The Practice of Purging • Nicole Doherty Ananda

Dear friends & family,

For me, writing is a cathartic release. This is a creative form of purging. It’s an opportunity for me to challenge my weaknesses, self-reflect, let go of what I may bottle up and share myself with my community.
If there is one thing I practice well, it’s purging! We all need to do this to purify our bodies and minds, so we can grow, expand and see our divine true nature.How do we recognize our limitations, habits (samskaras) and the things lurking in the shadows that we need to release?

We practice turning inward. We pay attention to the people that reflect back to us. We see challenges arising again and again, so we stop and pay attention. We listen with great intent. We practice being alone. We reconcile with our loneliness. We see and feel the stagnant energy. We shed light on the shadow. We make friends with our inner demons. We face them with compassion, loving kindness and nurturance. We practice tenderness. We practice being our best friends. We practice until we feel oneness in all and everything.

In our society, we are bombarded day in and out with extrasensory information. We are pulled out of ourselves and our center daily. Turning inward seems jolting. The landing is not always soft. It’s easy to stay outside of these bodies looking at the pretty pictures, blinky lights and Facebook posts. Yet, these temporal distractions can take up valuable real estate in our day and on our journey of expansion.

As I have moved classes into longer cool downs, seated poses and meditation as of late, I see the agitation, anger and frustration percolate to the surface. This is the purging process. This comes from deep within the well of karmas. Our ugliness needs to be seen and heard to transmute to beauty. We need to stop the “Spiritual Bypassing” and go deep beneath the surface and purge.

We are in the Age of Aquarius, we are raising the Kundalini energy of the planet and humankind. We are being called to burn through toxic karma, wounds, and ancestral patterning. We are being called to be subversives to the current paradigm. We are here to raise our consciousness and spiral into the higher dimensions. It’s a huge responsibility, so let’s own it and purge!

I encourage you to take up practices that are inward reflecting and cleansing. I encourage you to spend time alone in silence to really see. I encourage you to sit in the shadows, cry and bang pillows against the floor to let out your rage and heal. As challenging as it can be, it is more conscious than hiding and masking pain. The patterns of the past cannot be broken unless we spend time illuminating them.

We all have obstacles and suffering – that’s the path of being human. We chose this Spiritual Warrior path and this time/space reality to expand and ascend. It’s time to stop beating ourselves up for our imperfections, shame, guilt, fear or anything that comes with being whom we are and what we’ve experienced.

We must love ourselves first and foremost with the utmost compassion that we can muster. We must learn to love ourselves, our thoughts, words, emotions, bodies, minds and actions so unconditionally that nothing pulls us out of love. Let’s forgive, forget and keep on loving.

Then, we can truly share our hearts with one another and bring consciousness, peace and harmony to all that we touch.

Bowing humbly to the Goddess Mother Earth and all her beautiful beings! Sending you infinite love and light as this journey of awakening unfolds…

xo,
Nicole