Anandamaya kosha- bliss body

Joy that is uncaused. Joy that is always within us as who we truly are.

Sense a smile below the surface of your skin and remember there is joy in all you do.

We touch into the bliss body for brief instances and experience deep peace. Time seems to pass quickly- we are absorbed in the ocean if consciousness.

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. - Rumi

Vijanamaya kosha- wisdom body

"The vijanamaya kosha is the intelligence or wisdom body and refers to the reflective aspects of our consciousness when we experience a deeper insight into ourselves and the world. As the first three layers begin to syncopate in your yoga practice, a different feeling arises as your wisdom body comes alive. All of a sudden you are not just trying to survive or breathe in a pose, but a shift inside you occurs, as if the spirit of the pose starts to emerge. "
- Shiva Rea, Yoga Journal online

New Year's class

"Practice means to perform over and over again, in the face of all obstacles, some act of faith, of vision, of desire." Martha Graham

"The desire for freedom provides the motivation to undertake the arduous discipline of yoga. Yoga refers both to a process of discipline and its goal." Barbara Stoler Miller

"Think of discipline as the pathway of your spirit's/ Devotion, a priming of the ground of your essence,/ A daily, weekly, lifelong investigation and dedication/ Into the truth of your own soul's liberation." Denise Benitez

"It's the intensity of the longing for change that does the work. Strong aspiration not only motivates us to act, it also attracts help." Sally Kempton from Change for Good
Intention is the backbone of our practice
It adds sincerity and depth
Tapas- fire, burning enthusiasm

Resolve to make the most of this time

Golden thread meditation
Breathe up and down it
Circle slowly around it
Let your intuition guide you to a deep intention
Gather yourself around your intention
Your practice supports your intention

Today- Mary Oliver
Varanasi- Mary Oliver
Imagine a little fire- sincerity in your heart and keep it w you

Manomaya kosha- mind body

Related to your nervous system
How evenly distributed is the weight of your mindfulness between unpleasantness and pleasantness?

Do you see how we tend to contract around the difficult and the imperfect? Is that a conducive environment for the difficulty to be understood?

Mindfulness is not just the ability to focus on the mind,, but being aware if the quality of the mind. The climate of the mind

The bigger family of mindfulness includes joy. Your practice includes joy.

- ideas taken from Christina Feldman, Naropa October 2012

Tools for managing anxiety

Anxiety tools

Dance
Kick
Hops
Lift heels and drop them
Bring your awareness to feet and tailbone

Wrap yourself in blankets
Cover yourself or just your abdomen in savasana

You have all you need

Vigorous exercise followed by relaxation

A flowing yoga practice- movement within the postures
Talk to people you trust

No caffeine

Eat regular, small meals

Sand bags on the tops of thighs as you sit or lie in savasana

Lie on belly w hands under forehead and breath

Inhale through O shaped mouth, exhale out mouth

Walk and say "om namah sivaya"

Hip openers:
hands inside front leg
pigeon- slide everything to the side
fire log
cobblers pose
happy baby
side angle
triangle

Pranamaya kosha- breath body

"The system of yogic breathing exercises called pranayama is designed to increase and cultivate the quality of the pranic body. When you start to know where you are in your physical body through the alignment of the poses, you will have more freedom to explore the flow of your breath. By shifting to deep, slow, and rhythmic breathing in your yoga practice, you are becoming conscious of and affecting this second kosha. As you increase the amount of oxygen in your body, this pranic body starts to come alive. The coordination of your inhalation and exhalation with the movements of your physical body, as in the Sun Salutations, is one of the ways in which the physical body and breath body become synchronized with the mental body (concentration and awareness)."
- Shiva Rea, You are Here, Yoga Journal online article

Annamaya kosha- food body

"A human being is the Self encased in five wrappings like a Chinese puzzle, starting from the material body, the first "self" we are generally aware of, and progressing inward to the "bodies" of vitality (prana), mind, intuition, and finally joy.  Along with quantum leaps in awareness as one ascends these "levels of significance," the awareness of joy grows exponentially in intensity and duration until one is joy; it can never go away."
- Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads p. 135

There are five koshas, or sheaths, that make up the body.  The outermost and most easily accessible is the annamaya kosha, or food sheath.  It is made up of the food we eat.  The Upanishads have long passages about how we are made of food from the earth.

"When I teach yoga or do my own practice, I start with a keen awareness of the first kosha- the body sensations- to make the more subtle layers of the self more accessible.  In other words, if you want to deepen your breath or affect your state of mind, you have to honor and pass through the gateway of the physical body."
- Shiva Rea, You are Here, Yoga Journal online article