• Check in, centering, balanced hatha yoga set considering contraindications, relaxation (with imagery as appropriate),
• Balanced pranayama considering contraindications, meditation/centering.
• Include at least one suggestion from Karma, Bhakti, Raja, or Jnana Yoga tailored for this client.

The homework given in this session is to review the homework from the last session and to practice what was given. The homework that was given is as follows below:

Affirmation:
o Add affirmations during Tadasana practice: “I am strong, I am stable, I am flexible.”
o Be mindful during all of your asana poses.

Breathing Practice:
o Nadi Sudi for 10 minutes. Add affirmation when breathing in, something you want to develop in your life, and breath out something that you want to change or eliminate. For example:
 Inhale “I’m calmness”, and breath out tension
 Inhale “I’m content”, breath out sadness
 Inhale “Harmony, breath out impatience
o Do Nadi Sudi before you do meditation to help you to quiet your mind.

Meditation:
o Mantra repetition following your breath with a mantra, it could be like we discussed - breath in “Soul” and breath out “not the mind”. Say it mentally.

o Witnessing the mind technique of meditation – being an observer of your mind without getting involved in it. Witnessing the thoughts without becoming lost in them. As we observe the mind this way, like a child that notices that its being observed changes their behavior, so the mind will begin to gradually stop the thoughts when it is being observe. This takes patience and happens over time. See instructions below:

Witnessing the mind meditation:
a) Observe the thoughts like clouds passing before the Sun.
b) Movie Theater, you are the Audience (true self) watching the film, you are also the Star (thoughts) of the film, and you identify with the Audience and not the Star of the film.
c) Technique – Mind is focused with detachment – just watching the mind, cultivate awareness over time
d) Keep a light attention on the breath, but be very very interested to see if you can catch the thought that comes. You are like a thought cat waiting for the thought mouse to come. When the cat is waiting the thought mouse is not likely to come, so how quickly can you catch it when it comes (train the mind to return to witnessing the thoughts.)
e) Transcend Mental Level and experience True Witness Within.

Obstacles to Meditation:
o Make sure you are in a comfortable sitting position, make any adjustments that you have to make early on.
o When hearing sounds during meditation that you have no control over, try to go deeper into the meditation, and resolve to not allow the sounds to disturb you.
o Breath normally ~ slowly during meditation. Do not try to make your breath happen. Allow the breath to calm you down to relax you. In order for this to happen the breath should be normal, gentle and allowed to become slower, and you will find that your mind begins to follow and relax.

Medications for sleep: take them at the time the doctor says you should.

Hug Yourself sometimes: you are your best friend. Hug yourself with love. You can teach your son to do this and you can do it together. You can teach your mother too.

BREATHING PRACTICES TO SUBSTITUE FOR HABITS:
Do these practices instead of the things that waste time:
o Do Breathe of Joy during the day.
o Incorporate an affirmation with Nadi Sudi – breath in something that is significant to you, we practiced breathing in ‘peace’ and breathing out ‘tension’ or breath in ‘I got this’ and breath out ‘impatience’.

WISDOM PRACTICE:
We discussed that we want to be/feel painless rather than painful or pleasurable. To do that we must think clearly and be discerning about our thoughts and mindfully control our thoughts and emotions. We must nip painful thoughts and emotions in the bud to change these patterns. If we desire pleasurable thoughts and emotions eventually/inevitably they will turn into painful thoughts and emotions. We simply want to live painless lives and connect with our true self which brings the true pleasure we seek.1

For this we must become stronger – how do we do that? “We have to ‘increase the pull of the painless’ whirlpool of clarity, discernment and selflessness through meditation, prayer and selfless action, the study of high ideals, and or mantra repetition adds force to the momentum of painless vrittis (thoughts), strengthening their influence in our lives. We do this overtime.”1 To do this we must dedicate time to go inside to cultivate peace inside of us, to connect with our Soul – “Then the Seer [Self] abides in His own nature.”

We discussed in previous sessions that when we are in a situation that we cannot externally change, we must change our internal environment, the way we see and think of what is happening. When we change our internal environment, the external environment will also change. And also, praying to God to help us in difficult situations.

We discussed acceptance and flexibility with family situations.

We discussed control over eating and other painful creating habits.

Recall that when you see that your brain needs a break, instead of allowing your mind to interpret that as eating, make the effort to be mindful and do something else instead to give your brain a break. Do Nadi Sudi to rebalance the brain, or Breath of Joy. Drink water instead of eating sweets.

1Inside the Yoga Sutras, A Comprehensive Sourcebook For The Study And Practice of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, by Reverend Jaganath Carrera.

Guided Centering on the breath and guidance to make the breath her friend to allow her to settle down, then deepened into connecting with her inner friend/her soul.

SRF Breathing practice to purify the nerves and brain. It is similar to Seegra Savaasana. We did this several times.

We were not able to do Asana – client was distraught.

We spoke about Sutra I.4, which we had reviewed in previous sessions, and Sutra I.15 in relation to our conversation. We had not reviewed Sutra I.15 but I spoke about non-attachment and expectations as what came up.

