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Can Anusara Yoga Change Our World?
Desiree Rumbaugh
As I travel and teach Anusara yoga workshops in the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and New Zealand, it becomes apparent to me that people everywhere are ready for a shift in consciousness and yoga students and teachers are enthusiastically doing their part to help the world make this shift.
The traditional definition of yoga is “union” and to me it means this: When we know ourselves in a deeper way, we feel supported inside, united. We feel more complete and self-confident and this leads us to a sense of connection with our divine or eternal nature.
Without this type of integration, people often live with underlying and perhaps even unnamed fear, anger, sadness, or that ever-present question about life: “Is that all there is?”
Anusara yoga uses a three-limbed approach to help us empower ourselves to the point that it finally becomes possible to surrender to the divine will and trust that all will be well.
1. Tantric philosophy encourages us to “Say Yes to Life” and embrace it fully. We celebrate the gift of our human bodies and our lives and focus on taking whatever we have been given to higher and higher levels of health, radiance, and peace. When hard times come, we continue to look for even the smallest ray of light and focus our attention there until it grows bigger and brighter.
2. The simple yet powerful universal principles of alignment are “user-friendly” tools that help people understand how they can heal their own bodies and that change is always possible.
3. Anusara yoga encourages us to help, encourage, and support one another in and out of the yoga class. Rather than compare, compete with, or envy each other, we learn to trust that there will always be enough for everyone and that there is as much joy in celebrating the success of another as there is in achieving something of our own.
We share the joys and divide sorrows. Look for the good and believe in the possibility of transformation. All this from time spent on a yoga mat? Yes, and even more!
Come and see for yourself.
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The Art of “Going with the Flow” and Why Anusara Yoga Is Growing So Rapidly
As I travel around the world teaching Anusara workshops I am privileged to be gaining an eagle’s-eye view of our ever-changing world. In my workshops I often ask students to define the word “yoga.” Most often the answer is “union.” My next question is “union of what?” Most people say “body and mind.” And many are now saying “union with the higher self.”
“Union of body and mind” was my definition of yoga for a long time in the early years of my practice. Now, after 15 years of studying with John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, this definition has been further transformed by my understanding of what I am seeking and my practice has given me a unified body/mind that is strong and flexible, resilient and positive.
Now when I say yoga is union, I am referring to the uniting of my divine self with my human self. And I see this trend all over the world. People are hungry to know why we are here and why so many people suffer in our world. We want to know how we can reduce suffering and make the world a better place.
In the past, yoga was taught in a way that made it look as if it required very serious discipline, many hours of practice, and the continued denial of the pleasures of the world. Or it looked like an escape into a world of chanting om and listening to soft music with the sounds of nature in an attempt to soothe our stress. “Going with the flow” appeared to be an appropriate mantra for people with Type B personalities who could live in very modest circumstances and were free of big ambition.
The newer paradigm of “going with the flow” that Anusara offers seems to me to be a more practical fit with the way the majority of us are living our lives.
The message is Tantric: Say Yes to life. Align with your highest nature and then trust. And don’t just believe it because you hear it, actually feel it and know it, within and without.
Live, love, laugh, and embrace all parts of yourself and your life!
Learn how you can make new habits that will gradually replace the undesirable ones naturally and transform your body and attitude until you honestly feel your alignment with your divinity, regardless of how many hours you spend practicing, no matter what you eat, and what “mistakes” you think you might have made in your life.
All of our behavior patterns are constantly subject to change and they will continue to evolve naturally. There’s no need to impose rigid rules on people. It’s better to empower them with an understanding of how to physically and emotionally align with the highest self in a simple user-friendly way complete with laughter and lightness. Then all the rest will take care of itself. All we have to do is ask ourselves each day: “What is mine to do in this moment?
Feel all of your feelings and honor your pain. Then ask the questions and seek to find the answers that lead you back to the wholeness and joy that are your birthright and allow others to do the same for themselves. When your heart opens, fear releases and generosity naturally flows.
For more information about the healing and strengthening power of Anusara and how it empowers people to align with their highest nature through yoga and meditation, go to www.anusara.com.
Desiree Rumbaugh will be presenting an Anusara workshop October 3-5, 2008, in Paradise. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Rahasya and Dhara's story from The Orion.
Yoga, meditation help tame addiction, stress Jennifer Olinger Staff Writer April 28, 2004
Yoga, among other non-Western practices, can be tailored to help with the physiological and emotional aspects of addiction. Regardless of whether the addictive substance is legal or not, as harmless as coffee or as hardcore as heroine, treatments that work on a spiritual level, as opposed to a chemical one, are slowly becoming mainstream. "Personally, I think that even if it's not a problem yet, now is the time to start things like yoga, before weight starts to become an issue," said junior Celine Pettyjohn. She said her tendency toward comfort foods in times of stress has been reduced. "Because I'm in yoga and I've learned to do breathing control, I don't eat chocolate as much," Pettyjohn said. She said she plans to take a yoga class next semester as well. Chico State yoga instructor Annalisa Cunningham has paired yoga with affirmations and incorporated it into the 12-step program. She said that being aware of the body's signals is key. "Fatigue is one of our bodies' first warning signs that we are out of balance in our lives," Cunningham said in her book on the topic. "There are many ways to ignore the body's signals, but in the long run we are only doing harm to ourselves." She promotes breathing, stretching and journal writing as means of dealing with demanding situations. "Those of us who don't take time out for self-nurturing are more likely to relapse into self-destructive behavior due to stress," Cunningham said. Cunningham points out that yoga is most effective as part of a healthful lifestyle. "My system of healing addiction with yoga is to be used in addition to the 12-step program and recovery counseling," Cunningham said. "I would never say that yoga cures. I wouldn't be that presumptuous." Holistic therapy can attain good results. It can be preventative as well as therapeutic. "Because addiction is such a complex problem, it needs a treatment that can work on all of the issues," said Lisa Hill, a Chico acupuncturist who has been practicing for 17 years. She said acupuncture, used in conjunction with other holistic therapies, such as yoga and meditation, can fight addictions less invasively and with a higher success rate than traditional Western medicine can claim. "It's sort of the anchor that all the other therapies work around," Hill said. She said addiction tends to creep up on college students. "Most students don't think their drug use is particularly life diminishing," Hill said. Patients who had the thin needles placed in five or six strategic location in the cartilage of their outer ears spoke of a calming sensation that negated the need to feed their addiction. Meditative dance can also be used to deal with the emotions that people sometimes wish to suppress with a substance. Dhara Lemos has practiced and instructed dance meditation for more than 20 years. Her husband, Rahasya Poe, co-authored a book with her about the spiritual laws of healing. "It's deceptively simple," Poe said. "It all starts on the energy level." Dance meditation works by acting on emotions instead of just indirectly talking about them or ignoring them altogether. "Non-directive, or talking therapy, can work but it takes years and years and years," Poe said. "You can't do that with serious addiction because you might not even have days." He said that meditations help prevent relapses because they negate the effects of peer pressure. "It makes you less dependent on what other people think of you or want you to do," Poe said. He said it is important to get over the fear of self-expression. Lemos said she agrees. "Something happens to you when you allow yourself to express your emotions," Lemos said. "I don't want to be dependent on something to make me feel happy. Meditation gives me that." Jennifer Olinger
