Seven months ago I embarked upon an epic personal journey! (You can read all about it HERE) It all began with 40 Days of Devotion. In the yogic tradition this is called a “Mandala.”
A 40-day yoga mandala is a structured spiritual practice that involves committing to the same yoga practice every day for 40 consecutive days. My mandala centered around a practice that was designed to open up the energy traveling through my spine, helping to align my physical, mental and energetic bodies.
Here are Some Key Aspects of a 40-Day Yoga Mandala:
Consistency: Practitioners commit to practicing every day for 40 days without skipping, as consistency is believed to create profound shifts in the mind and body.
Intention Setting: At the beginning of the mandala, practitioners usually set a clear intention or sankalpa—something they wish to manifest or work on over the next 40 days. This intention becomes a focus point for the practice.
Specific Practice: The yoga routine often focuses on a particular theme, such as: A certain yoga style (e.g., Hatha, Ashtanga, Kundalini; A focus on specific asanas (yoga postures) for strength, flexibility, or balance; Breathwork (pranayama), meditation, or mantra chanting may also be integrated to deepen the practice.
Duration: The practice can vary in duration each day, but it usually spans from 20 minutes to an hour. The idea is not necessarily about how long, but the quality and intention behind the daily practice.
Challenges: The 40-day period is based on the idea that it takes 40 days to establish a new habit and break old patterns. This duration allows practitioners to move through physical, mental, and emotional blocks.
Spiritual Growth: Beyond physical improvements, the aim of a mandala is to promote spiritual awakening, discipline, self-awareness, and emotional healing.
Completion: Upon completion, many experience a sense of accomplishment, growth, and deepened awareness, potentially setting the stage for further practice or a new 40-day cycle.
I had not heard of a Yoga Mandala until the evening before I began one… but it made perfect sense to me! I had spent years telling my clients in the physio clinic “Just practice these exercises every day for 6 weeks and I promise that you will heal!”
I secretly wondered why 6 weeks was the magic number for healing? A cast stays on a broken bone for 6 weeks, you can resume normal activities 6 weeks after surgery, women can become intimate again 6 weeks after the birth of their baby.
When I heard my Yoga Guru say “Your body moves through one complete energy cycle every 40 days” I finally understood why I had spent years in the physio clinic observing clients consistently heal right around the 6 week mark.
My experience with 40 Days of Devotion was so profound that we are focusing the entire upcoming Breath Therapy season on spinal alignment! It improved my mental clarity, healed my body, increased my perception and intuition, made me more flexible and agile (physically & mentally) and fine tuned my ability to receive messages from my guides!
All of that… in just 40 days! I would like to tell you that it was easy… but Hell No… it definitely was not! There were so many days that I sat in my mediation, yoga postures and breath patterns fighting within my own head! “I don’t have time to be doing this today!” “I am so bored of doing the same thing every day!” “What is the point of this anyway?”
My old way of being was trying to drag me back into the comfort of the known, but as the days went by something changed within me. I would like to use the metaphor of a crystal glass filled with wine… the 40 Day Mandala was the glass, a practice that created structure, a place to hold the flow of the wine. That structure allowed me to explore my thoughts and beliefs more freely, sparked a creative passion within me, and gave me permission to explore who I really am.
On Wednesday Oct. 9th… the first day of the new Breath Therapy season I am embarking on another 40 days of devotion. I am doing it a little differently this time around… I am still incorporating gentle yoga postures and breath patterns that focus on spinal alignment, but I am also adding some lifestyle changes… in bed by 11pm and up by 7am and no refined sugar.
If a 40-Day Yoga Mandala sounds interesting to you… perhaps you would like to journey through these 40 days with me? I will be teaching a short 15 min. sequence within Breath Therapy class on Wednesday night that I encourage you to use as a daily practice to help open your spinal energy and flow, increase your mental clarity and connect with your own divine guidance.
If you feel called to give this a try…please click the link below and join us for the very first class of the season “Introduction to Your Sweet Spine!”
Click HERE to drop-in to the first class - $25 (unlimited access to the class recording included)
OR
Click HERE to sign up for all 8 classes - $160 (save $40)`
Much love,
Marnie ❤️
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