Breaking down barriers

Earlier this week my husband sent me a link to the commencement speech that Jim Carrey gave at Maharishi University a couple of weeks ago (yes, Jim Carrey of Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura fame).  I have not listened to the whole thing, but the clip that I was sent was so inspiring that I wanted to share it. (See it here)

He said: “Fear is going to be a player in life, but you get to decide how much.  You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all it will ever be is what’s happening here, the decisions in that we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear.  So many of us choose our path based on fear disguised as practicality.  What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never ask the universe for it.  I'm saying I'm the proof that you can ask the Universe for it.  And if it doesn't happen for you right away it's because the Universe is too busy filling my order.”

Fear disguised as practicality – that hits home for me.  When I heard him say those words I literally burst into tears. Honestly, there have been so many things in my life that I have chosen not to do and blamed on being sensible, when really I was just afraid to fail and at age 38 I am just starting to realize it.  Better late than never I suppose! 

The great poet Rumi said: 

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” 

 

Read “love” as happiness, success, fulfillment and this is just another way of saying what Mr. Carrey did.   My barrier is that I don’t think I am good enough or worthy enough to attain the deepest desires of my heart.  I am really good at making excuses, some of them are even valid. I have chosen to have a family and I have chosen to raise my family a certain way and that does present certain happily self-inflicted limitations. Yet when it really comes down to it, the real barrier to achieving my goals is my disbelief in my abilities, the sacrifices I am personally willing to make, and the amount of effort I have put into getting where I want to be…and all of that is based in fear and negative what-ifs. When we are afraid, we can build up our barriers pretty high, so high we can’t see over them to what the possibilities might be.  The thing is, many times we see those barriers as walls, when really they are doors.  And it might take some time and effort to figure out how to open them, but we need to recognize that that is a possibility.

Love is the nature of the universe.  Love is simply another name for God, Source, the Universe, and happiness....or vice versa.  We don’t have to look for it, it is there.  Just like all the possibilities and desires of our hearts.  But we do have to open up to it, to choose to open a door rather than to be afraid of what we might find behind it.  If we believe we are truly worthy of love, of success, of happiness the barriers disintegrate.  You are worthy.

Maybe you’ve heard this parable before – it’s one of my favorites. There is a poor man who prays to God every day to win the lottery – he goes to church and prays, then to a synagogue, then to a mosque, begging God to bless him.   After years of praying he passes away having never won once.  When he meets God in heaven he asks why God never answered his prayers.  God replied, “You should have bought a ticket!”  Life is a co-participation.  We have to have the courage to dream big and take wise chances and believe in ourselves.  When Darwin wrote the descent of man He mentioned survival of the fittest twice, but he mentioned the word love 95 times.  Love is what evolves us, but we have to be brave enough to open to it. This is where our yoga practice can serve us.  When we come to the mat and face fears in challenging poses, in letting go of self-limiting thought patterns and behaviors, in befriending our bodies, we are actively seeking out a barrier and bit by bit knocking it down.  Through our practice we cultivate courage, which gives us the strength to recognize our limitless potential and realize our deepest and most secret dreams, the ones we keep locked in the vault of security and practicality.  

Jim Carrey shared that “My father could have been a great comedian but he didn't believe that was possible for him so he made a conservative choice.  He took a safe job as an accountant and when I was 12 years old he was let go from that safe job. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which is that you can fail at doing what you don't love, so might as well take a chance doing what you love.” What do you love?

Off the mat:

This is an exercise I have done at key pivotal times in my life that has helped me gain clarity, and move from fear to love.

Every morning (or evening if that is a better time for you) for at least a week, take out a journal and write at the top of a page:

What do I really, really want?

And then just write.  Don’t worry about grammar, handwriting, content, form or flow – just let your heart speak and put it on paper. From a new sweater to an ice cream cone to a career change or a baby – just look into your heart and get clear on what you love.  After you’ve done this for a while a pattern will emerge.  Begin to reflect on what the barriers are, either real or perceived, that are holding you back from having what you want?  Are those barriers walls or doors?  What are the self-limiting beliefs you have about yourself that keep you from opening up to love? 

