Today I began a daily practice of doing Yoga Nidra with picchu in my office before going to pick up my son from school. Yoga Nidra is a kind of meditative practice and picchu is the application of warm herbal oil to the forehead. The oil is applied on a cloth over the third eye and remains there for a specific duration of time, which in my case is throughout my Yoga Nidra practice. I am beginning this practice to help balance Vata as part of my grief recovery after losing my grandmother this past August. I will write more about that experience in another post, when I have the words to share that I feel can benefit others who are going through similar experiences.
For now, I want to share how powerful these two practices can be. Yoga Nidra is like an addiction to me. Instead of craving alcohol or drugs or sugar when life gets tough, I crave meditation. Each time I do Yoga Nidra, I sink into a beautiful meditative state and emerge feeling calm and renewed. Adding the picchu just makes the experience that much more soothing. After finishing my Yoga Nidra practice today, I walked out to the car feeling peaceful and content, to find three fawns grazing in the grass! The weather was my ideal Autumn: gusting wind, colorful leaves flying, and overcast sky full of rich violet-grey clouds. I stood there beside the car, taking communion with the deer, and thought, "It doesn't get any better than this."
Now here I am, for the second night in a row, about to receive the gift of an early bedtime! I began this day with a chaotic morning. It was the usual rush of getting the dogs taken care of, getting my son to school, and getting to work. That chaotic morning created a feeling of being unsettled deep within my mind. I couldn't shake that feeling and it colored my perception of the day. Everything felt rushed. After my Yoga Nidra, that feeling was completely gone. The rest of my day from that point forward felt calm. The rhythm of my day changed because I changed. After meditating, the peace within me ran so deep that three deer could feel it. They didn't startle when I walked toward them, they didn't run away no matter how close I got. We just all looked at one another and had an understanding that we were present and sharing the space in that moment.
When our inner world is chaotic, our outer world will reflect that. In the same way, when our inner world is calm, our outer world will reflect our peace.
For now, I want to share how powerful these two practices can be. Yoga Nidra is like an addiction to me. Instead of craving alcohol or drugs or sugar when life gets tough, I crave meditation. Each time I do Yoga Nidra, I sink into a beautiful meditative state and emerge feeling calm and renewed. Adding the picchu just makes the experience that much more soothing. After finishing my Yoga Nidra practice today, I walked out to the car feeling peaceful and content, to find three fawns grazing in the grass! The weather was my ideal Autumn: gusting wind, colorful leaves flying, and overcast sky full of rich violet-grey clouds. I stood there beside the car, taking communion with the deer, and thought, "It doesn't get any better than this."
Now here I am, for the second night in a row, about to receive the gift of an early bedtime! I began this day with a chaotic morning. It was the usual rush of getting the dogs taken care of, getting my son to school, and getting to work. That chaotic morning created a feeling of being unsettled deep within my mind. I couldn't shake that feeling and it colored my perception of the day. Everything felt rushed. After my Yoga Nidra, that feeling was completely gone. The rest of my day from that point forward felt calm. The rhythm of my day changed because I changed. After meditating, the peace within me ran so deep that three deer could feel it. They didn't startle when I walked toward them, they didn't run away no matter how close I got. We just all looked at one another and had an understanding that we were present and sharing the space in that moment.
When our inner world is chaotic, our outer world will reflect that. In the same way, when our inner world is calm, our outer world will reflect our peace.