Spring
is a time when I feel particularly lit up and enlivened. The whole world is waking back up from
winter’s sluggishness and darkness (especially this loooooong snowy, cold
winter!) and there is a dynamic, energetic quality to the day that is so
refreshing. We have cherry trees in our
yard and are blessed with the blossoms for just a couple of precious spring
weeks every year. My boys and I have
been impatiently waiting and watching for them for a couple of weeks, and
finally this week they are here! We
walked out Monday morning to an explosion of pink in our yard and danced with
the joy of the Earth’s offering.
Our
poem this week is a beautiful explanation of why we get so excited by the
blossoms of spring:
The Stream
of Life
- By Rabindranath Tagore
The same stream of life
that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic
measures.
It is the same stream of
life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of
grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
It is the same life that
is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.
I feel my limbs made
glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the
life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
Looking out at the cherry blossoms, the
tulips, daffodils, forsythia, magnolias and dogwoods, we experience the “stream of life that shoots in
joy through the dust of the earth…and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves
and flowers.” It makes us aware of the life force that
brings the seasons, the blossoming and the dying off, and reminds us that it is
the same energy that lives inside of us.
We feel it as the blood and other fluids moving through our bodies, we
feel it as the muscles contract and stretch as we move on our yoga mat (or
anywhere for that matter), we are aware of it as we are aware of our breath and
the prana (life-force) that comes in
with the breath. When recognize this
energy inside ourselves, we recognize the beauty and splendor of it all around us and we can see the inter-connectedness of all
things.
Off
the mat:
Find some time this week to be
outside. Surround yourself with spring’s
bounty and relish it. Lay down in a
patch of grass, pick a flower and study it’s beautiful intricacies, go to the
beach and visit with the ocean for a while.
The birds that migrate along the Atlantic Flyway are making their journeys
right now so it is a great time for bird-watching. I saw an Eastern bluebird last week that made
my whole day! Experience the stream of
life outside yourself as a reflection of the beauty and diversity that also
exists inside yourself.
On the mat:
The
stream of life is an energetic stream, it flows from somewhere to somewhere
else. In our bodies, one of the ways we
experience this flow of energy is to pull it from the edges of our beings into
one of 3 energetic centers at our core, giving us stability and focus. In
Anusara-speak we call them Focal Points, and the one that is most active in a
pose is the one that is closest to the foundation of the pose (the ground) and
the most weight bearing. They are:
1. In the upper
palate, just above where the hard and soft palate meet
2. At the base of
the heart
3. In the core of
the pelvis
This
stream of life/energy is always with us, it is up to us how we wish to channel
it, direct it, and align with it. Using
the Focal Points as we practice is a powerful way to direct the stream of life to strengthen and provide
steadiness to our poses.
Open To Grace: With your
breath feel the ebb and flow of the stream of life moving through you.
Feel
your limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
Feel
the life-throb of the ages dancing in your blood.
Muscular Energy: Draw in the
stream of life from the earth and the sky and the air and pull it into your (upper
palate, heart, pelvis)
Pull
the life stream from your hands and feet into your (upper palate, heart, pelvis)
and feel it converge and grow there.
Inner Spiral: Widen your
inner thighs and sit bones and open yourself to the stream of life.
Widen
your inner thighs back and apart to make space for the life force to flow
through your hips and pelvis.
Outer Spiral: Drop your
tailbone like an anchor, tethering yourself to the stream of life.
Organic Energy: Feel
your limbs made glorious by the touch of this world of life and offer through
those limbs your blessings outward.
Send your life force with joy through
the dust of the earth into numberless blades of grass.
From your (upper palate,
heart, pelvis) let your energy spread out and break
into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.
