8 Steps Into Health, Healing, and Higher

Consciousness
by: Bhava Ram
ShareThis Facebook Tweet LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Yoga is a journey from the externalized, distracted, and often-crazy flood of thoughts in
our minds to the inner peace and wisdom of our deeper consciousness at our heart
centers. All the poses, pranayama, meditation, and mantra we practice have a host of
benefits for body, mind, and spirit, but they share a single goal: Bringing us to a place
where we can be silent, still, and focused enough to connect with ourselves at the soul
level. This is where we access a deep well of wisdom that always has been within us.
This is where we find our inner guru.

Why Take This Inner Journey?

We all feel stress from a fast-paced, over-stimulated world. We all spend a lot of time
thinking about where we are going and what to do nextso much that we are rarely
present to ourselves. This can make us feel disconnected, unsure, and imbalanced.
Stress, and the impulsive decisions it triggers, is a major contributor to serious illnesses,
including:

Cancer

Stroke

Heart disease

Depression

Drug addiction

Alcoholism
Self-awareness, pure presence, stillness, and silence bring us into harmony and
homeostasis. We access a deeper inner knowing, make more conscious decisions, and
live in greater wellness on all levels when we make time to be present with ourselves in
silence.

Meditation: 8 Steps to Higher Consciousness

Find a few minutes to sit in stillness and silence every day. Follow these eight simple
steps into the deeper consciousness of yoga, and notice how it makes you feel.

1. Close Your Eyes

This simple act is a transition from externalized to internal awareness. Notice what it
feels like inside of you.
2. Connect With Your Breath
Breathe more deeply and fully as you cultivate a sense of awe at the miracle of your
breath. See every in-breath as an empowerment and affirmation, every out-breath as a
healing release.
3. Feel Your Body
Experience your body as the temple of your spirit, a sacred vessel always seeking to
support you. Send your breath to all the outer edges, and flood all the inner space of
you.
4. Notice Mother Earth
Notice how Mother Earth fully supports you as you sit in this meditation. Feel her in
every cell of your body. Have profound gratitude for all the abundance she brings into
your life.
5. Still Your Mind
Begin to silently chant the mantra I AM. This is like a yoga pose for the busy mind. Allow
it to still the turbid waters of your thoughts. I AM.
6. Enter Your Heart
Visualize your awareness flowing down from the mind to your heart center, as if there is
a golden flame there that illuminates you. Breath into that light, feeling more radiant in
every breath.
7. Be Fully Present
Slip fully into the present moment: In your body, in your breath, in the palms of Mother
Earth, in the light of your heart. I AM.
8. Remember Who You Are
Remember that you are fully connected, indigenous wherever you go, and that you
always have beenand always will beone with all that is. I AM.
Go to this place of inner awareness whenever you feel the need. Ask your deeper self
for guidance in facing challenges and making decisions. Listen to your inner guru as you
own your power and live your truth. I AM.