I’d like to share a story of a beautiful moment that cracked my heart wide open. It happened on the playground. This moment is what led to this week’s intention for my yoga classes.
Picture her, Quinn, my now three year old daughter. She is sitting at the top of a cute little slide at our nearest playground that’s only 2 minutes walk from our house. She’s a little scared and nervous to go down by herself.
Two older girls notice her trepidation. They quickly come over without skipping a beat, and surround her with care, confidence, encouragement, and a whole lot of smiles!
I felt an energy of electricity move up through my body. It was the kind of energy that makes you want to jump for joy and clap your hands and say, “You can do it!”
I think Quinn didn’t know what to make of her situation! I could see her from the short distance away that I was. She was taking in this moment, really feeling into the decision she had before her. Her brother was also there supporting her. It was quite a beautiful scene to see Quinn being shown all this support and love from her brother and from these two girls who we did not know at all.
The fact that we didn’t know them made the moment even more rich. To take in this scene totally filled my heart with love, hope, and the true belief that living in unity with all others is possible. Especially when we just want each other to succeed and experience the joy of life!
That kind of unity and harmony in life is exactly what I hope for people to remember through practice this week.
To remember that it is possible, we can create it, and when we keep our eyes and our hearts open to it, we come to find that it is everywhere all the time. It’s pulsing through our veins. It’s being pumped throughout our body. And, it is breathed through the very ethers that we all share.
And you may wonder what I mean when I say it’s pulsing through our bodies, so I’ll invite you to take a sacred pause here, as I call it. Take a moment to lie down if you can. Close your eyes. Take some slow calming breaths that allow you to settle into a little bit more peace. And then begin to notice the subtle currents.
How does it feel? How do the currents feel? What do you notice about them? Do they feel like a physical tingling? Do they feel even more subtle, more like a knowing of something intuitive? Or perhaps you just noticed a subtle flow and movement that’s unexplainable?
In yoga we talk about the subtle body. We talk about this energy and this life force that is flowing through each of us. We call this energy prana. Prana lives in our physical form as much as our consciousness. It is the vibration of life.
Kathy Oddenino shares:
“This is the motivational force of life. Know the power of unity, as your energy flows with the energy of the universe. Trust in the United energy flowing through your bodies. Feel the inner peace of unity within yourself, and with the souls.”
Prana is everywhere and in everything. It is in each of us. It is in our very breath that we take and give.
It is the very breath that allows us to breathe ourselves into the world. It is the very breath that allows us to breathe our own unique creations into the world. And it is the very breath that allows us to sing our own unique song to the world.
As we sing our unique song to the world, each of our voices join in unity to create the vibration of humanity. Harmony and unity is here. Harmony and unity being created is possible. And we can witness harmony and unity when we keep our hearts open.
Peter N. Borys, from unity of the heart, wrote:
“The true self in unity with God always emanates from the interior of the heart.”
As you can continue to lie there and to notice your breath, as you can continue to witness the subtle currents within your body and your subtle body, now notice the interior of your heart.
What pulses there, in the interior of your heart? What currents are sharing themselves with you now?
Unity comes from a root Latin word ‘unus’ meaning One. Our hearts truly beat as one.
We are a family. We are each other’s brothers and sisters and beings of connection. We can be each other’s support, just like the girls to Quinn at the playground. We can be each other’s reminders of what’s possible within ourselves. We can be each other’s cheerleaders!
John W Adams from you and your deaf child writes:
“Family unity requires that each member of the family contribute to the family unit without losing his or her identity.”
I attributed this quote within the families of my own self; body, heart, emotions, psyche, and soul. I then attributed this quote to my own family, immediate and extended. And then I attributed this quote to the family of humanity.
May we each remember just how important and unique our individual self is within the whole. And may we remember just how whole, and integrated we all are with each other. Maybe we never lose sight of harmony and unity. May we create it. Maybe we see it. May we be it!
In unity,
Shawna
Breathe and Believe.