On August 17, I teach my annual five-day yoga retreat. This whole-being intensive is meant to build capacity and release tension by tapping into every bodily system or sheath — physical, energetic, mental-emotional, spiritual including our bliss or joy. This form of yoga “boot camp” assimilates the eight limbs of yoga — yamas, niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana — into a holistic practice.
The intention is to purify the body, mind and spirit thereby yoking them as integrated entities. Such shapeshifting from simple to deep union transforms every aspect of who we are. More concretely, it brings us closer to our true nature and into the stillness and silence of contentment. What also never ceases to amaze and delight me is how energized our creative capacity becomes as a result of this finely-tuned committed experience.
I wrote the poem below as an exploration of the powerful transformation that emerges for those in attendance.
Unselved
To risk raw and vulnerable always
precedes a newly awakened state.
Without such humility, ego’s self-consciousness
continues to block expansion.
To be unselved, unshelved,
unexpectedly shocked into a new view
is to be delivered from self-indulgence.
Unraveling mystery is as simple as
letting one’s guard down.
June 2020
May we embrace humility and awaken ourselves to truth. Namaste.
