top of page

Receive A Weekly Video To Help You Feel Completely, Express Fully And Live Authentically

Dr. Jay's Personal Embodied, Consciousness Awakening Routine (Commentary, Yoga & Meditation)


Above Photo: The Awakening (1980) by J. Seward Johnson Jr.​

Embodied, Consciousness Awakening Routine

(Commentary)

I have been receiving the type of care that we provide at the Network Life Center since about 2000. Hands down, Network Care has been the single most important factor in the awakened changes that have happened in my body and life since then. About four years ago, however, I had gotten to a point where I realized that, as holistic as the care was, on some level I was 'letting it be done to me.' In other words, I became aware of the fact that I wasn't as involved in the process of my own evolution as I could have been. Consequently I had reached a plateau.

The practitioner that I was seeing at the time (and still see) introduced me to meditation and a special kind of gentle yoga known as Svaroopa yoga. Upon adopting these two practices, my awareness took a giant leap, which was also reflected in the positive changes and the movement that began to happen in my body and my life.

Why meditation? Through meditation I realized the power of my own attention. My experience of working with myself through meditation and my experience of coaching those in my practice to pay closer attention as they're receiving care has taught me that our attention is the key to everything. I believe that any modality--chiropractic, massage, cranial sacral, acupuncture, rolfing, yoga, psychotherapy, even placebo--works to the extent that it invites us to bring our conscious attention to ourselves, and especially to our bodies. So our attention is key, and meditation is basically the practice of strengthening our attention muscles.

Why yoga? Traditionally yoga has always been coupled with meditation. Donald Epstein, the inventor and developer of Network Care, gives insight into why that is. In his models for wellness, Donald talks about how our Structure, our Perception and our Behavior are all tied together. We can't move to the next level of our awakening without a tranformation happening on all of those levels. The unconscious survival patterns that keep us asleep to the truth are stored in our bodies--our structure--and so if constructive, permanent change is to to happen in our lives, any modality that we use to get there must involve awakening on the level of the body.

In his book, "The End of Your World," Adya Shanti says that there are three types of awakening. There is awakening of the mind, awakening of the heart and then there's awakening at the level of the gut. Awakening of the mind is, of course, a good thing. Awakening of the heart is much needed in this World. But an awakening at the level of the gut means that we come into deep relationship with the fact that we have incarnated here in a physical body. Awakening at the level of the gut will allow us to share the gifts of an awakened mind and an awakened heart with the World. Meditation, coupled with Svaroopa yoga, is designed to provide the gentle support that is necessary to release the conditioned gripping that happens at the level of the gut. When you add all of this to a resource based healing modality like Network Care... well, the speed and depth of the awakening can be very profound.

The following videos were filmed during a workshop at the Network Life Center in which I shared my own personal awakening routine, which involves Svaroopa yoga, followed by meditation. My routine usually involves 6 yoga poses, sometimes a yogic exercise and then meditation. This routine can be performed slowly over the course of a few hours or the whole thing could be shortened to last just minutes. Under each video you'll find a description of its contents.

Savasana

The second we come into this World, a primitive part of our nervous system is assessing what's safe and what's not. We get subtle cues from our environment and from the people around us that it's not safe to be who we are. So our nervous system forms survival patterns around the perceived need to fit in that involve gripping at the life force energy at the level of our guts. These patterns form on the instinctive level. There's no thinking involved. We're just responding to the energetics of our environment. And so if we're going to unwind these patterns we can't think our way out of them. We've got to feel through them. We can't stretch them out of our bodies. Only when they're met with support and acceptance will they feel it's safe enough to let go. The mantra of Svaroopa yoga is something like, "support equals release." Support allows the body to rest. When we let rest infiltrate our system it provides the foundation for these survival patterns to soften. So we kind of set the tone by starting things off with Savasana.

Feet In Front

In the next 5 Svaroopa poses we will be working our way up the spine, helping our system connect and release at the different parts of our spine from the tail bone to the base of the skull. In this pose, with our feet out in front of us, we'll be focusing on releasing the tail bone.

Feet Together

Working our way up the spine, this pose allows us to release the sacrum.

Twisting Lunge

If I were going to be isolated on a desert island and could take only one pose with me, this would be the pose I would choose. This lunge helps release the low back and belly by creating support for the psoas muscle, sometimes referred to as the "muscle of the soul."

Seated Side Bend

This pose helps to connect and release at the mid-back and ribs.

Side Lying Spinal Twist

This pose helps us release the upper back and neck.

Bhastrika

Bhastrika is a yogic exercise that helps get chi moving so that it can come into awareness and be digested.

Meditation

Once we've prepared the vessel with yoga, we can use meditation to connect to Source so the space that has been created with the yoga can be filled with Spirit. Any meditation technique you choose can be used here. In this video I've concentrated on connecting with restful states.

Let Me Help

If you'd like more personalized and direct wellness and awakening help through the gentle, yet powerful work that I do at Network Life Center, let's chat. You can click the link to schedule a FREE, 30-minute phone consult.

Special Thanks To Shinzen Young

The foundation for these guided meditations are concepts and techniques developed by a brilliant mindfulness meditation instructor named Shinzen Young. He does regular phone based retreats which I highly recommend for anyone. They are an easy way to learn some powerful meditation techniques from the comfort and privacy of your own home, while simultaneously having the benefit of a group setting.

Special Thanks To Lawrence Conlan

Lawrence Conlan is the practitioner I spoke of earlier. He's the one who introduced me to the profound power of meditation and these simple poses. I highly recommend his Passionate Ease retreats.

bottom of page