I’ve enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Alaya Process, an experience of personal growth facilitated by Kenneth Robinson and Linda Manning, among others. You can get a real sense of Kenneth and his work by reading these articles.

Kenneth sent an email the other day sharing some thoughts on the yoga, alaya, and healing. With his permission, I am posting them here.

When I lay myself down and enter savasana after a strong yoga practice, it’s a special time for me. If I’ve managed to stay mindful, then I’ve succeeded in opening and touching many places deep in my physical body. By the time I’ve settled into “corpse pose,” I have, if I’m lucky, given up competition and comparisons with my fellow students, and maybe even momentarily let go of my need for approval from the teacher. It’s then that I’m surrendered and empty. It’s then I can give my attention fully to receiving. Having worked consciously to join the force of my own effort with the power of grace, the yield is a quietness, a slowing, a more spacious inner world. Many times I’m near tears — tears of gratitutde, or of humility for my limitations, or of compassion for my suffering or the suffering of others. My quiet and calm allow for the emergence of a longing from deeper within. My defenses are down. Here, I have a few precious moments with my own open heart.

It’s a place I long to remain when the formal practice ends. It’s the center from which, ideally, I walk, talk, and act. As the class closes and people are putting away props and gathering belongings, it means a lot to me when I make contact with another student who has given themselves fully to the practice — even if it’s only a momentary glance. You’re In there. I’m In here. Though it may appear that we are far apart, we are not that far apart. Sometimes I leave full, focused, renewed; at other times, with a soft sadness. Rarely do I leave unaffected.

This is yoga’s true gift. Yes, we gain greater strength and flexibility and improve our health and appearance. Yes, we feel pride in our progress. But there is also This: An open door to a consciousness, at once both tender and powerful, that is humanness at its very best. I live and long for that. It’s what I most treasure, and what I most want others to know and have. I sense that it could change this world. It most certainly changes me.

I’ve spent the last 30 years learning about this kind of awareness, and 15 of those, teaching it. That’s what Yoga for the Emotional Body is: A technology (of which hatha yoga is a part) that brings us to Open Heart and the ecstasies that accompany it. We have the means. We need only discover that it is ours to have and keep. It is possible; it is natural; we are all worthy of it.

Just as hatha yoga prepares us for enlightenment by strengthening, aligning, and opening us physically, so the practices of Yoga for the Emotional Body help us develop skill in working with the feelings that come as we (necessarily) encounter the physical and energetic blocks within us. By working together to create safety (through connection, mindfulness, and support) we contain and channel these energies and cultivate trust in our feeling selves. Our emotions, rather than controlling us, become a source for enriching our lives.