Intentions: Your Heart’s Desires

  • By onthemat
  • •
  • 11 Apr, 2016
  • •
One of my favorite moments in a yoga practice is setting an intention. In order to do so, I find a more ethereal sense of myself. I may have already noticed my breath and points of tension in my body, but setting the intention requires an awareness of something greater, a touch point to a […]
One of my favorite moments in a yoga practice is setting an intention. In order to do so, I find a more ethereal sense of myself. I may have already noticed my breath and points of tension in my body, but setting the intention requires an awareness of something greater, a touch point to a sense of being in that moment.
 
The intention might be a way I want to feel during the practice, strong, courageous, patient, accepting, or it might be something I want to bring into my day, week or life, like more space between reactivity and action, or greater acceptance of the way things are. Often, I place that intention on love and care for someone in my life or the world that might need the positive energy. By touching my third eye with my thumb knuckles, I trust the power of intuition and desire, and then hand it over to the Universe.
 
Throughout the practice, one of the things I love to do is touch back into the intention whenever my forehead touches the Earth, whether in child’s pose, preparation for Shalabhasana, or rolling over onto my right side after Savasana. This connection to the Earth brings the intention into the physical.
 
So what is my intention for the week ahead, for teaching these young nuns, beyond the physical asana? These girls have never practices yoga, but they are surrounded by a reverence for the moment and prayer. The physical practice can then be in service to the greater yogic principles, but which ones will be relevant?
 
Rolf Gates, who has led special classes at OTM, was my teacher in 2013, published his second book, Meditations on Intention and Being , and I love the diagram in the Introduction because it outlines a blueprint for my teaching this week: Intention, Loving-Kindness, and Mindfulness.
 

On The Mat Yoga Blog

Heart~ Day #7 (Week #4)

By Linda Malcomb • 03 May, 2020

“There is a light in the core of our being that calls us home—one that can only be seen with closed eyes; We can feel it as a radiance in the center of our chest. This light of loving awareness is always here, regardless of our conditioning. It does not matter how many dark paths we have traveled or how many wounds we have inflicted or sustained as we have unknowingly stumbled toward this inner radiance. It does not matter how long we have sleepwalked, seduced by our desires and fears. This call persists until it is answered, until we surrender to who we really are. When we do, we feel ourselves at home wherever we are. A hidden beauty reveals itself in our ordinary life. As the true nature of our Deep Hear is unveiled, we feel increasingly grateful for no reason—grateful to simply be.”

—John J. Prendergast, PHD, The Deep Heart  

SUN!~ Day #6 (Week #4)

By Linda Malcomb • 02 May, 2020

Seems like it’s been rainy, windy, dreary for eons. Which may have helped us shelter inside a bit more. I remember reading years and years ago in a Seth book that weather can be influenced, and even created by mass human emotion. Why not? We are far more powerful than we currently acknowledge, and science is beginning to validate many phenomena that had seemed inconceivable before. Those seemingly endless days of “bad” weather seemed congruent with the emotional tone of covid her in New England. And now SUN! Glorious, warming, invigorating, hope-filled Sun! Today I will be outside basking and gardening and thanking. And I’m sure the whole neighborhood, and most of New England will go outside, stand with our faces to the sun and breathe a huge healing breath of joy. And maybe the collective energy of that will resonate out across the word as a promise of brighter days to come.     


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