27 May JUNE- INTENTION OF THE MONTH BY SHIRA HESS
Yoga teacher and sound expert Shira Hess shares a reflection and a thought for the month ahead. Let this be an invitation to pause and contemplate your intentions for the coming days.
This week in class I read this short poem –
The Purpose of Emotion by Rumi:
A certain sufi tore his robe in grief,
and the tearing brought such relief . . .
his teacher understood the purity
of the action while others
just saw the jagged appearance.
If you want peace and purity
tear away the coverings.
This is the purpose of emotion, to let
a streaming beauty flow through you.
Call it spirit, elixir, or the original
agreement between yourself and God.
Opening into that gives peace, a song of
being empty, pure silence.
I read it because I feel that very time we come on the mat we have the opportunity to tear away the coverings. And the coverings are the labels that we – and others – give us. Like the jobs we do that we might think define us, or thinking that I am a shy, or confident, or I am the kind of person who… you can fill in the blanks.
The invitation is to begin to notice how tightly we hold on to these words and notions of ourselves. So that maybe as we practice and breathe, we can begin to release the grip, and experience that flow of streaming beauty Rumi speaks of. So that we can choose the labels that are right for us now, as we are today. The invitation is to tune in to this song of being empty, tune into the silence so that our choices are not born out of conditioning, habits or our pasts.
It takes a some courage and fearlessness to give yourself the permission to dream without the ties of our what our histories seem to dictate or what we are so familiar with and used to. But now is the time to muster it.
Next time you are on your mat to practice, meditate or listen to the sounds of a gong bath, imagine the tearing of the metaphorical robes so you can enter into a new agreement with yourself. One that is steeped in the truth of this moment, and in the transformative power of listening to the song of pure silence and peace.
Interested in trying a class with Shira? Browse the schedule and sign up here.
We also host a monthly New Moon Gong Bath with Shira. The next one is coming up next Friday, June 3, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
The new moon symbolises new beginnings and is an optimal time to reflect on and reset our intentions. In these events, we harness the power of sound to pierce through any resistance, inertia, stress or anxiety and release that which is burdensome.