Motivation Using Your Own Inner Fire

In this time of the New Year, we are trying to make change in our lives, but already, getting back into our normal routine may make our intentions hard to follow through on. We may be criticizing ourselves that we should have done more of our practice over the holidays, then it would be easier to get moving now. I wanted to give you an image that I have found helpful & that I have been using in my classes this week. This image comes from my time camping, something I love to do with my family & my hours spent watching this “caveman tv” & seeing it’s beauty, power & learning it’s ways.

Building a fire takes a bit of time & effort, sometimes we try & it goes out, so we try again. Then it is lit & as we add the fuel it needs, it begins to get brighter & stronger. Over time, the fire burns down, but there are some coals that still are there & when we clean off the ash & add more fuel, the fire lights up again. This part of my analogy is like the first time you try to do something, like yoga. It takes an effort & sometimes we don’t get it right away & have to keep trying until we start to see & feel the fire lit.

Now over time, our practice will be more regular & it’s like that fire that is burning with enough fuel. Sometimes we go overboard & over do things, that is like getting greedy & throwing on too much fuel at once & the fire may burn a bit out of control. In our practice, this is when we hold a pose too long, or go to deep & push into pain. It’s not always until later, when the fire has burned down, that we see the damage that we have done. But this teaches us to not go so aggressively next time, to be more patient.

Over time, as we have added fuel to the fire, over & over again, we find we have a bed of hot coals that will burn for a long time. They are concentrated & powerful. So even if we leave the fire for a while, all we have to do is add more fuel & the fire will begin to burn again. But if left too long, even the coals will become cold & to get the fire going, we will have to start all over again. This is like our practice, if we keep coming back to it on a regular basis, all we have to do is begin to move & we will feel our inner fire light again. Over time, we see how to keep that fire burning consistently & we benefit from the power & light our practice gives.

But life happens & sometimes we can’t practice as often as we like, remember that ember is still burning within you. Just as a fire over time will get covered in ash but the coals will still be burning below. We just have to take the time to clean off the soot, in our practice that would be that extra effort we need to get moving again, focusing or letting go of what is not serving us, stress, tension, judgment, fatigue. Once we clean off the soot, we see the ember is still there & we just add fuel to get going again. Try taking a long, full exhale & imaging all that is holding you back is being cleaned off & the next inhale starts to light the fire again.

This ember, is really an idea of our True Self or Spirit. That that light is always within us, but life’s stresses & strains tend to cover it up from our awareness & over time, we can even forget it’s there. So the times we get to class, it helps to awaken this awareness of our True Self & all it’s light. When we are not at class, our own practice, of yoga, meditation or pranayama (breath work) helps to keep connected to this awareness. And the times we don’t practice, we still have this memory in our selves, of our own inner light. It can be as easy as just taking a conscious breath & visualizing your own Light that is always there waiting to receive the fuel from you to grow.

On this theme I found an article from The Chopra Centre on how to spark inner change by connecting to your inner self.

http://www.chopra.com/articles/3-ways-to-spark-inner-change-for-the-new-year?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=170110+-+CCL+Newsletter&utm_campaign=Newsletter2017110

As a way to help ignite your inner fire, I am trying a new workshop/retreat here in Cochrane.

See the attached info for details: