Nature is our mirror and our greatest yoga teacher:

Tantra and Tao Yoga for women `s bodies and hearts Part 3.

If you are given a beautiful plant as a gift do you water it regularly and admire its beauty, or do you put it in a corner and forget about it? If you water the plant it grows, and may even bloom some flowers or fruit. It will add life and energy to your room. If you fail to give it water the soil supporting the plant turns dry and the leaves start to wither. The plant approaches death andthus emergency care is need but sometimes it may not regain its health or beauty.
One of yoga`s most important teachings is that we are mirrors of nature. 80 percent of the earth is water. So is our body. Oxygen circulates in the atmosphere and it is the same with the `air`-the prana in our bodies. We can`t see O2 or prana but without it life would not exist. Likewize, rainbows mirror the chakras in our body, sunny days correspond to our happy andenergize moods, and cloudy days correspond to our blue and tired moods. When we deepen our yoga practice we start to become very aware of this `nature mirror` connection and realize that nature is our greatest yoga teacher if we observe her andlearn.
In this article, the plants represent our reproductive systems. Usually we only give our breasts, uterus and ovaries attention if there is pain in the area or they become cancerous. When did you last `water` your reproductive system? By ``water`` I mean give it the attention and care it needs? Like our stomachs and the skin on our faces we need to give our reproductive organs nutrients on a daily basis. Otherwise they will start to wither and may event stop functioning.
In Japan and around the world the rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer and ovarian cysts is increasing. This is why I am passionate about sharing tantra and tao yoga practices that provide us with various exercises that are nourishing for us as women physically and emotionally.
In my workshops and after a more traditional yoga practice we expand our hearts and share our thoughts and feelings (one aspect of tantra yoga), then in the safety of dim lights and under our blankest we channel our breath, our voice (mantra) andmassage our ovaries and breast tissue (tao yoga practices) which stimulates the blood and lymph systems. Warm sensations then fill the body and the mind calms to a blissful meditative state. It is a beautiful experience. More advanced practices use the `jade egg` as a tool to move energy in the uterus and really access `banda` in the female body.
This may be the first time you have heard of this type of yoga and reading about these practices may seem a bit confronting but I (along with many other women who have been diagnosed with reproductive problems) encourage you to deepen your yogapractice, `water` your plants and observe the beautiful way in which your mind and body responds. to Regular check ups with your gynecologist are also important and remember enjoy your female body and spend some conscious time in nature and see the mirror messages mother nature is reflects for us.