The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

The five physical senses tell us the sky and the ocean touch, that people and objects shrink as we move farther away from them, the earth is flat, and the sun orbits the earth - to name a few. These notions we automatically correct because we know they are illusions. And there are many other such things that are so widely believed that we don't even question them. I won't mention them here because you might say I was crazy, but all the great masters have known this. That's why they were able to do the things on the earthly plain that many call miracles. One of my favorite of the 8 limbs of yoga these days is Pratyahara, simply translated as disengaging from the five physical senses. This really is a pivotal practice in moving towards advanced yoga. Questioning stimuli and our own labels is the beginning of new possibilities. Otherwise we're stuck in a construct of our own creating. I took this picture yesterday showing purvottanasana or intense stretch to the east. It's very fitting for this concept because east is the direction of the morning's first light and represents stepping out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of intelligent awareness. This kind of discernment leads to spiritual progress.

Learning to disbelieve visible falsity with the same conviction we disbelieve invisible falsity is key to mastering the five physical senses.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #trailyoga #purvottanasana #intensestretchtotheeast #pratyahara #spiritualprogress #light #ignoranceisdarkness #freedom #yogi #yogicnature #8limbs #spiritualmasters #scriptures #yogasutras

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Isn't today's message what every scripture, self help philosophy, and guru have been trying to tell us for years? Yet, if you're like me, you keep getting fooled into thinking it's the other way around. In my experience, however, this is never the case. Change happens from the inside out. I had another powerful reminder of this recently where I was in a negative spiral with a situation in my life. I found myself in a holding pattern, convinced that I had to wait for external things to change before I found my peace. It wasn't until things came to a head and I was forced to do the inner work I was avoiding or lose something very dear to me that I finally did it. And from that moment of commitment things started to shift. Over the next week it was like everything was made new from the inside out. I was freed from reactive patterns evoked by the poking of old, unconscious wounds. And as always the freedom on the other side of this kind of work is exhilarating! Nothing can replace it. So let's actively practice working instead of waiting.

Your life can't change until your mind changes.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #sutras
#bible #scriptures #yamas #niyama #pratipakshabhavanam #pratyahara #dharana #dhyana #samadhi #trueself #highestnature #yogi #trailyoga #inversion #changeyourmindchangeyourlife

The Daily Lightwave

Namaste and joy-filled Thanksgiving to each and everyone of you!!!

Keep the light on 💜

#dailylightwave

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

"Sthira sukham asanam." "Yoga pose is a stable/steady, free/easeful position." This sutra keeps opening up to me and then inspired today's message. I'm realizing that integrating this foundational principle in our asana practice calibrates the deepest levels of the psyche to move through the world in the same way. This ensures that our strength doesn't interfere with our flexibility and vice versa.

Stability without freedom is rigidity. Freedom without stability is recklessness.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #sthira #sukha #balance #sutrawisdom #asana #asanametaphors

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave💖

The greatest victories go unapplauded. They happen on the inside every time Love wins.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #lovewins #truevictory #yogicnature #ahimsa #pratipakshabhavanam #namaste #trailyoga

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Drink in the light of Love every every morning and pay it forward!

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #ahimsa #love #payitforward #yogicnature #anahata #shinebright #anjaneyasana #lowcrescentpose #namaste #pajamayoga

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave💖

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't -- you're right," said Henry Ford. And Jesus is quoted as saying that faith as small as a grain of mustard seed can move a mountain. To me, both of these speak of mental conviction. It's so powerful. When invoked within me, I feel a visceral, physiological shift. It affects everything, so it's important to cultivate those convictions that are for the greatest good. Goddess pose or utkata konansana, is one of those shapes that connects me to the energy of conviction (#shraddha) and impresses it into my bodymind allowing me to feel a surge of trust and assurance that nothing can replace.

Mental conviction is power.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #mentalconviction #goddesspose #utkatakonasana #trailyoga #faith #jesus #henryford #wisdom #sages

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

I've been focusing on the famous sutra II,46: "sthira sukham asanam," in my classes this week. Most commonly translated as: "Yoga pose is a steady and comfortable position." I prefer to think of it as steady and free rather than comfortable. Sukha literally means "free space."  With these concepts occupying my mind, I'm starting to feel these teachings around asana as a metaphor for life at large. Imagine navigating life's twists and turns with a perfect blend of strength and flexibility, steadiness and ease, discipline and freedom! The practice of asana is a potent training ground for that, impressing our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies with this know-how...reminding us that we are wired from the inside out towards balance, and burning away anything that would obscure that.