Client was guided to practice SRF Breathing practice to purify the nerves and brain. It is similar to Seegra Savaasana. Followed by guided meditation on the breath with mantra, inhale peace, exhale pain – guided to ask for connection with her inner friend.

Client texted me to say that she would not be able to meet because of family issues. She texted me to say that “everything got out of control this past weekend”, and she said she was “feeling awful and she is sitting in the conference room and she doesn’t want to cry there”. I sent her an SRF breathing technique for her to do. Then she asked if I could still meet with her.

We met over zoom and I found client crying profusely and angry.

I started her with a guided centering practice. While do it she was crying and breathing heavily, but less so as the guidance continued. She was guided to focus in on the friend within her, and say “friend” when she breaths in, and exhale anger, or to inhale love and exhale anger, and to allow the breathing to change the chemistry of the heart and mind by your friend the breath, and the friend you have inside.

Then she was guided to the do the SRF Breathing practice to purify the nerves and brain. It is similar to Seegra Savaasana. We did it three times and she continued to do it several times on her own.

The client was suffering from her inner child. She was angry with her mother and said she didn’t want to care about her anymore. The problem was that her mother demonstrated extreme emotion in front of FM’s son and her son got afraid and started to cry. Client was also angry with her husband because he went away during the weekend to visit his childhood friends who live in Ohio now. Client could have gone with him but she chose not to go because she wanted to study.

The thoughts of anger continued to dominate her mind.

We discussed that her friend is her soul and that she should call within to her soul – for that friend to come and guide her. Client said that she images her soul as fully black, then I corrected her and reminded her that her soul is pure and that soul can never be soiled, that it is the ego that is black (ignorance) – client then said, “the ego that covers the soul, and it’s difficult to uncover” – referring to Sutra I.4 - At other times [the Self appears to}assume the forms of the mental modifications, that has learned from a previous session.

Client said that she just doesn’t want to care about anything. I redirected her and reminded her that its not about ‘not caring’ – its about not having expectations from others and being non-attached to people, their behavior, what we expect out of them.

I suggested that she should try to have compassion for a woman (her mother) who is so old and cannot control herself and did not have the love and understanding from her own parents, and that she has not known how to fix herself. That it is better to have compassion for her mother than to have hate – hate will destroy you.

I suggested Client go to Talk Therapy to process the pain she has inside from the past. But client said therapy was bringing up things from the past that was buried that only made her feel bad. She said what she needs is to control her thoughts.

I spoke with client about things we have talked about before, having patience, doing asana, to see the good in things rather than just what she does not like, and establishing a meditation practice and the importance of anchoring herself in a practice that is something that she can go to - to establish connection with her inner friend. There is no pill to quick fix things, it’s a life time practice. To cultivate a meditation practice, you need stillness and silence to reach your friend inside - your soul.

Client said “she feels like running away, she can’t handle it, ‘she is not satisfied with what she is’, and that the exam is not the real problem because even if she passes the exam and she does not get things right in herself it’s it will be the same after the exam.”

I encouraged her that Yoga teaches us to know who we are and we learn to be our own best friend – to have a relationship with God inside of us. Client said this was vague and hard to achieve. I continued to encourage that the journey of one thousand miles begins with the first step – yes it’s a long journey and hard to achieve but it is the best thing you can do in this life and it will help you and your family. I said - Its up to you and you are the adult now. We spoke about steeling our emotions because emotions and being very sensitive make us weak. Nip emotions in the bud. We spoke about how kindness and caring is different from emotions and sensitivity. Don’t have expectations be non-attached.

Client was guided to practice SRF Breathing practice to purify the nerves and brain. It is similar to Seegra Savaasana. Followed by guided meditation on the breath with mantra, inhale peace, exhale pain – and guided to ask for connection with her inner friend.

Cultivate the silence and stillness in meditation, review the homework given the last time and practice what was given.

Before I went to Los Angeles I was meeting with this client on a weekly basis. Client was benefiting from the Yoga Sutras and had created her own moto of having “zero expectations” from others which she was using successfully.

It seems that the three weeks that we didn’t get to meet, this gap in support, made a difference in the client’s ability to practice meditation, and to remember what she had learned in a moment of tense emotions which occurred this past weekend.

Centering.
Asana –
o Tadasana with affirmation,
o Arddha Chandraasana Half-moon
o Uttanaasana,
o Twist on a Chair

SRF asana, same as before (no new SRF asana have been added).

Full body tense and release (Seegra Savaasana)
Body scan.
Breathing Practice – Nadi Sudi with affirmation – 8 minutes
Meditation – JAPA, inner best friend, and introduce Walking Meditation

Discussion on how the assignments/homework went for client. How the personal sadhana is going?

Briefly review Wisdom teaching - Sutra I.5 – There are five kinds of mental modifications which are either painful or painless.
Wisdom teaching – Sutra I.15 – Vairagyam/Non-attachment – The consciousness of self-mastery in one who is free from craving for objects seen or heard about is non-attachment. Page 22-27