Yesterday in Kia Miller's class I had what I can only describe as a beautiful experience.  Live musicians accompanied the practice and then lead an 11-minute chant following the physical practice. I am no stranger to mysterious waves of emotion coming over me during yoga class, but yesterday was particularly intense. I felt myself welling up as I made my way into savasana. My choppy inhales signaled a wave of emotion that I was unprepared for. The physical practice was slow, luxurious and therefore quite deep. I had time to explore each part of each asana and each part of my body as I glided through the asanas. No hurry, nowhere to go, nowhere to be but with myself. That is scary. I nearly welled up with emotion right now just typing that sentence. Savasna appears as an easy pose, but most yogis agree that it is actually the most difficult. Savasana, also known as corpse pose, forces one to surrender the physical body with total honesty to gravity like it never belong to you in the first place. The idea is, once the body is at ease, the mind enters into a state conscious relaxation. This is much more difficult than it sounds because minds, as we all know, need something to hold on to. Fear of the unknown makes us anxious and unwilling to let go of conscious thoughts. Many times, unresolved issues or feelings held by our subconscious will rise to the surface during savasana. This is a good thing; consider it like free therapy! It's frightening to be confronted with yourself. There is nowhere to go, nowhere to run or hide. All you can do is allow whatever sensations, experiences and emotions come up to rise to the surface so they can exit the vessel that houses them.

As we came out of savasana, I felt more composed and ready to begin the chanting portion of our practice. I adjusted my seat, took the mudra with my hands cupped together in front of my heart, as though I am offering up my heart, and joined in the call and response chanting. The mantra we chanted was ong namo guru dev namo and is used as the opening mantra in kundalini yoga classes. After chanting the mantra a few times, I began to feel another powerful surge of emotion. My lips began to quiver, my breath became choppy again and I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. Tears were streaming down my face. I was almost embarrassed, but then decided that embarrassment was not an option and stayed with it. Staying with the present moment is crucial when confronted with dicey experiences. I allowed myself to "get it out" (without sniffling too much so as to cause a total distraction to the other yogis). I kept my eyes closed. What did I really need to “see” right now? I continued to “look” within. Besides, I knew what was happening around me...it was just a bunch of yogis, doing their thing. I knew no one was looking at me because they were so entranced in their own chanting and by the beautiful music. This fact in and of itself was comforting. Finally, I composed myself and reentered the chanting. I felt so light and free and happy to rejoin the others. I reflect on this experience as a natural and necessary spiritual cleanse. It happens when we least expect it. Yoga is a powerful tool that can bring lots of stuff to the surface. When you have an emotional experience like the one I had, you know you have taken your yoga practice to the next level. This type of experience is indicative of an advanced yoga practice…not some crazy contorted yoga pose attainable by a select few. This kind of emotional experience breaks down our physical barriers allowing us to purge. Once this storm of emotion passed, the sun broke through the clouds and my spotless spirit shone brighter than it had in a while.