On the Mat:

We warmed up with a heart chakra namaskar and worked towards Urdhva Dhanurasana (full backbend), Handstand, and Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) in our asana practice.  We took time to visualize ourselves in these challenging poses, holding the vision with love and not fear, before coming into the variation appropriate for each person.  We ended with Viloma pranayama, which is a 3-part, interrupted breath with retention.  The word Viloma means to “go against the grain”, like petting a dog the wrong way.  Doing the work of breaking barriers often feels like going against the grain because we have to step out of our comfort zone.  This pranayama practice is calming and centering so we can more easily let go of our fears, and break through barriers into love!

Open to Grace: Jim Carrey said “Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head, and when the door opens in real life, just walk through it.”

Breathe in love, breathe out fear.

Spread your fingers and courageously spread out beyond the barriers you have built for yourself.

Breathe into your limitless potential for love and success and happiness and feel it break a wall open inside you.

Muscular Energy: Embrace limitless potential.

Tone your muscles to affirm your bravery.

Draw from (floor to Focal Point) to make your muscles strong enough to smash through the protective fortifications you have built around your heart and your dreams.

Engage your muscles to engage fully with the pose, like buying the lottery ticket.

“Side body long”: Make space between your hips and ribs, and ribs and shoulders for love to grow.

Let the sides of the torso lengthen upwards, making space between every rib and vertebrae for courage.

Expand the side body beyond any barriers you have erected against it.

Shoulder Loop: Draw the palate and the head of the arm bones back and move the bottom tips of your shoulder blades forward to push through any barricades that present themselves.

Press the palate and the tops of the shoulders back and the back of the heart forward into love for yourself.

Inner Spiral: Widen your inner thighs back and apart to open up to limitless potential.

Move your sit bones back and apart to open to love.

Outer Spiral: (In standing poses) Scoop (the front leg) sit bone under and push it forward to break through any obstacles in your path.

Sweep your tailbone down and tone your low belly with courage to live the life you desire.

Organic Extension: Let the pose be as big as the dreams you have for yourself.

Expand your pose beyond the barriers you have erected for yourself.

Connection and Unity

I have just returned from teaching at a retreat in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut.  My family and I spent 4 days in the woods at a retreat center, which is also a working organic farm, waking up to the birds, connected with the Earth through bare feet and food harvested next to where we were sleeping, invoking grace with prayers and song and mutual love of life.  We were surrounded by like-minded community, great teachers, family and friends. There was no television or radio and, because it was a Jewish holiday, cell phones were for the most part absent.  In the middle of one of the prayer services there was a huge thunderstorm and it literally felt like God and nature were participating in our prayers (yes, the G word!…if that description of the force of life that spins the planets and breathes life into all things doesn’t suit you, plug in any word or description that does!).  Needless to say, it was a time of deep spiritual connection for me and my family.  

When I got home, like it always does when I return from retreats and trainings, it was hard to land back in Bergen County.  I could feel the shift happen as the roads became wider and less windy, cows and bobcats were replaced by fast food drive-thrus and mini malls.  I felt the cord of my connection to sacred space and wise old souls grow more threadbare with each passing mile and I begin to sink into despair.  Why do I have to come home??  Why can’t I feel at home like I do in the mountains??  The day after I return from retreat I always have a day or two of contemplation about moving my family to the woods, to live off the land where I feel so connected…of course these thoughts only last a day or so, because when I’m honest with myself the thought of being so far away from a decent restaurant, museum, concert hall, and yes, if I’m REALLY honest, shopping mall, sends me into a different kind of despair!   But these thoughts do help me to put my life in perspective.  When it comes down to it, I do love and value my life here, yet I am so grateful for these opportunities to step out of it from time to time and travel to places that connect me so deeply to community and to Source.

Part of what brought me out of my return-to-reality-funk was to look up the poem of the week at Shree.  As always, it seemed to speak directly to me and my experience:

Just like a sunbeam can't separate itself from the sun

And a wave can't separate itself from the ocean

We can't separate ourselves from one another.

We are all part of a vast sea of love

One indivisible divine mind.

- Marianne Williamson

 

The truth of it is whether we are up on the mountain or in a business meeting, on our yoga mats or on a crowded airplane, in child's pose or caturanga, we cannot be cut off from each other or our Source.  No matter how distant or disconnected we might feel, how far away from loved ones or the Divine, the deepest essence of our being is one with all things. That energy is where we come from and where we return to, as much a part of us as our heart and brain and lungs.  Every yoga practice is a reminder of this – one of the reasons we come to the mat is that it helps us to feel that connection more palpably, and the more we practice, the more it stays with us as we move off the mat.  Yoga is the opportunity to come to a sacred space, surround ourselves with the kula (community of the heart), and to deeply connect to our bodies and our breath as vehicles for awakening.  But we can’t let our remembrance of that connection be dependent on where we happen to find ourselves in any given moment.  Our feeling of connection, or lack thereof, is a prison or a playground of our own creation.   Whether we feel it or not, we are all deeply connected to one another all the time. As I was reminded so beautifully by Chaya and the other beautiful souls who come to practice at Shree this morning, our yoga, or union, is the practice of reuniting ourselves with that connection, and bringing it forth into the world and into every interaction we have so we can celebrate our lives to our fullest capacity. I am so grateful for our sacred space and the amazing spirits who frequent it!

Off the mat:

Over the years as I have studied with many spiritual guides, Rabbis, yoga teachers, and in sadhana with friends and colleagues, one message has come to me over and over again:  In every person you meet, every interaction with every being you come into contact with, see divinity first.  Look into their eyes and see similarity before diversity, oneness before separation, recognize yourself staring back from the eyes you gaze into.  Offer every person you interact with a namaste (this can be done silently, with hands at the heart in namaskarasana or with a simple, gentle nod of the head) with the wish and blessing:

I honor the place in you
in which the whole Universe dwells.
I honor the place in you
which is of love, of peace, of beauty and of truth.
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
we are one.

On the mat:

We worked on bound-arm poses, forward bends, and arm balances in classes this week.  Often when we work into these poses the back becomes slightly rounded and a common misalignment is that the shoulder blades slide off the back and we disconnect, causing discomfort in the shoulder joint, and closing our hearts down.  We practiced remembering that even when the outer form of the pose seems to belie it, that we can still work the inner actions that keep us integrated and connected (i.e. Shoulder Loop, moving the palate back, the head of the arm bones back, and the bottom tips of the shoulder blades forward).

Open to Grace:

Breathe into the place in you that is connected to all things - nature, the universe, and all living, breathing beings – and expand your awareness of that place with every breath.

Feel the presence of Shakti in every breath, breathing you, keeping your connection alive.

Breathe in the same breath as everyone in the room and know you are not alone or cut off.

Let the waves of your breath connect you back to the ocean it flows from.

Muscular Energy:

Engage with your Source, feel how your muscles are a container for the divine grace that flows through you and all things.

Hug from skin to muscle to bone to hug into the place in yourself that is connected to all things.

Inner Spiral:

Widen your sit bones to open yourself up to connection.  What it is you wish to connect to is up to you!

Outer Spiral:

Lengthen your tailbone down, anchoring yourself deeply into your connection to Source.

Organic Energy:

Shine your sunbeam to merge back to its source.

Let your eyes and your pose smile and sparkle with the electricity of connection.

Shavuot - Offering of First Fruits

I am a little behind in my blog posts because I’ve been planning for and teaching at a retreat for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.  I will offer my thoughts about the Shree poem of the week soon, but wanted to share a little something from one of the classes I taught on retreat to tide you over until then!

