DAY 46: Bow down to the universe and let it do its work for you

By Suniya Taimour at, Route2Pilates, Lahore, Pakistan, 16 September 2017

Published in

100 DAYS OF LEARNING

7 min readSep 26, 2017

The practice of Parana Borboleta- The Cosmic Butterfly

Essentially, everyone manifests their own reality, whether they do so in a manner that is conscious or unconscious is a different story. The practice involves nothing but consciousness. On a physical level, in order to lose weight, we become conscious of what we eat. Similarly, the thoughts we feed to our body, through our experiences and learnt knowledge manifests itself in our life as reality. For example, you wake up one morning on the wrong side of the bed and the first thought that comes into your mind, ‘’today is going to be a shitty day’’. That statement, that thought, manifests itself and you in reality have a shitty day. Alternatively, if you do wake up on the wrong side of the bed and close your eyes and tell yourself, today will be a beautiful day, and today I am courageous, motivated and kind. Trust me, that day; you will be courageous, motivated and kind. Awareness of our thoughts, intentions and beliefs is the practice of mindfulness, for when you are mindful you can manifest your own reality. Had a bad day at work, hate your boss. Not a problem. Send them love and forgiveness and you will observe how the universe takes part in this cosmic belief to manifest love and forgiveness for your boss not just in your heart but in their heart too!
The purpose of the exercise is simple. The universe awaits your kindness, the universe is waiting patiently for you to heed to the signs that she brings forth in your life, and hence through the practice of Prana Borboleta, the cosmic butterfly, you bow down to the universe and let it do its work for you.
The workshop was conducted on the 16th of September in Lahore, Pakistan and comprised of three components: the practice of mindfulness, the practice of interaction with the universe and the exercise for manifestation of your intention.
The participants were provided with surprise bags which consisted of some

writing material, markers, reiki charged papers for affirmations, reiki charged incense sticks for cleaning out negative energy and reiki charged candles for manifesting intention.
After a round of introductions, the participants were asked to close their eyes and meditate for two minutes. They were asked to find one area of their life that

they felt they were stuck in, and to feel that situation and corresponding emotion with it. The participants then took turns describing their feeling in one word which ranged from heavy, sandpit, struggle, bad etc. They were then introduced to the concept of mindfulness and being present. The human ego works in amusing ways to allow for the mind to be either seated in the past through reminiscing old habits, patters or decisions or the future through worrying about what may happen next. However, we fail to recognise the power of the present moment, which is now, and only now, while we wait for something significant to happen in the future to shape our lives. The participants were asked to reflect on their situation and see how their mind had been training them to judge a particular situation as either good or bad and then respond to it in a certain way, whereas, if we just pause, breathe and exhale, we understand that the situation itself is not good or bad, It is our reaction from our past learnt experiences which makes it a certain way. If we step back and look at the situation as just facts, facts not ruled by emotion or judgement, only then can we be truly present and at peace because then the situation does not demand a reaction from you.

In the second leg of the workshop, the participants were introduced to various ways in which they could interact with the universe, primarily through the practice of abundance and through applying three facets to every situation/thought/circumstance in their life: non-judgement, non-attachment and non-resistance. The practice of abundance essentially states that what you think life is withholding from you, it is actually you that is withholding that from life in reality. The participants were again asked to meditate on how their relationship with life was. Did they see life as a struggle, difficult, beautiful or whatever verb that they deemed appropriate. Apart from one, all participants stated words like hard, struggle, conflict, tough etc. The participants were then through different stories explained how their perception was the only limitation in their achievements. For example, how about a change in perspective? Rather than treating life as a test, a struggle which must be overcome, why not treat life as a friend. How would you welcome a friend? You would open your door for them, welcome them, offer them tea and sit with them and just simply enjoy their company. What If we started treating life as a friend? Just a shift in this perspective brought smiles to the faces of participants.

The participants were then asked to look at specific situations in their lives, if they felt a friend did not trust them, can they be 100% sure themselves that they trusted that friend as well? Or if they feel that someone does not respect them, are they actually truly from the heart giving the other person the respect that they demand themselves. These reflective exercises allowed the participants to think beyond their own self and diminish the ego, even if for a little while. With regard to the three pronged approach to dealing with situations, through my own personal examples, the participants were explained how to be mindful, conscious and aware: non-resistance to anything that happens, non-judgement to whatever good/bad happens and non-attachment to any circumstance for it too shall pass.

The last part of the workshop comprised of the manifestation exercise explained through the system of seven chakras (energy centres) in the human body. The participants were guided to practice a cleansing of their chakra system from the bottom (root) following up to the sacral, the solar plexus, the heart, the throat, third eye and the crown chakra at the top. The participants were then through a guided meditation asked to manifest an intention by bringing it into their awareness in the crown chakra, then visualising it in the third eye, communicating it through the throat chakra, feeling the joy for achieving the intention in the heart chakra, devise a road map for achieving the intention in the solar plexus chakra, followed by feeling the pleasure of following the roadmap and overcoming any obstacles in the sacral chakra, followed by a physical manifestation of achieving the intention in the root chakra.

This exercise lasted for about thirty minutes and was followed by the participants again reflecting on their initial area of life where they felt stuck in and how they perceived it after they knew all the power they had. The participants were asked to describe the situation in one word and various verbs came up ranging from peace, roadmap, easy, breathe, being aware. This demonstrated that they participants actually felt empowered to deal with a situation they did not feel was in their control initially.

The workshop ended with an interactive discussion where the participants put forth their own opinions and beliefs about interaction with the universe. The workshop ended with hugs to each other followed by unwinding over a cup of tea and snacks.