Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Healing with Food, Breath, and Sound

I am a Vedic monk--a brahmacharini. Since my initiation in 1992 by my teacher, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, I have dedicated my life to living in accordance with the natural rhythms of the universe; to teaching the wisdom and healing practices of the Vedas, the holy scriptures of India which date back to 1500 B.C.E.; and to helping others heal physically and emotionally. At my center, the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, I teach the knowledge and practice of sadhana and Ayurvedic healing. Because of my experiences, I have a great deal of information--about breathwork, meditation, sound, yoga, and wholesome nutrition--that can help people, especially women, live healthy lives, cultivate healing communities, and help themselves and others heal from physical and emotional ailments. My students include doctors, nurses, yoga instructors, nutritionists, artists, social advocates, inner-city youth mentors, and interested laypeople. Wise Earth sadhana teachings are intended for everyone-- women, men, and children. Indeed, 35 percent of my students are men. However, this book has a strong focus on women, because they are the staff-holders of sacred life and nurturance. The aim of The Path of Practice is to evoke, inform, strengthen, and safeguard the memory of women as guardians of sacred healing. It is also meant to help men become awakened to the Mother's primordial healing energy that has existed within them from ancient times. Indeed, all but a few of the spiritual teachers whose work has informed my practice are men. In addition, I conduct the Mother Om Mission, a charitable organization whose purpose is to educate at-risk communities about sadhana lifeways and to familiarize men and women with the primordial healing power that every human being possesses. I also travel all over the world conducting workshops for those interested in learning the path of practice, or sadhana. Sadhana is a Sanskrit word whose root, sadh, means to reclaim that which is divine in us, our power to heal, serve, rejoice, and uplift the spirit. Sadhana practices encompass all our daily activities, from the simple to the sublime--from cooking a meal to exploring your inner self through meditation. The goal of sadhana is to enable you to recover your natural rhythms and realign your inner life and daily habits with the cycles of the universe. When you begin to live and move with the rhythms of nature, your mind becomes more lucid and more peaceful and your health improves. Your entire life becomes easier. As you begin your journey along the path of practice, you must make the promise to yourself that you are willing to take a very clear look at yourself. Allow yourself to recognize the various disguises and false faces that you have assumed over the years. As you come to acknowledge and know each one, you will also come to see beyond them to your truest self. As you find out more about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses, you will also learn about your body, mind, and spirit, and their innate power. You will awaken to your own self-healing abilities. Whatever conventional, Western medical treatments you use, you will always be able to use your own natural abilities as well. On the path of practice, we adopt the belief that disease happens from within, and so must any cure. We decide that any lack of peace or disease or illness becomes an occasion to go deeper into ourselves, to examine where we must make changes in order to heal our bodies, feelings, or lives. We accept that our ailment is an assignment, and that to complete it satisfactorily, we must do research into it and into ourselves. Each of us is unique; no one else can complete our assignment for us. We can't even depend on thTiwari, Bri Maya is the author of 'Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Healing with Food, Breath, and Sound' with ISBN 9780345430304 and ISBN 0345430301.