Day 19

I decided to go to the Guided Meditation class at 1pm today. I thought my body deserved a bit of a break from the last 18 days and decided to take some time out for my mind instead. It was a very busy day so I was quite anxious when I arrived from my whirlwind work day rushing through my mind. I decided to leave it at the door and really dive into the meditation and not think of anything else. There were 30 people there; Airlie said it was her biggest class yet as there is usually only 7-15. There were some crew members there from the Holland America Eurodam Cruise ship which was really neat.

Airlie began by talking about her teacher Sally that said not to focus so much on sitting a certain way and being uncomfortable in one pose. If you need to stretch or move about the room, move with breath. That was encouraging as sometimes your body can fall asleep/get numb by staying in one pose for too long.

Airlie talked about Prana the life force, the essential energy underlying all of existence.  She asked us to put our left hand on our chest and our right hand on top of our left ,  really feeling our heart beat. I pushed everything out of my mind except for the sound of Airlie’s voice. She told us to share our aura with those in the room, and it felt like at one point I was looking at everyone in the room even though my eyes were closed. It felt warm, almost a glow to the room (or at least in my mind that is how it felt) when she talked about sharing our energy and blending our aura with those around us.

At the end of class we brought our prana back to our body and really noticed every moment -- every breath.  “From my heart to yours, Namaste”.

The rest of my afternoon was so peaceful, I am really going to make an effort to go to that class every Friday regardless how busy I am. What a difference it made for my day.

Found this article that talks about “Mind and Prana in Meditation Practice”. I have been meditating a lot lately with a few great iphone apps and it has made a huge difference in clearing my mind especially before I go to bed; it makes me sleep so deeply.

Airlie read from the book “The Secret Power of Yoga”. I definitely want to pick up this book, it says that the authour Nischala Joy Devi interprets Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the principles at the basis of Yoga practice, from a heart-centered, intuitive perspective.

Looking forward to the "Finding Balance off the Mat - an Examination of Life Balance" workshop tomorrow :)