KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

by Meagan McCrary

No longer associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, when many Americans first turned to yoga in search of a drugless high, yoga has become a nationwide cultural phenomenon and a billion-dollar industry. If you don't practice yoga, chances are you know someone who does. It seems that everyone, from athletes and celebrities to high-powered executives and politicians to stay-at-home moms and college students, is stepping onto the mat.

Modern yoga has evolved to become incredibly inclusive. Whether you're religious, spiritual, or neither, fitness-oriented or less concerned with the physical, mainstream or more eccentric, there's a yoga practice for you. Prior to the turn of the new century, yoga was never so widely available as it is today. Yoga is now offered in schools, prisons, churches, synagogues, city halls, senior centers, rehab facilities, gyms, hotels, and spas. Yoga studios have even become staples in strip malls across the country, and in large cosmopolitan cities like New York and Los Angeles, an overflow of yoga schools and centers offer sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of urban living. Starting as early as 5:30 a.m. and ending as late as midnight, yoga classes are held all day long, and they're packed. And while studios aren't as prevalent on the streets of small-town America, yoga is infiltrating rural areas via dedicated instructors who hold classes in small numbers wherever they can find the space. In short, people everywhere are practicing yoga.

Americans turn to yoga for various reasons, but in some way or another, they are looking to reap the practice's many benefits. They've heard yoga is good for you. They've read that yoga is great for managing stress and dealing with depression and will help them sleep better. Their doctor has told them that practicing yoga can help increase circulation, build bone mass, and lower blood pressure. They were sent by their physical therapist to cultivate postural awareness, increase range of motion, and alleviate back pain. They believed Christy Turlington when she credited yoga for her perfect bum.

Everyone, from neighbors to mothers-in-law, swears by yoga, so more and more people are taking to the mat to discover for themselves what the hype is all about. They keep coming back because the mind-body discipline works: Yoga makes you feel better. So what is it?

What is yoga? is a loaded question and one that could take a lifetime to answer: Ask twenty yogis, and you'll get twenty different answers. There are as many interpretations of yoga as there are Hindu gods (around 330 million). Most Americans, whether they've tried it or not, have an idea of what yoga is, even if their understanding is as rudimentary as Yoga's that thing you do on a yoga mat when you're in yoga class that somehow involves stretching and breathing. And they are right.

Yoga is a system of exercise, and yet it's so much more. Considered a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, yoga is an ancient belief system, a science of exploration, a process of self-discovery, a method of personal development and spiritual evolution, and an art of transformation. It is a complete approach to total well-being, and, for many, yoga is a way of life. Yoga is an all-encompassing approach to physical health, mental clarity, emotional balance, and spiritual attainment — whatever that means or looks like to you.

A fundamental tenet of the broader yogic tradition is that there is one universal consciousness. Call it supreme consciousness, the Divine, Brahman, God, Shiva, Buddha-nature, Allah, whatever, there is a oneness that encompasses everything, including you. However, we become so caught up in our individual experiences of embodied consciousness (that is, our lives) that we tend to see ourselves as separate entities operating independently from one another. Yoga, therefore, is designed to shift individual perceptions of ourselves and the world in which we live, helping us to recognize not only our inherent oneness with everyone and everything but also our union with the Divine. How that union is understood and arrived at varies from one yogic school of thought to the next, but for all intents and purposes, yoga is the method by which we realize our innate nature and highest Self inseparable from supreme consciousness and completely supported by the universe.

At the heart of the tradition lies the understanding that all human beings desire to belong, to be connected to something greater than themselves, to be loved. On a fundamental level all people want to be at peace and free of disease. It's safe to say that in every human heart lies an intense yearning to be happy. Yoga teaches us that these fundamental human desires are expressions of our innermost nature, that at our most basic level we are free, connected to everything and everyone, and nothing but love. We don't experience ourselves as such, because we've grown accustomed to identifying solely with our mind, which is to say our ego. Through a process of cloaking, veiling our true selves, we begin to associate with limiting self-beliefs such as I'm alone, I'm not good enough, I don't deserve love.

We practice yoga to shine the light on that which already resides deep in our inner consciousness, hence — en-lighten-ment. Practicing yoga helps clear the lenses, so to speak, taking you on an inward journey back to your deepest Self and to the realization that you have everything you need within to experience the unbounded joy and freedom that is your true nature.

