The Anusara Sadhana: Our Body is Our Source and Temple

“Our Body is Our Source and Temple”

Deepening our relationship with ourselves

I started practicing Anusara yoga in late 2008, during a profound personal crisis. As I was navigating the complexities of adulthood, I felt disconnected from life and even from myself. I didn’t realize I had the freedom to choose how to navigate life’s challenges.

Just like the characters in ‘Growing Pains,’ I was going through growing pains. New structures were forming in my life, and as we know, dissolution processes can be chaotic, painful, mysterious, and full of potential.

Anusara Yoga became my sanctuary, inviting me to explore myself in ways I never had before. It’s a practice that connects me with the sublime in the mundane. It’s my chosen family, my tribe, and the community that supports me.

“Respond to every call that excites your spirit.”

~ Rumi ~

How does this relate to ‘our body is the source and the temple?

Although I’ve been active in sports since childhood, it wasn’t until I started practising yoga that I truly began to inhabit my body. I developed a sense of interoception and proprioception.

This ignited a curiosity to delve deeper into the various aspects of our physical and mental experiences. Immersions with their emphasis on Tantric philosophy were a crucial balm during that period of my life, so much so that I repeated them several times.

I also completed a certification in Human Development Coaching, which helped me understand on a rational level what I was experiencing through Anusara yoga.

The body became the source of all experience, and the mind the infinite potential field of that experience.

Read the article that Lorin Roche wrote for The Anusara Sadhana about the organs of perception.

Recently, I started studying a certification in Psychotrauma. It’s fascinating to see how concepts developed throughout the yoga tradition, such as meditation, pranayama, the Koshas, the Malas, the Kleshas, the vrttis, vasanas, and samkaras, have scientific explanations.

I know this might be something many have discussed before, but the interesting part is that we’re no longer just ‘verifying’ the yoga tradition. Today, science, especially neuroscience, is using the tradition and associated practices to answer and explain different phenomena of the body and mind.

Today, I want to share with you the wonderful opportunity Adam is offering us to learn more about ourselves in his online training, “Deeper Approach to Body Alignment, Positioning and Movement.”

Throughout his life, Adam has studied and researched the body and movement, especially in the field of kinesiology. He’s one of the teachers who taught me to see the body as the source, movement as a behavioral pattern, and the mind as an infinitely moldable space.

By the way, if you find recognizing the body as the source and the temple as fascinating as I do, I want to share with you that Cat McCarthy is preparing a wonderful course on Polyvagal Theory. Stay tuned for news soon.