PREVIOUS PAGE: DAVE WADDELL/STOCKSY; THIS PAGE: NEMANJA GLUMAC/STOCKSYYOGAJOURNAL.COM / 26 / FEBRUARY 2018
I HAD MY FIRST YOGA-MADE-ME-CRY
experience in a jam-packed New York
City studio. At the time, I was new to the
practice, showing up for twice-weekly
classes because I thought the stretching
would complement my triathlon train-
ing. Yet when I found myself holding
Sleeping Pigeon Pose for what seemed
like an eternity, the warm, salty tears that
fl owed down my cheeks were a sign that
yoga was going to stretch me in ways
I didn’t expect.
Those tears—and whatever was
behind them—opened my mind to the
possibility that there was a whole world
within me I had yet to discover. Most
yogis have similar stories of emotional
outpouring on their mats, and for many,
it’s a realization that the physical practice
of yoga asana has a deeper, subtler layer
and that tapping the energy stored there
may be the key to real healing.
That’s where subtle-energy therapies
come into play. “Just as yoga works on
a structural, energetic, and emotional
level to help us connect to the source—
whether you call it god, spirit, or
kundalini—energy-healing modalities
aim to guide people back to a sense
of belonging with that source,” says
Susan Manchester, an intuitive healer
in Boulder, Colorado, who practices
biodynamic craniosacral therapy and
the Rolf Method of Structural Integra-
tion. “Ideally, energy healing helps you
come home to your body and connects
you in a more profound way with your
true Self.” Maria Villella, an acupunctur-
ist and yoga teacher in Los Angeles,
adds that yogis often have a head start
when it comes to experiencing the
benefi ts of these therapies. “With any
healing modality, the more you’re able to
put yourself in a deeply relaxed state, the
more benefi ts you’ll receive,” she says.
From acupuncture and Reiki to intui-
tive counseling and craniosacral therapy,
modalities once viewed as “alternative”
are becoming increasingly mainstream.
Yet choosing one that will work best
for you can be daunting. Here’s a guide
to help you home in on those that will
enable you to explore the deeper layers
within you, and as Manchester puts it,
ultimately come home to your Self.
WALK INTO AN INTUITIVE COUNSELOR’S OFFICE and it may feel like
you’re in for something similar to talk therapy: Your counselor will likely
sit across from you, ready to dive into your emotional challenges, issues,
or concerns. Yet unlike traditional counseling, an intuitive counselor
won’t start with a question about how you’re doing or why you’ve come
to see her. Instead, she’ll prompt you to get out of your mind and into
your body with a short guided meditation, says intuitive counselor
Carolyn Flyer. “This makes it possible for me to read someone’s energy.”
Then, Flyer asks her client to set a silent intention, off ers a prayer
that the session be of benefi t to all beings, and asks the client to repeat
his or her name three times. “Hearing a client’s name gives me permis-
sion to energetically read them and begins the formulation of images
and words in my body,” she adds. These images and words often point to
habits, patterns, and wounds the client may be facing, which can then be
discussed. Once a client’s challenge is identifi ed, Flyer says she channels
spirit to provide practical tools to help that client work toward resolution.TRY THIS THERAPY IF ... you’ve hit a wall in traditional counseling and
want to tap into the power of your own intuition. “Each of us has expe-
rienced, and often dismissed, intuition as coincidence—say, in the form
of your mother calling just after you thought of her,” says Flyer. “Yet this
intuition makes us privy to so much information—and we tend to close
ourselves off to it in the name of busyness and distraction. My work is to
show people how they can tap into their own intuition, simply by getting
quiet and getting into their bodies.”