Shavuot is an interesting holiday as we commemorate several events in Jewish history and the Jewish calendar, and we celebrate in a myriad of ways.  Although I taught about several of these customs, let’s focus for now on the original intent of the holiday.  Shavuot was originally known as the Ceremony of First Fruits, a celebration of the first harvest of spring.  During the ancient time of the Temple in Jerusalem, there were two offerings of Bikkurim, or First Fruits.  The first is that farmers would select and offer the first of their crops as an offering of gratitude for the bounty of the harvest.  There was no prescribed amount necessary or suggested - the invitation was to bring what you have.  So each farmer offers their unique bounty, according to their own means.   It was a highly personal offering, based entirely on what was sown and reaped, offering back a portion of the blessings of that year’s crops.  The very definition of gratitude is “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness” – inherent in gratitude is the desire to offer back.  This first offering is an offering of gratitude.

 

In yoga practice, we give at the level we can, we participate 100%, not 99%, not 101%.  I hear from students all the time that they aren’t “good” at yoga – they don’t know the language, the poses feel foreign, they are inflexible, etc. When we can let go of negative self-talk, and practice with the intention to offer our own personal “bikkurim”, we recognize the perfect fullness of what we’ve got right now.  I once saw a book (which I have not read so I can’t account for it’s content) called “Life Doesn’t Start 5 lbs. From Now”.   What you have to offer right now is your perfect offering, just as valid and beautiful as the person next to you, regardless of what your poses look like.  We have a word for this in Sanskrit: purnatva.  It means perfect fullness, or being in the state of perfect fullness.  Which doesn’t mean we have everything we want and everything is perfect.  It means we know that our offering, what we have to give, is enough.  When we recognize the purnatva of our lives, we step into the pulsation of giving and receiving that is the nature of the entire universe.  When we recognize the abundance of our own harvest every day we are inspired to offer our own gifts more easily and readily. (Side note - as I was reading through my notes and organizing my thoughts about teaching this theme the night before I had to teach, I received and email from my teacher Todd Norian about this very topic!   Here’s a link to his inspiring thoughts if you are interested in reading more about Purnatva.)

The second offering of bikkurim is 2 loaves of bread offered by the priests on behalf of all the Jewish people.  Bread represents our co-participation with the divine to deepen the gifts we’ve received: the sun, rain, and soil, which nourished the crop and brought us wheat, and our own using of that gift to create nourishment (I knew there was a profound reason I can’t give up carbs…!).  In yoga we do the same thing – we take the gift of our body, in whatever state or condition it is in, and through poses and breath participate with the Universe in creating something even more beautiful and meaningful.  Our bodies are the wheat and the yoga is the bread that we can offer back when we practice with intention. 

 

At the retreat, which was hosted by a retreat center which is also a working organic farm, we commemorated this long-past tradition by each person taking either a stalk of wheat (to represent the seeds we wish to plant and grow something new), a leaf of spinach (to represent unfurling or expanding deeper into an already present offering), or a turnip (to represent rooting ourselves more deeply into an intention), all grown right there on the farm, and marched holding our offering in a symbolic parade through the camp to the “temple”, led by the goats that produce the farm’s milk.  When we arrived at the symbolic “temple”, we placed our offering on the Earth along with 2 beautiful loaves of bikkurim bread baked that morning, and we danced and sang around the heap of offerings, and celebrated all we had to give.  It was a beautiful, moving ceremony that I was so glad to be part of with my parents and my 3 children. 

Off the mat:

What are the First Fruits you have to offer this Spring?  Do you feel like they are “enough”?  What kind of ceremony can you create to commemorate bringing them forth, and offer back with gratitude?

On the mat:

We practiced during this class with great awareness of our breath, and ended with Viloma pranayama.  Our breath is the gateway to our connection with Source, and the way we participate with the force that breathes us in each and every moment in creating our world, like a dance. In our normal, day-to-day life, Shakti (Shechinah in Hebrew) breathes life force into us even as we are oblivious to her - she is the leader.  When we practice pranayama, we lead the dance.  It is a subtle shift, not to control the breath, but to participate with it more fully, directing the energy of the breath and the prana (life-force) that it brings in more clearly. 

