It’s Inevitable

At a certain point in your yoga journey, you will reach this transition. For some sooner; for others later. But you will reach it.

Let me give a context:

Defined one way, yoga is the development of energy awareness and control for the purpose of realizing freedom, AND the resulting freedom itself.

I will say again: yoga is the awareness and control of one’s energies for freedom.

The most dense form of your energy is your physical body, and this is where we generally focus our attention at the beginning of our yoga journey. And this is appropriate.

This development includes:

• Alignment

• Knowledge of anatomy

• Sequencing between postures

• Basic awareness and concentration

• Shatkarmas (bodily cleanses)

Now classically, the authentic lineages of yoga knew how to develop all aspects of one’s energy in an integral or holistic fashion: body, breath, mind, emotions, and subtle energy.

For better or worse, yoga in the States has largely focused on mastering the physical form, and to a lesser degree the breath. This is the general state of yoga-asana in the US.

So now there is an increasingly large group of American practitioners that have a sufficient level of proficiency of the body, and feel an urge to go farther but don’t know where ‘farther’ is or how to access it. Essentially, they have hit their ‘yoga ceiling’.

With this yoga ceiling, three things can result:

1. A growing fixation/obsession with appearance of the body, physical power, and physical ability

2. Greater sensitivity and energetic openness that can imbalance and overwhelm, especially in urban or social situations

3. A sense of inner disquiet and hollowness around continued body-based yoga

I want to stress: these are good signs! They represent yogic growing pains…you are outgrowing your current skin and are reaching for the next levels of your yoga journey.

Shatter your ceiling

Experiencing this plateau of your yogic journey, what are the next levels of practice that await you?

1. Advanced Breathwork (Pranayama) and Meditation

Using inner sensitivity of breath and body to create deep internal control of bio-physical energies

2. Tantra

Learning to move energy within the body; collecting it, focusing it, enriching it and exchanging it

3. Tapas/Vital Energy

Development of the inner energy to meet outer challenges and transform them

4. Higher Mental and Emotional Mastery

Developing the ability to choose empowered mental and emotional states and protect them from negativities (classically called the ‘crystalization of the subtle body’)

5. Channeling and Leadership

Using these high-energy states to connect to greater fields of energy (collective energy) and ground them into the physical world (conscious collective evolution)

If these ideas are new to you, they may seem esoteric or intangible; this cannot be farther from the truth! These abilities are your natural inheritance.

As explained in the Awesomeness Accord, we are essentially built for awesomeness–for incredible vibrancy. These higher level yogic practices are concrete tools to help uncover more of this vibrancy in your daily life.

Cue Yoga for Superheroes

This is the natural progression of Raja Yoga as Patanjali and other Raja Yogis have described it. And this is one way out of many to describe the journey back into awesomeness that the League exists for.

By stepping into these levels of practice, you will inevitably shatter your yogic/self-development ceiling, and experience an increased sense of fulfillment and success at the levels of wellness, relationships, career and social abundance (not to mention authentic freedom and self-realization).

The Power-Up Guides, the Hero Quests, the Coaching and Training Services–all aspects of the League of Awesomeness–are here to support and empower this process for you.

And of course, the yoga classes I hold weekly also focus on helping you to identify and then skillfully go beyond your current ceilings.

Now is the time to stretch, to expand, to courageously explore the unknown. You are supported!

Share below your experiences of personal-growth/yogic ceilings, and how you are empowering them.

Here’s to ever new heights,
Eka

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