Day 12: Yoga Music

onthemat • December 12, 2015

I cannot hold a tune, as my family members love to remind me, but when it comes time to chant the universal sound of OM to open and close a yoga class, this monotone and sacred sound of ancient India brings out the best of my vocal chords. It’s particularly powerful when a bunch of […]

I cannot hold a tune, as my family members love to remind me, but when it comes time to chant the universal sound of OM to open and close a yoga class, this monotone and sacred sound of ancient India brings out the best of my vocal chords. It’s particularly powerful when a bunch of practitioners really belt it out, their voices resonating off the studio walls and out into greater Concord. Three OMs in a row in a rolling harmony is also tremendously pleasing. You can just imagine the power of all the yogis on the planet OM-ing together in a joint stand of peace. On the other hand, it’s a bummer when the class is filled with OM-aphobics, and the last thing they want to do is chant OM at the top of their lungs in a room full of strangers. It sometimes sounds like a room full of mooing cows, I’m sorry to say. But for me, I selfishly listen to the shockingly pure sound of my monotone voice, as I press my hands against my chest to feel its vibration. But I have nothing on our resident chanteuse and yoga teacher, no need to name her, who chants ethereally at the end of all her classes. Once she had a cold and couldn’t chant, and I was amazed at the depth of my disappointment. The minute her voice permeates the quiet room, every last bit of tension that the physical yoga didn’t release, melts away. Really. I applaud her ability to embrace all of us with the anything-but-monotonous sound of her voice. It’s pure and sacred and here.

On The Mat Yoga Blog

Heart~ Day #7 (Week #4)

By Linda Malcomb • May 3, 2020
“There is a light in the core of our being that calls us home—one that can only be seen with closed eyes; We can feel it as a radiance in the center of our chest. This light of loving awareness is always here, regardless of our conditioning. It does not matter how many dark paths we have traveled or how many wounds we have inflicted or sustained as we have unknowingly stumbled toward this inner radiance. It does not matter how long we have sleepwalked, seduced by our desires and fears. This call persists until it is answered, until we surrender to who we really are. When we do, we feel ourselves at home wherever we are. A hidden beauty reveals itself in our ordinary life. As the true nature of our Deep Hear is unveiled, we feel increasingly grateful for no reason—grateful to simply be.” —John J. Prendergast, PHD, The Deep Heart

SUN!~ Day #6 (Week #4)

By Linda Malcomb • May 2, 2020
Seems like it’s been rainy, windy, dreary for eons. Which may have helped us shelter inside a bit more. I remember reading years and years ago in a Seth book that weather can be influenced, and even created by mass human emotion. Why not? We are far more powerful than we currently acknowledge, and science is beginning to validate many phenomena that had seemed inconceivable before. Those seemingly endless days of “bad” weather seemed congruent with the emotional tone of covid her in New England. And now SUN! Glorious, warming, invigorating, hope-filled Sun! Today I will be outside basking and gardening and thanking. And I’m sure the whole neighborhood, and most of New England will go outside, stand with our faces to the sun and breathe a huge healing breath of joy. And maybe the collective energy of that will resonate out across the word as a promise of brighter days to come.
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