What the Body Is Asking Us to Hear.
- alisonfosteryoga
- Jul 5
- 7 min read
Today I'm exploring how yoga, the kleshas, Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness and Ho’oponopono can help us meet emotion with greater awareness, compassion and choice.
Many people first come to yoga because their body is asking them to do something.
Perhaps the back feels stiff, the shoulders are tight, sleep has become restless or everyday life is leaving the body feeling tired and overwhelmed. We may arrive hoping to stretch, strengthen or ease discomfort and then through our physical practice, we often begin to notice something deeper. -
That the body carries our lived experience.
Stress may appear as a clenched jaw or raised shoulders. Fear may shorten the breath. Anger may bring heat and tension. Sadness may feel like heaviness through the chest.
Experiences that have been difficult to process can sometimes be felt through patterns of holding, bracing or withdrawing.
The beauty of Yoga asana - (the poses), is that it gives us a place to begin listening.
As we move, pause and breathe, we become more aware of sensation. We notice where we grip, where we resist and where we find it difficult to soften. We may recognise the impulse to push, avoid, compare or give up. The shapes we make with the body become a way of observing how we meet challenge.
The yoga mat offers a contained space in which to practise staying present.
We learn to feel a sensation without immediately reacting to it. We explore the difference between discomfort and harm. We discover that we can pause, breathe and choose how to respond. Sometimes the body softens. Sometimes an emotion becomes clearer. Sometimes simply noticing what is present creates a little more space around it.
We notice what we notice.
This is one of the deeper purposes of asana. We practise through the body so that awareness becomes more available to us in everyday life.
On the mat, we may practise breathing steadily when a posture feels demanding. Away from the mat, that same breath may help us during a difficult conversation, a moment of frustration or a period of uncertainty. The physical practice becomes preparation for the moments when the rubber hits the road.
Yoga invites us to carry what we practise into our relationships, choices and responses.
Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness, the yogic teaching of the kleshas and the practice of Ho’oponopono each offer a different way of exploring this movement. Together, they can help us recognise emotional patterns, understand some of the beliefs beneath them and meet ourselves with greater compassion.
The aim is to develop awareness and create the conditions for a more conscious response.
We begin with the body.
We notice what we are feeling.
We breathe.
We listen.
Then, little by little, we learn to respond from a steadier place.
With this in mind, in recent yoga classes I have been sharing a few different ways of understanding our emotional states. One of these is David Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness, which offers a simple way of noticing the different emotional states we may move through. I have also been drawing on the yogic teaching of the five kleshas, which explore the patterns that can cloud our awareness and contribute to suffering. Alongside this, we are working with the four familiar phrases of Ho’oponopono as a gentle practice of acknowledgement, forgiveness, gratitude and compassion.
Together, these teachings offer a path from automatic reaction towards awareness and choice. They invite us to pause, recognise what is moving through the body and mind, and listen for the next honest step.
Emotions (energy in motion) arise, shift and pass. Each one carries information. Each one can become a doorway into deeper self-understanding.
A map of emotional states
David R. Hawkins proposed a scale that places emotional attitudes and states of awareness along a spectrum. At the lower end are experiences such as shame, guilt, apathy, grief and fear. Further along are anger, pride, courage, willingness, acceptance, love, joy and peace.
In Hawkins' model, courage marks an important threshold. Courage brings a willingness to face what is present, take responsibility for our response and become available to change. This may be a quiet form of courage: naming a feeling, asking for help, setting a boundary, resting, or speaking one truthful sentence.
I find it helpful as a reflective map. It gives us language for noticing where we may be sitting emotionally, and it can remind us that our inner state can shift. The invitation is simply to notice where we are with honesty and compassion.
Emotional tone | Examples from Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness | How it may feel in the body | Gentle invitation |
Heavy or contracted states | Shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear | Collapse, heaviness, tightness, withdrawal, shallow breath | Pause, soften, breathe, offer kindness |
Reactive states | Desire, anger, pride | Heat, tension, urgency, bracing, holding on | Notice the reaction before acting |
The turning point | Courage | A little more energy, steadiness, willingness to face what is here | Take one honest step |
More spacious states | Neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason | More ease, steadier breath, less gripping | Allow, reflect, respond with awareness |
Heart-centred states | Love, joy, peace | Openness, warmth, softness, connection, spaciousness | Rest in gratitude, compassion and presence |
A gentle way to use the map
Ask, “What quality is most present in me today?” Then notice what the state may be communicating. Fear may reveal a need for safety. Anger may reveal a boundary. Grief may reveal love and loss. Desire may reveal longing or attachment.
