Practical Yoga's Wisdom For Everyday People: Essays & Inspiration for Life

By William M Donnelly

Here’s a go-to book that offers simple & practical wisdom when you need it. It’s the perfect companion for those on a conscious journey through life.

Trusted teacher, author and yogi, William M. Donnelly offers his signature ability to inspire and uplift with these short, easy-to-read essays. Plus, throughout the book there are over 20 opportunities to get engaged. All of these active experiences invite you to move through your own process and enrich your life with simple, practical steps. In the book, you will find:

Guided Meditations
Useful Visualizations
Easy-to-Do Breathing Techniques
Simple Writing Prompts

This series of essays was written as part of the author’s personal journey through grief after the devastating loss of his life partner to Lou Gehrig’s Disease/ALS (2010.) This book brings together Donnelly’s most popular essays, originally presented through SpiritualityHealth.com, now re-edited and grouped into three sections, to encourage you to get the most from the readings:

TRUST & FAITH
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
LOVE & RELATIONSHIPS

As co-host and co-creator of the yoga reality television show Guru2Go on fitTV (Discovery Communications, 2004), editor of the Yoga for Every Body national newsletter (Waterfront Media), and with over 25 years experience as yoga & meditation teacher/retreat leader and writer & intuitive coach, Donnelly offers accessible, practical wisdom for everyday people.

Open the book to any page and see what the Universe might awaken in you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: William M Donnelly
• Release date: Sep 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9780997933000

William M Donnelly

William M. Donnelly is a nationally recognized, certified yoga teacher, an inspirational writer & author, and an intuitive coach.Will partnered with SpiritualityHealth.com to offer insightful essays for daily living. Now, his best and most inspirational essays are organized together in his first book, “Practical Yoga’s Wisdom for Everyday People”.Will founded his inspirational Writing From the Core classes in 2011 in Hawaii. He encourages all students and readers to trust their impulses and find their true voice.For over 20 years, Will has been a pioneer in the field of yoga, developing his signature Practical Yoga (a combination of Hatha and Kundalini/White Tantra), and co-creating the yoga–reality series Guru2Go for fitTV (Discovery Communications, 2004).In addition to producing for television, Will has worked with AOL/Time Warner to create fitness and wellness workout content. He was the co-editor and lead creative director of the Yoga for Every Body daily newsletter, originally a partnership with EverydayHealth.com/Waterfront Media.Will currently lives in Hawaii and New York, and leads yoga and writing classes & retreats.For more information, visit WilliamMDonnelly.com

Book preview

Preface

How lucky I am to have had something so good

it made saying goodbye so hard.

Versions of the essays shared on these pages were originally published through my blog, Confessions of an Accidental Yogi, in partnership with Spirituality Health.com, as part of my personal journey through grief after the loss of my life partner to Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) in 2010.

What do you do when you finally land on top of the world, and then watch as all that you love is slowly, systematically decimated? While a memoir on this topic is slowly making its way into the world, these stories were part of my effort to make sense out of what seems senseless.

It is my hope that you find these stories emotionally heartening, intellectually uplifting, and spiritually stimulating, urging you on past your own grief, losses or fears. May you be surprised at how good life can get, even in the face of adversity and challenge.

Will Donnelly

Big Island, Hawaii, Summer, 2016

Acknowledgments

First, I must acknowledge my life partner, Jeff, for all that he taught me while he was on this earth: Grace under fire after being forced into a game one could not win; Steady perseverance in creating a beautiful life regardless of conditions, and; Faith in facing death while somehow retaining a sense of humor about it all.

This book would not have come into fruition without germination from my Writing From the Core classes, founded in 2011 in Hawaii. I would be remiss not to mention the two most influential writing teachers who inspired me to form my own class: Dawn Thompson, who welcomed me to a 6-week grief-support writing circle for those engaged in caregiving. She now holds writing workshops (Words for Healing) for people healing from cancer. Also, Jane Brunette, a powerful and soulful writing teacher who I was fortunate enough to meet in Bali while grieving the loss of my partner. For both teachers, our time together was too brief, but pivotal. And you both independently awakened a teacher in me by your example. My gratitude runs deep.

