I’m staying with a sense of mādhuryam (sweetness) after today’s practice with my teacher Smt. Saraswati Vasudevan. The sankalpa (intention) through the practice was to explore receiving fully with each inhale and offering whatever residues I am holding from the past to the agni (fire) with each exhale.

Towards the end of the āsana and prānāyāma practice, as I sat and watched the in-breath and out-breath I observed something interesting. As I watched my inhalation, I could feel the sense of need for my body for that breath at the beginning. As the breath started filling the lungs, the mind liked the subtle long breath and wanted more of it. When the inhale is almost complete, and the next exhale is about to begin there is a point where I felt the boundary between inhale and exhale dissolved and became one. It was a moment of joy and fullness. A joy imbued with a deep sense of santhushti (contentment) and śāntam (peace). I savoured it for a moment and it was over. But the sweetness lingered on.

As I observed this pattern for some time, it occurred to me that when I feel a lack in life for anything, it is easy for the focus to shift to an attitude of extraction, possession and hoarding. But this pattern is in reality a response to an underlying fear more than the experienced lack of whatever. Today’s experience left me with the possibility of being in that sweet spot where the divide between what I receive and what I offer dissolves. That I feel is the true space of abundance when I experience myself as part of the whole. What nourishes me is also replenished in that nourishment. What a beautiful way to be alive!

Wish you light, love and laughter!