It's time to ADVANCE.
Here we all are, standing on the front lines of our lives - this is the moment for a strategic retreat... This journey to Roatan in March is a retreat from the everyday minutiae and nation-scope drama. There is a major tenet of the foundation of yoga which describes part of our process of Self discovery is to redirect the senses - pratyahara. To retreat, as it were, from continuously receiving input from the outside world, and instead, to journey within: to listen, feel, watch, see and savor our inner landscape. This is a major step in recognizing and jolting us out of self-limiting and self-defeating beliefs.
If we carry on, business as usual, taking in the world day after day, our senses are always busy transmitting this huge volume of information to our mind + body (largely the fascia), which is constantly occupied with processing, categorizing, and storing it. It becomes challenging to pause and catch ourselves from being on the treadmill of habitual reactions (whether internally or externally). We drive our grooves deeper and deeper until we cannot see above the wall of the labyrinth any more, to notice we are winding on the same infinite path, dead-ending in the same unhelpful results.
This March, we will take this Yoga Adventure to the next level - it's a Yoga Advance - an opportunity to advance ourselves on our own journey of investigation. To advance to the next level of our growth. To advance towards closer introspection of that inner landscape. We will be stepping out of the particular grooves that drive us in circles by taking this great trip to a new place with like-minded seekers.
I think of new moons as an invitation to retreat from receiving input. In January, the new moon celebrated in yoga was Mauni Amavasya, or the new moon of contemplative silence. I spent a morning in full silence as a way of retreating from verbal/aural input. Or thought I was. But full silence is not just not speaking. It is also not communicating (no interacting via glances or sign language). It is also not texting (woops!). It is also not reading (so much mental input there). I found it extremely challenging to simply be, going about doing regular things and then settling and simply being without additional stimulation. The idea is to clarify ones busy-ness and chatter to reveal the purified Self within.
On Thursday, February 27th is a New Moon. One thing that moon cycles teach us is that we continue to have new opportunities. Over and over, we can try again. So, this Thursday, I plan to practice mauna, contemplative silence, again. This time, I have some experience of how to better prepare, and how to set myself up for more ease. I plan to retreat so that I can advance my inner knowing. What if you joined me for a period of silence, a collective and intentional practice of listening within?
I think of our exploration to Roatan in March as a collective intentional retreat to advance. Join us to try new things, to build new practices, to change the sensory input and tune in to inner knowing. Join us for ritual and rest. Join us to step out of the labyrinth's grooves and see from a different perspective.
Join us to take a new step in a different direction.
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