Monday, March 16, 2015

Nine workshops and my epiphany on Mindful Pranayama

How can I blog about 9 workshops and retreats done over a  period of 3 months now? I better not attempt it but hope to share some of the things that I went through during this period.
I decided to relocate from Auroville (as  a place of living) to Bangalore by the first week of March 2015. I have been working on setting up an Optical Fiber Network in Auroville and the many, unexpected positive developments contributed to the project gathering lots of momentum. This added to the demands on my time and one of the things that I put on the back burner was my blog.
I am adding some pics of the events during this period.  I would not like to rebuild or recap on the specific events but would like to share that I enjoyed every moment of the workshops.
One important event happened on 8 Feb 2015, my wife's 60th Birthday. Sometime in the rally hours of the morning, I heard a clear voice tell me " You are doing mindful Pranayama. It is your Dharma to share it". It was a strange but thrilling experience for me and next day I did some research on the web. John Kabat Zinn started the fusion of Mindfulness and Hatha Yoga. Some web sites do talk about Mindfullness Pranayama.
When I think about it, an analogy comes to my mind -  driving a car. When I was a novice, I was overwhelmed by the demands of driving but as I had more and more hours of driving experience, it was easy to drive, hold conversations and enjoy the scenery -  being mindful. With years of practice and the repeated instructions I have been giving in several hundred workshop sessions, I am able to 'Be Mindful' during the practice of Pavan Mukthasana exercises, Pranayama and Yoga Nidra that make up my integral practice. An important aspect is to be joyful - Yoga is Union in with the Divine.Like driving, I do my practice while 'Being Mindful' of the effect of the practice on my body and mind.

I am not sure about the correlation between what I am doing and what others are doing. But, I am happy and grateful for the opportunity of sharing. My epiphany redoubled my enthusiasm to share the practices that have been so beneficial for me in my life.
I am sure that more of what I need to know about this will be revealed to me when needed.





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