Human BEings, not Human DOings

Yogi Bhajan used to say, “We’re human Beings, not human Doings.”  How many of us take time out of our busy days to actually BE?  Even those of us who are committed to a yoga practice often let life pass in a blur.  We wake up in the morning, reach for our cup of coffee, rush around to get the kids ready for school, walk the dog, get ourselves ready for work, and so on.  Our awakening hours pass in a flash, and we repeat the routine day after day.  As the day goes on, we’re so busy running from one activity to the next that we barely have time to stop and take a breath.   More often than not, our focus is on BECOMING or HAVING, not on BEING.

How do you find the inner being?  It’s easier said than done, but here are a few suggestions that might help:
1.  Sadhana.  Start your day off with a yoga or meditation practice.  It doesn’t have to be long; just consistent.  If you’re a yoga beginner, pick up a copy of the book Praana Praanee Praanayam and chose one of the many wonderful pranayama or breath meditations.  Commit to an uplifting daily meditation such as chanting the Ether Tattva with Nirinjan Kaur.  Or sign up for the Spirit Voyage Global Sadhana!  Ground and center yourself before starting your day.
Praana Praanee Praanayam by Harijot Kaur Khalsa
2. Take daily breaks.  Not coffee breaks; real breaks.  Go outside and take a walk.  Lie down.  Do yoga.  Take your iPod to work and tune into a mantra.  If your office mates don’t complain, let them also benefit from the vibrations of Jai-Jagdeesh chanting Ong Namo Guru Dayva on her  CD, “I Am Thine”. Or bring headphones or earbuds!
I Am Thine by Jai-Jagdeesh
3. Find compassion.  Don’t close yourself off to the world, even if bad things occur.  Part of BEING is accepting that not everything that happens to us or to others is always good, and often there’s nothing we can do about it.  Allow yourself to take it in and respond from the heart, with compassion, tolerance and humility.  Sit with it and listen to a calming mantra such as Guru Guru Wahe Guru on Mantra Masala by Sada Sat Kaur.  This is not to say that it’s not our role as yogis to make the world a better place; it is!  But our efforts must originate from the heart and not from adrenaline.
Mantra Masala by Sada Sat Kaur
4.  Be present.  Being present is the peak of human experience.  Listen to what others say without anticipating. Sit without waiting. Get out of your comfort zone and let yourself just BE, without judging or succumbing to expectations.  Let go of the ego, or the idea of a separate self.  We usually live our lives being 70% present; see if you tap into the other 30%.  If just sitting is hard, try committing to a daily practice of 11 minutes of the So Darshan Chakra Kriya to help you connect with your inner self.   Or try 40 days of the "Kundalini Yoga Kriya Adjusting the Centers of Interconnection & Intercommunication," in Reaching Me in Me and get in touch with your intuitive sense of how to be in the world.
Reaching Me in Me by Harijot Kaur Khalsa
Yes, “being” is challenging.  But life is not a race, and we should not feel that we’re under any obligation to always be rushing from one thing to the next.  Give yourself permission to just BE and see how it changes your outlook on life.
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Posted in Kundalini Yoga, Spirituality, Yoga | Tagged being, spirituality
Julie Eisenberg (Jiwan Shakti Kaur) is co-owner of Golden Heart Yoga DC (www.goldenheartyoga.com/dc), Washington, DC’s newest Kundalini Yoga Center. She started practicing yoga in the mid-1990s as a way to decompress from a stressful job and since then, she has dedicated herself to sharing the teachings with anyone who will listen. Over the years, as her practice deepened and evolved, Julie began to understand yoga as a tool of personal transformation and empowerment. She teaches yoga to the homeless and to low-income Spanish-speaking immigrants in the Washington region, and she thoroughly believes in the transformative power of the practice.
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