ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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![]() This month I’m sharing an excerpt from my book Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity, Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World. This book presents a contemporary view of self-awareness based on the 3,000-year old wisdom tradition from India (the Taittiriya Upanishad). It describes humans as having five layers of being: physical, energetic, psycho-emotional, intuitive wisdom, and spiritual. The book takes readers on a down-to-earth, often humorous, nine-step journey through the five layers by sharing stories, practical goals, and accessible practices to help readers find optimal health, balance and self-awareness. The excerpt I’m sharing today describes intuitive wisdom, the witness, the fourth layer of self-awareness. Excerpt from Enlighten Up! The Taittiriya Upanishad states that discrimination (wisdom or clarity) is the heart of working with this layer. We can view the fourth layer of self-awareness on many levels, from the mystical to the practical. Because this book focuses on the practical, we’ll look at aspects of the witness that we can employ daily basis to become aware of, and reflect on our habits, beliefs and behaviors, as we move through the ups and downs of our lives. The Witness, for our purposes is often referred to as higher intelligence, insight, intuition, or wisdom. It’s the lamp of self-awareness that illuminates all aspects of ourselves for understanding, acceptance and integration. Self-awareness is developed and deepened by engaging and working with the witness. The goal is to become aware of and manage our unhelpful core beliefs, habits and behavior patterns until we are able to loosen and release their hold on us. Self-awareness, at the level of the witness also helps us recognize, celebrate, and share our creativity and talents. The Witness overlaps, and shares space with the mind, our third layer of self-awareness. To visualize this, imagine two circles that overlap for 50%, like a Venn diagram. One circle is the mind and the other is the Witness. Here’s an example that helps us understand how layered and interrelated they are, and how they work together. A core belief that “I’m not good enough,” can exist in both the mind and the Witness but at different levels of awareness. In the Witness circle, “I’m not good enough,” might be seen, as messages of unworthiness from family, friends and society at large for any number of reasons such as, race, gender, gender identification, class, physical or mental ability. In the mind circle, “I’m not good enough,” might be believed and expressed through depression, addictions and other self-sabotaging behaviors. However, the Witness, seeing where it comes from, and knowing that the core belief of, “I’m not good enough,” is not true, does its best to send that message to the mind through the overlapping space the two layers share. When the mind opens to receive the message, it may experience an aha moment of total understanding, or it may be able to acknowledge that the cause and source of the belief need to be examined. In either case, steps can be taken to make a choice for positive change, keep the status quo with full knowledge of the consequences or find acceptance if change is not possible. If you follow guidance from the Witness, you will move toward the goal of wholeness on your self-awareness journey. The Witness is an integral, inseparable, indispensible part of your being; a true and deep part that leads you, if you are willing to listen, toward clarity, contentment and resilience. The goal in working with this layer is to bring about physical, mental and emotional awareness, to acknowledge both non-productive habit patterns, along with positive traits and talents. Most of us begin the process of engaging the witness through our everyday intelligence. It’s a starting point. Then gradually, with consistent practice, the mind is able to open more frequently to intuition, wisdom or aha moments in which awareness, acceptance, and understanding bloom. When you regularly practice witnessing your thoughts, emotions, beliefs and behavior without judgment, you are better able to identify and understand where they come from and how and why they are impacting your life. When the witness is awake, especially in real time, you will see your reality as it is, not hidden behind a veil of wishful thinking, denial or delusion. As a result, you can consciously choose your path forward with full awareness of the potential consequences. When the light of wisdom and understanding shines, you will be able to accept yourself, as you are, without judgment, consciously change a habit, replace an unhelpful thought pattern with a constructive one, or change an emotional reaction into a productive response. This process results in increased calm and resilience in the way you face the events of your life. Witnessing is a two level process. Sometimes witnessing occurs in the present moment. This enables you to hit pause in the space between what is happening and how you might respond. All too often, the pause is not seen or sensed and the resulting reaction is impulsive. Sometimes witnessing occurs with reflection. You may choose to face what is happening in your life that causes anxiety, concern or difficulty. Or you may reflect on the past to catch a glimpse of where it comes from and why it’s impacting your life. If you are like most people, you will take one step forward, and two steps back on your journey. This will happen repeatedly. Remember, it’s a process — sometimes painful and sometimes joyful but worth doing because of the peace of mind and level of conscious living it can bring you. With practice you can engage your witness, bring clear, focused, attention to what you find and accept all aspects of yourself, pleasant, and not so pleasant. When you listen to the whisperings of the witness you will spend less time sleepwalking through your life on autopilot. You will step forth into it with clarity, contentment and resilience. You can watch the book trailer here.
