Ha, I seem to be doing a double dipping poetry day.
Day 7
You are oceans away from me, the distance of our silence overwhelms me. You are penny wishing well that takes my quarters and never gives any changes.. you sit statue against the sound of dripping tears, each one an echo of a prayer my heart never stops beating into me… One day you’ll look up to find me, and I’ll be an echo to the memory of a prayer you once said… because I’ve started tossing my quarters into my own well, and all I can see is change…
Day 8
Rose petals… whispers… rose petals… song… dance delicate lover, your scent is illuminating, I see who I am in your wonder… rose petals..and whispers lead me to your waiting arms… rose petals.. song.. the once we’ve been singing since our eyes first kissed… your lips are rose petals and song.. whispers I’m longing to hear… wrap your words around me like a love poem we never tire writing… and like this poem.. we, are, endless…
Namaste mudra is a powerful hand position. We often begin and end our practice with it. It is also called prayer position. Namaste is a common salutation that is offered in many yoga classes, it means “I bow to you”. It is an offering of self to those that share the class and the space with us during our practice. It is also a term that has grown in popularity thanks to yoga becoming more mainstream. The hand gesture is a physical extension of this greeting and salutation.
This hand position is much more than meets the eye. When you are able to create deeper connections to these simple (and often taken for granted actions) you see the power that simple gestures hold.
First the action of bringing the hands to heart center. Many of us first meet this hand position as children. When learn to pray into our hands in the hopes that the divine will hear our prayers. The beautiful thing about this idea is that it is true. When we pray into clasped hands held at the heart we are praying down into the hear center. Think of the fingers as the tip of the microphone, and the heart being the seat of the soul (or that place where God Herself sits within us). Praying into the heart center is taking the prayer into the body so that the divine can hear it, and since we are extensions of divine will we hear our own prayers, and so does God too.
The five fingers in namaste mudra represent the five sacred elements as they move through us. Sacred air as it moves through our lungs. The sacred fire that burns deep within our hearts. The fluidity of our blood, bones, muscles and joints. Sacred earth as it supports, grounds and protects us. Spirit as it move in and through us. Bringing the hands to the heart in this position is bringing awareness and connection to those primal elements that make up our sacred being.
The all that is within me, acknowledge and bows to the all that is within you.
Take a look at these simple actions. See the power in all of our gestures, and look for meanings beyond the initial layers of experience.
One of the things I see most often in the yoga classes I teach is the frustration that so many feel when it comes to balance, or to getting the new postures just right. There is a “perfection” mindset that a lot of people bring to their mats that can add a lot of resistance to their progress and their path.
What a lot of people do not realize it that all the falling, the being off-balance, and the struggle is where the real yoga lives. Once we own a posture the work to get there is done. It is in all the off-balance, catching ourselves states of being that the body, mind and the spirit are working in overtime. When you are off-balance the senses heighten, the core engages to stabilize you, the breath becomes engaged to add power, and spirit shines through when we get back up and keep trying.
Yoga is beautifully frustrating.
We live in a culture where we see beautiful people doing a lot of perfect asana (postures) on the cover of magazines and in videos. We often take these images to our classes and our mats. I feel that it is our job as instructors to help guide each student the beauty that is found in imperfection. Our bodies are beautiful when the move through the postures. Yoga is not about being perfect, yoga is about showing up. Yoga means “to yoke” or “to unite”. Showing up is always the hardest part, and anything beyond that is icing on the cake. Frustration is also not a bad thing. It keeps us moving through the postures, it keeps us evolving our craft, our practice. We learn to open up to the divine that rests in the process. When we show up to class we want to be sure that we are setting an intention. That we move through the postures and carry that intention into all our many parts. We want to embody the intention fully. Our bodies become conduits for energizing intention, our breath aligns and fuels will and desire. When we finish our practice we meditate and move intention into reality.
Falling down is an important part of the yoga process. What we do in class is an extension of what we do outside of class. A simple meditation that can be done in a yoga class is to sit with the action of falling or coming off-balance. Reflect on a time in your life where you may have fallen, or were shifted off-balance. Bring that image back to your practice and bring balance to that past event. If there is something in your current life that is causing you to be off-balance, bring it to the mat. The intention of bringing balance into that area of your life will live on once you leave class. Life is not something we leave with our shoes when we enter the yoga studio, nor is yoga something we leave on our mats when we go back out into our busy lives. Using your yoga to help generate energy for the other areas of your life help you to unite with all aspects of self.
When is a time where you felt off-balance? How did you react? What can you do right this moment to bring balance into your life?
Falling is a beautiful thing. Fall with grace and rise with power.
