Do you celebrate your mastery and finesse?  Are you intimate with a posse? Do you rally and converse with your various parts (i.e., feelings, emotions, actions, words), regardless of their positivity? Recognizing your gifts, cultivating relationships and collaborating with all aspects of your human nature are just a few of the effective Tantric teachings that have invited more humour, dharma and love into my life.

It takes a lot of courage for me to remember and relish my unique flair. Once as I started to immerse my awareness and actions around my gifts, conditions in my life began to align. Life didn’t seem so edgy, or shall I say I didn’t seem so edgy? It was as if I stepped into my flow (i.e, dharma). Unfortunately I’m not in this flow 100% of the time…there are moments when I’m in the mud. But now I have the knowing to feel and see when I’m misaligned, and then I take steps to meet the flow. Whether they are baby steps or T-Rex steps I move toward my dharma.

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It wasn’t until I began to observe and truly experience the Spanda within my own nature that I was able to manifest a deeper sense of balance and joy in my yoga practice and my life off the mat and cushion. My teacher John Friend (Founder of Anusara Yoga) was the first to introduce me to the concept of Spanda, which is essentially a vibration or pulsation of condensing and expanding creative energy that moves in cycles, spirals and circles. The Spanda Karika is an ancient Kashmir Shivait text and is a collection of aphorisms that examines the nature of the Supreme Divine Vibration. This text provides a rich exploration of Spanda, full of mythical references and deep philosophical underpinnings from Kashmir Shivaism. For purposes of this entry, I will refer to Spanda as the liberating and manifesting [polar] currents of Nature: e.g., Light and Shadow, Pleasure and Pain, Freedom and Bondage, In and Out, Expansion and Contraction, etc.

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The level of collective consciousness, in rich or poor societies, could be measured by the quality of its population’s health or how fairly well-being is distributed across the social spectrum. Disparities within quality-of-life often arise because of the systems put in place in order for the citizens to access health care and education. The conditions in which we live are shaped by political, social and economic forces. Donation-based yoga studios serve to increase access to the teachings of yoga in order to elevate the level of health, awareness and well-being within communities. (more…)