Find Your Peace Within (April 2024 Newsletter)

Image: Photograph of a Russian canal boat from the Prokudin-Gorskiĭ collection at the Library of Congress.

At the end of our yoga practice, we finish up by chanting, “Om, shanti”. Shanti means peace. It is the very first requirement in accepting ourselves with humility. How can we be at peace with others if we are not at peace with our own selves. To know oneself means to stop, look and listen. The subconscious mind has thoughts and behaviors that we do not pay attention to, or analyze, but act on regardless. Start with cleansing your own thoughts first.

Catch yourself when negative thoughts start. All negative thoughts are violent, because they take you away from that space of calm relaxed contentment. In a sense, it is self-injury. Ahimsa paramo dharma. (Ahimsa is non-violence, Paramo means supreme, and dharma means moral law or to support right behavior.) In the Sanskrit language, अहिंसा परमॊ धर्मः

How do we do that? Simple and yet so hard! Be focused. Be aware. Be present. Presence is attentiveness to what’s going on around you and in you. Watch your breath. Breathe normally but watch your breathing for about three minutes. Slowly deepen the breath, moving from a superficial in and out the nose to moving it deeper into the lungs. Try for three minutes. Go deeper yet into the belly. Three more minutes. While doing this breathing technique, place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. 

Om Shanti ॐ शान्तिः, शान्तिः शान्तिः

Sincerely and in peace,

sipra