by Helen Simkins, Alstonville, Australia
My relationship with Esoteric Yoga is always developing. I have attended many group sessions and practised at home by myself since 2008 and each time the experience is unique and revealing. Each session rewards me with a deeper appreciation for my own body and what it can teach me, and an increasing sense of what the joy of true freedom feels like.
This modality has supported me enormously in reducing stress, anxiety levels, nervous energy and the relentless drive of my mind. It has given me real relaxation, increased presence and a much greater sense of freedom in my body. It supports me to deal with the intensity of whatever may come up in the day without losing my connection within.
Sometimes, during the sessions, it seemed unbearably uncomfortable to be still in my body and have to feel the physical results of what has driven my mind, and sometimes a desperate need to “check-out” resulted in a snoring session on the mat! At other times there was excruciating pain in various parts of my body as they became less numb, or as I began to connect to them – never had simply sitting still (or even lying down) with my body seemed so agonisingly difficult!
There are also times (more frequently now) when I experience the ‘exquisite, nurturing stillness – described beautifully in another blog – throughout my being and body, confirming for me my level of connection with who I truly am and showing me that there is no limit to how deep and vast this stillness can be. This experience of real stillness is absolute freedom to go as deep as I am willing, and complete support for where I am at: it is hard to describe adequately in words…
Esoteric Yoga inevitably delivers to me the truth of how I have been living and presents an opportunity for me to become more aware of how much my body can tell me if I take the time to be with it. It gives me the space to release energy and emotions that have been locked deep into my body and supports me to continually connect more deeply to the truth of who I am.
Esoteric Yoga is about developing quality – my quality – of union with me, which is then reflected in everything that I do. It is so, so simple and yet SO powerful. There is absolutely no need to be a contortionist or super flexible (phew), and certainly no straining to achieve anything. The only requirement is my own commitment to being prepared to be present and experience whatever is revealed through my body without pre-conceived expectation or judgement.
Esoteric Yoga is a truly amazing modality.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Connecting to our body, being present allows our body to share its wisdom, ‘my own commitment to being prepared to be present and experience whatever is revealed through my body’.
“The only requirement is my own commitment to being prepared to be present and experience whatever is revealed through my body without pre-conceived expectation or judgement.” This can sometimes feel like quite a challenging ‘only’ but the experience is always truth.
I can so relate to the unbearable discomfort, the desperate need to check out and the excruciating pain during an Esoteric Yoga session, and I really get how that is part of how I have been living and my reaction to it, and even with these things, I truly get that there is absolutely nothing to achieve or overcome. This stop to fighting and controlling allows me greater freedom, it’s like I am allowing myself to accept a greater potion of ‘me’ to be with me.
The moment we tell ourselves we don’t have time for Esoteric Yoga is when we most need it.
Absolutely Helen, no standing on your head in the corner, or numbing crossed legs, as you have shared. It is just the simple connection to our-soul-full-essences or re-unification with our essences.
From downward facing dog to inward facing soul. 🙂
And thus, with the True sensitivities and awareness to feel our bodies, from every aspect of our body, from the inside out.
It’s so beautifully expressed about how we can experience Esoteric Yoga and the benefits. It’s truly an astonishing modality because of both the simplicity and empowerment it offers to re-establish a relationship with our body and reconnect to our essence. Each session for me offers a new way of living and being.
Re-connecting to our essences is an appreciation of who we are and thus Esoteric Yoga deepens that connection so that we can then take this Yoga into every-day activity.
Esoteric Yoga has so many benefits, ‘This modality has supported me enormously in reducing stress, anxiety levels, nervous energy and the relentless drive of my mind.’
“and certainly no straining to achieve anything.” Esoteric Yoga is exactly the opposite, it is a surrender inwards, and a knowing that you are already everything.
The purpose of yoga is to connect, in that connection we are faced with everything we have been avoiding during the time of disconnection – hence why it can be resisted. Nobody wants to know that they ate too much, that they have been running around with negative thoughts and so on. But the only way to deal with these things is to feel them in our bodies and that’s what connection & esoteric yoga are good for.
Esoteric Yoga is great in supporting connection with our bodies, ‘It has given me real relaxation, increased presence and a much greater sense of freedom in my body. ‘
One may believe that lying on the floor being still is easy. And yes physically it is for most. But being faced with your relationship of being in union with your essence, it can be devastating or absolutely beautiful. Esoteric yoga is an amazing modality as so much can be healed when we re-connect to ourselves.
To take a moment to stop and feel the quality of the momentum we have been running in allows us the clarity to choose a different way to move, if the way we are moving is not supporting us to feel settled within ourselves.
