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by Meagan McCrary

Very few students begin practicing yoga with overt spiritual ambitions; they simply want to feel and move better in their body. However, it doesn't matter whether or not your initial intentions are purely physical. What's important is that you're in your body, consciously moving and breathing, establishing a stronger mind-body connection, and cultivating a little self-awareness. Intentionally or not, you begin a process of personal growth and transformation just by practicing yoga. You might even say that yoga is for the people who are open to change, and the ones who want to stay exactly the same don't stay with yoga for very long. Your yoga practice will shift you in some way on some level, if not on all levels. In addition to helping the body gain strength and flexibility, a steady practice helps build concentration, create emotional balance, and cultivate positive qualities such as compassion, patience, joy, and confidence.

During class you will experience profound moments of stillness, even if only for a few seconds at a time. The full yogic breathing helps quiet the analytical mind, which never seems to stop weighing options and considering consequences, finally allowing the intuitive mind to have a voice. The internal awareness and mental clarity cultivated in yoga help you realize certain things about yourself and your life. Over time, you become skilled at recognizing that which no longer serves you — the relationships, default tendencies, reactions and other thought patterns, and roles that don't contribute to your overall happiness.

In fact, your yoga practice will typically have an interesting way of creeping into your life off the mat as you become more aware of how you feel and increasingly conscious of the choices you make. Yoga doesn't require you to change your lifestyle overnight or conform to any outside standards, but you naturally begin to gravitate toward feeling better, making better decisions and choices in your eating and lifestyle habits (and no, that doesn't mean you have to become a vegetarian to practice yoga).

You may also notice that your yoga practice is a microcosm for your life. The way you are on your mat — how you respond to challenges, handle disappointment, and relate to yourself, how present you are, how willing you are to try new things — is the way you'll be off your mat as well. In yoga, you get to practice being the way you want to be in a safe, contained environment. (After all, yoga practice is just that: practice.)

Therefore, when you are practicing, attitude is everything, as it is in life in general. To begin with, your overriding intention for practicing must be rooted in something more meaningful than external appearances or physical achievements, or your asana practice runs the risk of becoming just another outlet for ego gratification, and you've missed the bigger, overriding message of yoga. That means your intention for practicing doesn't necessarily have to be god-consciousness or Self-realization (although that's a good intention), but rather can and perhaps should be something personal, whether that is to feel better overall, learn more about yourself or foster self-acceptance, become a better mother or spouse, be more present or experience more joy, cultivate more peace, clarity, or ease in your life, whatever — something more meaningful than having a tight bum or being able to do the splits. Wanting to achieve an advanced posture isn't wrong; in fact, the desire can increase your dedication and drive. However, it shouldn't be your only reason for practicing. What if you never nail the pose? Then what? Without a higher intention, it's easy to become defeated.

Yoga is in the business of self-acceptance and exploration, which by definition can have no expectations. Sometimes, you'll step onto the mat only to discover your body isn't on board to practice at the level you were hoping it was. And that's okay. In fact, it's better than okay; you get to practice listening to your body and doing what's best for you in the moment. Yoga gives you permission to give yourself a break.

Of course, in a class setting, it's easy to become caught up in comparing (joy's most brutal thief). As easy as it is to compare yourself to others and feel less than, it's just as easy to compare yourself and feel more than, or somehow superior, when you can out-perform the other students in class. As you advance in your asana practice, it's crucial to remain humble with an open attitude and a beginner's mind. With a beginner's mind, you enter each yoga posture with the excitement and eagerness of a first-time practitioner, gently exploring new ways of aligning or moving your body in and out of the postures.

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.

I'm hoping you can tell me how I can contact my spirit guides and be able to call on them in times of need. Thank you!
Amanda

Susyn:

Our spirit guides are always around us; they help us even when we are not aware of it. Forming a personal relationship with your guides is an effective way to feel more empowered and protected.

One of the quickest ways to begin this process is by getting a psychic reading. Psychics can identify your guides and channel information from them to you. With this type of reading, you can discover who they are and what they look like. You may even be given their names. After you make contact with them through a third party, you will become even more aware of their presence.

Sometimes your spirit guides are people you knew here on Earth who have crossed over. For instance, one of your spirit guides may be a grandparent, aunt or child. These guides will become obvious to you right away, for they will have the same energy and traits as when they were alive. There are also spirit guides who have traveled with you for lifetimes whose main purpose is to protect and direct you. Usually these guides represent important spiritual forces in your life.

Most people have a number of guides with them at all times. You might have a spirit guide whose main job is to protect you physically, while another may be in charge of sending you inspiration and wisdom. We may have childlike spirit guides who encourage us to play. Their personalities and contributions to your life will vary.

I have a wonderful spirit guide named Violet who loves to play. When things get hectic, she reminds me to stop and smell the roses. Strange as this may sound, she typically appears on Thursdays. As you can see, the more familiar you are with your spirit guides, the easier it is for them to get your attention.

You can also perform a guided meditation wherein you sit and invite your spirit guides to come and introduce themselves. One method I recommend to my students and clients is to host a spirit guide tea party. You can set up a little area with cups, light some candles, and then invite them to join you. As you meditate on each place setting, you should notice images and messages forming in your mind. You can then ask their names and the special ways they go about guiding you.

If you feel artistic, you can also do a creative meditation during which you draw a picture of each spirit guide as they show themselves to you. It is easier to connect with them when you have an idea of what they look like. If they do not reveal their names to you, you can name them yourself. Once you have made a connection and determined which spirit guides can help in certain areas, it will be easier to know which to call upon in times of need.

*****

Mata Maya:

Each one of us has metaphysical beings who are devoted to helping us find our way through life. To develop a conscious relationship with these beings, we have to begin to pay attention in a new way. For example, I'd like you to stop, close your eyes, and spend a couple of minutes keenly listening for all the sounds in your environment.

When I do this, I become aware of all sorts of sounds I was oblivious to before. Suddenly I hear the whir of the fan above me, the hum of the computer I'm typing on, a general low hum from an uncertain source, and the sound of a neighbor's sheers snipping in his garden.

To become aware of subtle spiritual influences, we must develop keen psychic awareness. It's a bit like listening for subtle sounds, except that we begin to listen within our minds and hearts instead of listening with our ears for sounds in our environment.

You may already have guessed the number one way we can develop this quality of inner listening: meditation. (There are good reasons that this spiritual practice has stood the test of centuries.) The more we master the ability to quiet the chatter of our own minds, the more we can hear the quiet hums and whispers that are constantly behind and beneath all that surface noise. This is like turning off a loud stereo and then listening carefully: it enables us to hear the faint sounds in the house that were undetectable when the radio was on.

Since these beings we call our spirit guides exist at a higher vibration, it is also important to be able to raise our own vibration in order to consciously perceive their input. Again, meditation is a powerful tool for raising our vibration, for it encourages the peace that comes with detachment. Meditation also has a rather magical way of aligning us with a smooth course of experience and the fulfillment of our needs and desires, which naturally raises our vibration.

There are many other ways to raise your vibration that I don't have room to go into here. For starters, you might check out these previous columns: Raising Your Vibration for Spirit Communication and How Can We Hear Spirit Guides Better?

Once you have developed the ability to quiet your mind and keenly listen within, communication with your spirit guides will be pretty easy. You have only to get into this quiet, open state of mind and then mentally reach out and ask for contact or ask questions that you want guidance on to begin a wonderful, fulfilling relationship with the beings devoted to helping you find your way.

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.