In November 2023 I received a call from a mother who was looking for yoga sessions for her 17-year-old daughter who had tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists on Halloween. The psychologist or psychiatrist (I can't remember which medical speciality) prescribed her drugs, so-called medicines to numb her emotions, feelings and thoughts. In addition to the drugs, she advised the young woman to take up physical activity. She chose yoga.
Mum was in a very bad state of energy. Very thin, her face and eyes lacklustre. She was going through an unexpected divorce and a suicide attempt by her only daughter, who she was keen to emphasise had a delay, a chromosome less or more, or different. I confess I didn't understand! That's not important to me. What's important is how she feels about herself and how the mother feels about her daughter.
Two days later, I was knocking on the door of a beautiful house. A short, round brunette girl appeared, dressed all in black, with sweet eyes and a bright smile. She was very happy to be taking her first yoga class. She showed me her room and her altar to the goddess Hecate, the goddess of witches. She told me her story very enthusiastically, that she used to be part of the Wicca religion but was now a witch devoted to the Goddess Hecate.
I looked at the wall above the bed and saw three pictures, all of them with a dark painting of a young woman slashing her wrists and crying black tears of pain. I asked her who had given her the paintings. She replied: Mum.
I was worried! A mother who puts this kind of painting above her daughter's bed, for her to look at every day when she wakes up and goes to bed, and who also tried to kill herself, cannot be well psychologically, emotionally or spiritually.
As soon as I had the chance, I asked Mum to take down the pictures and throw them away. The paintings needed to be replaced by the beautiful Goddesses of Nature, to bring beauty, courage and joy every day when I woke up. I was relieved when she agreed!
The young woman felt alone. No friends. Her parents had little time to pay attention to her. Both with closed hearts. More concerned with their social lives than their emotional lives.
She had never done yoga before. I explained to her that we were going to do a special kind of yoga, yoga on the heart line. The aim was to align the body, mind and emotions with the heart. To realise that our heart is our source of life, love, joy, peace, wisdom and light. And each of us has to take care of our own heart, fill it with high-vibration energies.
The young woman followed the class marvellously well. Saying between postures and breaths: This is really good!
At the end she didn't even want to open her eyes. She was so happy. Smiling, flooded with love. Her own love.
Her homework, or work for the heart, was to do heartline yoga on her own, at least twice a week. Through my book that Mum gave her, Heartline Yoga for Children. So she did! She began to gain autonomy, routine and discipline. And every time she practised, she cleared out her negative energy.
After four sessions with me, she looked like a different girl. She stopped dressing completely in black and started wearing other colours. She understood that colours symbolise life and healing. She realised that everything is energy, negative or positive, that it is a great responsibility to be a witch who manipulates energies that bring evil instead of good. She realised how negative energies had almost taken her life.
She felt the power of her heart transforming her into a much more beautiful, wise, confident girl, full of self-esteem, worth, even her spine became straighter. In her own words: - I've never felt so good! I'm full of self-esteem. I'm happy!
I taught her that the vibration of the heart attracts people and situations. If you're vibrating in love, you'll attract love. If you're vibrating in pain, you'll attract pain. That week the young woman attracted a friend. She was happy because she no longer felt alone!
For the first time, she overcame her shyness and started talking in class.
She was glowing.
She wanted to learn Reiki as a Christmas present. What a special girl.
Mum looked on. She seemed happy for her daughter. But she was still ill and insisted on going to her psychiatrist or psychologist appointments, but she didn't come home happy. Nobody is happy away from their heart. I asked her if she wanted to do a yoga session on the private heart line. She told me she couldn't afford it. With a luxury villa, a Mercedes on her doorstep and a weekend in London, I silently questioned the veracity of her answer.
When a month of Heartline yoga classes ended, the mother didn't want her daughter to take any more classes. She said she would do it on her own and join a group. I was shocked! I told her that her daughter wasn't ready, that she still needed individual counselling. That her attitude would harm her. She wouldn't listen.
She told me that she would practise my teachings every day and that they had saved her life.
Two weeks later, I received another call from a friend who knew a 14-year-old girl who had tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists. Abandoned by her mother, raised by her father and stepmother, her father was an alcoholic, and she was deeply depressed.
So off I go to Lisbon, to bring yoga to the heart of yet another beautiful, intelligent young woman who is depressed because her family is far from her heart.
The cure is in understanding that parents do the best they know how to love their children, because the love that parents feel for their children is an extension of the love they feel for themselves. The cure lies in not expecting your parents to love each other, but learning not to repeat the patterns of your ancestors. Have compassion and forgive them, they don't know what they are doing!
Identify the wounds of the soul that your ancestors carry and pass from generation to generation. Look at yourself, what wound do you carry? From abandonment, betrayal, rejection, humiliation or injustice? Only self-love can heal all wounds.
Be the first in your family to love yourself fully, unconditionally. Live happily with yourself, respect yourself, treat yourself well, take care of yourself, fill yourself with beauty, fill yourself with pleasure, give thanks for your gifts, offer them to the world with joy. Everything you need is in your heart, within you.
Love yourself. Love yourself unconditionally with your thoughts, feelings, actions and intentions. Don't cry anymore!
I hug you with all my love.
Hridaya * Rita Goldrajch
Comments