Meagan McCrary is a Los Angeles based yoga teacher and the author of Pick Your Yoga Practice. She teaches for Equinox Sports Clubs, works one-on-one with some of the entertainment industry's leading professionals, and holds workshops and retreats nationally and internationally. Visit her online at meaganmccrary.com. Based on the book Pick Your Yoga Practice © 2013 by Meagan McCrary. Printed here with permission of New World Library.

Are you able to do psychic readings for yourself or do you know any readers who can? I would love to be able to get guidance for myself, but I find it much harder than reading for others. When I tune in for myself, it's like I get a whole mix of images and messages that don't add up to a clear answer. When I use tarot, I find my interpretations are often inaccurate compared to the readings I do for others. Any advice would be appreciated!
Loren

Susyn:

One of the most difficult things to master in psychic development is reading for yourself. In fact, very few psychics even attempt this because their emotional attachments to certain outcomes influence how they interpret the answers they receive. When I teach tarot classes, I always tell my students that it's not a good idea to try to read for themselves.

When we attempt to read for ourselves, we may come from a place of fear, worry or frustration. This in itself will color the answers we get. You may note that when you do readings for others, the answers you give them often surprise them. The solutions may be obvious to you, but your clients can't see this because they are blinded by emotion.

Iíve been conducting psychic readings for over twenty years, and I still find that I need the help of a trusted psychic to find answers to my own questions and problems. I can assure you that even if I do a good reading on a subject, another psychic will always see things differently and more accurately.

We can all benefit from the objective perspective of a third party sometimes. When we read for ourselves, we tend to doubt what we get, filter the information according to our preferences, or flat-out misread what we're given. Just as a surgeon wouldn't perform surgery on his own child, when we're in need of psychic or spiritual guidance, we're wise to ask for help from someone who can be calm and objective.

If you would still like to develop this skill, I recommend practicing with questions that aren't too serious or important to you. You may be able to get accurate guidance on those matters even though more emotional answers elude you. I also recommend trading readings with a trusted fellow psychic. If you still want to attempt doing your own readings, you can have this other psychic give you a second opinion in order to validate what you got. This would be an effective way to ensure you get the most accurate information possible.

I don't believe we are meant to figure out our problems alone, for the Universe is quick to channel information to us from outside sources. Allowing another psychic to read for us can help us avoid a lot of uncertainty, confusion and disappointment, for Spirit is usually quite clear when it presents us with information from another person.

*****

Mata:

The main key to being able to read for yourself is being able to emotionally detach from what you think you need to have happen in order for you to be happy. While I have many times successfully gotten psychic information for myself, that doesn't mean it is always possible. The more anxious I am about the subject at hand, the harder it is to see it clearly. I suppose this is why I find it hardest to get psychic information about my own children, for nothing is more important to a mother than the well-being of her child.

You must also be able to think outside the box. Many of the readings I do for others begin with a question something like: I'm trying to decide between choice A and choice B, and so far it has proven to be an impossible decision. When I tune in to read for them, I see that the reason they haven't been able to feel their way through this decision is because the right path for them is really C, or perhaps AB with some C thrown in. They felt no pull toward any of the options they were contemplating because they were contemplating the wrong options!

Due to our past experiences and personal beliefs systems, we are all limited in our thinking and blinded by assumptions. This is a big reason why it can be helpful to have third parties who don't share our prejudices tune in for us: they are open to a far greater range of information from Spirit than we may be able to allow into our conscious awareness.

This doesn't mean we can't regularly receive guidance from Spirit, though in my own experience, this tends to come more from my intuition and signs and synchronicities than it does from psychic reading processes. As with being able to read for yourself, however, the more calm, objective and open-minded you are, the more helpful guidance you'll tend to receive.

To develop this calm objectivity, it is imperative to cultivate faith in a higher plan. When you believe that everything happens for a good reason, it is easy to relax about how your good comes to you and assume that whatever happens will work out for the best. To cultivate the open-mindedness necessary to seeing the big picture and the infinite possibilities before you, meditation is again the answer, for this will enable you to observe yourself and your life from a much higher perspective.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.