Meet Pain with Compassion

I hope you all are having a great long weekend. Last weekend I was driving with my daughter back to college to help her move in after her semester abroad.  On the 11 hour journey we listened to a podcast that had been recommended to me by a close friend. She had sent a text a couple days before saying; “You have to listen to the podcast Telepathy Tapes. Omg- obsessed.” 

That was the only context I had for suggesting it but I thought “Let’s give it a try.” We were hooked after the first episode and each episode built on the previous. It would take me a long time to explain the podcast (and you might think me a little nuts if you don’t listen to it yourself) but I highly recommend giving it a shot. I took many things away from it and was just able to scratch the surface of all the information through sharing a couple thoughts with students in my classes last week. 

The podcast proves that our consciousness transcends our body and that we are all connected. These are things I have already felt and believed but it was exciting to see them proven. You are probably wondering, why is she talking about this in her newsletter. Well here is why. We all have had moments of telepathy. When you think about someone and then they call is an example most of us can relate to. When we tell people “your ears were ringing” they actually were in a sense. These events happen when we are more aligned between our bodies and our minds. This is mindfulness.

Scientists have identified different states in our brain; The Delta state is deep sleep, the Beta state is where we usually are, the Gamma state is fight/flight and the Alpha state is where we are in complete balance between body and mind. This is when telepathy or mindfulness or awareness– however you want to think about it– is most likely to happen. This is what we have the opportunity to discover, cultivate and practice through yoga and meditation. 

What we do on the mat truly does help us in our life off of it in many ways. We are more in touch with our bodies, our emotions and with others as well.

I am incredibly honored to have the chance each week to guide students through this practice on the mat and offer the chance to explore that transition off the mat through this newsletter. Without all of you who read this each week I would not have this chance so please accept my heartfelt thank you. I wish you a week of cultivating your Alpha state!