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Integral Naked is excited to offer you the opportunity to interact with Sally Kempton (Swami Durgananda), one of the foremost independent teachers trained in the Siddha Yoga tradition.
When it comes to spiritual teachers, Sally is deceptively inconspicuous. Unlike some of her more noticeably outspoken colleagues, Sally doesn't express her realization in terms of an aggressive in-your-face presentation. And yet, regarding the breadth and depth of spiritual experience, you're not likely to find a place that Sally hasn't been.
Listening to her work, one gets the feeling that she has no agenda other than meeting her therapia participant as a human being. Spirit is found here and now in the simple shared presence of two people, and the unmistakable grace of Just This shines forth.
Sally is an incredibly gifted teacher, and we couldn't be more pleased to be able to share this gift with you....
In this therapia session Duff and Sally lead us on a truly insightful tour of some of the "masculine" and "feminine" dimensions of daily practice. As Duff shares, "For me, emotions are something you do," and it was this attitude that enabled him to overcome a long bout of depression through the intentional activation of optimism, excitement, and enthusiasm. And yet, as successful as this practice has been, something feels missing.
As Sally notes, Duff has become very skillful at maintaining a more active, directional, or (traditionally) masculine relationship to life, while a more receptive, accepting, or (traditionally) feminine approach to the human experience has more or less fallen off the map. Upon hearing this, Duff laughs and says, "I've been so focused on confidence-bringing practices that being vulnerable seems like going in the opposite direction."
Sally then spends the second half of the session leading Duff through an in-depth heart-centered meditation. If you’re interested, we highly recommend joining Duff in this profound opportunity to practice union with the Great Heart....
Meagen is struggling to understand why it appears she only has breakthroughs in her personal growth when she breaks up with her significant other. Jokingly, but also with a bit of concern, she questions, "Does this mean that in order to develop, evolve, and enlighten myself, I have to keep leaving men in my dust?"
Together, Sally and Meagen explore some of the hidden variables that contribute to this pattern, and look at why so many women have similar difficulties in understanding how the presence of a man (or woman) affects their identity and development.
Sally goes on to comment on the unique challenges of spiritually-informed intimate relationships, and on how to work with the polarity of masculine and feminine expressions of Spirit on the journey towards God-touched intimacy....
In this therapia session with Sally Kempton (Dr. Sally), Nicole bravely shares her struggle to overcome some very intense, very unpleasant bouts of anxiety, which often would manifest bodily as sweats, nausea, and tension.
After exploring the issue together, Sally points out that many people—and women in particular—have a strong interior "perfectionist" voice that can cause an enormous amount of stress, as it is literally impossible to live up to.
Sally touches on three different practices for dealing with that voice and its associated anxiety: 1. Talk back to the voice—say the opposite of what it says. 2. Dissolve the bodily feeling of anxiety (here Sally leads Nicole through an in-depth experiential exercise that the listener can do as well!) 3. Witness it.
If, like most people, you ever have difficult feelings or emotions that you don't quite know what to do with, this therapia session is not to be missed....
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