I have also created a simple free handout with the Hawkins scale and the four Ho’oponopono phrases, for anyone who would like a clear reference to return to - find the link at the end of this post.
The yogic lens: the five kleshas
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe five kleshas: patterns that cloud perception and contribute to suffering. They help us look beneath an emotional state and enquire into what may be shaping it.
Avidya - misperception. We see only part of the picture and take it to be the whole truth.
Asmita - identification. We become fused with a role, belief or feeling.
Raga - attachment. We grasp at what feels pleasant, familiar or reassuring and imagine we need it in order to feel complete.
Dvesha - aversion. We push away what feels painful or threatening. Resistance can gather around anger, avoidance and judgement.
Abhinivesha - fear of loss and change. We cling to security, continuity and life itself.
How the two frameworks meet
The Hawkins map can name the quality of a present state. The kleshas invite us to look at the pattern beneath it. Desire may be coloured by raga, anger by dvesha, pride by asmita and fear by abhinivesha. Avidya may be quietly influencing all of them.
These are areas for compassionate enquiry. The purpose is awareness. Once a pattern becomes visible, a little more space opens around it. From that space, a new response becomes possible.
Ho'oponopono: restoring harmony
Ho'oponopono is a Hawaiian term associated with making right and restoring harmony. Traditional Ho'oponopono is a relational family or community process that may include prayer, honest discussion, confession, repentance, restitution, forgiveness and release, often guided by a respected elder or facilitator.
The four phrases that many people know today are a modern personal adaptation. They can be used as a simple contemplative practice while honouring the deeper Hawaiian roots of Ho'oponopono
I'm sorry. | I acknowledge pain, disharmony, reactivity or an old pattern. I recognise my own part with honesty. |
Please forgive me. | I open towards repair, learning, release and self-forgiveness. Forgiveness may unfold gradually. |
Thank you. | I honour the awareness, support, learning or possibility of a new response that is present. |
I love you. | I bring compassion to myself, another person, life, the Divine, or the part of me that is hurting. |
Sincerity matters more than perfect wording
A phrase can be adapted when the original wording feels untrue or places responsibility in the wrong place. You might use: “I am willing to understand,” “May repair become possible,” “Thank you for this awareness,” or “May I meet this with compassion.”
Inner reflection can sit alongside clear action. An apology, boundary, difficult conversation, request for support or decision to step away may become part of restoring right relationship
A simple practice: from reaction to response
1. Ground. Feel the support beneath you. Notice the feet, the seat and the natural movement of your breath.
2. Name what is present. Use simple words: “Fear is here,” “I feel angry,” or “There is heaviness.”
3. Listen through the body. Notice the jaw, throat, chest, belly, hands and breath. Stay with sensation in manageable amounts.
4. Enquire gently. Ask whether misperception, identification, grasping, resistance or fear of change may be influencing the experience.
5. Offer one phrase. Repeat one or more Ho'oponopono phrases slowly, or choose honest words of your own.
6. Choose the next accessible quality. Courage may look like one breath, one truthful sentence, asking for help, setting a boundary or pausing before reacting.
7. Let awareness become action or rest. Follow through in a grounded way and allow the practice to be complete for now.
One step is enough
Emotional change often happens through small movements. Shame may soften towards honesty. Fear may move towards support. Anger may become clear action. Grief may find companionship and expression. Courage may grow through one choice that honours what is true.
Yoga teaches us to practise returning: returning to the breath, the body, awareness and the part of us that can witness experience without becoming completely lost within it.
You are welcome to download the simple handout here and use it as a gentle reminder in your own practice.
May awareness create space. May compassion guide the next step.
with Love, Alison x
A note on sources
This article draws on David R. Hawkins' Map of Consciousness; Patanjali's Yoga Sutras II.3-II.9; and published accounts of traditional Hawaiian Ho'oponopono, including work by Mary Kawena Pukui and Malcolm Naea Chun. Hawkins' numerical calibrations are presented as part of his spiritual framework rather than as scientifically validated measurements.
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