I agree with you Helen, Esoteric Yoga offers a deep understanding in how connection can be made through stillness and movement by joining the mind to what the body is doing. It is beyond words .. but words will come .. because that is inevitable who we are, thus the union.
There is no denying that some days we can feel a bit messy and tired as life seems to be pulling us from multiple angles from one place to the next. That esoteric yoga can support us to reconnect back to ourselves, so we can let go of all of those squiggly bits and hold our bodies still is an absolute god send.
And in the busy environments that we live and work in being able to connect to that sense of spaciousness is a god send.
Esoteric Yoga has definitely helped me to surrender to become more connected to myself and a stillness within that gives me a beautiful reminder of how delicate I am and how I need to move in order to honour that delicateness.
It is beautiful to be reminded of our delicateness, and to move honouring that delicateness.
Beautiful, yes that is our one commitment that is required from us to take : adjusting your choices based on what your body reveals for you to let go of and how to look after it.
Those that snore during an Esoteric Yoga session are the ones I complain about because they have been keeping me awake, Ha! Ha! jokes aside when feeling our body in these sessions we can feel how we have over done it, and so we are all the opened to the possibility of nodding of. Such is the stilling nature of Esoteric Yoga that it we expose our exhaustion and for us that have had a cat nap it is a guide to surrender deeper when we go to sleep at night.
Haha, I love your sense of humour!
Without being Joy-full in life we can lose our purpose, so playing with words delivers a Forever Deepening-Humble-Appreciative-ness of who we are as an instruments that is finely tuned to the song of God!
I found sometime ago while doing Esoteric Yoga there was a call in my body to go deeper, at the time fear came up for me, and I found myself avoiding doing Yoga, but I am back back now, open to accept whatever my body is wanting to share with me in a modality that is so beautiful, powerful and so simple.
Power is in everything we do when we connect and live by our hearts, without perfection but absolute commitment to our universe and all of our brothers here.
I like the way that you talk about the pain in your body, as it wakes up and becomes un-numb. Because, in my experience anyway, much yoga practise is based on the pursuit of feeling amazing, which is fine but not necessarily completely honest, because what is the point of feeling amazing in our bodies if parts of it are totally numb?
Yes, and what about feeling amazing in your being because you have reconnected to who you truly are, and each day is one of love, stillness, and joy – even if the body is unwell or terminally ill. Now, that is a true yoga the world needs to know about.
Feeling amazing in our being, because of reconnecting to our essence, ‘you have reconnected to who you truly are, and each day is one of love, stillness, and joy’.
Such a beautiful sharing of the benefits of Esoteric Yoga Helen. It shoudln’t be seen as normal being exhausted or living under nervous energy and yet not so many people in this world questions that. Once we feel stillness and the big amount of delicatness in our body we can realize how far away we lived from our true nature as human beings. I appreciate very much having access to this modality because, as you said ‘it is so, so simple and yet SO powerful’.
The freedom you can feel when you allow the vibration of your soul into your body sure is joyful.
Judgement is an act of evil for love is observant and allows the free will for other to choose the truth or not.
The word freedom evokes very different things in people. There are lots of images attached to this word. Many of them are not true; they are just images. The truth is that freedom has to be related to the body and to feel deeply settled in it by free will.
I agree – sitting/lying still with my body can be so agonizingly difficult, and in saying that I get a sense of turning it into something I could have a relationship with to conquer and achieve if I manage not to fall asleep during a session.
As it is for you Helen, “My relationship with Esoteric Yoga is always developing.” And the depth of how far that development goes is totally up to me. Each session I attend is always so very different from any other, but what is the same, is that I am always being offered the opportunity to deepen the connection to my body and to then take that out into my life. The session does not end when we get up off the mat, as this is a living modality, one to take out into the world as we move through every moment of our day.
Our quality can always be deepened, ‘Esoteric Yoga is about developing quality – my quality – of union with me’.
‘…no straining to achieve anything.’ It feels like with a lot of modern day yoga, it’s just as competitive as any other sport, whether you’re competing against the more flexible person beside you, or simply yourself by trying to prove from one week to the next you’re ‘improving’. But what are you improving? your flexibility or your connection to yourself? with the preoccupation of being able to do what the practitioner can do, is not missing the point completely? This is why I feel the difference between how Esoteric Yoga is presented to what I’ve experienced with other yoga classes. There is no expectation and the purpose never changes – it is first and foremost about the union of your body and mind – connection.
