The Art of Becoming – A Day of Awareness

A Warm Dharma Flow Yoga Class by David Scott Yglesias

Opening Intention:
Place your hands over your heart. Feel its steady rhythm, a pulse older than thought.
Before we move tonight, take one deep breath in, and as you exhale, silently say to yourself:

“Light moves through my open heart.”

Let this be your compass for the practice.
Each breath a clearing, each movement a brushstroke, each moment an act of becoming.

Topic 1 – The Blank Canvas of the Mind (Morning: Beginning Again)

Metaphor:
Imagine yourself back in middle school. Your first class of the day is art. The hallway is quiet, and a fresh, gentle energy fills the morning air. You step into the classroom and smell paper, clay, and paint. The light is soft and golden, full of possibility. Before you begin, the teacher asks you to clear away yesterday’s project, to rinse the brushes, wipe the table clean of dried color, and prepare a fresh canvas.

In that small ritual, there is a deeper wisdom. Before you create something new, you must make space for it. Every breath you take is like that gentle clearing, each exhale washing away the residue of yesterday’s thoughts and emotions.

Reflection:
Rumi said, “Be an empty page, untouched by words.”
When we step onto our mats tonight, we begin again. The practice is not about striving to perfect something, but about meeting this moment without the weight of what came before.

What if, for this one hour, you allowed your mind to be blank and open, free of judgment, expectation, or the need to be anything other than present?
Notice how light feels when you stop carrying the past into the present.

Quotes:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

“Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought.” – Rumi

“Let go or be dragged.” – Zen proverb

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” – Ram Dass

Topic 2 – Meeting Emotions with Compassion (Midday: Observation and Understanding)

Metaphor:
As the day unfolds, you move into science class. Curiosity fills the room. Beakers bubble, light bends through glass, and everything is about observation, watching what happens when elements mix and react.

Our emotions are like that, beautiful chemistry in motion. Anger, sadness, joy, and love are all part of the experiment of being human. When we observe them with presence instead of judgment, we begin to understand their purpose.

Reflection:
Thich Nhat Hanh said, “When we embrace anger and take good care of it, we obtain relief and gain many insights.”
Healing begins when we stop labeling emotions as good or bad. They are simply teachers showing us where our attention is needed.

Ask yourself: can I observe what I feel without naming it as wrong? Can I allow emotion to move through me like energy in motion, flowing, shifting, teaching?

Quotes:

“Feelings are just visitors. Let them come and go.” – Mooji

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

“You cannot heal what you refuse to feel.” – David Scott

“What we resist, persists. What we accept, transforms.” – Carl Jung

Topic 3 – Facing the Shadow (Afternoon: Illumination and Growth)

Metaphor:
By afternoon, you have moved through many classrooms. The energy has softened; the bright chatter of morning fades into quiet reflection. In history class, you might study how patterns repeat through time, how lessons return until they are understood.

Our inner life mirrors that. We all carry our personal history, patterns, habits, and fears that echo until we face them. These are our shadows, and they follow us until we turn toward them with awareness.

Imagine holding a lantern near a wall. From a distance, your shadow looks large and distorted. But when you bring the light closer, you see it for what it truly is, simply your own outline.

Reflection:
Our fears are often magnified by distance. When we face them with awareness, they shrink to their true size.
In your practice tonight, notice where you pull away, from a pose, a breath, or a thought. That moment is your shadow speaking.
Bring the light of compassion there. Fear dissolves where awareness shines.

Quotes:

“The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” – Carl Jung

“Turn toward the light, and the shadow will fall behind you.” – Maori Proverb

“You do not fear the future; you fear the past recurring.” – David Scott

“Everything you have ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

Topic 4 – Flow and Release (Evening: Expression and Freedom)

Metaphor:
As the day comes to a close, it is time for gym class or music, a space to move, express, and release. The body stretches, rhythm takes over, and energy that was once trapped begins to flow freely again.

The body is much like a musical instrument. When its strings are tangled or clogged, it cannot produce sound. When energy stagnates, our inner music fades. But when we move, breathe, and let go, the body becomes a finely tuned instrument for the soul.

This is the essence of prana, the life force, vibration in motion. It flows through the body’s inner strings, the nadis, creating harmony between the physical and subtle self. When emotion is suppressed, the music falters; when awareness opens, the song of life returns.

As we breathe and move, the dormant kundalini energy awakens, rising through the chakras like sound waves ascending a scale, root to crown, each note tuning a higher vibration of consciousness.

Reflection:
The Buddha taught that attachment is the root of suffering.
Letting go is not losing; it is returning to harmony.

Each exhale is an act of tuning, loosening what is too tight, awakening what has gone silent.
Feel your breath rise through the body like a melody. Each chakra hums in balance: the root grounding you, the sacral flowing, the heart opening, the throat freeing truth, the crown expanding into light.

This is release, not escape but resonance. Not emptiness but music.

Quotes:

“Holding on is believing there is only a past; letting go is knowing there is a future.” – Daphne Rose Kingma

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” – Buddha

“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” – Eckhart Tolle

“When the strings of the heart are tuned, the music of the soul can be heard.” – Ancient Vedic Teaching

“All energies in the universe are meant to flow.” – David Scott

Topic 5 – The Art of Becoming (Night: Integration and Renewal)

Metaphor:
The school day is ending. After nourishing our bodies with lunch and feeding our souls with new experiences, we walk home lighter. The backpack rests easier on our shoulders. The air feels softer, and colors seem more vivid, the gold of the late sun, the rustle of leaves, the laughter echoing down the street. Beauty reveals itself everywhere when we are present enough to see it.

Do you remember the scene in Toy Story, the island of broken toys? Each one forgotten or mismatched, a little rough around the edges, yet still full of heart. There is something deeply human in that image. We, too, carry the marks of our stories, cracks, scars, and missing pieces that remind us of where we have been.

But yoga teaches us that we are not here to be perfect; we are here to be whole.
Every repair, every healed wound, becomes part of our beauty. Like kintsugi pottery filled with gold, our imperfections become what make us radiant.
We are not less because we have been broken; we are more because we have chosen to rebuild with love.

The day feels whole. Inside, we carry its quiet wisdom, what we learned, what we felt, what we faced.

Reflection:
Transformation does not come from erasing our past but from integrating it.
Just as a symphony needs both silence and sound, our growth needs both darkness and light.
Through every breath, every pose, and every moment of awareness, we tune ourselves back to harmony.

You are not broken. You are an instrument being retuned by experience, learning to create the song only you can play.

Quotes:

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin

“Change is never painful. Only resistance to change is painful.” – Buddha

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi

“I am not broken; I am becoming whole.” – David Scott

Closing Mantra and Meditation

Bring your hands once more to your heart.
Inhale deeply, letting gratitude fill your lungs.
Exhale softly, letting the body rest in the stillness of what has been learned.

Repeat silently or aloud:

“Light moves through my open heart.”
“I am the art of becoming.”

Let the words fade into silence.
Feel the music of your breath, the rhythm of your being, and the calm joy of knowing you are already whole.