Thanks to Mari Kato sensei, my aromatherapy teacher (the BEST), I have grown to appreciate how this alternative healing modality can be used to enhance my yoga practice. While lying down under someone’s expert hands on a massage table certainly is an irreplaceable treat – lucky! – when that service is not available to you – then what? Suffer?
What if you can relive the experience of relief and renewal with your very own movements, postures and positioning – rather than be dependent – rather be at the mercy of someone else to provide relief. What if you could care for yourself routinely and bring that luminous self to the group class ? Such positive energy to be harnessed for the whole is bound to have a multiplier effect to benefit all. I term Aroma Yoga as my own new style – )practiced at night, Aroma Lunar Yoga ! Forms are calibrated to meet you where you are, mindful of this reality, that in this life, there is no such thing as security – if there ever was one, it’s a temporary illusion – and that’s okay as you know how to care for self and others in such state of entropy. Yoga students know how to take care of self and others:
“Security does not exist. The more we try to build security, the greater our fear becomes–and the stronger our barrier to intimacy. And self-protection is an illusion. The more we bolster self-protection, the thicker our armor grows–and the more it hardens like a shell to enclose the true and vulnerable self which turtles inward.
In the desert of the heart, there is no safety. We can search, instead, for nourishment in the compassion that dwells just beyond it. And in the wilderness of the body, there is no insurance against injury and decay. We can seek, instead, the moment-to-moment tumult of sensation, investigation, and change that we often mistake for the body’s betrayal. And in the dimly-lit environs of the mind, there is little true reassurance. We can listen inward, instead, for alternatives to the default mental patterns that define us. What might this searching, seeking, and listening look like? ” – Bo Forbes
With that acceptance I practice my Aroma Yoga…Benefits are so numerous, you will be in 7th Heaven as your head hits the pillow at night:
“Aromatherapy is the treatment or prevention of disease by use of essential oils. Other stated uses include pain and anxiety reduction, enhancement of energy and short-term memory, relaxation, hair loss prevention, and reduction of eczema-induced itching.
Two basic mechanisms are offered to explain the purported effects. One is the influence of aroma on the brain, especially the limbic system through the olfactory system.The other is the direct pharmacological effects of the essential oils.While precise knowledge of the synergy between the body and aromatic oils is often claimed by aromatherapists, the efficacy of aromatherapy remains unproven. However, some preliminary clinical studies of aromatherapy in combination with other techniques show positive effects. Aromatherapy does not cure conditions, but helps the body to find a natural way to cure itself and improve immune response.” (excerpt quoted from Wikipedia)
We can uncover the trapped radiance within while allowing your
muscles to switch off to seal in this practice of mindfulness.
Bring your mental chatters to quiet stillness with some natural aides.
Mind-Body-Spirit come together …
Namaste:)