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![]() The History The emerging field of yoga therapy is steeped in the history and tradition of yoga, which goes back at least 3,000 – 5,000 years. One can say that modern yoga and yoga therapy began to be developed about 200 years ago when western science and medicine began to notice and study yoga. The first institutes of modern yoga began in India in the 1920s while India was under British rule. During that time, new teaching forms were brought in from the English education system, such as group classes as opposed to one-on-one study with a teacher. These were departures from traditional spiritual culture. Another change was the focus on postures. According to Mark Singleton, author of Yoga Body, “The primacy of ãsana performance in transnational yoga today is a new phenomenon that has no parallel in premodern times.” Joseph Le Page, the founder of Integrative Yoga Therapy, says that asana based yoga and yoga therapy are in many ways new creations, rather than a continuation of a specific Indian spiritual tradition. Since the 1970’s:
All of these factors have given rise to the emerging profession of yoga therapy. The Goals of Modern Yoga Therapy The current ‘short’ definition developed by the International Association of Yoga Therapists is: “Yoga therapy is the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and wellbeing through the application of the teachings and practices of yoga.” The practice of yoga therapy is aimed at developing self-knowledge through a process of personal witnessing and understanding the self at all levels, body, breath and mind (including intellect and emotions) – and their mutual interaction. From the yoga perspective, self-knowledge is health in the most complete sense. It’s a modality that can be applied to groups or individuals with specific health challenges. The goals of yoga therapy include eliminating, reducing, and/or managing symptoms that cause discomfort and suffering; improving function; helping to prevent the occurrence or re-occurrence of underlying causes of illness; and moving toward improved health and well-being. Yoga therapy recognizes that relief of symptoms is just one facet of the healing process and that not all illness and disease can be cured. It does, however, provide a methodology to heal lives, reduce pain, and stress, and relieve physical symptoms and psychological suffering. Yoga therapy recognizes that the healing journey is unique to each individual and so selects, adopts and modifies all practices appropriately for the individual and/or group depending upon age, physical condition and ability, religion and culture. What’s the Difference Between Yoga and Yoga Therapy? All yoga is considered therapeutic but yoga therapy is yoga with a specific focus on health and healing. It is distinct from other systems of yoga where the class content may be pre-structured and the students mold themselves to the form of yoga being taught. Yoga therapy is based in creative, student-centered education, where the yoga therapists see themselves as facilitators and guides and adapt the practices to the needs of the students and clients. What’s in a Yoga Therapist’s Toolbox? A yoga therapist has several lenses through which to view their student/client’s condition or situation. These lenses are used to detect levels of stress and its effects on the body/mind, along with any underlying factors such as physical, or energetic imbalances and to suggest appropriate practices to increase awareness, optimal health and healing. They include but are not limited to:
The focus of yoga therapy is to awaken the student’s connection to their own true source of wellness because that is where true healing can occur. |
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May 2022
AuthorBETH GIBBS started her yoga practice in 1968, four months after her son was born and she’s been practicing ever since. She currently teaches all levels therapeutic yoga classes for adults, and specialty classes for seniors in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Beth is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists and is guest faculty at the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy. She writes for the blogs, Yoga for Healthy Aging, and Accessible Yoga. Her master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA is in Yoga Therapy and Mind/Body Health. Categories |