Life is one big yoga pose. Move through it with sthira and sukha - equal parts steadiness and freedom.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #sthira #sukha #asana #yogasutras #Namaste #yogalife #sutras #ancientwisdom #scripturalrelevance #tapas #purification

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

I can say looking back that there has never been a time when today's message hasn't been true. But hindsight is 20/20. Or as Steven Jobs put it, "You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back." So for the human mind to remember and accept this in the midst of turmoil is very hard and takes tremendous spiritual maturity. I'm still learning! Daily practice is key and develops our spiritual chops for the this type of work. Pratyahara - withdrawal from sense awareness is an integral part of this journey and gives the ability to question the surface assessment which comes from cultural, genetic, and past conditioning. This high level or macro mindset frees from the limited, micro perceptions of physical sense. Biblical scripture gives a simultaneous assurance and warning when it says, ".. to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." It seems the east and west converge in understanding that flesh-level awareness kills possibility; whereas a mind tuned to the Spirit realm is free to see and experience beyond its own limits.

When things
get messy
on the outside,
it's a sign
of an  inner
order making
Itself known.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #eastmeetswest #pratyahara #trailyoga #upsidedown #gomukhasama #cowfacepose #bible #scripturesintersect #yogasutras #Namaste #beyondsense #possibility #romans #paultheapostle #patanjali

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

I had a very soulful vocal coach in New York who used to say to me, "Put your joy up front!" Her voice comes to me so many times when I'm feeling droopy or sad. This isn't a suck it up and be happy kind of attitude. It's more of a yielding to the innate joy that's already always there. Sometimes it's the dissolving of attachment to externals that allows us to embrace it. May you feel the deepest joy today ~ from the inside out.

When external triggers for happiness dissolve, innate, spontaneous joy rises - like a phoenix from the ashes.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #ananda #joy #trailyoga #namaste #marichyasana1

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Not people, places, or things, but connection to Source is security. This lesson I learn over and over again. No matter how solid the outer stuff feels, the inner is way more so. Source connection is eternal. It never deserts or gives up on us. Making that connection primary is paramount. No matter what.

The strongest foundation you'll ever stand on is invisible and lives inside you.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #uttanasana #intensestretchpose #sourcesecurity #namaste #trailyoga

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Your mind is an environment. Make it a beautiful one for yourself and others.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #abeautifulmind

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave

Today's message should be called the daily LATEwave! But better LIGHT than never right?! Haha :) It came to me yesterday as I was observing the cloud show in the sky. It's been percolating ever since. The idea of levitation started to come to me and I envisioned floating above the clouds. When I made it out onto the trail today, it was as if nature set the scene perfectly! I couldn't make it into full lotus with my 10 second timer and jagged rocks, but you get the picture. Also not shown is the Asian man with walking sticks who was telling me about his strong heart -- so fun! This past week I was powerfully reminded that clarity cannot be found inside the mental clouds of anger, fear, resentment and the like. It takes a radical shift from the inside and a rising beyond brain-level awareness to see the clouds for what they are and experience the Self as separate from them. Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay called "The Over-Soul," wrote: "...to be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false, this is the mark of intelligence." Inside the clouds, it seems like that's all there is to the sky. Inside our own facade of personality, it feels like there's nothing else and that's just who we are. As we find a way to access the clear skies outside the clouds by connecting our human consciousness to it's divine Source, a radical inside-out shift takes place. Some might call this Christ-healing or Christ-consciousness. It's written about in the earliest texts from all traditions. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe it this way: "By the practice of samyama on the spiritual heart, complete knowledge of the mind, its vacillations, and the whole range of one's thought is given." Samyama very basically means perfect control of the mind and describes the combined practice of the final 3 limbs of the 8 limb path of yoga - Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. This is advanced yoga! It's what many people spend decades on a therapist's couch trying to figure out -- I'm not knocking that at all by the way. I've spent my time there too, but I do feel there can be other and even better ways and this to me describes one of them. Once you can distinguish the true you (the sky) from the clouds (personality/ego), you can never be fooled by those clouds again! This is advanced YOGA.

Clarity exists beyond the clouds ~ not within them. When the clouds pass, only the sky remains.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #levitate #advancedyoga #laghiman #yogasutras #book3superpowers #spiritualperception #discern #truefromfalse #emerson #patanjali #namaste #mentalclarity #wisdom #discern #trailyoga #natureinspires #natureteaches #grace #higherconsciousness #christconsciousness #yogijesus #scripture #ancientwisdom #samyama #8limbs

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

You have to know your innocence to prove it. That doesn't mean there aren't some layers to peel back, but knowing the pristine original is already there gives courage to carry on when tempted to give up. Innocence is way more original than the concept of sin. Sin is such a heavy bad word these days thanks to dogmatic theology and amorality. Sin means to miss the mark literally. Any behavior or mental state that pulls us from our true nature (the Atman in yogic terms) is a sin then. KOBut the true nature is there all the while and it is what's REAL about us. This isn't a copout from doing the work, but a reassuring awareness as we do it. (Thanks @talie_b for getting this picture!)

