Dru Yoga practioner Louise Rowan explains why yoga is such an excellent model for living

It is said that we are the creators of our own destiny, what we think about the most is what we attract to us and ultimately become. Whenever you focus your mind on someone you admire such as Gandhi or Nelson Mandella, you connect yourself to the highest, most ennobling forces that person epitomises. New, creative ideas and ways of being are brought forth. You find yourself embracing the same ennobling ideals as they did.

People have always followed role models. It keeps them inspired to carry on amidst the most extreme adversity as well as helping them to reach their spiritual goal in life. This is why Christians looked to Jesus, Buddhists to Buddha and Hindus to Krishna.

Yoga provides us with an excellent model for living. Yoga is not just about doing physical exercises on a mat once a week, it is a way of life, it is a way of being, a way of thinking, a way of feeling, ultimately it is union of mind, body and spirit.

In our troubled world, yoga offers a solution to much of the dis-ease society is experiencing today. Just open the pages of Patanjalis Yoga Sutras and the answers are right there in front of you. Simply, how to act as a human being, nothing complicated, just living up to the qualities that are our natural birthright but somehow we managed to forget along the way.

In its purity yoga is about being in touch with our spiritual nature - the part of us that is naturally joyful and happy, that part of us that elevates our personality.

Each moment of each day we can act with awareness, living in the spirit of yoga which adds to, not takes from our world. For example, we must eat each day, but we have a choice as to whether we eat without thinking, or whether we take a few minutes before we start with a thought of gratitude for the food that nourishes us. We have to walk each day, but we can chose to tread with awareness on the earth and with each footstep send out peace. It makes your day a walking meditation, it fills you with an inner richness and you will notice how people around you become happier. It is called the art of living life fully and once you develop a taste for it, life can never be empty.

In yoga there are many different paths to choose from to reach this state of fulfilment. Dru Yoga offers the pathway of the heart. It traces its origins to the stories contained in the great Indian Classic, the Srimad Bhagavatam. Dru Yoga teaches how to balance body, mind and spirit by using the heart as the pivotal point around which all else revolves. It is characterised by beautiful flowing movements that channel and transform the body’s subtle energy through the heart to create healing and unity.

Dru comes from the Sanskrit word Druvam, which means fixed, immovable, in one place. Just as the eye of the hurricane remains still, while there is movement all around, so Druvam is a state of stillness within the mind and heart. It is being fixed within yourself so that you are able to observe the challenges life presents without losing your centeredness.

Flowing movement sequences, mudra, visualisation and affirmation combine to create a deep sense of inner well-being, peace and emotional balance. The flow of movement without locking the joints not only tones and keeps the physical body healthy but creates a flow in our thoughts and feelings, rigidity dissolves in both our mind and body. Sacred mudras (hand gestures) are used to re-direct energy flow and enhance different qualities within. Visualisation and affirmations provide a powerful medium for empowering our goals in life and for dedicating the inner peace we experience through the yoga back out into the world.

The beauty of yoga is, that as we receive the gifts it offers to us we naturally pass those gifts on to all those around us. Like the ripple effect of a pebble thrown into a still pool of water, the inner peace and well-being that you feel will automatically ripple out into the environment around you. Your relationships become more harmonious as you take the time to enjoy the things that are really important in life. Yoga invites us to drink deeply from the well of true happiness and live life fully.

Mansukh Patel and Louise Rowan will teach a weekend of Dru Yoga, 15th & 16th March at the Vancouver Public Library. Info: Life Foundation Canada, 604-915-9280 or 604-739-8324. Lifecanada@aol.com




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