by Betsy
Once you get past the whole idea of this Hallmark Card Holiday,
Valentine’s Day is actually kinda cool. It truly is a celebration of
Love. It is Bhakti Personified. Bhakti is the pure expression of Love and
Devotion. Strip away the idea of specific kinds of love and open it up to
the idea of Universal Love. Try to be a little warmer to people in all your
communications today. Let yourself be generous and compassionate to
yourself and others too! Open yourself up to the idea of receiving and
giving Love!
When it comes to your yoga practice, do a heart opening practice starting
with a mantra that is great for the 4th Chakra, or Anahata Chakra. The 4th
chakra governs the heart. The seed sound of the chakra is Yam,
pronounced almost like the sound Yum, which is a delicious sound to
chant over and over again to stimulate the awakening of the 4th
chakra. Chant "Yam, Yam, Yam..." 108 times.
Balancing your 4th chakra promotes the healing of emotional
wounds and helps one let go of old issues of grief and loss, emotional
heaviness, sadness, despair and depression, and finally feelings of
being unloved or unlovable. So, linger a little longer in your Upward Facing
Dog, engaging your shoulders down the back body. Do some crescent
Moons, which are great to open and lift the chest. Reach your arms up
and lean back to find lift and opening in the heart. Ustrasana, or camel
pose is amazing too, focus on lifting up through the upper back to open
the chest. You can also lie down on the floor for a full wheel, or Urdhva
Dhanurasana. Build it from the ground up with your hands on either
side of your ears. Root down into hands and feet equally keeping your
feet parallel and rise up onto the crown of your head to prepare. From
there you can begin to straighten your arms and press the earth away to
lift all the way up into your wheel. End up with a supported Supta Baddha
Konasana (also called Reclined Goddess Pose) with a bolster under
the back for supreme heart opening. This feels amazing and also is such a
receptive position. Colour visualization can be very healing, using the
colour green which is the colour of the heart. Poetry is inspiring, especially
the poetry of the bhakti poets, Rumi and Hafiz to warm your heart at
Valentine’s day. Read it yourself or read it to someone you love. Here is
one of my favorite Rumi poems and Hafiz too.…….
THE LUTE WILL BEG
Hafiz
You need to become a pen
In the Sun´s hand.
We need for the earth to sing
Through our pores and eyes.
The body will again become restless
Until your soul paints all its beauty
Upon the sky.
Don´t tell me, dear ones,
That what Hafiz says is not true,
For when the heart tastes its glorious destiny
And you awake to our constant need
for your love
God´s lute will beg
For your hands.
An Excerpt from “Dance In Your Blood”
Rumi
Inside water, a waterwheel turns
and a star circulates with the moon.
We live in this night ocean wondering,
“What are these lights”
A secret turning in us
Makes the whole universe turn
Head unaware of feet, feet head
Neither cares, they just keep on turning.
This moment that this love comes to rest in me
Many beings in one being
In one wheat grain, a thousand sheaf stacks
In a needle’s eye a turning night of stars
Keep on walking, though there’s nowhere to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances
That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Some nights stay up until dawn
As the moon sometimes does for the sun.
Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way of a well
And then lifted into the light.
I am so small, I can hardly be seen
How can this great love be inside me
Look at your eyes, they are so small
And yet they see enormous things.
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