When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off. Yogi Bhajan – Third Sutra of the Aquarian Age

 

I just returned from Espanola, New Mexico where I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life. You know those times in your life where you feel you are in the best place you could possibly be in the world and synchronicities are happening all around you? That is exactly what I experienced at the Summer Solstice Sadhana Celebration. Not only did I have the most epic time there, since leaving the event I’ve been experiencing more clarity, determination, and relaxation in my life.

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Set in Ram Das Puri in Northern New Mexico, Summer Solstice Sadhana is an annual Kundalini yoga event incorporating workshops, music, kundalini yoga and White Tantra yoga.

From the moment I stepped foot on the grounds I felt relaxed, happy and excited. I was greeted with smiles and best wishes, and even gifted with a CD. Over those few days I, alongside 1500 other spiritual seekers, lived close to nature by camping on the land and having cold eco-friendly showers. All our vegetarian meals were cooked and provided for by a team of happy service exchange volunteers.

The sacredness of the land and joy of all people there created what I can only describe as a vortex of clarity and synchronicity. When I needed something, such as help pitching my tent, a lady appeared  asking if she could help and who just happened to have the same tent as me. When I felt I needed watermelon after lots of meditation and was too tired to get up, a lady next to me offered me watermelon. When I thought I needed to find my friend Frank to get the car keys from him, he appeared a few seconds later. Endless synchronicities like this happened throughout the few days I was there. This really demonstrated the power of manifestation and having a clear mindset.

My main focus of attending the event was to do 3 days of White Tantra Yoga. Having previously done a 1-day event 8 months prior and experienced a lot of physical pain in the long poses, I wondered how I would survive 3 days. Like many challenging situations in life whenever my mind wondered how I would do it, I stopped thinking about it and knew it was just something I would just do or achieve.

White Tantra Yoga is done in partners and involves kriyas (yoga postures, breathing techniques and mantras) held for either 62 or 31 minutes. With an average 7 hours a day of meditation over 3 days that makes for quite the physical and mental challenge. Luckily there is a break after each kriya and the group energy gets you by (you realize you are not the only crazy person doing it). The purpose is to break through subconscious blocks in a short period of time, so you can lead a more fulfilling life with greater clarity.

I already arranged to partner up with my Russian friend for the 3 days, who fortunately turned out to be the perfect partner. He was committed, strong, and supportive throughout the 3 days. When dealing with deep emotions that surface, uncomfortable physical pain and mental fatigue, it’s important to have a partner that is committed and also up for the challenge.

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My White Tantra Yoga Partner

The first day of White Tantra brought lots of deep emotions and feelings up to the surface, primarily during the kriyas where we had to look into each other’s eyes and mentally say a mantra. The one that got me the most was mentally chanting ‘I am you, you are me, there is no difference’. This cut in deep and brought up tears and deep seated fears and insecurities. My determination led me to be able to carry out a mental dialogue to talk through and ultimately overcome these feelings and emotions. The support in my partners eyes also got my through this. This experience ultimately led to a huge release and clearing.

The second day I felt recharged and ready to go and had a fairy easy morning. That all changed later in the afternoon when we had to do two kriyas that involved lifting my shoulders and arms up high. The intense pain of this brought up all my emotions and frustrations of being injured. I felt my only two options were to get up and leave, or cry my way through it, which I did. Although choosing the cry baby approach could appear as being weak, it allowed me to process years of emotions I was carrying around from various injuries I had obtained. It was also a better option than getting up and leaving.

After two days of lots of emotional clearing and now sore shoulders the third day was luckily full of gratitude and clarity. I felt like such a weight had been lifted off me as I allowed my emotions to be processed and released from putting in the hard work over the past few days. Now I was gaining the benefits of being clear enough to receive my higher guidance.

As mentally, emotionally, and physically hard as White Tantra Yoga is, it is so powerful and can release what would take years in other treatments, such as therapy, to release. I’m glad I had such amazing connections and felt the synchronicity for the rest of the event which made it a combination of hard work and received blessings. Sat Nam.