Esoteric Background and Dynamic Mind Training

Fancy title, but basically im interested in your own personal history and journey of what lead you to meditation or yoga.

Also, what other arts do you practice to enhance or compliment your yoga and/or meditation practice?


Here is my story:

I did psychedelics when I was like 16 and then i realized while on mushrooms that the world i was percieving was the same as the masters. in hind sight i realize it was just the deepest into myself i had ever been and with that came the realization that my inner self creates my outer world, and I feel that I tasted enlightenment for a few brief minutes while on mushrooms. I didnt know anything about yoga at the time, but had heard about meditation and wasn't sure how to do it or whatnot.

A few years later I decided to go to a yoga class just cuz they had it at the gym. I went and I remember it being really hard, especially breathing through my nose. after the second class though, i felt so open and good, as if I were stoned or something, that at that moment I decided I had to learn more and keep this as a life long practice. Thus my learning began. I did mostly gym yoga for a while, which is very western and lacks most of the philosophical aspects of yoga - but it was great for my body. when i started doing yoga, I couldnt even come close to touching my toes. =)

Yoga lead to meditation obviously, and I have learned more about the philosophy of yoga and its roots as my journey progressed as well. My roomate and best friend at the time i was first starting yoga, was really into a disciplined practice of lucid dreaming, which is basically being fully aware that your dreaming in your dream, which gives you control to create your dream, anyways, i never got into lucid dreaming too much, but it is kind of complimentary to the practice as it deals a lot with discipline of the mind.

Later I decided I wanted to do a Martial Art (im a relatively small guy and I want to feel safe and confident wherever I go, i feel all humans should have that right). So i did some research and found Aikido. Aikido is literally "The Art of Peace". I see it as a divine art and the movements and connections made during practice of Aikido stimulate my subtle body as much as yoga does. Ki, or life energy, or Chi (as in Tai Chi) or Prana (as in pranayama) is the premise for aikido. naturally this compliments my yoga practice beautifully as it helps develop awareness of Self, a relationship with the universe, and develops your internal life energy, Ki (or prana in sanskrit).

I also befriended a few massage therapists in my yoga journey, but had never had a full body massage. Boy i don't know what i was waiting so long for!!! After I got my first massage i realized i had to learn how to do that toO! It made me feel so great! I had a permanent smile afterwards and I felt open and aware of the shifts in my own subtle energies. It felt very similar to the feeling after a great yoga session. SO I also ended up going to massage school, which by the way, is the best school ever. It basically paid for itself in massages, and you end up feeling great every day you go to school. Can't beat that!!!

Massage goes right along with my other arts. It helps focus my mind and intentions. When I am giving someone a massage I go to the place inside me that I go for meditation and Aikido. Its awsome to breath with someone thats on the table, you feel their breath, connect yours with it, and on the exhales is when most of the deeper work is done in the massage, releasing tensions that have been built up by emotions and whatever else causes us stress. So a full hour massage gets me feeling great usually too because its a nice long breathing session, combined with a focus of mind and an intent to heal. Its really a beautiful thing to give to others as well.

I have dabbled in Tai Chi and Chi Q'ong (sp?). I think they are great complimentary arts as well, but alas, I can't spread my energy too thin and have chosen Aikido, Yoga and Meditation to take main focus as my practices for Spiritual development.

I also find that Gardening is very conducive to these arts as well. For me, again, its like a meditation (as long as im doing it for the process rather than to meet a deadline hehe). It also feels great to eat food that you know where it comes from and that you know is poison free. So i have to add gardening because I think it is just so wonderful.

Thats my story! Lets hear yours!

 

Also, anyone into yoga that hasn't ever taken a partner yoga class, my gosh is it such a beautiful extension of yoga. Highly recommend it if possible!

 

My start for yoga has started this past year. I was turned onto yoga by none other then Yoga for Peace . He turned me onto the center where I would do Tai Chi (which moved to Hsing Yi and Qi Gong). Finally he convinced me to check out a friend of his’ class saying that she is an amazing teacher, which is true albeit the only teach I’ve had. Now, I’ve done Tae Kwon Do and many Tae Kwon Do based styles as well as being (at times) someone who works out at a gym. All this accounted for, I really wasn’t ready for the kind of work out I got at yoga. I fell instantly in love with the feeling I got after and during yoga.

I tired to get into the spiritual side of yoga more and more but I had a somewhat inherent distrust for any religion. (I went to a catholic school for 8 years… see what that does to for your mind lol) It’s hard for me even to focus my “chi” into the practices of Tai Chi and Qi Gong and the like… even more so hard to focus on the even “wilder” spiritual side of yoga. I don’t distrust it like I do Catholicism but I find any religion a hard pill to swallow.

I find this stage of my life a breaking away from Western thinking and floating a lot more to the eastern thinking, both in healing and martial life activities. As well as practicing the soft arts of Tai Chi, Qi Gong and on occasion Hsing Yi I’ve picked up Aikido (also with the help of Yoga for Peace lol) I would like to think that these all go together and with more and more study of all the arts it does seem to be true. They all seem to walk hand in hand and even at times I can see them using the same principals.

 

wow this thread bombed