inspiration – Page 4 – Generous Wisdom

Striving & Savoring

Dear Friends,

Right now is a new moment. Breathe in and feel the new breath in your body. Breathe out and feel the old breath release. Every breath takes in the new and releases the old. There might be sadness here or tentativeness; there might also be sweetness and joy. Notice what is present with a spot of kindness. Offer yourself any amount of compassion for whatever you are feeling in this moment.

STRIVING

I’ve done a lot of striving in my day, and I bet you have too: striving for the best education, the best job, the best partner, the best family, the best meal, the best soap, the best meditation, the best yoga practice, and on it goes, possibly without end.

I invite you to join me in not striving – for a moment (or even two) – as you take in the words of Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who speaks of striving in her poem “The Hill We Climb:’

“And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside”

Sometimes striving is necessary. And sometimes savoring is what’s needed.

SAVORING

I invite you now to look back and notice the good work you have done, just one tiny nugget of goodness you gave to the world, whether it was earlier today, yesterday, or 20 years ago.

Perhaps it was a smile, a delivery of groceries or a warm meal. Maybe you drove someone to work, school, or an appointment and then drove them home, walked your dog, or picked up trash that wasn’t yours. Or, you gave yourself permission to go for a walk, or to sit and rest.

Our striving is not for perfection, friends. It is for a life with purpose, to compose a song filled with various rhythms and key changes, dotted with eighth notes and swept with drawn out phrases and pauses, a life of tiny little nuggets of goodness. Not perfection, but purpose.

My invitation to you today: Savor what is sweet and leave the rest.

Yours in Practice,

Amy

The Universal Yogi

PS – Follow the links above to learn more about Amanda Gorman and hear her reading “The Hill We Climb.” My encouragement is to listen twice. Once with your eyes closed and once with them open (in either order).

PPS – I didn’t want to leave this out in case it might be useful: try savoring your yoga practice, instead of striving throughout the whole thing, trying to get somewhere you think you’re not. Do the yoga as something to enjoy, not to cross off your list. Practice as play.

Go play some yoga 🙂

Vinyasa, Hatha, & Creative Ashtanga

I realize the title seems to imply that this could be a lengthy explanation of definitions, differences, and similarities, but it’s really just a little story. (You might be pleasantly surprised or a bit disappointed, or maybe some of each!)

I hurt my hip in July of 2019 doing a yoga pose that didn’t really need doing, though it was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Until I didn’t. In July of 2020 my knee decided it had had enough. What it had enough of, however, I wasn’t really sure. All I had been doing was walking on cement sidewalks a few miles three times a day since April. (Remember April, May, and June of 2020?) I suppose that, combined with an active childhood that included a splash of gymnastics, 16 years of jumping back (and up) in Surya Namaskara A & B, and congenitally under-developed hip sockets and other misaligned joints and weaknesses, resulted in my knee swelling up and me thinking I had gout. Thankfully, I did not have to give up my favorite indulgences. It seems I’d rather have patellar tendonosis instead.

All this is to say that I’ve been enjoying a 10 day meditation challenge, and I took a “creative ashtanga” class this morning to see how it might feel, and my left hip was like, What are you doing? And my left knee was like, Have you been meditating for a long time? My right hip flexor said, What did you do yesterday? And my right shoulder? It was like, Are you kidding me…? After all we’ve been through…? Keep in mind, I made all the postures and vinyasas fit my current body and its needs and wants, and still my body was like, Huh? This doesn’t feel right.

So. There’s vinyasa and there’s vinyasa. I still find my flow even when I’m not jumping, doing push-ups, and raising and lowering my arms a million times. I still connect my postures like strings of pearls. I still love flowing and powering in my yoga practice. It just looks different on the outside.

So. I have hip dysplasia, and I never would’ve found that out if it hadn’t been for sugarcane pose. However, I’d rather not know I have hip dysplasia. Moving forward, if a pose isn’t really necessary, and it’s bordering on extreme, I’m not going to do it. (I’m sort of laughing as I type this because I couldn’t do any sort-of-extreme posture anymore. My body’s not havin’ it!) It kind of reminds me of the time my 2-year-old hit me smack in the third eye with a wooden block. I had enough sense to think, Well? That’s something. I suppose I’ll never be hit in the head exactly the same way ever again. And going forward, I steered clear.