Original innocence is your birthright.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #originalinnocence #downwithdogma #unoriginalsin #downwarddogsplit #trailyoga #backbonetrail #atman #truenature #yogi #yogicpath #havecourage

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave💖

Inward is one of the 7 sacred directions in Native American traditions. It's the first place we should turn but often the last one we do. The slow pull away from our center can be so subtle we don't recognize it until reflected back to us in tumultuous circumstances. Then as a last resort, we finally change directions and journey back to it. From that nucleus the outer world harmonizes again. Hopefully we learn over time that our center must be our dwelling place and not just a vacation spot. Just like in a rigorous, uncomfortable yoga pose, we find our steady easeful state, so when provoked by the senses and our own ego, we must do so as well. Looking out from the center changes all for the better.

When the plates of sense phenomena are shifting, your center is the stable rock to stand on.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #center #corepower #warriorpose #warrior3 #inward #pratyahara #dharana #dhyana #advancedyoga #namaste #asana #steadycomfortableposition

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

This is what I'm feeling today!

Give gratitude for the people who hold space for you to realize your highest self.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #spaceholders #grateful #transformation #pinchamayurasana #forearmbalance #dolphinpose #trailyoga #tapas #purification

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Falls take many forms on and off the mat. Any time we're pulled away from our center or thrown off balance spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically is a fall of sorts. On the yoga mat, one thing advanced yogis do is focus on maintaining a steady even breath in the midst of the fall. Steady/even breath (sama vritti) means a steady/even mind ~ i.e. even temper or equanimity. As always, this practice can be taken off the mat. It's not easy! But it's the practice we all must embrace. We can't always control the stimuli that throw us off, but we can cultivate better and more resourceful responses that allow us to stay calm in the midst of turbulent mental and emotional conditions. Let's practice advanced yoga today!

Advanced yoga isn't not falling. Advanced yoga is maintaining equilibrium even while you are.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #equilibrium #samavritti #evenbreath #toestand #padangusthasana  #parivrttahastapadangusthasana #advancedyoga #offthemat #yogi #Namaste #yogicpath #innerpeace

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Learn to stay fiercely committed to your spiritual practices ~ especially in dark times.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
# dailylightwave #sadhana #practice #fiercepose #chairpose #utkatasana #trailyoga #namaste #comittment #keeppracticing #nomatterwhat

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Today's message is a constant practice in being the awareness instead of the mind. Sometimes the success is greater than others but we keep practicing!

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #svadhyaya #practice #beawareness #youarenotyourthoughts #yoga #yogaisexperiencedinthemind #yogalife #yogachallenge #advancedyoga #ahimsa #namaste #witnessconsciousness #trailyoga #natureinspires

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

The guidance, wisdom, and inspiration we need live right within us. Sometimes it's easy to want to just run away and escape certain situations. But if we can resist that temptation and instead find a way to get still, quiet, and listen, there will be less back tracking later. In Native American traditions, Inward is one of the seven sacred directions. That's so cool! That invites us to turn inward with the same respect and awe that we would if we were walking into a sacred temple or any other holy place. Never under estimate the power and potential of his practice. Make it your first destination rather than a last resort ~ especially during difficult times.

When times are tough, don't check out. Check in.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #inward #lookwithin #beyourownguru #pratyahara #dharana #dhyana #8limbs #yogalife #yogicpath #yogi #trailyoga #natureteaches #baddhakonasana #boundanglepose

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave💖

One of my acting teachers used to say, "You don't have to move a muscle for it." And one commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika speaks of the asana doing itself through the student. Very interesting! I've had moments like this on and off my yoga mat. Yet it's easy to fall back into over-doing, over-thinking, over-trying...all which often arise out of an inner "not good enough" conversation. Being still and cultivating worth from within is an attractive force. This mental state sustained, draws more to itself and doesn't require striving.

Sometimes all you need to do is stand strong in your own worth.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #knowthyself #knowyourworth #tadasana

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

I had such a great time over the last couple of weeks researching OM for a submission to @breaking_muscle! The article goes live today. Watch for the link. Today's message is a sound bite of what I learned. It's hard to believe that such a benevolent practice is so often feared and misunderstood. The Mandukya Upanishad is a twelve verse scripture on the sacred sound. Check it out if you haven't! AUM is for ALL!