Open to Grace/Inner Body Bright – Our poses start from a place of purnatva, fullness.  As you fill with breath, fill up with a feeling of “enough” in whatever you have to offer today.

Let your poses originate from a deep feeling of fullness and abundance from your soul.

Feel the perfect fullness of yourself today, right now.  Yet with each breath feel your capacity for that fullness to grow – your awareness, your mindfulness, your self- confidence and self-worth. 

Let each breath open you up more for the next breath to come.

Muscular Energy – Firm your muscles and embrace the fullness of your life.

Firm your muscles to feel the bounty of your own harvest.

Inner Spiral - From the place of fullness, open up to more and more as you widen your sit-bones apart.

Expand your inner thighs back and apart to expand beyond perceived limitations.

Outer Spiral – Anchor your tailbone and your awareness in your inherent purnatva.

Organic Energy - Let the pose keep expanding and expanding and expanding.

Flow out beyond the limits of where you've stopped before, allowing your harvest to keep growing and growing.

                      

Spring Blossoming

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."  - Anaïs Nin

Assuming that this is true and there are risks inherent in opening ourselves up, what are they?  Vulnerability, softening, opening, exposure, fear of failure were some that my students brought up this week in classes.  One student suggested "You might get plucked!" No one wants to be plucked!  And like Marianne Williamson says, it is our light not our darkness that scares us the most.  So knowing that some or all of these risks have to be taken on to blossom to our fullest potential, then we need to explore what would make it safe for us to take these risks.  Courage, strength, and faith were the most predominant answers.  In my life the thing that gives me the most support, that helps me to tap into courage and strength, is my family and community.

Years ago a friend shared with me the story of her wedding. She got married in New Orleans and there is an awesome tradition there of what they call the "second line".  Basically, they hire a band to walk behind the bride and groom, and the rest of the wedding guests follow behind waving handkerchiefs, dancing, singing and celebrating, and it becomes a parade.  Even bystanders wanting to can join in the celebration.  I love the idea of blossoming into a new chapter with your loved ones cheering you on - it’s like all your friends and family "have your back" as you begin your new life.  If I ever renew my wedding vows I am totally doing it in New Orleans!  Wouldn’t it be great if we could start a “second line” tradition for all our major life events – a new job or career path, graduating high school, college, having a baby, moving?  In a way, our yoga practice does this for us.

In yoga your back body represents many things - one of them is your past, all that's behind you.  All your ancestors, your experiences, your teachers, friends who’ve come and gone, all the things that have helped to shape you into the person you are.  Some of these people are still with us, and some have passed on either out of our lives or out of their earthly bodies, it doesn’t really matter.  When we invoke our “second line” by staying connected to our back body through breath and awareness, we are invoking the feelings of strength, courage, faith, ease (plug in any other quality here) that they evoked in us and that in itself helps us to remember that we ourselves are capable and can choose to blossom into life that we desire. When connect to these feelings we open our hearts more readily and blossom more radiantly into the person we aspire to become.   We become, as we say in our invocation, niralambaya tejase - radiant and illuminated in who we are, without need of support from anything outside ourselves.

So even if it was your “second line” that helped give you strength or courage or faith to take a risk, acknowledge that YOU were still the one ultimately that took that risk and blossomed.  Now take a breath and finish this line “I am blossoming into…..”

Off the mat:

My friend Silvia Mordini offers this contemplation:

Think back to your original intention for starting yoga?  How have you seen this intention blossom and evolve, what parts of it are still in today's intention for living and loving your life? It is essential we see where we came from to better appreciate how far we've come.  And you have come very far. We keep awakening ourselves to ever more amazing inner radiance each day of our practice. 

