(originally posted 11/20/2012)
Last Wednesday, I was substitute teaching a Yoga class for one of my teachers, Phil Milgrom, who was stuck at his home in Warren, MA with no power. When I mentioned to the students why Phil wasn’t there, one of them responded: “Phil has plenty of power, just no electricity!” Anyone who knows Phil knows this is true and it got me thinking – what is power anyways? Why do some people just seem to radiate it?
During the aftermath of last week’s storm, many people were certainly feeling downtrodden and overwhelmed. Yet, in some ways the storm brought out the best in people, with neighbors helping one another to clear brush, and sharing warmth in whatever ways they could. The storm, it seemed, brought out people’s “inner” power, even though externally, everything was chaos.
What is the source of your inner power? How unshakable is it, and how do you access it? When we are constantly running around doing our daily activities of life, we lose touch with that inner sense of self and power. However, there are ways to reconnect with it. Yoga and Meditation are two time-tested ways of doing this. The purpose of Yoga is to quiet your chatty mind and connect with your inner sense of self. The experience of calm that you feel after a Yoga class stems from this connection and you begin to realize that no matter what happens on the outside, your inner power cannot be turned off.
In Yoga, we often refer to the “Ocean of Consciousness”. The surface of the ocean, with all its ripples and waves, is like your mind. However, if you dive down into the depths of the ocean, it is incredibly calm. This is your inner source of power. Don’t wait until the next disaster to find it.