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #om #aum #mandukyaupanishad #namaste #yoga #omisforeveryone #yogicpath #scripture #sacredsound #sacredtext #goaheadandOM #yogachallenge #breakingmuscle #writerslife

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

"Pray backwards." These were the words that immediately came to mind when I looked at this picture. My hands are in reverse prayer, aka reverse namaste, or pashchima namaskara, all meaning hands in prayer behind the back. The idea of praying backwards I realized was describing in a very succinct way, how I'd been taught to pray from the earliest time I can remember. Though it takes a lifetime or more to  consistently practice this kind of prayer. It's the prayer of acknowledgement rather than pleading; of recognizing and accepting what's already there even if your eyes can't see it yet; it's bringing your mind into a likeness to what you desire so you can recognize it in visible form; it's a humble yielding of attachment to the physical senses (pratyahara), which negate the presence of what you desire. Jesus referred to this when he spoke of believing that you already have something and it will be yours (Matt. 11). Abraham Hicks speaks of this kind of prayer in terms of being a vibrational match for your desire. This progressive prayer is definitely the reverse of being a have not pleading with a far off god. Counterintuitive as it may be, It empowers us with the awareness of  already having because we do.

Pray backwards.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #reverseprayer #reverseanjalimudra #pashchimanamaskar #praybackwards #jesus #scripture #eastmeetswest #yogi #pratyahara #practiceyoga #yogachallenge #praywithoutceasing #bible #yogasutras #scripturesintersect #yogalife #Namaste #abrahamhicks #progressiveprayer

Tue Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results," wrote Albert Einstein. It's so true. How many times will I think that complaining, lamenting, anguish, despair, resignation will change something for the better? Like attracts like so I will always attract the phenomena that matches my mentality. I have to be willing to shift my mind even in the midst of what feels negative, bad, or wrong to me. If I wait for the circumstance to change I'll be waiting a very long time. Scriptural wisdom is always encouraging us to adopt new mental tones ~ a mustard seed of faith, love, non attachment (#aparigraha), exchange negative thoughts for positive (#pratipakshabhavanam), moderation, and the list goes on. Mental states have a tangible resonant vibration that reaches far beyond us, calling in its match, whether that be what we want or don't want. When we get quiet enough we can feel beneath our thoughts to discern that tone and shift it. This is an aspect of mental mastery.

Low vibrational mentality can never create high vibrational experiences.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #utthitahastasana #tadasana #yogaoutdoors
#yoga #trailyoga #rockypeak #yogachallenge #beyondasana #theshift #higherconsciousness #samadhi #liberation #mentalmastery #yama #niyama #scripture #beattitudes #sagewisdom #theshiftzone

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

I don't think it's a coincidence that the greatest sages, scientists, and artists through the ages are those who spent time in nature. Being in nature is like medicine that reaches the deepest parts of ourselves (not just the physical). It reminds of the beauty, grandeur, and diversity that resides within each one of us. It invites us to drop our defenses, open our hearts, and feel our kinship, even oneness with all life. In a world where gadgets are becoming such an integral part of our lives, let's remember this for ourselves and especially for our children. There is no substitute for the pure, visceral - dirt under the feet, hands on rocks, eyes in he sky - natural world.

Intimate connection with nature is a gateway into the experience of oneness.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #natureteaches #oneness #namaste #nogadgetrequired #trailyoga #sages #sagewisdom #lovetheplanet #spendtimeinnature

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Today's message is a continual lesson for me. Practicing non attachment doesn't mean being noncommittal, wishy washy, or disconnected. On the contrary, I find it easier to be committed, fully engaged, and connected when I'm not attached. Attachment is based in fear and causes clinging. Clinging tends to push things away and then we begin to struggle to keep them in place. Not fun. The mind will try to justify attachment, especially in religious and spiritual matters. That's where it takes real alertness to walk the path of non attachment. But its freedom-inducing potential make it well worth cultivating this discipline. Things come and go and flow much more easily keep in all matters.

Attachment is always enslaving regardless of how good, holy, or righteous the object to f attachment is supposed to be.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga #dailylightwave #nonattachment #yoga #namaste #freedom #yogi #yogachallenge #trailyoga #eaglearms #garudasana #natureteaches #natureinspires

The Daily Lightwave

The Daily Lightwave 💖

Here's another variation of one of my favorite poses, skandasana. Skanda, known as God of War in Hindu mythology, is revered for his virtuous acts of kindness and willingness to help the innocent. My hands are in gyan mudra, a mudra for peace, spiritual progress, and universal connection. Opening my heart to this majestic oak gives me strength and inspiration to move forward in service, honoring the gifts I've been given and remembering how this more than anything else has connected me with my higher and truest nature.

The willingness to serve others from right where you are will expand your life in unimaginable ways.

Alison Wilburn
Lightwave Healing & Yoga
#dailylightwave #skandasana #gyanmudra  #oaktrees #lifeofservice #yogi #yogicpath #yogalife #beattitudes #goldenrule #eastmeetswest #yogachallenge #trailyoga #natureinspires