I didn't know how to truly rest until I ran twenty-one kilometers.

My body always had something to protect. The race was the first time it didn't.

Has effort ever opened something that rest alone couldn't reach?

Read the full essay

https://medium.com/@clarainsweden/running-a-half-marathon-changed-my-savasana-f8286317d16c

#savasana #runningandyoga #halfmarathon
#embodiedpractice #effortandease #yogalife
#contemplativepractice #runningmeditation #yogaphilosophy

One entry I wrote as a failure turned out to be the most important sentence in the notebook.

It said: practiced for twenty minutes. Nothing happened. But I stayed.

When did showing up without results teach you something?

#yogapractice #discipline #showingup
#contemplativepractice #dailypractice #meditationpractice
#yogajournal #practicejournal #mindfulness

There was a bleached tree beneath the Himalayas, stripped by wind, still standing.

Looking at it, I understood, impermanence isn't sad, it's beautiful.

What in nature has taught you something words couldn't explain?

#impermanence #nature #buddhism
#mountains #meditation #himalayas
#contemplativepractice #mindfulness #spiritualjourney

My grandmother practiced yoga for fifty years. She called it sitting down.

Asana means seat. Not pose. She had it right all along, the vocabulary just hadn't caught up.

What does your practice look like without the words?

#yoga #asana #ancestralwisdom
#yogaphilosophy #presencepractice #familywisdom
#embodiedwisdom #contemplativepractice #culturalheritage

We've been taught that stillness means not moving.

But the Buddha walked for forty-nine days after his awakening. Maybe wisdom needs legs.

How does your body find its own way to stillness?

Read the full story

https://medium.com/@clarainsweden/running-toward-stillness-315ccaf8e421

#meditationpractice #embodiedwisdom #movementmeditation
#buddhism #contemplativepractice #spiritualjourney
#mindfulness #runningmeditation #walkingmeditation

Confession: the most spiritual thing I do most days is wake up before I want to and put on my running shoes.

No cosmic moments, just cold air and one foot in front of the other.

What does your practice look like from the outside?

#sadhana #yoga #morningroutine
#morningrun #spiritualpractice #dailypractice
#yogalife #mindfulmovement #contemplativepractice

Have you ever carried a teacher's words for years and felt them land only mid-run?

A quote from Rishikesh, years in my journal. Kilometer fourteen made it real.

Have you ever understood a teaching only by living it?

Read the full essay

https://medium.com/@clarainsweden/running-a-half-marathon-changed-my-savasana-f8286317d16c

#halfmarathon #effortandease #yoga
#runningandyoga #yogawisdom #embodiedpractice
#contemplativepractice #runningmeditation #savasana

I wrote 'steadiness and ease' in my journal in Rishikesh. Running showed me I'd misunderstood the order.

Ease comes after steadiness, not alongside it. The race showed me.

What has living taught you that studying couldn't?

#sthirasukha #yogaphilosophy #yoga
#halfmarathon #runningandyoga #embodiedpractice
#savasana #effortandease #contemplativepractice

The first silence I experienced wasn't quiet.

When I stopped speaking, what rose up was everything I'd been drowning out.

Have you ever sat with real silence, not just quiet but the kind that reveals what you've been avoiding?

Read more

https://medium.com/@clarainsweden/what-the-himalayas-whispered-4e0b51998b2c

#silenceretreat #meditation #himalayas
#mindfulness #contemplativepractice #innerwork
#spiritualpractice #yogaphilosophy #solitude

Prana isn't breath. I thought it was for years. So did every studio I practiced in.

Ananya said: 'Prana is not something you breathe in. It is something you are made of.'

What changed once you knew the philosophy beneath?

#prana #pranayama #yogaphilosophy
#yogawisdom #breathwork #contemplativepractice
#sanskritwords #yogadepth #yogalearning