One of the oldest philosophical meanings and purposes of yoga is the practice of any discipline that can help one experience non-duality. Through our human mind we perceive duality. The truth of creation is that we are all one but as long as we live in the human body we witness creation through the mind which distorts our perception. The maya that we struggle to understand is the illusion of the mind’s perception of the self as separate from the whole. It is said that this limited understanding is the main source of all suffering. Our yogic disciplines (practices that unify mind body and spirit) connect us to the universal heart, to the unified experience of remembering source and create a space that help us experience the realization that we are emanations of one unified source energy.
In times of difficulty and/or transition I rely on a few things that have been consistent throughout my life. Those are: my love of nature, music, my self expression through words and yoga. As I get older I realize I’ve carried these things with me throughout my entire life because they’ve been a source of stability even in the most unstable times, in that they anchor me back to my relationship with source.
As I am currently settling into a new life my yogic practice and other disciplines, feel invaluable. These brief moments, where I come back to myself, I return to my experience of unification with source, I come back to my heart, I come back to peace. My disciplines and moments of remembering union make dealing with the unknown in my external world, the duality of my external reality, less daunting. It’s easier for me to surrender into the unknown, when I regularly take the time to reconnect to my authentic self, the home base that I can trust within my discipline, within my heart.