Yoga can help you find your inner sun
Photo by Moises Torne Biayna.
How many nights have thoughts kept you awake? How many times have you tried not to think of something that bothers you? How many times did you feel that your mind was driving you crazy? The human machine is the finest instrument on this planet, but it is not always easy to handle. We can't stop thinking just by demanding that our minds calm down. Nobody can.
All mental activity has a physical response. Under stress conditions, the adrenal medulla produces a cascade of hormones that secrete into our body. Where do these hormones go, if we try to sleep or sit in front of a screen while experiencing the same bodily reactions necessary for fight or flight?
What's more, the internet has dimmed many boundaries and our minds are becoming global and boundless. However, on a physical plane, we are fixed within on our bodily limits. Corporeally speaking, we can't be in two places at once, though in our minds that is a norm rather than an occasional phenomenon. This means we can begin to lose the sense of being present.
Moreover, city-life means adapting to the square shapes of the buildings, the rhythm of traffic, the garbage on the streets, the pulsating 24 hours a day action and the lights that block the stars. All the while something, mainly human-made, is buzzing in the air. If we adjust ourselves to these rhythms, won't we detach ourselves from the more significant rhythms that govern our existence, such as the cycles of the sun and moon?
How do we treat the flying mind? How do we feel present? How can we be in harmony with our minds and bodies?
Yoga is famous for meditation, breathing exercises and physical postures. Those are tools to release a flow of energy within, to help us become aware of one aspect of ourselves or another. The postures train the body. By tapping the meridian points time after time, alignments begin to occur throughout your being. Conscious breathing creates a bridge between the body and the mind, sharpens your awareness, calms the thoughts, regulates the energy flow within and prepares the body and mind for meditation. It is that meditative state that induces a state of calm, peace, well-being and presence.
In the practice of yoga, you turn the voltage down and enter an introspective state. You get in touch with your inner nature. You become the sun that shines and the moon that reflects the light of others.
Go back to the basics. Stay present and focused on what you are doing. Start hearing and listening to your own voice and recognizing your own desires. These are not just theoretical hypotheses. The idea is not to stay trapped inside, but to live accordingly to your inner truth, to become your own sun and let your essence shine. This also means interacting, going in and out, being an active, not just a reactive part.
I practice yoga to calm and focus the mind. To feel joy through movement and discovery. To find freedom through commitment and continuity. To recharge my own battery. The days and years vary their rhythms and the practice echoes those rhythms. Nevertheless, the yoga in you and the yoga in me is the same today and tomorrow. It is the touch of eternity within.
Yoga, literally means union. In this upcoming photo series, I merge with what I am not. That union is also yoga. It is a pleasure to share this little journey with you. Thank you for joining! The photos were taken by Moises Torne Biayna.
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