MY WITNESS GURU

This month in my "Managing Transitions With the Yamas and Niyamas" class, we will be focusing on both Purity and Contentment, the first 2 niyamas.  Niyamas draw one inward, focusing on one's relationship with oneself and learning how to live with integrity and joy.  I have been experimenting with meeting each moment without reservation and remaining content in each moment at specific times in my own life.  Following is one I've been recently playing with.

 I can experience pain in my body at night.  Sometimes I strongly resist it and feel sorry for myself and wish it weren't so--getting more and more agitated.  It helps to remember that I am not my pain, I am not my body, and I am not my fears; my real Self is the unchanging Divine.  The other night I experimented with becoming the Witness or the Watcher of my pain, and my body, and my reactions, and not identifying with these parts of me, which are constantly fluctuating.  I visualize my Witness as a little person, a guru, sitting in lotus pose in my heart, witnessing all and remaining peaceful and unaffected.  I also focused on my even breathing and relaxed my muscles that were trying really hard to tense up.  I'd move away from this place and then just mindfully return to it.  I can't say that it was easy, but I eventually fell asleep.

I was experimenting with being purely in each moment and with remaining still and serene--in contentment--in my heart.  I let myself be the Witness instead of needing to identify with my pain and restlessness.

It's worth exploring!

Namaste