There has been a thread running through the past ten years of my life, which has been the audio meditations created by the healer, David Elliott, focusing on the breathwork called Pranayama Yoga.
Time after time I’ve gone to them to help pull me out of despair. On more than one occasion, rousing myself to do one of his meditations was the only positive thing I was capable of doing for myself, and provided the only respite I had from an all-encompassing anguish. But I’ve also gone to them in times of plenty, where they’ve helped me let down my guard and work on things below the surface of my mind and ego.
In 2010, I received an email from a friend of mine, announcing the book release party for David’s book, “Healing”. At first I disregarded it, lumping it together with all the other spiritual, New Age stuff floating around which, by and large, lacks any real depth. I kept the email, though, and after a few weeks went by, I started to second-guess my initial judgement. It was a rare thing for my friend to send me anything of this sort, and I respected his opinion, so I decided to take a closer look. I bought David’s book and did every exercise it contained. I was very much in need of healing at the time and it resonated with me. Right on the heels of finishing the book I noticed on David’s website that he was holding a workshop down in the city. I signed up without hesitation. I was apprehensive, though, because I didn’t know what to expect. I had visions of a group of very ill people flocking to see him. I thought, even though I had read his book, that it would be a stereotypical healing ceremony, with a laying on of hands, casting aside of crutches—the whole works! Instead, I walked into a small yoga studio filled with sensitive people just like myself, there to work on their own issues and hangups.
We sat around in a circle, listened to David speak, and shared things ourselves. Then, after pairing up with another participant to do some work, we all lay down and began to breath together. David spoke occasionally, as music played in the background. A few minutes later, I let down my guards completely and a sadness I had kept pent-up for a long time burst out.
Since then I have attended a few of David’s healer training classes, but the mainstay has been the audio meditations. Throughout the past ten years they have been, to borrow a phrase from Paul Simon, like a bridge over troubled water.