Welcome Instructions from Erika...
WELCOME, everyone to Advancing Your Yoga/Evolving Your Consciousness!
(Read & proceed…)
—When the spiritual malady (dis-ease/lack of ease) is overcome, we straighten out mentally
[emotionally] and physically. —(AA literature, Mystical traditions, Quantum Physics theory of
Downward Causation, etc.)
My own spiritual Self care practices over the years have taken on many different shapes, sizes
and/or iterations. There are times I am very consistently practicing* daily. There are other timesI lose sight of that priority, on (or not on) purpose. I do eventually feel the result of the lack ofthis deeper Self care in my body, mind, heart and spirit. When I do, I sometimes jump back into
the consistency. Or, I pile on the practices in a day’s time over the span of, say, a month, or
two/three times during the week over that same span. I don’t beat myself up for inconsistency.
And I don’t gloat over my consistency. I am both of these things. And I’ve learned to allow
room for both.
That said, there is no “right way” to engage in this deepening of your practice.
Just start. Just like we all started somewhere when entering a yoga studio, for example.
For now, I suggest you go in the order I have created for you:
-Watch the welcome video.
-Then read or listen to the month’s theme via the reading.
-Listen to the “Dharma Talk” videos.
-Find a spot to do your “audio class (shortened physical practice and long savasana/
sonic meditation).
-And finally, when you are at your most open/relaxed and in an expanded state of
consciousness, answer the active-learning questions and do your extra writing (see
below).
-Rinse & repeat on a schedule of your own keeping.
This offering is like a living thing. Just like my own studio-class-teaching-style grew and
changed over the years, so too will this. I will eventually create opportunities for us to gather to
talk/ask questions about how each of you are utilizing this practice and how it is going for you.
For now, I want you all to have your own experience, uninfluenced by other people’s
experiences.
I encourage each of you to keep a journal where you collect your responses to the active learningquestions. After your answers, write a response (any length for now) to what your
experience with this themed practice is like.
Sample questions to answer:
1. In what concrete and specific ways am I seeing (or plan to see) myself incorporate this
theme (ex: presence) into my life?
2. How am I feeling as a result of engaging in this “home practice” and spending this
purposeful time with myself right now?
3. What synchronicities am I experiencing over the span of a day/week/month?
Remember, this is just our beginning, and we will be growing from here. Let us see what is
birthed in each of us during this early time of a new practice.
I will continue to stay in touch with updates and new opportunities for communicating and
meeting up (online as well as perhaps also in person for some of us) via the newsletter and
Youtube videos.
Looking forward to what arises, grows & sheds for each of us in this solo, yet communal
experiment in going inward.
I am sending each of you big hugs and lots of Love. Talk to you soon. Xo
Erika K
*meditating, praying (ie: engaging in higher thought or communication with the Void/Source
from which all creation emanates) doing a physical or moving meditation such as yoga and
engaging in some form of personal internal communication via writing or answering intelligent
active-learning questions (vs passive learning such as reading only).
Week 1 - 2025
Nightly Meditation
January 2025
The Moment: Patience
Having Patience in times of Chaos
Welcome to The Sadhana Experiment!
The Practice - Yoga Class & Extended Savasana
Poetry Reading
Choose to answer at least three of the active-learning questions below.
The ones you most resonate with. Keep the answers in a journal specifically kept for only this "work."
Down the line I will be making available more ways to connect with me in small groups as well as one on one and this writing will prove helpful for that.
Active Learning Questions
- What would happen if, instead of seeking answers right away, you simply stayed present with the questions in your heart? What might be revealed in the spaces between seeking and receiving?
- Consider a time when agitation or impatience led you to move away from something difficult rather than face it. How might the practice of staying present with discomfort transform your experience of it?
- What parts of yourself are submerged beneath the daily tides of life? How might slowing down and staying present allow these hidden parts to surface and reveal new insights about your inner wholeness?
- In what ways does the “dense forest” of your memories, reasons, and beliefs block the light within? How might the practice of simply observing, rather than analyzing, help clear the way for new understanding?
- How can you cultivate the kind of patience that allows you to see what lies beneath the surface of your own struggles? How might this shift reveal a greater connection between your pain and a larger transformation?
- What aspects of your life do you rush through, expecting them to yield answers or peace? How might staying present in these very places open new doors of understanding and lead you closer to inner truth?
- Imagine yourself as both the woods overgrown and the clearing beneath. How does seeing yourself in this duality—both the dense and the open—shift your sense of inner wholeness and self-acceptance?
- When the “tide” of experience recedes, what remains that is enduring, and how does this part of you hold the light through dark times? How might recognizing this help you face future waves with greater resilience?
- Reflect on how patience can allow you to witness transformation in its natural time, like the crab apple becoming the apple. What within you could benefit from being held in gentle patience as it finds its own unfolding?
- When you become still, breathing into the “dense woods of your heart,” what emerges from the shadows? How might staying in this clearing, without rushing to fix or change, deepen your connection to yourself and to life’s hidden wisdom?
