05/15/10 by Vibhuti Jaya | chronicle | No Comments »
Herstory – Part 2
The year was 1999, a period of fiery momentum"strength or force gained by motion"! It was a time of burgeoning awareness and self-discovery. The gifted therapist who introduced me to Jung guided my explorations then. I began to ponder and to learn about myself on the couch (instead of the mat). During that personal work, I became awed by the study of mind. I fell in love with psychology and took to the self-inquiry like a fish to water. In my new, smaller body I also let myself fall in love with movement again. Seeking some expansion, I bravely ventured forth upon the fitness scene. I moved my exercise"bodily exertion for the sake of developing and maintaining physical fitness" life from the seclusion of the tiny semi-private gym at work, to the open, public, jungle-wilds of “commercial gym land”. Like a fluffy little innocent lamb to the slaughter, I went. (Baaaaaaaaa…)
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05/14/10 by Vibhuti Jaya | chronicle | No Comments »
Herstory – Part 3
The year was 2003, and it was a year of challenge and trial (and also of friendship and triumph)! Some overwhelming life circumstances inspired me to accept a friend’s invitation to participate in a 200 hour yoga teacher training (YTT) program in a nearby city. I had long since fallen miserably away from my yoga practice, and I longed for something that would reconnect me to that sense of vitality, purpose and belonging. I had become utterly disenchanted with playing the gym rat, so I gave up on all the nutritional supplements and backed off from the zeal of my workouts. My cute little clothes were tightening and the numbers on the scale told the rest of that unforgiving story. I was gaining back The Weight"a measure of the heaviness of a person", and because of what was happening in my personal life, I felt depressed and paralyzed to do anything to stop it.
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05/12/10 by Vibhuti Jaya | chronicle | No Comments »
Herstory – Part 4
The year was 2004, and it was a time of powerful shifts and deep study. I trekked off to The Windy City (Chicago, IL) in the middle of a nineteen degree winter for yet another yoga teacher training. I ate raw broccoli, walked the streets and bathed in Aveeno to soothe my wind-chapped, oversized thighs.
I read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and wondered if I would die of shame"a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety" in those crowded classes, completely surrounded by perfect"being entirely without fault or defect, flawelss", glistening, head-standing, urban yogis. I was out manned, and feeling out classed, as I studied how to teach Fluid Power Vinyasa yoga. The flaxen haired goddess of the commercial yoga scene, Shiva Rea was my guide. (Undulate!)
There, I fell in love with what she called “The Bhairava”. We read from it in the afternoons and I was just seduced by its beauty and passion. Coincidentally, I am actually re-reading it now, and I’m tweeting about its contents on twitter these days. More formally, it is known as the Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, (by Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati) and it is now my very favorite translation of one of India’s ancient texts.
Six (6) days and thousands of Surya Namaskars later, I went astoundingly deep, feeling my first spontaneous posture flow and seeing startling images in my mind’s eye during savasana. I had a completely transpersonal"is concerned with the study of consciousness, phenomenon, peak human potential, and bridging the spiritual with modern psychological theory" / transcendent, exceptional human experience [EHE] on the floor of Moksha Yoga’s Riverwest studio that would later motivate me to 1). Question my grasp of reality and 2). Embark upon a spiritual quest for answers.
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