Love your body adequately
by Gregorian Bivolaru, yoga teacher
This simple yogi technique teaches us to know and accept our own face in a transfigurating way and our whole body, in a truly intimate manner. Systematically practicing it, we can start seeing ourselves as a very beautiful being whose appearance tells the wonderful story of our entire life, just as a ripe fruit is representative of the story of the tree from which it sprouted.
1. We take of our clothes, and, while being naked, we stand in front of a mirror large enough to reflect our entire body.
2. We attentively watch our face and then our entire body, until we begin to see ourselves in a transfigurating way. Contemplating ourselves in this manner, we can begin to notice that the reflection of our naked body bears the mark of our entire life and all the joys and wonderful experiences we’ve lived in this life are present at the level of our face and body. Such a truly transfigurating glance can propel us metaphysically and spiritually, starting from the body.
3. We will then repeat this transfigurating process on each particular trait and each body part: eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, cheeks, chin, arms, chest, breasts (for women), abdomen, genital area, thighs, legs.
We try to discover the mysterious manifestation of a life lived in harmony and happiness in each of our body parts. We take note of the harmonious lines that laughter, joy, inner fulfillment and happiness have created. We will also distinctively notice the lines and shapes generated by the various moments of writhing, tension, suffering or stress.
For example, we can take note of the dark circles around our eyes, which betray all the white nights of stress and lack of sleep, as well as the different texture and abnormal coloring of the skin in that region. We justly, objectively and detachedly make this differentiation.
4. Then we will look upon our face and entire body as some miraculous constructs and we seek a synthetic, retrospective, superior outlook, as lucid and detached as possible, on the changes suffered by our body over the years, according to the events we’ve been through.
5. In the end, we remember the perceptions we’ve had and in the weeks to come we will pay attention to the changes occurring on our body, due to becoming aware of the fact that they act as a mirror of our predominant states.
We now have the chance to watch the faces and bodies of the people around us with transfiguration. When attentively and lucidly watching them, they will all become beautiful, because life itself is beautiful and clearly visible on the faces and bodies of people.
This excerpt was taken from “Simple yogi techniques and traditional methods that generate intense benefic, profound and surprising effects” Shambala Publishing House and printed at Ganesha Publishing House.
yogaesoteric
january 2015