We are always evolving in the direction of happiness, all that we need to do is not block the flow forward.  And when we feel our “second line” behind us, either real or invoked, it helps move us in that direction.  So there is no reason to wait to be happy or more loved or more cheerful.  BLOSSOM NOW NOT LATER.  This isn't a rehearsal for your life. Spring doesn't say, ok let me hold back and I'll do this next year. Nope, Spring goes for it NOW.  Just like we must do too.  

  

On the mat:

To help embody these ideas more fully, work into backbends in your practice this week with a strong Shoulder Loop.  The actions of Shoulder Loop start in the upper palate (where the hard and soft palate meet) moving it towards the back body, travels down to move the head of the arm bones (what most people refer to as the “shoulder”) back while moving the bottom tips of the shoulder blades forward in a circular loop or motion.  When the head moves back and out of the way, we can lead with our hearts.  It’s like your “second line” is pushing the bottom tips shoulder blades forward encouraging your heart to lift and blossom open.   Do some deep shoulder openers as warm ups, for example practice Bhujangasana (cobra pose) with a strap around the bottom tips of your shoulder blades – have a friend lovingly pull the strap forward while using their feet to press the tops of your shoulders back.  Work into deep lunges and thigh stretches and then blossom yourself into Ustrasana (camel), Dhanurasana (bow), Camatkarasana (which we commonly call wild thing, but a more poetic, flowery translation reads “the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart.”), towards full Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. 

Open To Grace: Stand courageously and take the risk to open yourself. When we take the risk to open, we have the opportunity to experience the incredible beauty of life more fully.

Breathe into your back body and feel everyone who “has your back”.

Muscular Energy: Firm your muscles to embrace your vulnerability.

Tone your muscles to feel strong in your ability to take a risk.

Shoulder Loop: Engage with all who have your back by engaging your shoulder blades onto your back.

Feel the support of all those who came before pressing your SB forward so you can open your heart more easefully.

Press the bottom tips of the shoulder blades forward and flower your heart open courageously

Inner Spiral: Blossom the sit bones open.

Widen your inner thighs and open yourself even in your vulnerable places.

Outer Spiral: Scoop your tailbone and tone your low belly with courage and conviction your capacity to bloom and flourish.

Scoop your tailbone to feel the support of your lower abdominals and all those who support you.

Organic Energy:

Blossom out of your tight little bud and into the pose and the person you aspire to become.

Like a rose, unfurl the beauty of your heart as you expand into the pose.

Go Naked and Dance

 

Go Naked and Dance

By Lalla    

The Soul, like the moon, is new, and always new again.

And I have seen the ocean continuously creating.

Since I scoured my mind and my body, I too, Lalla, am new, each moment new.

My teacher told me one thing, Live in the soul.

When that was so, I began to go naked, and dance.

This poem reminds us that the body and soul are in a constant state of renewal. I read an article recently about the human body’s capacity to rejuvenate itself that said “Although people may think of their body as a fairly permanent structure, most of it is in a state of constant flux as old cells are discarded and new ones generated in their place. Each kind of tissue has its own turnover time, depending in part on the workload endured by its cells.” For example:

•  The cells lining the stomach last only 5 days
•  Red blood cells last only 120 days
•  The epidermis, or surface layer of the skin, is recycled every 2 weeks
• The liver has a turnover time of 300 to 500 days
• The entire human skeleton is replaced approximately every 10 years in adults

 

(For more amazing facts, check out the whole article here)

So now we know that we have a new body every day, but this capacity for rejuvenation happens in all aspects of our lives.   As those who know me know, I am a runner.  I have not run a race since my 3^rd son was born almost 21 months ago, so to keep my mind fresh and new along with my body I set a goal to run the 5K coming up in my town in under 24 minutes. Racing is really a mental competition – when you’ve trained and your body is prepared and capable of maintaining a certain pace, the race becomes about the self-talk that keeps you going and motivated when things get challenging.  The race was last Saturday and it was a humid morning, making breathing more challenging but I was inspired as I always am by my fellow racers and cheerleaders.  My sister had committed to the race with me and we started off and kept our pace.  As we neared the finish line, breathless and tired from running hard, my sister looked up and yelled “23:52 go, go, go!” - and we did.  We crossed the finish line at 23:58 & 23:59 and it was exhilarating!  I have been running and racing for 25 years and have never won a medal, but we placed 2^nd and 3^rd in our age group and it felt really good.  When we set goals for ourselves that challenge both our bodies and minds we tap into our capacity for renewal, and our attitude more than our age determines our successes and failures. When we examine our habits and patterns and define the ways they have become stale and stagnant we become more active participants in the renewal of the mind.

