Eastern Yoga: The Secret to Wholeness and Peace
Updated: Jan 12
Discovering the True Essence of Yoga in a Modern World
You are unique! So, shouldn’t the way you approach your life be uniquely catered to you?
Of course it should!
Western culture has adapted the ancient system of yoga into a modern-day workout trend, yet yoga's authentic essence offers so much more than flexibility and yoga butt.
Practicing yoga for just physical and mental benefits is like taking a rocket ship to the corner store when it was designed to take you much further!
Also, yoga, that is, recognizing your wholeness, is available to everyone, not just the strong and flexible.
When I tell someone new I am a yoga therapy trainer, oftentimes I get the comment, “Yeah, I should try that, but I’m not flexible enough.”
The Essence of Yoga
The core of yoga is not about flexibility - it is about discovering who you are beyond your limitations.
Let me say that again in a different way.
Yoga is not about a bunch of poses you do to temporarily feel better and get a good workout. That is a great benefit of a yoga practice that incorporates postures. However, limiting the practice to just postures does not resolve the root cause of why you need to feel better in the first place.
Yoga is about releasing the perception that you are bound and recognizing that you are free, whole, and complete.
Yes, I know that may seem impossible because each of us seems to have limitations that we are trying to overcome in our lives, whether they be personal relationships, work, finances, physical issues... you get the idea.
Yet practitioners of the yogic system, which dates back more than 6000 years, report to us through their systematic scientific approach that what we see with our eyes is limited. We are much more than what we perceive.
Just consider that a bird's vision is far superior to a human, and a dog hears frequencies that we cannot.
We are limited by using our senses to perceive the world. Yet yoga teaches us how to use a new perception.
The Yoga of Energy and Meditation
This is where Metergy comes in. I have coined the word Metergy to describe the essence of an Eastern-based yoga practice.
Metergy unites meditation & energy with its foundation in ancient Eastern Yogic philosophy. Through the continued practice of Metergy, a felt connection to all creation beyond mental concepts is revealed, allowing you to flow through your life with freedom and ease.
Sounds good, doesn't it!?!
Yoga views the world and every individual through the perspective of wholeness: That is, there is really only one where the mind perceives through the senses that there are many.
So, what is the resolution here then if I see many, yet I am told there is really only one?
Let’s break down Metergy© into its integrated two parts: Energy and Meditation.
Energy - Feel the Prana
Energy has different names, like chi or spirit, to name just a few. In yoga, we call energy prana, and prana makes up everything in the manifest world. Yogis have been saying this for thousands of years.
Science now agrees that everything is made up of energy. Consider Einstein's formula E=mc2, quantum physics, and the first law of thermodynamics.
This is how we are all connected. When practicing yoga, one views the seemingly many forms of energy through a single vision of wholeness, not separation.
If the physical world is made up of energy, then the body is one way to access it. In yoga, we do that through the medium of feeling.
Sensations are felt energy, and energy is prana.
Breath, which is a form of energy, is a bridge between the felt energetic sensations of the body and mental energy.
Yogis say, that by focusing on energy or prana, in the form of the breath or physical sensations, one can clear the mind and experience wholeness.
The reason is that the physical sensations of your body are happening now, in this moment. When you focus on sensations instead of thoughts that are constantly replaying what you have observed in the past, you are having a present-moment experience absorbed in energy. This is where meditation comes in.
Meditation - Beyond Posture to Peace
Meditation occurs when your mental focus is one-pointed. If you consider what I said about yoga being about recognizing only one where there seems to be many, then meditation reveals that shift in your perception.
As you focus on the sensations in your body, that is, energy or prana, your full mental focus becomes absorbed in that energy. The past and future dissolve into a present-moment experience without the burden of past experiences.
A yoga "pose" can be any physical position that supports a present moment focus on sensations in the body. It can be as simple as sitting in a chair to as complex as standing on one's head.
Ultimately, it's not about the physical position but how absorption in the sensations occurring leads you to an open and clear mind, which reveals a singular experience.
The result of meditation is feeling a sense of pure peace because you are viewing the world through the eye of oneness where there are no problems to resolve.
The more you meditate and access this feeling of wholeness, the easier it is to approach life from the perspective of peace instead of conflict.
Metergy - Flowing with Life
Therefore, in the system of Metergy, the focus of meditation is on energy without mental labels. Focusing on pure energy without mental constructs calms the mind so it is clear and able to understand from a wholistic perspective.
Mental constructs arising from the past view the world from the perspective of separation.
And separation leads to suffering.
Thus the mind is in a cycle of trying to fix seeming problem after problem that doesn’t really exist except through the perspective of separation.
A mind that is open, calm, and free from its opinions and judgments perceives the world from the perspective of oneness and thus is at peace.
Why in the world would you continue to view the world from a seemingly separated mind that keeps you in the hamster wheel of suffering?
Because you don’t know a different way!
That is why yoga came into the world as a concept and practice. Yoga gives you the means to rest with a free mind and thus BE free.
You have probably heard about intuition, which is having insights and instincts that do not come from conscious reasoning. Intuition occurs when the mind is open.
When you learn to feel and follow energy from intuition instead of habit, you are tapping into a holistic, or whole-istic, perspective, which results in harmonizing and balancing thoughts and actions instead of reactions.
In Conclusion
Practicing yoga in its original intent, as in the practice of Metergy, teaches you how to feel energy and relax into meditation so that your life becomes a living meditation.
I began by saying you are unique, and your yoga practice should be as well. When you are taught to follow your body's energy or prana, it will direct you to move or be still and respond in ways that are perfectly balancing for you.
Your yoga practice then becomes a unique personalized meditation designed to help you resolve the perception of conflict and thus live from the peaceful eye of wholeness!
In Loving Services,
Heather Indu Arena
Thank you for reading! If inspired, please like this post and members, log in, and comment to offer your voice in our Healing Elements Community. I hope my words uplift your spirit while offering you tools and techniques to help you soar.
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