A beautiful Sanskrit phrase I learned from my teacher is “hridaya vishranti.” Some of you may remember that hridaya means heart. Vishranti means repose or rest. So hridaya vishranti is reposing in the heart, or perhaps taking refuge in the heart.

Heart here doesn’t mean our physical heart, or a romantic heart, or even the heart chakra. It is more like the center, like the heart of a tree. It is the essence, the core essence of everything. A poetic rendering of its meaning could be to repose into the arms of the Divine.

We each have an essence, core, innermost self. It is that part of us that is pure light and love, and unchanging. That part of our self that sits in the middle, silent and clear, as the rest of our chaotic world unfolds.

Vishranti, repose is such a beautiful concept. Could we relax into, allow ourselves to repose in our Self, our heart? Sometimes life feels exhausting, trying so hard to do all we want to do requires so much effort. Wouldn’t it be nice for it to feel more like a flow and less like a struggle?

For me, this is part of hridaya vishranti: to accept nourishment and support from a deeper source, to make it less about our individual will and more about channeling the Divine will.

What a wonderful idea! Drawing on our heart of hearts, not having to effort so much through our ego, or constantly try to manipulate our exterior world, but instead to feel authentically that we can rest assured that the heart will support and guide us. We can relax knowing this.

To authentically feel this, we need to make contact with that essence, and this is precisely what yoga, especially meditation, does. At the end of our yoga asana class, we physically repose in shavasana, and if you take a moment at the end you may palpably taste an increased centeredness and clarity. As we rest and repose in shavasana, our whole being integrates and assimilates the effects of our practice. We soak in the benefits of the practice which then colors our following activities, at least for a time.

And even so much more when we meditate. When we meditate, we align not only our body, but all of our being, our individuality becomes saturated with the qualities of fullness, love, and centeredness that is the essence of who we are. We have this place of refuge within us. As we meditate more and more, we become more steadfast in these qualities, reposing into the arms of the Divine.