When I was about to teach my very first kundalini yoga class back in April of 2006, I was over-prepared and super nervous. Speaking in front of a group of people had always been terrifying to me, and I was an expert at getting in the way of myself. While my yoga training was great at strengthening my sense of self (and along with it courage), it was the real life doing, ie teaching paying students, that would affirm it.
But how do I get myself out of the the way to get where I want to be? In this case, how do I get comfortable enough in my own skin to be able to hone my attention on what’s going on with others?
I came into the studio extra early that morning to do 15 minutes of The Ego Eradicator to get myself out of the way and teach. You only need to do this for 1 to 3 minutes, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
It worked. My mind stopped trying to run all over the place with the what ifs and the sabotaging feelings I could have had about myself. It shifted both my physical and mental states, and I went into class focused on serving my students. I was in a zone.
I did it before every class, and soon 15 minutes of The Ego Eradicator became 10 minutes, then 5, then 1 minute. And then eventually I was able to bypass my ego without it. When I walked into a studio, I was automatically in the zone. Anything that might have been on my mind, or that I was ruminating about… even aches that I might have had… left the moment I stepped inside the studio, and I became the channel.
Going into the zone doesn’t make you oblivious to your surroundings. To the contrary, it makes you fully aware of, and spontaneously responsive to, what’s going on around you. At the same time, you are most connected to your own potential.
Eradicate the ego?
It would be more accurate to say: Eradicate command of the Ego.
You actually need your ego, it serves a function. It keeps you alive and allows you to show up in your individual and unique self.
The problem with the ego is that it wants you to believe that it runs the show, that it knows best, and you become a servant to it, obeying all of its thoughts.
You were meant to have command over it.
The Ego Eradicator puts your ego back into its place, as your servant. Not to the part of you that’s trying to fit in, but to your truth, which is so much bigger than that. It resides, not in your head, but at your heart center. Your truth is linked to your emotions and your nervous system. Truth is in your body, not in your analytical mind.
When you let your ego take command, your ego translates your emotions with stories of how things are, how you are, and how everyone is. Even if the story is good, you can become lost in it, making it a part of your identity, so as not to be able to recover from it in a timely fashion should “good” turn into “bad.” When you have this happen to you enough times, you start waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is the ego taking command.
When you let your truth take command, you treat your emotions as a reminder of your deepest values, and you are better able to make decisions that serve your highest good. Even when “bad” happens, you feel an underlying sense of trust that everything is and will be okay, and that you will be able to respond to things as they come up. With this comes a sense of command, existence (you matter), and joy.
Here’s an indicator that your ego might be in total command and how to correct it: you feel chronic dis-ease. Start listening to your body instead of your head. Your body has deep wisdom. Practice asking yourself, how does this feel in my body? What does it want me to know? Know that it will at times put you in (temporary) discomfort by prompting you to act on your own behalf so that you can heal and find peace. Your head (ego), on the other hand, wants you to survive at all costs and strives to keep you in the comfort zone. This dismissal of your actual needs ultimately creates tension and chronic dis-ease. The Ego Eradicator helps get you out of your status-quo head and into your body’s remarkable wisdom.
The Ego Eradicator can be added as a part of your daily meditation or yoga practice to get your small, saboteur self out of the way and pave the way for your highest self to step in.
When to do this practice
You can do this anytime you feel yourself getting in the way of what you need and want to do. If you’re like me, an expert at getting in the way of yourself, start every morning with this as a part of your daily practice. Start with one minute and build up to 3 minutes a day. If you need a longer or more frequent practice, go for it!
6 magnificent benefits of the Ego Eradicator
It balances your Pranic Body. Prana is Life Force: vitality, immunity, and strength, akin to what you feel when you step outside to a bright, sunny day after a week or two of gray skies. Or the transformation you see soon after watering a wilted plant. It brings on the sense that the Force is with you.
It expands your Magnetic Field (aka your Aura). Like the Earth, we have one too. It’s the protective field that surrounds your body: it protects you from the stickiness of negativity. It’s also your projective field: it amplifies you so that you don’t have to work so hard to be seen.
It connects your finite self to your Infinite Self so that you can humbly sense your power and influence in the smallest of actions.
It increases Clarity of Consciousness which makes you open, spontaneous, grounded, and decisive.
It strengthens your Personal Power. This helps you distinguish your work, needs, and wants from that of others. It helps you know when to take action and when to sit back and let be.
It opens and protects the Heart Center, the seat of your truth. It allows you to be vulnerable, at the same time strengthens boundaries, and guides with compassion.
How to do it
Mudra (hand and arm positions):
Fingers are curled, not halfway down your palm, but just to the base of your fingers. Thumbs go straight up and away from the rest of your fingers.
Raise your arms up overhead so that your hands are at 10:00 and 2:00. Plug those thumbs into the sky.
Imagine an arc positioned from one thumb to the other.
Check and make sure that your shoulders aren’t scrunched up. Relax them down and slightly back.
Dristhi (eye focus):
Through closed eyes, gently look up as if trying to look through your crown center and at the arc above your head.
Breath:
Breath of Fire: to do this correctly, start by sticking the tongue out and panting like a dog (about 2-3 pants per second). You many notice that your breath is activated by your navel center (the area below the diaphragm); this is correct.
Now close your mouth and continue with this breath through the nostrils. Keep the pace steady with equal emphasis on both the inhale and the exhale.
Time:
Continue for 1-3 minutes. Or longer.
To end:
Take a deep inhale as you connect the thumb tips together overhead, stretching the arms up high. Hold there for a moment (10-15 seconds).
As you exhale, uncurl and separate the rest of your fingers out and slowly fan your arms out to the sides and down, moving them through your magnetic field.
Relax your arms and your breath, and sit for a moment, noticing the sensations and shifts in your energy, mind, and body.
Before getting up, take a moment to acknowledge and embrace the deep wisdom and intelligence of your body.
Love, Savitree
Love this one!