WELL / AWARE Show 008: Finding Inner Beauty With Ben Shen

When I first met Desiree, I was simultaneously anxious and excited — I was attending my very first moon gathering. She was wearing a loose black dress and a top knot, and had simple tattoos on her forearms, one looked like a delicate outline of a vine. She was quietly confident, she had “that je ne sais quoi” if you will, telling her story to the circle of women who’d gathered around to harness the energy and power of renewal from the blue moon. She spoke firmly with a full, round voice and an accent I couldn’t quite place as she told us about the transformative power of Kundalini yoga and meditation.

We were sitting on the floor a beautiful yoga studio in downtown Manhattan, one with a couple of huge skylights that allowed the glow of the city (or the moon?) to unintrsuively shine through. We had an offering tray for crystals, candles and gold jewelry at the center of the circle — the energy from our chanting and pranayama is supposed to transfer to these material things, allowing them to empower us long after the evening is over.

I learned a ton that night about the aura and suspected that I wasn’t doing enough to activate my own. I was fascinated by the the subtle ways our unconscious thoughts can shift how others perceive us and set an intention to further explore Kundalini. I patted myself on the back for expanding my horizons to try something new and seemingly very foreign topically. . After some “kunda” as the regs call it, I felt giddy — the feeling that everything is going to be OK escalated exponentially. It was a reassuring and uplifting energy I was surprised to find inside myself.

These feelings are all in retrospect, though. In the first ten minutes of the episode, I reveal my true thoughts as it was happening, how I was feeling and what exactly we were doing. It’s pretty wild!

Thank you Desiree for introducing me to this practice, and for sharing Ben Shen and your quest to expand inner beauty in all women.