YOGA by Brittney

I'm not sure why I stopped blogging about my recovery. Maybe because I started believing that it's not a topic that should be shared openly, shamelessly. Heaven forbid someone not like me. The best thing we can ever do in this life is be true to who we are. This means all the things that make us uniquely individual - to include our flaws and sometimes the things we don't want the world to see. I just had the BEST weekend, and I spent so many moments overflowing with gratitude for my life. My Chinese roommate from the Arhanta Yoga Ashram in India was visiting the US for the first time, so I went up to NYC to see her. We ate yummy vegan food, went to yoga and walked around shopping for things I couldn't afford. I stayed the night with one of my best friends from High School. We laughed and talked in the way it feeds your soul. I soaked in the views from her apartment, we ate brunch on the water front, I went to a flea market in the city where I bought more heal...

Let me preface this by saying I love Jesus. I believe he incarnated and died for our sake. You can say I'm a Christian, after all, I have been baptized, commune and have been through Lutheran Confirmation. However, my beliefs and spiritual experience is to wide and deep to be confined to any box that is religion. I am currently enrolled in a free course at Princeton University called, "Buddhism and Modern Psychology." What follows is my mid-term assignment: The Buddha makes the claim, which may draw some support from modern psychology, that the self does not exist. Describe the self that the Buddha says does not exist and explain the Buddha's principal argument against it. Do you agree or disagree with the Buddha’s argument that this kind of self doesn’t exist? Or are you unable to take a position? Give two specific reasons for your view, and explain why your reasons support either the existence of the self or the non-existence of the self, or why they explain w...

There is much more to yoga than meets the eye. The practice of yoga was developed in ancient India over 5,000 years ago by monks and other enlightened beings for health, happiness and longevity. Following is a very brief and simplistic overview outlining what Raj yoga, or Ashtanga yoga is according to Patanjali's Sutras, from my Advanced Teacher Training lecture notes. The goal of yoga is union of the self with the supreme reality. There are eight limbs. 1. The Yamas {Purification of Nature}: a) Ahimsa (non-violence), b) Satya (truthfulness), c) Asteya (not stealing), d) Aparigraha (non-collection), e) Brahmacharya (non-indulgence) 2. The Niyamas {Purification of Nature} : a) Saucha (cleanliness), b) Santosha (contentment), c) Tapas (self-discipline), d) Svadhyaya (self-study), e) Ishuara Pranidhana (surrender to God) 3. Asana {Purification of the Body} : The physical practice of yoga postures 4. Pranayama {Purification of Energy} : Breathing exercises to control th...

It took three days and five flights to get me to Khajuraho. If you ever get the opportunity to fly Quatar airways, or see the Doha airport - Do it! It's luxurious. I got really airsick, and thereby homesick, on my last three flights with Air India, and could hardly sleep, as I kept waking up with the shoulder pain I left with. Alas, there were six or seven others enroute to the Ashram that joined me from Delhi to our final destination, and I was comforted by them immediately. Adriana is Brazilian, but lives in Spain. She was to my right, and Laura from Holland was to my left. Laura had just seen a Shaman in Peru and after her cleansing experience, assured me my vomiting didn't bother her. Puppies greeted us in the parking lot as we waited for Laura's lost luggage; the little black one's paw had been run over :'(  We checked in to the Ashram, and I adjusted to the 13.5 hour time difference without a problem, sleeping through the first night. I got up ...