“The heart which knows love, deeply relaxes in that love. The heart becomes withered by constant worldly stimulation… and the more withered the heart, the greater the need for worldly amusements, sensations and stimulation. We satisfy craving by pursuing these things and the heart and mind become withered. It takes time to unwind the mind and settle into love. Love is not cognized through your mind. Love is more primordial than your mind; more primordial than thought. An agitated mind can not know love. A slow or sluggish mind can not know love. A mind full of intellectualization or rationalization can not know love. Love is known by awareness… for this, the mind must be quiet, silent, steady, focused. Give yourself solitude. Start in an easy way, a simple way. It will take you a long way.” – Swami Tattvavidānanda
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About this Particular Guided Awareness
Each month in my local restorative yoga classes, we embark on a theme – it may be a focus on a particular direction of movement, or a particular pose, or a particular philosophical teaching from the yoga tradition. As part of the months theme, I create a specialized guided awareness to support the whole process. As we turned the corner of Thanksgiving and entered December and the holiday season, it became apparent… Folks suddenly were overwhelmed, depleted, and withered! I was seeing downright exhaustion and an increase risk for getting sick in my students and clients – and in myself. It was clear that we need to take some time to rebuild our storehouse of prāna – and as quickly as possible… we have a holiday season to not only just survive… but maybe even enjoy and come through with more love, more energy and more zest for the new year. There are a lot of philosophical components and a bit of esoterica involved in developing this particular heart-centered guided awareness. But the key is to just do it and REPLENISH yourself… after all, the proof is in the puddin’ and while students know and could go on and on about the deep underlying principles at play here, the most important thing is the practice!
This guided awareness was originally inspired by these words from Swami Tattvavidānada spoken in a course I attended.
“Yoga teaches you to love yourself, starting with the body.” – Swami Dayānanda
“The heart that knows love, deeply relaxes in that love” – Swami Tattvavidānanda
“Start with the heart. Then move up, and the mind becomes silent” – Shankarācharya