By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Clarity is when you look inside for answers, even about external things.

Integrity is when you base your words and actions in the inner levels of your being.

Transparency is when you let your inner radiance shine through your mind and life.

They are all based in one thing — your own Self, the light of your own divinity. When your life is based on anything else, you experience the opposite: confusion, fragmentation and density. I call that “normal” because yoga says this is the norm; it’s how most people live. Getting from normal (confusion, fragmentation and density) to a yogic state (clarity, integrity and transparency) is a process.

The process is a complex and multi-layered journey. Yoga’s practices keep you moving and support you along the way. Each time you do your breathing (pranayama) and poses (asana), you open in an inward direction. Svaroopa^® yoga makes the opening tangible and even blissful, decompressing your spine from tail to top in every class, in every yoga therapy session or in your personal practice session.

Unfortunately, you can go from blissful inner openness to painful relapse in minutes if you don’t begin to work with your mind. It only takes a short conversation or even just a few of your own thoughts to create the tensions that you spent an hour or more unraveling. Your mind must do more yoga, too. Fortunately, yoga offers practices for your mind.

Excerpt from A Yogic Lifestyle, page 33