Class Review | Awakening The Global Heart

Posted by Laura Subotky on 7/28/11 in Uncategorized

Awakening the Global Heart, the second class of the Wanderlust Festival at The North Face Space was a powerful, heart opening experience. The video below shows a part of the class that was truly inspiring. During this segment, we practiced opening our hearts to the divine and to those around us. We dug deep into ourselves to discover new ways to become more open and connected with others.

Here are the a few highlights of the heart opening exercises we practiced.

Sitting together in groups of three and sharing our personal answers to these questions: "What do I find challenging in the world?", "What do I find hopeful in the world?" and "What do I stand for?"

Walking around to the beat of a drum and, like in musical chairs, at the pause of the music, stopping in front of another yogi to honor each other non-verbally. Responses included embraces, smiling, and sharing positive energy.

Practicing making eye contact with someone new and then sitting back-to-back with another person, letting our body weight support each other. By trusting and leaning on each other, we were able to physically let our chest open, thereby letting our hearts open. This exercise also demonstrated that a person that you're just meeting for the first time can be supportive and might even have a huge impact on your life.

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A particularly beautiful part of the class was the chant at the end. As a special way to honor the final person that we were paired with, we sat down back-to-back and chanted "Om Mani Padme Hum" (video below), a powerful mantra that is often interpreted as "jewel in the lotus". This mantra has many interpretations but includes six syllables that symbolize generosity, ethics, patience, diligence, renunciation and wisdom.