One day, a long time ago I have made a decision. I wanted to change my life, but did not know how. Pondering what am I going to do with this existence something came to me. What if I just choose to be happy! After all that is what we all want, I guessed. What if whatever I do does not matter at all, as long as I have that one and only vision, to be happy. How would being happy look like practically? How would I still be doing what I am doing and being happy with it?
The major changes in my life started happening with this one and only decision. I want to be happy, not in the future but now.
I still needed to go back to my work which I didn’t really like, but with the certitude of the choice to be happy, it didn’t feel so hard anymore. I did what I didn’t like, but had to do it to change my life, looking forward to enjoy my life truly.
And then life/I put me/myself through changes and challenges so I would learn HOW to be happy. And it wasn’t easy. If this is what it meant to be happy I had to learn a lot. I needed to swallow my pride and it was cleansing. I had to reflect on my past and it was painful. I was pushed to the most remote places to be on my own and I was lonely. And I failed and I was disappointed and I didn’t give up, in a very naïve way. I knew deep inside, all I need to do is to feel that joy.
Then one day about ten years later I found Purna Yoga with its Heartfull™ Meditation. From then on things got a bit more practical. I finally learned that there is an actual metaphysical place for what I have felt, it is called the heart center. Unlike the physical heart which is on the left side of our chest, the heart center is in the middle of the chest, right behind the sternum and in front of the spine around T5. That is the place from where I have been feeling my sincere happiness, but now I realized that this is a place much more powerful then I have ever thought. The heart center
can be visualized as a light.
By then life has shown me that if you have one choice to make don’t choose to have more things in your life, because the things you want, come, by choosing the right feeling. The discovery of the heart centre opened a whole new area as the feeling of being thankful and loving unconditionally comes also from that same place. And I learned that I only need to tap in to this place and choose any of those feelings. Now I knew I can truly trust to create what I want by switching on the heart switch. After all our inner reality creates our outer circumstances.
The great Sri Aurobindo said “…Yet for joy and not for sorrow the earth was made…” and when it comes to a yoga practice it doesn’t have to be all so serious. I am not a yoga teacher who wants to go with the trendy yoga move, I want to teach yoga with integrity to make people feel more alive and honestly happy. A yoga which comes from the depth of the soul to create more joy.
We need to do the work of a transormative meditation to connect with our heart center and our soul’s purpose, we need to center our mind so that our thoughts are not taking the power over the heart. Also letting our emotions not come in the way, so that the ego doesn’t pretend to be the heart or the leader of our life.
All life is yoga and yoga and life must be enjoyable. In class, I really like to make people laugh. I want them to know of the power of the heart and to love what they do after they leave my class. Asana is wonderful, it opens the channels in our body so that we can really feel good physically and when we feel good we laugh more, especially after doing backbends. We use backbends to create more joy. We avoid forward bends for depression, even thought they are good for the nervous system.
When we feel good there is no way someone can drag down our mood. Heartfull™ Meditation is a “mood stabilizer”.
Did you know when you put a smile on your face that your heart physically opens? Try it! It works, even when people around us are grumpy and moody. Give them the gift of a smile and you will feel good and maybe even make their day a better one.
Feel good yoga is what I decided to teach! To be happy and to share the happiness.