Spirituality

The Yogic Ripple

Jane

I just finished reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. It is a novel set in Germany and France during the Second World War. The story revolves around the wireless and those that used its transmissions for pleasure, and as a means to guide the war. One of the characters built a large radio transmitter. He used this transmitter to send stories for children, and other helpful information out into the world. He did not know how far these messages would go, or if anyone ever heard them. He felt compelled to transmit his messages, letting the waves of his voice go where they may.

I often feel powerless and small in the face of world tragedy.

The desire to do something is weighed down by the magnitude of despair around me. Motivational slogans such as, “One person can start the wave to move mountains” seem hollow. Their platitudes ring false in my ears.

Reading this book has reminded me of the power of the simple act.

It brings me back to a time when my workplace felt very tense. We were very busy and under a lot of pressure. The energy in the building felt overwhelming to me. I turned inward to cope, trying to block out the heaviness that I felt. I was weighed down, and started to dread going to work. My yogic practice has taught me the power of my breath, and how it can alter the way my physical and emotional body feels. I decided to go to work and simply breathe. I walked with purpose through the office consciously breathing, finding my center and grounding my energy with my breath. I started to feel more open and available to my co-workers. Going to work took a positive turn. The heaviness around me lifted. I trusted that the sense of lightness would ripple out beyond my physical space.

We never know what result our actions are going to create.

Yoga is union; a union of mind and body, of breath and emotion, of physical energies, and ultimately of all living creatures on our earth.

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What is the Core?

Jane

The core is not one single thing.

It is a mixture of beliefs, physical structure, human desire, mystical dreams, personal strengths, and perceived weaknesses. Infuse this medley with individual perceptions and learned behavior, and you get a multi-faceted core system.

I have had a real challenge writing this blog entry. It should be easy to write – after all, I have attended so many fitness courses on strengthening the core, moving from a strong core, strong core – strong back, and so forth. I could write many articles on different techniques and exercises to build a strong physical core. All of that is valid and important, but somehow does not feel necessary to explain. It does not further our understanding of what our core truly means.

We live in a culture that is somewhat obsessed with six packs, rock hard abs, and designer belly button rings. The core is much more than that. Physically a healthy core includes everything from your shoulder girdle to your pelvis. When the structure of our body is in balance and aligned, we will move from a much stronger and stable place. Although many crunches might make it look like your core is strong, you could be creating an imbalance in your back muscles that may put your back and hips at risk. I think balance is a better way to look at the core: physical, emotional, and spiritual balance.

Our core beliefs are instilled in us through learned and perceived experiences. This is an area of thought and exploration that fascinates me. The thought that we each view the world through our own lens of core beliefs, seeing something that is unique and impossible for another to experience in the same way, boggles my mind. It is like trying to wrap my head around quantum, infinity, or the black hole. The line of thinking that “my way is the only way – because that is what my world shows me” – just does not fly. If my belief is the only way, then how can there be so many other people surviving and thriving by living through their core belief systems. I have gone down this rabbit hole of thought so far, that at times I have lost my footing, and questioned all that I am, and all that I know. Again it comes back to balance. Balancing the unknown with the known, trusting my gut to know the difference between what feels right for me, and when I am being swept away in the murky waters of other’s confusion.

Spirituality is part of the web of our core. Being a spiritual being is just as much a part of our core as denouncing spiritually can be. It still makes up the essence of who we are. Once again, I return to thoughts of balance.

The image of core that comes to mind is an apple core. The shape is wider at the ends, tapering in to a rounded middle section – filled with a hard structure, and some seeds. The seeds are placed to plant new ideas so that our structure and beliefs never become old and stale. The hard structure is the support that keeps us strong and upright. The curves keep us fluid, so that we can bend, twist and turn. The apple core is always part of the apple, even though we cannot always see it. It does not matter if it is a big juicy apple, or a small compact apple, if it is living, it has a core, grown in the same natural pattern, but each develops to be unique.

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