I appreciated these words “exquisite, nurturing stillness” – it’s so true, the more I connect to my Stillness, the more I can move through life in a very self nurturing way. My other way was to push, rush, feel frazzled and stressed, not to mention anxious. That all still comes up because I’ve got well worn grooves to be with my body and life this way, but compared to where I was when I started Esoteric Yoga, the Stillness I now experience daily is exquisite.
Esoteric Yoga allows us to develop our relationship with the innate quality within, so our movements align to that which is divine.
Esoteric Yoga is a living testimonial of the power of simplicity. What is so simple allows us to be aware of so much, there is no need for any complicated moves and thus the only distraction is not wanting to be in union with ourselves, which is what Esoteric Yoga brings us back in commitment to feeling our body.
In the union with our true self, is found the communion with all others.
I concur wholeheartedly Helen – Esoteric Yoga is an incredibly powerful modality. I realised whilst reading this how much esoteric yoga teaches us about life itself – and a new way possible for how to be with life. It is a way that does not have any expectation to perform or achieve, accolades are not handed out for amazing feats, and there are no people better or worse than – it is a way that knows the equalness we all are and come from. This way of living is available to all of us. Esoteric Yoga is a divinely sent modality that reveals to us the awe-inspiring simplicity that we have right within us for the taking by developing an honest and very living relationship with our bodies. From there life itself becomes simple and magical.
When I first experienced Esoteric Yoga, I was really fidgety and couldn’t understand the purpose of it. I had no desire to do it again for at least another couple of years and then I had the pull to participate again in another program and I felt the difference. My body had been so racy and in the doing, it had been conditioned to be in constant stimulation and if anything continually functioning on nervous energy. The difference between the two was striking. It wasn’t the yoga sessions or the presenters, it was ME – who was I, back then compared to now? Where was my body compared to now?
I have more connection to my body than ever, I know I can connect deeper and I look forward to a more loving relationship with my body and “experience the exquisite nurturing stillness.”
The moment I said yes to Esoteric Yoga was the moment I chose to deepen the union with self and hence with all others. This is a moment to appreciate and a foundation to build for all future moments. Beautifully expressed Shushila.
Esoteric yoga is very good as a practise to keep our mind with our body – a very real example is laying down, something we every day do before we go to sleep is lay ourselves down. How often have we layed ourselves down not even realizing laying down or having a million of thoughts about something else whilst being in the action of it.. And so it is by establishing a connection in the yoga that you than take along in the movements that you are doing. Hence yoga should be our living, our true form of living… Not only a thing or hour to do. Beautiful sweet short but valuable blog.
One of the things I struggled with the most in my first few esoteric yoga sessions was the idea that it wasn’t going to give me anything, or relieve me of anything. I noticed that I slept through quite a number of them. What I love most now is that it reflect back to me exactly how I’ve been living – how exhausted or checked out I’ve been, how aware I’ve been of my body, how anxious, etc. Stopping and feeling is a moment that puts the brakes on, makes me feel how I’ve been living, and re-connect to something much greater than the surface level emotions or day to day distractions. It is an awesome modality in its simplicity.
Esoteric Yoga reflects back to us how we have been living, ‘Esoteric Yoga inevitably delivers to me the truth of how I have been living and presents an opportunity for me to become more aware of how much my body can tell me if I take the time to be with it.’
“This experience of real stillness is absolute freedom to go as deep as I am willing,” When we feel the inner stillness with Esoteric Yoga we know that this stillness knows no bounds.
This is well written and leads me to look and see what other quality of Yoga presents this to you in this way? I see Yoga all about certain stretches that give you a certain feeling but not one like this which is just about supporting you to feel you. There is a huge but some may say subtle difference here, for me it’s huge as it allows everyone to be equal and the dedication is about feeling and awareness no matter what they may look like, where you are at and how long it takes to come about. It’s not a fixed focus on having you do something, to get somewhere or to achieve a certain grade. Simply about feeling what is already there and allowing more and more of the same.
Esoteric Yoga is so far from the rigorous Yoga that I used to practice daily, but I never, ever experienced any depth of stillness or quality like I do with the Esoteric Yoga, and the amazing part is (as you so beautifully share Helen) that there is no limit to how much we can experience this exquisite stillness.
So simple, yet powerful a modality, ‘It gives me the space to release energy and emotions that have been locked deep into my body and supports me to continually connect more deeply to the truth of who I am.’
‘Esoteric Yoga is about developing quality – my quality – of union with me, which is then reflected in everything that I do.’ A true union with our inner self.
SO true Helen – this modality is super simple but so powerful in the way that it offers a pathway to connect back to the body. To me, the agony and discomfort of simply sitting in a chair being aware of a particular part of my body is very telling of this power.