, you feel whole, balanced and happy, more joyful and at peace. My hope is this book will be your guidebook and together through love, we can change the world; one healthy, happy individual at a time..”

I’d like to share with you now part of my own sadhana, my practice to create more joy and peace, energy and empowerment in my life.  It’s my way of using movement to music to connect to the Divine within me and above.  Let’s begin the practice with a feeling of sacredness.

We then combined yoga, breathwork and meditation with joyful movement to music.

Here’s a taste of what fun we had!

                                            

Let me know if you would like to sign up for our next Carpe Diem Dance workshop and re-discover the Divine within you!

Tomorrow morning 7:30am I will be teaching yoga for the morning community class @ Beloved Yoga Studio in Reston, VA

ABOUT LISA JACKSON, RN, CHC, RYT

Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker, and coach with a mission to inspire and empower others to feel their best at any age. Her book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive outlines seven steps that are fun and transforming. Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement, the International Health Coach Association and the Wellness Inspired Network. When she is not coaching, speaking or writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance at every opportunity.