Many of us are entering this new year shedding off the old. The dust is finally settling and it is time for us to move into greater states of connection with what we want from life. So, here are a few questions to sit with: What do you want from life? What are you doing to achieve it? What is your resistance to making these desires manifest?
As we move into this new year I want to bring a bit of warrior energy into our practice. In yoga, warrior postures take us into places of strength, balance, focus. I will however point out that too often we hold these posture with too much rigidity. Warriors have to be flexible, they have to move with the elements, with life itself. Engaging the practice of asana work helps us to embody the warrior. When we move our bodies into a posture that represents our warrior nature we are calling that force into all of our parts.
Here is a quick and simple mediation that you can do to help you find balance.
Warrior 2-
Step one leg forward into a lunge. Your back foot is at a slight 45 degree angle. Your front knee is either above the ankle or slightly behind. You can lessen the intensity of the lunge depending on your fitness level. Your hips are turned outward. One hand is moving forward, the other back. Look forward and back and your hands should be aligned through the center plane. Here is a video to help work your into the posture:
Once in the poster here is a meditation to help you get the most from the power of this posture:
This warrior posture represents standing in the center. Being fully in balance and in control of our experience.
While standing in warrior two, listen to your body. Where is your mind drifiting? How does your body feel standing in the posture, do you feel strong, weak, small, big? Sit with these thoughts as they come up. Where do you need warrior energy in your life?
Now shift your focus to the rear hand:
What in your past is still binding you? Do you find yourself drifting through the your past? Where do you feel that you need balance in your past experience? Send light and energy through your fingertips to those areas of your life.
Now Take your focus to the front hand:
Where in your current experience do you feel bound? What do you feel about your future, does it bring fear or joy? Where in your current experience do you need energy, balance, strength? Send energy through your fingertips to those parts of your life that need it?
Switch sides and do the same thing with the opposite side forward. This becomes a practice of balancing our bodies and engaging the mind/body/ and spirit connection. After you do this practice, take a few moments to journal your experience. What thoughts came to mind? What came up for you? Do you feel powerful, do you feel like a warrior? If not, touch the solar plexus, ask the body what it needs in order to bring that energy into your life?
Blessed be warriors! Practice, connect, love, and stand in your power!
and remember… You are Loved. You are Beautiful. You are Divine.
When we head out for our yoga classes, we pack our mats, our bags and even blocks, but we often forget to pack our journals. The practice of journaling your yoga experience can really help you to embody the practice of yoga. There is a lot that happens during a yoga session, and regardless of the type or style of yoga you are engaging it is important to catalog and dialogue with our practice.
Yoga is also much more than what happens on the mat, and being able to harness the power of our practice to move through our “off-mat” lives helps us to be unified with our actions, intentions and emotions.
I have always found journaling to be a powerful tool for assessing and dealing with emotions that come up. Having a journal is like having a trusted friend that is there to listen, to help us process, and to help us connect to something below the surface. If you are not currently keeping a journal I would really encourage starting one. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of what type of journal you should carry with you, but I personally prefer hand writing out my journals. If you are going to be using your journal in your yoga class, I would encourage a paper journal and then you can transfer to your e-device.
Here are some things to consider including in your yoga journal:
What postures challenge you?
What external challenges are reflected to you by the posture?
What postures feel really good? (This one is especially good if you are feeling deep release or relax from a posture being able to re-create that out of class will be important.)
What intention are you bringing into your practice?
What is yoga doing for you during this session?
Are there things in your life that yoga helps you move through? How?
What emotions are you feeling during the class? Which postures evoke those emotions?
Are you currently using a mantra? What have the effects of that mantra been on your life?
What is the hardest part about yoga for you?
What is the easiest?
These are just a few questions, and I’ll dissect some of these as blog posts in the future. You can also just write a list of gratitude, or doodle, draw, etc there really is not a right or wrong way to journal… the idea is to get energy moving and to capture your progress on all levels. One of the things that I love about my older journals is being able to see my growth, to see what yoga helped me work through.
Mantras are also powerful magical tools. Choosing to engage and stick with a mantra practice, and then seeing what effect that mantra is having on your life will let you capture those experiences for reflection.
You can also write quotes, intentions and ideas that you want to take into your practice with you. You can also dedicate the energy of your practice to individuals, places and things in the world that might need a little extra push of energy. Writing those down helps us to solidify the dedication of energy, and then as we carry our journals with us we also carry those we care for.
What is your favorite type of journal?
What is your journaling process?
Do you have resistance to journaling? Can you identify the resistance?
Bhakti Witch 