As a society, we have an obsession with performance and not exploration. In Purna Yoga, it's different. It's not about opening your chest wider; it's about exploring why your chest is closed. It's not about relieving lower back pain; it's about exploring what your body and mind are trying to tell you by creating lower back pain. So, in your practice, refuse the temptation to excel. Instead, invite the opportunity to explore.

-Aadil

 

Most of us can barely control our mind. It jumps from one thought to the next to the next. Yet, what we really must work on controlling is the subconscious mind, which holds the memories of everything you have seen, heard, done, or thought-at least since the time we were born.  The patterns of our current thoughts and their resultant words and actions are a result of the accumulated history of our past patterns (samskaras). As I go about my day-to-day life, I make a conscious effort to separate my actions from my observation of those actions, my thoughts from my observations of those thoughts, and my words from my observation of those words. This allows me to be more in control of what I'm about to do, think, or say.  This control is freedom.

-Aadil

 

Chlorine is one of the most abused chemicals in our society. It is used to kill bacteria in our city water and parasites on vegetables, to whiten teeth and clothes, and to clean mildew off shower walls.  Yet, it is highly toxic to the human system.  Therefore, avoid drinking unfiltered water. One hot shower with chlorinated city water is equivalent to drinking two glasses of the same water because the skin absorbs the chlorine as the heat vaporizes it and it is breathed into the lungs. I strongly recommend a whole-house carbon filter that is to be replaced every year, or individual shower filters made of copper-zinc alloy (and/or carbonized coconut shell) that binds the chlorine. For drinking water, I recommend reverse osmosis followed by a solid carbon block filter (not granulated carbon). An alternate is to use distilled water, following it with a carbon block, remembering that many distillers have a post-distillation carbon filter built in. Unfortunately, most distillation systems are plastic. Personally, I use reverse osmosis followed by a carbon block. 

 

-Aadil