I would also like to acknowledge the countless students who have joined me over the years, as each class has been a treasured gift. To the students: Your ability to write truthfully from the depth of your being and share it with others, often with trembling voice, is so beautiful. Your willingness to actively listen to others, really take them in and let the words impact you, has given me faith in humanity once again. You have left me hopeful, and sometimes breathless, with your wisdom and courage, as you have explored your inner life and showed me that the therapeutic benefits of personal essay writing are real. Indeed, the world is healed from the inside out.

The current cultural divide, which feels so wide at the time of this writing, is evaporated once we hear the story of another human being. We see our similarities, and find familiar stories of pain, joy and of life itself. We are not so different after all.

I must also give an acknowledgement of gratitude to SpiritualityHealth.com. Thank you for having faith in my voice, and for giving me a medium to express myself at a pivotal time. As one world crumbled away, another began to take steady root.

And last but not least, to my dear beyond friend and at times personal angel, Drew Delaware, who somehow coaxed me back into teaching yoga (and thus, writing) at a time when I might have otherwise given up. I have often wondered if we fully understand the impact we have on others when we lend them a helping hand.

Will Donnelly

Practical Yoga’s

Wisdom for Everyday People

Essays & Inspiration for Life

TRUST & FAITH

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,

but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,

but for the heart to conquer it.

Rabindranath Tagore

1

USING COURAGE

TO NAVIGATE YOUR LIFE

The year is 325 AD. On one of a small cluster of islands in the south pacific sea, now known as the Marquesas, a young Tahitian man is anxiously gathering tools for a unique voyage.

Like his father, Reva is an astronomer, but he has learned to read the stars and navigate his way around his home islands like no other. Now, he is part of an elite group who will courageously set sail and explore the vast Pacific Ocean—in a small, double-hulled canoe. A few have gone before him. None have returned.

For the Polynesians, it is an age of exploration, and Reva’s adept celestial mapping skills put him at the forefront of this movement. It would be his destiny to make the trek and find his way to an undiscovered new chain of islands, what is now called Hawaii. He would also be the first to return home and share his map of the stars, which would guide travelers across the sea and, for the next 300 years, help establish a new thriving community in the central pacific region.

Reva’s story is an amalgamation of stories of the Polynesian people’s journey across the sea from 300-600 AD. This epic migration is a dramatic

demonstration of a quality in the human heart that drives us to continually expand and explore our boundaries. Expansion requires courage, and courageous people, notably, are not fearless. Courageous people, like these Polynesians, feel their fears and move through them anyway. And much is gained.

In Hawaiian culture, the word for courage is koa, getting its source inspiration from the koa tree. Koa wood is one of the strongest and most durable woods in all of Hawaii and, many agree, the most lustrous and beautiful. The word koa reflects the Hawaiian’s ability to reflect on nature to find meaning and wisdom.

As the Polynesians knew, an epic journey of growth comes with great challenge and risk. In our own journey of self-discovery, courage is almost always required. There are times when we must cast off from the safe shore, set sail into the unknown, and risk. We must hold tight to our vision of a better world while staying open to how that will eventually look.

For our journey we must be durable and strong, like the koa wood, if the passage is to hold any beauty. Once committed, we begin to work with and understand the currents in our lives. As we commit to staying present, we learn to trust our navigational skills, however rudimentary.

In time, we learn to map the firmament of our higher energies and detect patterns, just as Reva learned to detect and follow the guidance of the stars. To the naked eye, there is no pattern. But to us, like Reva, we learn to see and follow it. The result is the discovery of new internal worlds, and with it, freedom, expansion, and growth.

Man is the most insane species.

He worships an invisible God

and destroys a visible Nature.

Unaware that this Nature that he has been destroying

is this God he’s worshiping.

Hubert Reeves

2

SWIMMING IN GOD

The search for God is perhaps as old as consciousness itself. It has healed people from the grasp of death and illness, while simultaneously causing brutal, violent wars and animosity amongst friends.

Regarding this search for connection with Source, there seem to be as many paths to find God as there are people on the planet. But while finding God usually proves illusive to the single-minded, what I am about to share with you may help you ‘find God" immediately.

A few years ago at a local car wash, I was held captive indoors during a sudden downpour while waiting for my car to be finished. Mounted up near the ceiling, an old tube television blared the sounds of the 700 Club played into this tiny waiting room. In the 15 minutes I waited, the show, and its oft-repeated advertisement, guaranteed to help me find God. All I had to do was pay $19.95 for a DVD and I was guaranteed to find Him.