 

This weekend was also Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate Shakti, the feminine, creative force of the Universe that brings everything into being.  Shakti acts within us at the level of the energy-body or the soul.  It’s not like Shakti acts and we are born and then that’s it, we’re on our own.  The energy of Shakti is working continuously and constantly, every moment of every day, and when we awaken to this energy flowing within ourselves we tap into our own creative abilities.   We recognize that in every moment we have the ability to renew ourselves.  Shakti is the force that breathes us, so with every breath we have the capacity to be born anew, to make a choice to make a shift or change in the direction of the life we wish to live.  When we recognize that this process of rejuvenation is going on all the time, we can choose to align ourselves with it and celebrate the potential renewal of our soul in every action we take, every choice we make.  As Mellen-Thomas Benedict said “Humans are immortal beings who have been alive forever. Our bodies come from an unending stream of life....humans are part of a natural living system that recycles itself endlessly."

Off the Mat:

Examine the aspects of your life that feel stale and stagnant.  In what ways can you bring renewal to old habits and patterns?  It doesn’t necessarily mean giving them up – sometimes that is the right choice, but often we can make a small shift in our thinking or behavior that connects us to our souls' innate capacity for rejuvenation and awakening.

On the Mat: 

We worked with deep twists this week, as twists are refreshing and renewing poses. On the physical level they massage and wring out the internal organs, flushing out toxins and allowing new blood and other vital fluids to rush in and revitalize organs and muscles.  On a mental level, they turn us one way then the other, balancing the hemispheres of our brains and helping us to see the same pose from 2 different perspectives and directions.  When we twist, the movement initiates from the back body on the opposite side that we are twisting to (so for example, if we are twisting to the right, the twist begins from the lower left back waistline).  Our back bodies represent our connection to the Divine, or Shakti, so the pose itself originates from this deep energetic connection to our creative source and our ability to align with it.  We worked towards Baddha Parivrtta Parsvakonasana, leading in with twisted lunges, parivrtta Trikonasana, twisted Eka Pada Rajakapotasana prep, and a sweet study of Vira I which brought us into a deeper relationship with our subtle energy body and the way we can use it to move our outer physical forms.

Open To Grace: Feel your inner body grow brighter as you expand it with your breath.

Feel your soul fill your body.

Let the in-dwelling presence of your soul fill your body with a feeling of renewal.

Breathe in and soften into the knowledge that the universe, in it’s constant process of renewal, is unfolding exactly as it is meant to.

Muscular Energy: Hug to the midline and the newness of your body in this moment.

Firm your muscles inwards all the way to your soul.

Hug from your skin to the muscle to the bone to the subtle energy body.

Twisting: As you exhale and turn, wring out the old, making space to revitalize yourself.

Twist from the level of your soul, the deepest part of yourself and your deepest desire for renewal.

Initiate your movement from the place where Shakti dwells, deep in the back body, connecting you to your souls capacity for creative renewal.

Organic Energy: Expand into new possibilities with confidence in your souls ability to continuously create anew.

Shed the clothing of your skin and feel your soul dance with the beauty of this moment, this pose.

Live in your soul and let it be reflected from the inside out in your pose.

The Stream of Life

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.

Mother Earth

Mother Earth 

by Rabindranath Tagore

Infinite Wealth is not yours, my patient and dusky mother dust!

You toil to fill the mouths of your children, but food is scarce.

The gift of gladness that you have for us is never perfect.

You cannot satisfy all our hunger hopes, but should I desert you for that?

