Day 193 – In this reading, we revisit self-study, svadhyaya, and our awareness to what we are seeking inside of ourselves. Today, prior to the reading, I awoke with a headache. This in, itself, is not surprising as I move into an auto-immune “diet” test protocol. Thus, I settled into a quiet 5-min. practice on softening my gaze, and such a beautiful one, in combination with today’s reading.
In my own practice, Elena Brower–who, if you are not familiar with, is the bombdiggity–opened me to my “conscious receptivity.” Our outward gaze informs our inward world, and our inward world definitely impacts how we respond to the world. On the mat or off the mat, our attitude and physical presentation is a matter of adjustment and awareness and that, in turn, is something I come to my mat to learn.
In today’s reading, Rolf writes of this self-study in our practice, even after “having been immersed in an outwardly focused culture,” as a “powerful understanding” that we are “no longer seeking something outside of ourselves, or something that we do not have.” Just as in my practice today, “our attention shifts from what we can get to who we can be.” At the end of practice, Elena Brower invited us to be conscious of our gaze throughout the day, when we are walking, talking, working. Pretty powerful self-study.
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