:: YogiSutras: Yoga Blog - Journeys into Yoga ::

Try this: Think about a problem or issue that you’ve been trying to figure out. Maybe it has to do with a relationship, a career decision, or maybe a household improvement project you can’t quite wrap your brain around. Visualize the issue or challenge as a locked book that contains its story and its solution. Imagine holding it in your hands, feeling its weight. What does it look like? What are its defining characteristics? What do you know about it? What do you not know?

Rather than wrestle with the same old useless excuses or reasons why you can’t “unlock” the situation, look at it in a while new way. Use your focused energy as the “key” to opening and better understanding the issue. Let your intuition guide you. Meditate over the issue, without trying to analyze or pick it apart. Hear the key clicking into the lock and revealing the solution — what do you see? Is it a word? An image?

Meditating on your problems in this way, without pressure, can help unearth the solution from deep in your unconscious. Allow it to reveal itself to you.

From: The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, the Wild Divine Project

Try this: The next time you go to forcefully or aggressively bring about a desired outcome, step back and see what happens when you let go. This doesn’t mean abandon your cause or walk away, but rather stay focused and calm. Breathe deeply and center yourself in trust and peace, and watch opportunities open themselves to you.

Taken from: The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, The Wild Divine Project.

Try this: During a particularly busy or hectic time of your day, whether it’s on the way to work, or in the middle of getting several things done, (times when your breathing is the last thing on your mind), return to your heart breath. See if you can recall the rhythm (using whatever method or metaphor works for you), and continue for about a half a minute. Try this a couple times over the next few days and note any changes in your mental, emotional, and physical state each time.

Taken from The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, The Wild Divine Project

Try this: Taking time to meditate on an actual rainy day can be very restorative. When you find yourself becoming heated or stressed, take five minutes to recreate a rain forest in your mind. The more relaxed you become, the more it rains on you, gently washing away tension, cooling anger and frustration. Allow your troubles to move further away, like a distant rolling thunder, giving way to the lulling rhythms of the rain.

Taken from: The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage. The Wild Divine Project.

Try this: Practice a sunrise/sunset meditation to bring balance to your day. Make it a point this week to get up early to watch the sunrise and/or sunset (it’s the perfect time of year for this!). Though of course, no amount of breathing can speed up or slow down this event, you can still draw energy from this cosmic exchange. At sunrise, imagine the first rays of pink light giving you a clearer, calmer perspective with which to begin your day; at sunset, receive the cool, calming yin of night and allow your energy to come down, letting the light and all residual tensions go, while the dark fills you with peace. Making time to include and participate in the day taking shape and then coming to an end each day not only builds in some quiet time for you, but it helps put your mind and body in tune with the larger cosmic rhythms.

Taken from: The Journey to Wild Divine: the Passage, the Wild Divine Project

Try this: For the next seven days, take five minutes every day to practice your heart breath. Sit somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed. To enhance your awareness of your heart breath, put both hands on your heart and feel its gentle rise and fall, as you fill your lungs slowly from the bottom to the top, letting your belly relax. Imagine warmth and compassion radiating out from your heart center with each breath.

Taken from the Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, the Wild Divine Project.

Try this: The elevator is an easy and famiiar metaphor to return to whenever you need to ground your energy. When you find yourself too “in your head” - your thoughts racing, too many things going on at once - use elevator meditation to bring your energy and attention out of your head and into your body. Imagine you are literally stepping into the elevator, the door closing on your thoughts and worries. Begin to breathe deeply and evenly. Continue to breathe like this and allow yourself to drop into your body and experience the present moment. When the doors open, you will feel refreshed, balanced, and grounded.

From The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, The Wild Divine Project

Try this: When you find yourself on the other side of a closed door, whether it’s a particularly difficult coworker, a cranky spouse, or a situation you simply can’t seem to crack, try backing off completely. Release the tension and stress that’s building up inside of you. Allow the heat of your frustration to cool and slowly detach while you focus on your breath. Watch how, when you make the decision to enter into the greatest challenges with a clear mind and a calm heart, one after another, doors begin to open themselves to you.

Taken from The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage, from the Wild Divine Project

The next time you find yourself about to make a snap judgement, a defensive reaction, or a hasty decision, stop yourself for a moment and remember how these thoughts or actions can leave you further off your mark than intended. Take the time you need to sense your energy. Balance often means that you offer each action with consideration of the posssible results.

Edited from The Journey to Wild Divine, The Wild Divine Project.

Try this: At the beginning of your day, take a few moments to observe your energy and appreciate stillness. This can be five minutes at your desk, outside, or getting coffee. Learning to maintain your energy can help reduce the extreme ups and downs which wear us out, and take a real toll on us by day’s end. Think about letting go, rather than wrestling your worries to the ground. Try the same thing at the end of your day. How close is it to how you were this morning? Or, do you feel totally undone by afternoon? By becoming aware of where your energy goes and how it moves, you can put this exercise into practice, and achieve consistency.

This tip is taken from the Wild Divine Project, the Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage program.