Your smile, which is shadowed with pain, is sweet to my eyes.

Your love, which knows not fulfillment, is dear to my heart.

From Your breast, You have fed us with life but not immortality, which is why

Your eyes are ever wakeful.

For ages you are working with color and song, yet Your heaven is not built,

but only it’s sad suggestion.

Over Your creation of beauty, there is the mist of tears.

I will pour my songs into your tender face and love Your mournful dust, Mother Earth.

 

This poem reads like both a love letter and a letter of apology to the Earth.  Mother Earth holds so much beauty and yet so much suffering and devastation as well.  This poem is an invitation to examine how you interact with Her.

Nature is one of the easiest ways for us to connect with our Source - when we look at the vastness of an ocean, the majesty of a mountain range, the power of a waterfall, we have some sense of the miraculous nature of the energy/life force/oneness that brings it all into being. We recognize that we are a part of that creation and so our actions, our attitude, and even our thoughts are directly connected to the health and wellbeing of all that surrounds us. 

I think most of us, myself included, take Mother Earth for granted. It seems incomprehensible that Her resources might one day not be there for us, and yet we know that if we don’t radically change some of our habits that this might actually be the case.  Fortunately we also know that intention is a powerful catalyst, so when we set ours meaningfully on the change we wish to see in the world, and follow through with our actions, that we have the power to make manifest those changes.

(Aside: for a powerful commentary on how we take mothers in general for granted, check out this video! The Hardest Job)

Yoga gives us the opportunity to think about the way we place ourselves physically in the world.  We become more aware of how we walk on the Earth – does it support and sustain both ourselves and our environment?  Through our practice we cultivate sensitivity, inside and out.  As we become more sensitive, we more easily and readily notice imbalances and misalignments and can respond to them sooner, before they become bigger issues.  With increased sensitivity we are more aware of people around us, to their needs and desires and joys and pains, and our relationships become deeper and richer as we become more compassionate.   When we cultivate sensitivity we are more able to see the interconnectedness of all things, and our place in the Universe.

Off the Mat:

Ok folks, a million ways you can affect Mother Earth here!  Here are some of the ways, over the years, my family has chosen to create a more sustainable lifestyle. We have done away with paper napkins, disposable water bottles, disposable plastic bags for snacks, lunch boxes and groceries, and disposable diapers (ok, I do cheat and use them when we are travelling).  We have limited disposable wrapping paper and individual food containers (like for yogurt and kefir – we buy the big ones and portion in out in our own reusable containers).  Even having made these changes, there are so many more still in the queue– what changes have you made to effect change in your world?  What changes do you still need to make? Let's start a conversation...or a revolution!  Post a tip!

On the Mat:

We worked on sensitivity in our hands and our feet this week.  From the simple act of bringing the hands into Anjali mudra one fingertip and knuckle at a time, to staying really present and grounded in the four corners of our feet during drop backs into Urdhva Dhanurasana, we were ever mindful in the way we touched Mother Earth.  We placed our hands and feet with intention in every pose, steady and unwavering in our touch, engaging just enough to support ourselves and honor the Earth at the same time.

Open To Grace: Become more sensitive in your touch, the way you engage with the earth. 

Stand in your pose the way you wish to stand in the world.

Wake up your hands and feet, the organs we use to engage with the Earth, so we can be more sensitive to Her needs.

Maintain connection and sensitivity to the Earth even through transitions (like during Surya Namaskar, Sun Salutation).

Muscular Energy: Drink in what Mother Earth has to offer you from the hands to the heart.

Draw up from the Earth all that will sustain you.

When we ourselves are out of balance we get distracted and forget to be sensitive to our environment, but if we can pull into the place inside (the Focal Point) that we feel connected to all things it steadies us and brings equanimity to both ourselves and our world.

Organic Energy:  Offer your love and support back to the Earth.

Send your intention to nourish and sustain Mother Earth out into the universe.

Pour your songs into Her tender face and love Her mournful dust, Mother Earth.