What is spirituality?
If you look to the dictionary to define it, you will find,
spiritual |ˈspiriCHo͞oəl|adjective1 of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things
But what does that mean?!
To me, spirituality exists in everything that I do. You need only acknowledge the soul to see it. I find spirituality in my daily routines, from driving my car to brushing my teeth. I consider spirituality a conscious act of connection that can be acted out through routine or practice.
yoga |ˈyōgə|nouna Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breathcontrol, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.
Having never practiced yoga before but feeling a pull towards it through meditation, I enrolled in a yoga class at my university, two years ago.
The path of discovery is infinite and as I write, I further delve into the realm of realization. This video now hits home more than it did before. -->
But, "ruin is a gift and ruin is the road to transformation."- Elizabeth Gilbert
While taking this yoga class, I found it, well #1, hard as hell. :) But as I began to further my practice, I began to feel...centered. The actions to follow my yoga practice resulted in the furthering of my journey towards spiritual discovery.
I now realize that the time I gave to my yoga practice allowed me to acknowledge how I truly felt. But what was that, what did I feel? I felt scared. Scared that what I was doing wasn't what I wanted to do. Scared that the epiphanies I was experiencing while practicing yoga weren't going to be found in the books I was studying, or the teachers I was listening to or in the papers I was writing.
So I asked myself, fight or flight?... Well, I ran like hell, but I ran in the right direction. I ran so far that I withdrew from school and applied for an internship at the Pachamama Alliance in San Francisco.
But having withdrawn from school, I was no longer taking the yoga class, so for the time, I quit practicing. Until recently, I felt called to begin again. And how it has brought me home.
As coincidence becomes harder and harder to believe... Life repeats itself and the circular motion becomes more noticeable as time moves on.
I have been back in school since 2013 and started yoga again at the beginning of the 2014 calendar year. An existential crisis, once again arose, leaving me with the notion of another withdrawal and another spiritual adventure in mind...
I began to feel the very same things I felt before, at the very exact time. I asked myself countless questions, what am I doing here? Why am I going to school? Is this really what I want? Now if you ask my parents, or anyone with the delusion of "the american dream" in their head, they say, "stay in school, finish, so you can get a good job and make enough money to buy a house and meet a man and raise a family," and all I hear is BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, as I begin to realize how little they know me, or how ignorant they are to the act of acceptance.
But I know, that acceptance lies in the ability to redefine.
In my life, I try to live with no definitives. I find that in absolute thinking, you can close doors.
So here I am, once again, trying to find balance but "the thing about balance is, it doesn't get easier, but it allows you to be more able to deal with the fluctuations that come up." -Kathryn Budig
Yoga allows me to focus. It pulls me back towards my center, allowing me to gaze upon the reflection of my soul, to see the things that in essence, truly matter...
If you look to the dictionary to define it, you will find,
spiritual |ˈspiriCHo͞oəl|adjective1 of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things
But what does that mean?!
To me, spirituality exists in everything that I do. You need only acknowledge the soul to see it. I find spirituality in my daily routines, from driving my car to brushing my teeth. I consider spirituality a conscious act of connection that can be acted out through routine or practice.
yoga |ˈyōgə|nouna Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breathcontrol, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.
Having never practiced yoga before but feeling a pull towards it through meditation, I enrolled in a yoga class at my university, two years ago.
The path of discovery is infinite and as I write, I further delve into the realm of realization. This video now hits home more than it did before. -->
But, "ruin is a gift and ruin is the road to transformation."- Elizabeth Gilbert
While taking this yoga class, I found it, well #1, hard as hell. :) But as I began to further my practice, I began to feel...centered. The actions to follow my yoga practice resulted in the furthering of my journey towards spiritual discovery.
I now realize that the time I gave to my yoga practice allowed me to acknowledge how I truly felt. But what was that, what did I feel? I felt scared. Scared that what I was doing wasn't what I wanted to do. Scared that the epiphanies I was experiencing while practicing yoga weren't going to be found in the books I was studying, or the teachers I was listening to or in the papers I was writing.
So I asked myself, fight or flight?... Well, I ran like hell, but I ran in the right direction. I ran so far that I withdrew from school and applied for an internship at the Pachamama Alliance in San Francisco.
But having withdrawn from school, I was no longer taking the yoga class, so for the time, I quit practicing. Until recently, I felt called to begin again. And how it has brought me home.
As coincidence becomes harder and harder to believe... Life repeats itself and the circular motion becomes more noticeable as time moves on.
I began to feel the very same things I felt before, at the very exact time. I asked myself countless questions, what am I doing here? Why am I going to school? Is this really what I want? Now if you ask my parents, or anyone with the delusion of "the american dream" in their head, they say, "stay in school, finish, so you can get a good job and make enough money to buy a house and meet a man and raise a family," and all I hear is BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, as I begin to realize how little they know me, or how ignorant they are to the act of acceptance.
But I know, that acceptance lies in the ability to redefine.In my life, I try to live with no definitives. I find that in absolute thinking, you can close doors.
So here I am, once again, trying to find balance but "the thing about balance is, it doesn't get easier, but it allows you to be more able to deal with the fluctuations that come up." -Kathryn Budig
Yoga allows me to focus. It pulls me back towards my center, allowing me to gaze upon the reflection of my soul, to see the things that in essence, truly matter...
Never forget that happiness is not determined by what’s happening around you, but rather what’s happening inside you. Too many of us depend on others, or outside sources, to gain happiness, but the truth is it always comes from within.
ReplyDeleteHi Natalie.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your writings. keep it up:)
Amber from Nashville