Deepak Chopra’s 7 Spiritual Laws of Yoga Challenge: Day 1
Deepak Chopra’s 7 Spiritual Laws of Yoga Challenge: Day 1
In Yoga Journal’s new online course, Finding Connection Through Yoga: A Workshop on Our Universal Oneness, Dr. Deepak Chopra and his yoga teacher, Sarah Platt-Finger, will share a seven-week yoga and meditation experience that will help you develop a deeper understanding of yourself and transform your relationship with the universe. Sign up here to learn more!
As part of Yoga Journal’s upcoming online course, Finding Connection Through Yoga: A Workshop on Our Universal Oneness, legendary integrative-medicine and meditation expert, Dr. Deepak Chopra and his yoga teacher, Sarah Platt-Finger, will guide you through a yoga practice that incorporates Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, to help you experience greater health, joy, and peace in your life. Each day for the next week, Platt-Finger, who teaches at ISHTA Yoga in NYC, will offer you a yoga pose that illustrates one of the seven laws, and explain how it can benefit your practice and your life.
Please take #thespirituallawschallenge with us, snap a selfie of yourself in the pose, explain what you learned from the law and the pose, and post it on Instagram @yogajournal and @chopracenter and @splattfinger.
Two of our most dedicated and insightful challenge-takers will win the course for free, and also get free tickets to Yoga Journal LIVE! New York!
Spiritual Law 1: The Law of Pure Potentiality
The Law of Pure Potentiality says that our essential nature is pure consciousness, the infinite source of everything that exists in the physical world. Since we are an inextricable part of the field of consciousness, we are also infinitely creative, unbounded, and eternal.
The Pose: Padadhirasana (Breath-Balancing Pose)
Padadhirasana relates to The Law of Pure Potentiality because it balances the two main nadis, or energy channels, in the body: ida, which relates to lunar energy, and pingala, which relates to solar energy, Platt-Finger explains. When these two meridians are balanced, the mind and the senses draw inward, inducing a state that is known as pratyahara, or sense-withdrawal. We normally interpret our reality through the five senses, but our senses are limited. When we practice Padadhirasana, we are enabling ourselves to move into a more subtle realm that is formless, shapeless, and nameless. This is the state of pure potential, where unlimited possibilities exist.
How-to:
Come into a cross-legged seat, either sitting on a blanket or on a cushion. Place your right hand under your left armpit and your left hand under your right armpit. Relax the shoulders and allow the pressure of the upper arms to press lightly into the side ribs. There is a nerve in between the 5th and 6th ribs that helps to free up the mucous membrane in the opposite side nostril. This nerve is what energetically governs the two main channels, ida and pingala. Stay here and breathe for about 1–2 minutes, then switch sides to balance the flow of air into the opposite side nostril. Switch sides by taking the hand that is on top, sliding it underneath, and placing it under the same armpit.
Enhance the pose:
When finished, moisten a finger and press the point in between the eyebrows and slightly above to stimulate the third-eye point, known as ajna chakra. This will further move you into a state of insight, inspiration, and pure potentiality.