Navaratri

Today is a new moon and the night before the most celebrated Hindu festival in India, Navaratri! Navaratri is the celebration of the power of the feminine aspect of divinity. During the 10 day festival the trishakti or triple goddess' are celebrated, including Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. With Navaratri sadhana, we have the opportunity to renew, and give thanks for all we have and what has been given to us from the Great Mother, the Earth, the essence of Sri.

During the darkest time of the month, we might feel our own "darkness", we feel most vulnerable, experiencing challenges in our outer life or what's stirring internally within the shadow self might be projected outward. In addition, we are in the midst of a major transformative time of year. Everyday the leaves are a new color and the light lessens exponentially. Through our sadhana we can easily connect with what needs to go, what we want to sustain and what is emerging within.  Navaratri sadhana should be nurturing to our body, our soul, and should prepare us for winter (vata) season.

Because we have lives to live, we should keep it simple and avoid causing any stress or neurosis around Navaratri sadhana. Most important is the daily ritual or sadhana which should include at the minimum, meditation. The duration is not as important as the consistency; quality not quantity. Here are a few practices to integrate into daily sadhana for the next 10 days.

• lighting altar (candle, or oil lamp)
• prostrations (minimum of 3 rounds, up to 108)
• regular asana practice
• journaling
• fasting is some form (i.e. cleanse, eliminating alcohol, vegetarian diet)
• limiting use of electronics

Durga

The first 3 days (Tuesday-Thursday) of Navratri are dedicated to the goddess Durga. Durga expresses shakti as the warrior goddess, she is indestructible, and fights to eliminate all human suffering with her many "weapons" of consciousness.

During this time our practices should invoke purification of inner and outer obstacles on the spiritual path. This is the time to clean and clear out sacred spaces, your body, your home, your altar. Also letting go, "burning" what is not needed during this transformative time.

Om Dum Durgaye Namaha

Lakshmi
The next three days (Friday-Sunday) are dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi, invoking healing beauty and prosperity in both material and spiritual realms, which is the goal of all human life.
She is the mother goddess, Shri.

Following three days of purification practices dedicated to Durga, we are ready to reflect, in our sadhana, the beauty and grace that is Lakshmi. At this time we can offer gratitude to the Great Mother, the Earth. Invoking Lakshmi in our lives, also helps us to maintain balanced effort that is required toprosper in our sadhana.

Om Srim Maha Lakshmiyaye Namaha 

Saraswati

The final three days (Monday-Wednesday) are dedicated to Saraswati, awakening divine wisdom and creativity. She is the goddess of knowledge. Saraswati expresses shakti through art, creativity and her wisdom. Invoking the energy of saraswati we bring awareness to what is emerging within our creative center, inner and outer.

During this time we bring our awareness more inward. Our sadhana should reflect our own wisdom. The essence of Saraswati is invoked through meditation, contemplation, playing music, chanting, reading sacred texts and acquiring knowledge with complete awareness.

Om Aim Saraswatiye Namaha

The tenth day is for celebration!

Our Deepest Fear

On being authentic...

Sometimes it is simple. Sometimes complicated. Sometimes it means igniting some fire under our ass. Sometimes it means cooling the fire. Most of the time it requires dropping down into the heart and being there. Letting the heart do the thinking and talking. Oh ya...and Trust.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,

gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.

It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give

other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

Yoga Is...

As we settle into fall and soon winter, we also settle into a more refined rhythm as we contract inside, and perhaps, deepening our dedication to the practice of yoga. What does that look like? And what does it really mean? What is yoga anyway? These questions often come up for me as I evolve in my practice and what I offer through teaching. Asking these questions often allows for further refinement of how I can fully benefit from my practice. As I evolve, the answers evolve.


For every yogi, there is a different answer. I have come up with some for now:

Yoga can be simple, but we easily complicate it. I often think I need to have a perfect clean space, my mat, some sort of scent wafting in the air, and a perfected playlist, in order to get into asana practice. Yes it all helps. But if that is not all there, the yoga begins when I let go of this perfect scenario and start breathing and moving. Or within the larger sense, we might say, “that’s not real yoga,” or “this is yoga.” And we are sent down the analytical spiral of what makes yoga, yoga. And judging others for om-ing or not om-ing. Yet, we still haven’t had a still moment with ourself. To make any practice of yoga simple, start where you are and accept it as is, breathe in, breathe out and repeat with full awareness.

Yoga is a relationship between the observer (You) and the observed (You!). We practice yoga because we want to change in some way, even in the most subtle way. Whether the desired change is a lifetime of wellness or to open up and sweat from a one hour hot yoga class. We are still in observance of the self and becoming more and more aware of the challenges along the way and how we might overcome them. In The Heart of Yoga, T.K.V. Desikachar suggests that yoga can mean, “to attain what was previously unattainable.” And that yoga is acting in a way such that our attention is directed toward the activity we are engaged in. The advantage of our attentiveness is that we perform better (speaking, writing, asanas, cooking, walking, ect.), making less mistakes, being more loving and compassionate with ourself and others, extinguishing judgement, and expressing our True Self. We practice in hope that we will not repeat the same mistakes we did yesterday or today, and become a better person tomorrow.

Yoga is being unattached to results and the effort it takes. This is a principle straight from the Gita (Bhagavad Gita). Work for the sake of work. Finding the action within inaction, and the inaction within action. Following the path of dharma from the heart, and trusting it as truth. Getting your foot behind your head is not practical or that important in our day to day living, and nobody really cares except for You. Arriving at that place, on the mat, following years of preparation (or hours for some), matters only to the yogi. It signifies completion and arrival at a juncture that holds within it a very personal story. The story of the effort, the dedication, the tears, the laughter, the challenges that were overcome along the way.

Yoga is art. An expression of shakti through and within us.
“...to benefit most fully from the creative process, we must give up the need to benefit; we must surrender to the dictates of the process, not dictate the process....the therapeutic value of art making lies in the power of the subconscious having free rein as the eyes track the design that emerges, feeding information back to the subconscious so that a dialog is established. The more we are able to submit to the impulses of the inner being, the more enjoyable the process becomes, and the more authentic the product.”
~Nina Wise from A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life

There is so much more. But that's plenty enough for now.