It repeated this offer so often—the guarantee to find God for $19.95— that that phrase now lives in me. It ruminates through my brain from time to time since first hearing it, and my improvisational mind kicks in and I wonder: Had I been watching some funny Saturday Night Live skit? I hadn’t. And it wasn’t meant to be funny, as many of their TV audience were listening in earnestness.

There were others who listened to this program and paid the $19.95 in deep faith in the hope of finding God. They paid the money because they want to believe. They paid the money because they are searching for God. They paid the money because they have faith, and want to have that faith reinforced by others. Others who seem in charge. Others who have a powerful television station and broadcast their brimstone stories. Someone I am sure, no in fact several people, purchased that product that day to help them find God – a God outside of themselves.

Now, I am left wondering: Did they find God?

It seems so many human beings search for God. Like love itself, no real definition of God seems to suitI. God is the mercurial, intangible essence of life. But depending on which culture we were born into, there are often many clearly delineated details on how to know God, just like that of the 700 Club ad that promised that I would know God if I purchased their DVD.

Enough. Trying to find God is impossible.

Why? Because trying to find God is as ridiculous as a fish trying to find water. You’re in It right now (It being God – that which Generates, Operates, and Destroys all things.) It’s all around you, and it holds you up, and holds you down. It’s your inhale, and your exhale. It’s your marriage, and your divorce. It’s your connection to all things, not just some of them.

It’s pantheism, and theism. It’s the sacred and mysterious in all of us and all things, and it’s the profane, brutal and ugly. It’s science, and it’s religion. God is found in the rich fields of bountiful crops, and in the dung piles used to fertilize them. Your very atoms and molecules and cells are vibrating the name of God all the time. You’re swimming in God, for God’s sake. Wake up to it.

Our desire to personify Him, to articulate His moods and His anger and His vengeance, has grown old. It is time for us to leave behind our collectively agreed upon Santa Claus God and Country Club Heaven. The old guard will roar its angry head in violent disapproval as we learn to leave the nest and stand on our own. Many of us are already doing this. But more of us must do this. And we must do this now.

We were born with the choice to create heaven or hell, which is made manifest right here on Earth. Sadly and for whatever reasons, many of us have chosen hell.

Life is a mystery to be lived. We will set out, once again certainly, to find God. This time however, we can realize God is nearest of the near, closer to us than our own breath. We commit (again and again) to the journey of a thousand miles, and take (yet again) another first step. But this time, we are different.

And it is ironic that the very seeds of our discomfort, born out of the mundane and tragic, are at the root of our awakening to God. Our greatest divine complexity of life can be born out of a quiet contemplation of the ordinary. Our greatest act of love toward one another and community can be born out of the shattered pieces left from a raging youth who shoots up a mall/movie house/campus (take your pick).

The only way out of our suffering is through the very heart of it. We must sit with our pain, our grief, and listen. Each of our circumstances stands to teach us—if we will listen and soften enough to hear the message. It is our message. It is personal, specific to us.

When searching for God, have faith. You’ll find what you are looking for. You are already swimming in It.

I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid,

and doors will open

where you didn’t know they were going to be.

Joseph Campbell

3

LETTING GO AND FALLING UP

When faced with difficult experiences, the new age mantra du jour is let it go. There was this one time, a time when I was encouraging myself to really, truly let it go, with it being the dissolution of my once-beautiful life.

How did that experience go, you ask?

Not so well, I replied.

Surprising myself, I went into a rage and nearly took myself out. I didn’t want to let it go. The problem was, I had spent nearly a decade building, sharing, and savoring a life that I had painstakingly, mindfully crafted.

In many ways the world, as I see it, can be filled with remarkable darkness, cruelty, and separation. Yet there we were – we had found love, nourished it from a seedling, and cherished its fruitfulness, despite the odds.

Truth be told, I was one of the lucky ones, even though in some circles it was a love that dare not speak its name. But I spoke its name out loud, and I would have done almost anything, except sell my soul to the devil, to keep that love flowing. I could not imagine letting it go. Not willingly. Not calmly. Not with a