6 Ways to Dive into Your Heart, Life and Yoga Practice

Most Westerners, myself included, start their spiritual journey in the physical. Meaning, they start "yoga" in the aspect of the postures, the poses, the asana. (Please read Patanjali's 8 Limbs of Yoga.) Once practitioners begin their quest, their hunger calls for something more and they begin to explore the realm of what yoga really means. The usual route goes something like this, a person starts doing the practice of poses and begins to clear their body and energetic channels begin to unlock and open, then the mind starts to make connections with the body, then the person starts to meditate, the mind begins its clarification process, then the soul awakens, the heart becomes alive and then we reach the energectic field as a whole. But different people start at different routes -- pranayama (which is a whole science within itself) meditation, japa, sacred text recitation, shaman medicine, chanting, cooking, golfing, playing music, making art, etc etc. The list goes on. Doesn't matter where you start, as long as you get there. There meaning, back to you. Whatever connects you to that space. Here are some ways to get the most out of your spiritual practice in your everyday life.

1. "The yoga just doesn't work anymore." I've heard this sentence so many times. Is it the yoga that doesn't work or is it how you're meeting the yoga? If you're feeling sedentary in your practice, as if there is no raising in the level of your vibration or knowledge or sense of fun and enjoyment, you gotta up level your game. Most likely, you're at a plateau. This can be due to a number of different reasons. Explore and find out what it is that you need to enhance your sadhana. Yoga may start off as one thing, but it is like any relationship-it evolves as you evolve. What once worked may not work anymore. It's time to add more ingredients or go deeper into the juice.

2. Find a teacher that is capable of taking you where you want to go. There are so many teachers in this world! Each teacher is unique in their approach to the teachings of the yoga. Our translation of the teachings comes through the filter of our own personal sadhana. Find one whom you respect and resonate with. Look at their teachers, and their teachers' teachers. You will know with whom you're supposed to be with. Trust your intuition. When that bond, trust and spiritual connection is established, the possibilities of growth and evolution are limitless. There is nothing like a pure teacher/student relationship-the exchange can be so beautiful. Keep looking until you find the one(s). They are out there. When it's time to leave them, you will know. Teachers take on many different forms and faces. Remember, the #1 guru is YOU. You choose the teacher as much as the teacher chooses you.

3. It might be time for you to cultivate your own practice. Especially if you're a teacher. If you're a teacher, you have got to have your own practice and most importantly, you better be meditating. That's just my opinion anyways. How do you expect to guide your students if your personal practice is not rooted and grounded into the foundations of yoga? If you're a practitioner, this is an empowering and big step to walk foot and the ultimate goal for anyone who has the desire to take on full reigns and responsibility for their own journey. Your practice will take you as far as your intention is steeped into it and how much energy you direct into it. Most likely, it will happen naturally. That's how it worked for me.

4. READ. So you're doing all this "stuff" to enhance your awareness and consciousness, if you read books on what it is you're actually doing, you will then have the words to define your experience. Your mind will then intellectually be able to grasp and understand all of these concepts and connections to the bodymind. Plus, it makes you a more intelligent and conscious individual. Your brain wants to be fed valuable information. Neurons want to be ignited and sparked into use. Allow your mind to indulge in what it was made to do-organize and filter information to connect with your bodily senses to allow for a greater life experience!

5. MEDITATE. Meditate everyday! Once you make a routine, your mind will start to get hungry for it. It will crave for that space of peace. If you're a beginner, start off at 5 minutes a day - if that's too intense, start at 1 minute a day. When closing your eyes for 1 minute and sitting there, doing nothing but being with yourself becomes easy for you, add on more minutes. I'm not being facetious, I'm being quite practical and real. When I first started meditating, 5 minutes seemed like an eternity-it was so challenging to just… sit there! Now 30 minutes go by in a blink of an eye. It's like anything, if you want to build a house, you gotta start from the foundation, the bottom, the closest to the earth, first. If sitting cross legged on the floor freaks you out, sit in a chair. No big deal, just make sure your spine is vertical.

6. Don't do it if your heart's not in it. Some of the most spiritual people I know aren't quote unquote, spiritual. Some of people who look the most spiritual, aren't really that spiritual, you know? And for some that do look the part, they really are. All I'm saying is, don't judge a book by it's cover and don't waste your time with frivolous notions and worry about an image and whatnot. What matters comes from inside. For some people, spirituality takes on different forms, they connect to their music, their painting, their surfing, their knitting, their photography, their writing, their (enter verb here)ing-- anything, it can be anything-some just have a deep connection with an internal part of themselves that does not call for an external showcase of this kind of lifestyle. For some people, myself included, this is my life. I teach this stuff, I'm immersed in it, this is why I'm breathing, this is what I'm here to do-and this is the #1 rule: do not perform any ritual or task, if your heart is not connected to it. Your ego may get something out of it-but for how long does that really last? Ego is fleeting, spirit is everlasting. It's about your own personal connection with the Divine, that place, that sacred holy space. As long as you know what you're doing and why you're doing it, your sadhana will grow and unfold in such magical, mysterious and magnificent ways. You know your practice is working when life gets better and better, day after day. May you dive ever more deeply into your heart, your life, and your practice!