Writing Takes Me to My Pathway of Inner Peace - #3

Welcome back to my Healing Motion Blog. If you read last week’s Healing Motion Blog please scroll down to the Chapter 3 excerpt.

If you’re new to my Blog, please enjoy the full page:

I am continuing to enjoy the process of editing each chapter and flashback for my upcoming memoir, Apple In My Truck, A Pathway to Inner Peace.

Erin R Lund of Sunshine Editorial Services is currently hard at work brightening each paragraph. I am grateful to Erin for her professionalism, enthusiasm, and quick wit.

My initial editor was Angie Bihn. She had helped me to unbury my painful past while writing and editing. I have referred to Angie in previous blogs as my personal therapeutic archeologist. I am thankful to have Angie’s brilliance within the pages of Apple In My Truck.

Allow me to briefly explain my history with writing. One afternoon during elementary school recess, in 1978, my teacher kept me confined to the classroom while the other children got to play. Her reasoning was that I needed to learn how to NOT talk during the moment she was performing roll-call.

My punishment was to stand in front of the chalkboard and write out I will not talk in class onehundred times. So you can imagine that I never really liked writing much when I was younger.

From 1993 to 2011, while living in Arizona, I worked in the emergency medical and fire service profession, in which patient documentation was a daily requirement. Therefore, while I worked for the fire service, the act of writing was always performed in stressful situations.

However, in 2011, I discovered a Yoga Teacher Training program. It was my yoga teacher trainers who helped me to realize that yoga wasn’t only a physical practice. They’d taught me that yoga is about joining together or, yoking, body, mind and spirit. I’d learned how to connect to my Higher Self mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Today, I continue to practice the ancient teachings of yoga, especially the teachings of an ancient sage known as Patanjali. He is famous for his teachings of the Yoga Sutras. The Eight-Limb Path of Yoga is embedded within the Yoga Sutras.

Svadhyaya (self-study, study of the Self, journaling) is the fourth tenant that resides underneath the second-limb or Niyamas, which inspired me to begin journaling or writing.

My yogic path of a daily Sadhana (practice) of the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga continues. I will be a forever student of yoga continually visiting the teachings of Patanjali to learn, explore and reach my own pathway to inner peace.

Below is a short excerpt from Chapter Three, Wing It, from Apple In My Truck, A Pathway to Inner Peace.

Chapter 3 Excerpt:

    The group of five was silent, telling me that the temperature was fine. I found my own comfortable seat up on a yoga block with legs crossed. I felt grounded and content.

“If anyone needs any assistance during the class, please give me a finger wiggle. Sit comfortably, however that looks for you. Whether the bottom of your feet are together, legs crossed or kneeling. Close your eyes and simply notice how your breath feels.”

    I wanted to close my eyes too, but a student distracted me by waving her arm. She signaled for me to turn off that little lamp. I did so immediately, hoping to help ease her mind. I sensed her sigh of relief now that the light was off. Oh my gosh. Now I won’t be able to read the Yoga Nidra cards.

    My Yoga Nidra teacher did tell us once, “Make up your own meditations. It’s fun.” Panic seeped in as I felt my heart flutter. Yeah, I am sure it's a blast when you can prepare, create your own meditations and have the time to practice before actually guiding a class with real people. I guess I’’ll just wing it. Breathe. Spirit, please help me to say the words that I need to so these folks can go into a deep meditation. “Inhale and feel your breath relaxing a little bit more with your eyes closed; this helps to slow the activity of the mind.”

Finally, I also closed my eyes. Besides, there was nothing to see in the dark, anyway. “On your next deep inhale, inflate your belly, lungs, and your whole chest. Join your hands together at your heart center for our opening prayer.”

    I actually remembered the prayer that was taught to us in Yoga Nidra training, and I recited it from memory: “May this practice lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from time-bound consciousness to a timeless state of being. Tune into the sound of your breath. Hear your breath moving in and hear your breath moving out.” I paused for a moment of silence.

“Now turn on your Ujjayi, or Victorious Breath.” The sounds of the students’ Ujjayi breath sent a calmness throughout the room. “Your breath will sound similar to a wave in the ocean. Feel and hear your inhale through your nose. Pause at the top of the inhale. Repeat the Ujjayi breath three times as you continue to slow your rate of breathing.”

    My mind pulled me in the direction of a memory where I had been guiding Tony Joe in a Yoga Nidra session. It was late one night when he had stopped by to pick up something. Of course, I offered him something to eat, which he accepted. We got into a long conversation, and before we knew it, the time had flown. Tony Joe yawned, saying, “I hope I don’t fall asleep on my drive home. I am tired.”

    Reassuring him “Son, allow me to give you a Yoga Nidra session to help your body rest.”

I’ve told some of my students, “Instead of taking a sleeping pill, take a Yoga Nidra.” Tony Joe’s Yoga Nidra had been a spur-of-the-moment session, and I hadn’t used any cue cards. He had been so physically exhausted that his body fell into a deep sleep. I would’ve ’left him sleeping on the floor, but the vibration of his girlfriend Setresa’s text message woke him up.

    Next my mind was disturbed by a familiar sound. No way! I am NOT hearing a vibration during this meditation. I know it’s not mine. One student began rustling through her bag in the dark to find her cell phone to cease its disturbing energy. “When you sense any outside distractions, allow the distraction to pull you deeper down. Go inward.”

I got this one. I can do this without the cue cards.

***

I hope you enjoyed this short sample of Apple In My Truck, A Pathway To Inner Peace. Stay tuned, as next week I’ll bring you another brief excerpt from my upcoming memoir.

To learn more about the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga please read my self-published fictional book, dYnO’s DaNcE, On The Eight-Limb Path.

dYnO’s DaNcE, On The Eight-Limb Path is an imaginative tale liberally sprinkled with Patañjali’s spiritual teachings. This story offers a great pathway for you to connect with your inner child.

Find your copy online at:

https://www.amazon.com/Alicia-J.-Valentyn/e/B086VNZ8ML

Be A Flower,

Share your Beauty.

Namaste.

Alicia

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