Daily practice

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Avtar and others,

 

I think it's important for beginners to hear stories like yours and

mine about daily practices, because we don't all wake up one day and

start a 4 am practice and quit eating meat! just like that. My

humble beginnings was practicing BOF at red lights! this was my

only spare time when I began KY! I had to quit my job in order to

begin a daily practice and begin working out of my home so I could

arrange my scheduale to allow myself to do yoga between 7:30-

9:30am. The thought of getting up early hadn't even crossed my mind

at that point. But eventually as time wore on I felt called to

meditate longer, change my diet and like you I've always done my

sadhana (haven't missed in 3 1/2 years) but it was after 6am! I

contemplated getting up at 4 am for a year before actually doing it,

same with vegetarianism, a full year, before I was ready for the

shift. Living a yogic lifestyle is very challenging in an

enviroment where you are surrounded by people who don't live that

same lifestyle,family etc. I would never choose not to live the way

I do, but it required transitions and growing into it for sure, for

my sake as well as the people around me.

 

Ha! I've been contemplating cold showers for a year now as well.

I've had ice in my core up until now so I was unable to have one

without feeling ill, But at winter solstice something shifted for

me, on the plane ride home I turned to my friend and said,"I think I

can have cold showers now". Today marked my 3rd cold shower,

although I may have had it too cold, I gave myself a brain freeze!

The old lean over screaming grabbing your head because the pain..

the pain... Ha Ha! I guess it's what I needed because my face broke

out while I was in the shower instantly! Detox, I guess!

 

When I was at Summer solstice I kept having the thought"I want to be

a pure one, I want to be a Khalsa" go through my mind and all the

feelings I had around not feeling like a "pure one." At winter

solstice during the white tantric I heard the words "you ARE a

Khalsa!" This is what a khalsa does, the they come to these events

and they hold their arms up in the air for a hour at a time because

they want to cleanse their subconscious mind,and they Keep up, under

any circumstance they do their best to keep up! And keeping up is

no more than just doing your best in any given moment. It doesn't

mean I attain this constant level of perfection in every moment, but

that my intention is to live in union with the Divine and my actions

support this to the best of my ability.

 

Sat Sangeet Kaur

[Guest guest]

Sat Sangeet kaur,

 

You said it all beautifully. Becoming a yogi is a process, and it can be

a humbling one when we are not able to do everything we would like to as

soon as we would like to. Cold showers - at Master's Touch I was very

challenged by the cold - having just come from 98 degrees and 100%

humidity. Not to metion an allergy to the water. I couldn't even face

the THOUGHT of a cold shower, even though eveyone kept telling me it

would warm me up. When I got home and was more ready I began and was

very glad I hadn't given in to the pressure to conform. It's not a

contest, just a gradual awakening to a different way of life.

 

Avtar

 

______________

Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today

Only $9.95 per month!

Visit www.juno.com