My Spiritual Home

As we reduce hypervigilance and feel safer, we have access to deeper spiritual connection.

Reducing the obstacles clears the path to experience stillness.

We intuitively know this and science backs it up. Most of the thoughts in our mind are generated by the nervous system. Yes, that nervous system with its negativity bias and tendency toward compulsive catastrophic thinking! We’re alert to danger and often in some level of fight/ flight/ freeze.

The same arms and legs that we appreciate as we move through daily life are ready to spring into action to fight or flee. Depending on the level of hypervigilance in any given moment, it can be a challenge to rest and let them come off duty. Many people find they are able to settle their limbs into resting more easily after a yoga or Qi Gong practice.

We brace ourselves against attack and tighten up through the neck and upper back. We clench our teeth or we clench our gut and hold our breath. We need at least some ease in our body or our attention is held at that layer.

Koshas (sheaths) are layers of being, moving inward from least subtle (physical body) to most subtle (bliss body)

Like scarves covering a lamp dim its light, the koshas conceal and veil the light of consciousness. In relaxation and yoga nidra practices, we move through the outer layers in sequence, relaxing and calming as we become aware of and soften each layer.

The sheaths or layers are connected and coordinated by the chakras and marma points. Working with the five koshas, we relax our body, our breath becomes diaphragmatic and smooth, and we work more skillfully with thoughts in the lower level of the mind (mostly generated by hypervigilance).

This opens the doorway to our intuitive wisdom, and to deep layers of peace in the vast silence of the mind.

In this stillness, we develop the capacity to be aware of the ever-present Witness, the part of our being that is ever pure, ever wise, ever free.

Join us Sunday February 5th as we explore Our Spiritual Home. Details here.