As I was browsing for photographs to use for this email I came across the one above. It caught my attention because it reminded me of something I heard my teacher say a long time ago. She said that sometimes life does not get any easier "but it does get interesting"

Prāṇa is  a Sanskrit word that translates to "vital energy" or "life force" in English. It is connected to the breath which is how we usually experience it. Prāṇa as the breath is the place where the mind and the body meet and interact. This interaction happens all the time whether we realize it or not.

This week we will have a total lunar eclipse or blood moon the night of Thursday March 13th that will go into Friday the 14th. This event marks the beginning of eclipse season which will last for 18th months. Every eclipse season reminds me of the cycles of changes in nature since every eclipse season happens in a different pair of zodiac sings. Change is the one constant thing in life.

Many many years ago when I lived in California I received a mantra from my teacher:

om namah śivāya

Little did I know at the time how much this mantra was going to be part of my life from that point on. Om namah śivāya is my constant companion. I repeated at all moments during the day. I repeat it silently if I see something beautiful,  or if I am going through something challenging, or when I need to calm my mind down, or when I need to go deeper into myself in meditation, or when I am on the train, or sometimes when I am just walking on the streets. I repeat it eleven times before each meal and one hundred and eight times before falling asleep. Over the years I have come to feel like this mantra is an angel watching over me all the time.

Many of the yoga philosophy teachers tend to go through many different topics related to the process of self-awareness when they teach. Each time they come to one of these topics they pick a couple of main points to focus on. These points are not always the same and that is done purposely to help us learn to see the same thing from many perspectives. Eventually we get to understand self-awareness in many of its different facets and stages.

My teacher has been encouraging me to go deeper into my understanding of time since the beginning of this year. The word in sanskrit that I know for time is kala but this is not the word that she is using. In the teachings that she has been giving daily the word that she uses is Samaya. Samaya refers to time but more specifically 'the right time to do something'.