My "Svaparivartana (Self-Empowered Self-Transformation)" practice:

This is my Svaparivartana practice of Raja-Vinyasa Apex Yoga™, which I also like to call the practice of self-empowered self-transformation, because I have found through my own direct firsthand experience that it helps empower me to be the master of my own self-transformation and personal growth as I practice yoga along my journey in life.

While being one of my most important and beneficial practices, this is a fairly short practice that typically takes around 2 minutes or so, but can extend longer if I wish. The practice consists of two parts, with part one being the “reflect and identify” phase, and part two being the “reaffirm and instill meditation” phase.

I typically perform this Svaparivartana practice near the end, or at the end, of most of my yoga practices, especially near the end of my morning meditations, intentions, and Affirmations practice, and at the end of my yogasana practice.

The “reflect and identify” phase of this practice XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is very special in that it creates the space and opportunity to reflect on my day, learn from my experiences, and express gratitude for the day. It allows me to contemplate events and experiences of the day, identify any moments of personal growth or awakening I experienced and ensure I have instilled them within me, in a way that is most helpful and meaningful along my journey in life. The reflection phase also allows me to practice humility and sincerely reflect on any mistakes I might have made during the day, and in turn note how to address or correct them as possible, and on occasion I might even note this as something for further contemplation/action for the next day.

The “reaffirm and instill meditation” phase of this practice XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is also very special in that I allow myself to be open to whatever form of meditation feels will be most helpful and resonate the most for me at this time on my journey in life. Sometimes my meditation is just closing my eyes, breathing naturally, and simply “observing”. Other times it may be scanning my body from toes to head, including my mind, relaxing each area during the scan, and then bringing my attention to my breath. Sometimes my meditation might be with a natural breath, or it might be with the Ujjayi pranayama. Sometimes my meditation might be focusing my awareness on my breath, counting each breath by one on each inhale and exhale, from one to ten, then starting over at one on the next breath after ten is reached. And sometimes I practice more advanced meditation techniques which I won’t take the space or time here to discuss, and are best to practice with the direct guidance of an experienced practitioner.

Please note: I found if was very important and beneficial to intentionally maintain a balance of the "frequency" of my yoga practices (e.g. yogasana) in conjunction with performing my Svaparivartana practice, to "optimize" my ongoing progression of my yoga practices and personal growth over time. In other words, doing a yogasana practice once a week followed by Svaparivartana was not sufficient and certainly not optimal. The benefits of a yogasana practice (or any yoga practice) naturally diminishes over time, whether or not Svaparivartana is practiced, though I found it didn't diminish as fast. In any case, I came to find it was very important on an ongoing basis along my journey, to be conscientious and monitor my progression of my yoga practices over time, and make adjustments in my yoga practices frequency and length, to "optimize" my ongoing progression of my yoga practices along my journey in life.

The History of the Origin of my Svaparivartana Practice in Raja-Vinyasa Apex Yoga™

This practice came to me early on during my more that twenty years of yoga practice and studying different paths of yoga to address the experience I sometimes had, and heard of other yoga practitioners also experiencing at times, where on occasion, later in the day sometime after doing a yoga practice (typically it was a yogasana practice I had done earlier in the day in this phase of my yoga practice experience), I might come to wonder "Hey, where did the benefits of my yoga practice go? They were clearly there during and right after my practice earlier today, but now it seems I feel the same way I did before I did the practice, what's with that?." And just to note, I had come to find during my self studies of other paths (spiritual paths, religions, wisdom traditions) that this experience was not unique to yoga, but could occur on any path.

Well, over time I came to contemplate & meditate on this experience periodically with the intention of arriving at a solution so I would consistently maintain the benefits of my yoga (yogasana) practice for a longer period of time after each practice. My periodic contemplation & meditation on this over many, many days, evolved at times into performing sessions of samyama on this experience and a solution coming to me. Eventually, during one of the samyama sessions, the notion came to me of proactively reflecting back over a practice, when I reached the end of a practice such as a yogasana practice, and identify if there was one or more experiences during my practice that stood out as being really meaningful during that yoga practice. Then, upon identifying one or more really meaningful things I experienced during that yoga practice (e.g. yogasana), then intentionally reaffirm the experience(s) and in a short meditation, ensure I instill within me that which I I found most meaningful during the practice.

I immediately started to incorporate this reflect/identify/reaffirm/instill process after my yogasana practices and experienced a profound transition over time with maintaining the benefits of a yoga practice for a longer interval of time after the completion of the practice. And even more noteworthy, over time I came to find myself experiencing more continuity and progression of my yoga practices and personal growth over all, as I went along my journey in life. While I have come to practice this for many years now, it wasn't until more recently with my studies of Sanskrit and the founding of Raja-Vinyasa Apex Yoga™, that I named it Svaparivartana, meaning self-transformation in Sanskrit, and came to also call it self-empowered self-transformation, which I find really exemplifies my personal firsthand direct experience during and after performing my Svaparivartana practice.

Om Shanti,

Keith Wolfe, founder of Raja-Vinyasa Apex Yoga™