So. What’s changing for you?

For Practice

What have you been forcing yourself to do that you really don’t want to do anymore (or ever really did), and you have a choice around it? What have you been putting yourself in the way of when you could shift to the side?
What would it feel like to practice the way you want to practice, not the way you think you should practice?
How do you think it would be to practice asana simply by feel. Instead of visualizing images of yoga postures (from books, apps, sites, or even in the mirror), close your eyes and feel your way into only the asana your body manifests comfortably. Yep, I said it – comfortably!! Asana = comfortable seat. 😉

Happy Practicing,

Amy

The Universal Yogi

Jewels: The Sweet Gems of My Reiki Level 1 Experience

“Reiki energy speaks for itself.

All other descriptions are only approximate.”

~ Reiki Level 1 Manual, Yoga on High

It’s tough to put the experience of Reiki training into words – Reiki is so beautiful, so life-giving, and so was my training.

I had thought about investigating Reiki at Yoga on High back in 2003, and off and on for years, but I had never felt comfortable going for it, and it seems the universe had different timing in mind. What a joy to have been able to take the training in person just weeks before the pandemic lockdown orders came in March. Timing couldn’t have been sweeter.

I wanted to share a little bit about my takeaways here, just a sweet distillation of the immense amount of wisdom I received, the jewels that stood out for me. Every person has a completely unique experience, of course, and this is just mine.

A Spiritual Practice

There are no caveats about it. The opening instruction was, “Reiki is a spiritual practice.” This acknowledgment was so refreshing. There was no pulling reiki out of a spiritual tradition and secularizing it somehow. We dove in and discussed universal life force energy, and all were encouraged to connect and engage with the practice in a way that was authentic to our own spiritualities and/or religious traditions.

The Five Precepts

The five precepts recited during the Gassho Meditation are a way to “calm the mind and bring heart-centered focus to the healing session.” We were taught the traditional precepts and then – the most marvelous thing – we were given permission to make them unique to our own experience(!).

The traditional phrases include releasing anger and worry while embracing gratitude and honesty, as well as an intention to live in the present moment with kindness.

I use the traditional precepts often. But sometimes I substitute “notice” for “release,” and I’m going to try out using, “I am whole,” ‘I am fierce kindness,” “I am honest,” “I am loving kindness.”

For me, this is similar to the way I pray or set intentions before I teach a yoga class or consult with someone. I practice letting go of self/ego and allow whatever is meant to be taught, expressed, learned, or experienced to be present during the time together.

The Hara Line – Grounding & Centering; Flowing Through Your Heart

I had heard of the hara line before, but never had any formal training in it, and I had certainly never practiced extending it beyond my body to connect to something larger than myself. This was an amazing experience and one that has stayed with me, manifesting itself often now when I center, ground, or sense into and expand my energy. My guide offered these practices when she was teaching us how to enliven our energy and tap into an energy source bigger than ourselves. This reinforces and actualizes the truth that “giving reiki” is not a draining practice, but one that is self-nourishing and replenishing because we are not giving of our own stores; rather, we are channeling the universal healing energies of Love. When I come into a place of stillness, whether before teaching a yoga class or guiding meditation, I practice tapping into this energy line connecting me to the core of the earth and the cosmic energies above our atmosphere. It is a radiance of imagery with myself at the center and gold glowing lightstreams of energy flowing up, down, and through the hara line all surrounded by the cosmos. I can invite the energy from the larger light source (or star) down through the crown chakra, through the throat chakra and into the heart at any time. I can then allow and invite the energy to grow in my heart chakra and course down through my arms and into my hands, palms, and fingers. This allows me to enjoy the healing reiki energy as I share it.

Trust the Reiki Energy

This trust is one of the main teachings of the practice: trust the reiki – it knows where to go and what to do. There is freedom, joy, and ease wrapped up in this Trust.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

I am so grateful to have received this training in person. It has been one of the great blessings in my life.

You might be wondering how all this jives with my “Christian-ness,” but that is for another post!

In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about Reiki, follow this link to read about Yoga on High’s Reiki tradition.

Wishing you wellness, ease, and deep trust,

Amy

The Universal Yogi