The year of the Rat has begun! I happen to be a rat, and somehow never learned much of the significance. As things often go when we have a practice of inviting Grace into our lives, something becomes known when you need to know it.

We practice inviting Grace into our lives through loved-filled discipline and purpose. For example, when we save ourselves from gossip, when we utilize the gates of speech, when we are expansive in our thoughts and outlook, we open ourselves to the abundance of wisdom present in every moment, in every high and every low. This is how knowledge, what you know to be true, moves from restrictive and binding to nourishing and full of possibility. The practice of inviting Grace into one’s life.

So what did I learn about the rat? What qualities can we all embrace and feel supported by this year? Resilience and intrepidness, the ability to turn structures that are currently bringing hardship into opportunities for our growth and transformation.

I am coming from my own experience here, so while it is not the only way, Yoga has the means for restructuring our awareness of what is true and what is possible.

A classic example is the misconception that we must get rid of the Ego. But the Ego is merely the structure of the mind, the programmed and constructed systems that enable us to take part in this world. We agree on these structures collectively– take our languages and the the shapes and assumptions embedded within them. Instead of resisting the Ego, the yoga practices serve to keep us from being fooled into being bound by the limits the Ego sets out for us. Through the practices, we consciously seek to have experiences that interrupt, or move beyond the mere give and take, gain or lose, action and reaction that is the base storyline of the mind. Of course this movement is not a one time thing, but a lifelong path that reveals again and again that we are embraced and supported by the larger Truth as we navigate the realities of wordly life. It’s a path of knowing Grace is always present in one’s life.

FOR YOGA TEACHERS:
Trainings for teachers are coming up!

— Sequencing with the UPA’s March 26-29, in NYC
— Themes and related Verbal prowess May 15-18, Upstate NY
— Anusara Yoga’s Therapeutic Applications June 28-July 2, Retreat in Colorado

Click below or find out more here.