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OPEN MIND OPEN BODY The Yoga of Connection |
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Week 34: Invite a Mentor Certain yogic practices common in one-on-one yoga teaching in India seem to have been lost in the popular group classes in the West. This week, I'd like to share one of those practices: creating a bhavana (cultivation of a specific quality) using a visualization of a mentor. This practice helps us connect to the great teachers who may not be present in our lives on a daily basis, but who inspire us. To create your own bhavana visualization, identify a quality that you wish to cultivate in your actions or your life. Then think about a person who represents this quality to you. It could be someone you have known in life, or someone in history whose life inspires you. It could also be a mythological figure. If this is challenging, consider the process in reverse: identify three people who inspire you, and ask yourself what they have in common. That is likely the quality you most wish to cultivate and express. In meditation, bring this person or figure to mind. What "bringing this person to mind" means varies by individual. You might create a mental image of this person, or reflect in a more deliberate way about their actions/quality. You might focus on the feeling you have when you think of/imagine this person. You might imagine sharing the breath with them. You might imagine inhaling or absorbing their qualities/energy. An very detailed extension to this practice was described in Week 7 - visualizing partner yoga with a mentor. http://www.openmindbody.com/2006emailclass/week7.htm It is not an understatement to say that we become our teachers. Who we choose as teachers is a powerful reflection of our conscious or unconscious intentions. When we place a person in the role of teacher, we usually acknowledge that we wish to cultivate a specific attribute, or knowledge, of that teacher. But we don't always recognize that we will absorb many attributes of that teacher. For this reason, it is worth choosing our real life and bhavana teachers carefully. To illustrate this, yoga teacher Kausthub Desikachar tells a humorous story of having instructed a student to meditate on Hanuman, a legendary hero admired for his fearless devotion, in order to overcome his fear of flying. The meditation worked (he overcame his fear), but he also developed an aversion to committed romantic relationships. Hanuman was an avowed bachelor, so Kausthub changed the focus of the meditation to another figure known for his devotion to his wife! After changing the meditation, the student found a wife. I have no idea whether this story is true or simply a brilliant teaching device, but it certainly comes back to me often as I think about the choices I make in mentors and teachers. Respond to this post online at: http://openmindbody.com/discuss login: yoga password: connect Visit the class archive and audio materials at: http://www.openmindbody.com/2006emailclass/archive.htm login: yoga password: connect Take care, Kelly
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