YogaGeekSquad.com Blog

by Dr. Tara Devi Yogeshwari, O.M.D., A.P., Dipl. C.H., C.Y.T.

NAMASTE Everyone!  Have you ever wished for something and it came true?  When that happened, your creative powers, that aspect of you that imagines something before it happens, and then manifests it, was working fantastically.  All things physical first exist within the mind.

Have you also had the experience of wishing for something, and it DID NOT happen? This, too, has its origins in the creative faculty of your mind.  Our creativity functions through our chakras, wheels of energy that correspond to the endocrine, sympathetic, parasympathetic, and central nervous systems in the body.  Today we are going to talk about 8 Ways You Can Develop Creative Power Through Yoga.

Chakra (Chuh-Kruh)- Meaning “wheel” in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, in which the holy texts are written, including the “Yoga Sutras” and the “Yoga Vashishta”, two important texts outlining the specific mental, physical, and emotional practices of Yoga that will lead human beings to ultimate Self-Mastery.

A Note Regarding Pronunciation: The letter “a” in Sanskrit is pronounced “uh”, while the letters “aa” are pronounced as in “ah”.

Essential Points to Know:

Chakra-

• A Chakra is the meeting place of the physically invisible realm, or the Divine, with the physically perceivable realm we experience through our 5 senses.
• A Chakra is not physical in nature, but is physically expressed via the endocrine organs, which secrete hormones.
• A Chakra remains dormant until activated.
• A Chakra is activated by transformations in conscious awareness, gaining control of the subconscious faculties of the mind (brainstem) by the conscious mind (mid-brain), and the super conscious mind (the cerebral cortex).
• This is usually accomplished through moral purity, yoga, and meditation practiced daily throughout one’s life. The more intense the effort in these areas of endeavor, the more one’s chakras will develop.
• When activated, instruments that measure electrical resistance,  electro-magnetic fields, and detect heat can inform us of a chakra’s functioning in the body.  In this case, the electro-magnetic field appears to spin clockwise around the vertebrae and endocrine organ that is associated with the chakra.
• While all human beings have the capacity to consciously activate their chakras through regulation of their nervous system via the 8 Limbs of Yoga, seldom do most human beings avail of this glorious, God-given system to unite Divine and physical.
• The path of Yoga is time-tested, scientifically-proven system to regulate and bring the nervous system under one’s conscious control.
• When the Chakras become active, we grow in our capacity to create, meaning that we can imagine something that does not yet physically exist and manifest it, that is CREATE it, first within the mind, which operates through our beautifully designed nervous system.

The 8 Limbs of Yoga – in Sanskrit, the word for “limb” may also mean the partition to a room, or a wall; therefore, a student of yoga may consider Yoga to be as a house, divided into 8 rooms.  These rooms are entered sequentially, and as we master the subject matter at hand in one room, we may enter another room.

1)  Yama – The 5  social values, or how we relate with others, such as:

• Non-violence (The basis for a Yoga person’s following of vegetarianism)
• Truthfulness
• Non-Stealing
• Non-Covetousness
• Monogamy in marriage/abstinence while single

2)  Niyama – 5 personal values; or how you relate with yourself and the Infinite, such as:

• Purity (In thought and body, such as diet and cleanliness)
• Contentment (Acceptance/Non-resistance to what happens to us)
• Intensity of Practice
• Self-Study (Practicing silent contemplation, reading of self-development books, etc.)
• Surrender to the Divine (Following the path of no resistance, the highest good, and listening to our inner voice)

3)  Yoga Aasana – Also known as a Yoga Posture.

• The Yoga Postures are illuminated by the famous Yogi and mystic, , Patanjali, in the Yoga Sutras, which states how to successfully practice Yoga.
• “To successfully practice Yoga, first one must stabilize the posture and quiet the movement of thoughts and emotions” (my translation) states Patanjali in the second verse of the first chapter of the aforementioned text.

4)   Praanaayaama – The control of the life force through specific breathing techniques, blended with perfected asanas, to subdue the sensual desires and thus, control the mind, in order to concentrate on whatever one chooses.

5)   Dhaarana – Concentration the mind on one objective, such as performing an asana correctly, or deeply contemplating all of the aspects of a subject of study, such as Yoga, so as to increase one’s speed and depth of grasping power.

6)   Dhyaana – Meditation, entered into after deep concentration  on an object; absorption so complete that one loses track of the

time.  Therefore, it is said, that one has “become one” with the objective of meditation, free from separate awareness.

7)   Pratyaahaara – Absorption in Yoga so complete such that one’s awareness of the 5 senses are withdrawn from the objective of meditation.

8)   Samaadhi – The objective and the awareness in one’s nervous system which perceives it have fused.

I will leave you today with a practical example of how to experience this in your yoga practice:

1. Eliminate mental and physical distractions from your daily Yoga Aasana practice by giving intense right effort (Purushaartha) with regards to Yama and Niyama.
2. Even while you are in the process of perfecting Yama and Niyama, let your intense right effort and commitment give you the required confidence in your sincerity, which will quiet the mind during your daily Aasana practice.
3. Close the door to your room, eliminate television, talking, and lay down your mat. Then begin your Yoga Aasana practice.
4. As you practice daily, your Aasanas will be perfected, and your concentration power will increase, and progressively turn more inwards during your practices.
5. As  your concentration or Dhaarana increases in each practice, your Yoga Aasanas will become meditative, and you will lose track of the time in perfecting them.
6. When this occurs, your mind is silenced, because your senses have turned completely inward, absorbed in the Aasana itself, and into contemplation of all of these aspects in action, including the physical Aasana, the Praanaayaama, or breathing, concentration, meditation, and sensory withdrawal into the Yoga Aasana itself.
7. In this way, one enters that indescribably blissful state of Samaadhi, that may be known through applying the right effort, sustained by commitment over time, until one masters these various aspects of Yoga.  Samaadhi may be ephemeral, or fleeting at first, but gradually one will experience Samaadhi with consistency in the daily Yoga Aasana practice, and perhaps, this awareness will grow off the Yoga mat as well.

With the daily practice of Yoga, we all may become more conscious, creative choice makers, and not only the creators of our personal destinies, but co-creators of making the world a better, more harmonious, and beautiful place to live.

Tags: Chakra, Chakras, Yoga, Yoga and Creativity, Yoga and Healing, Yoga and Self-Help, Yoga Poses