yoga – Page 18 – Generous Wisdom

A Perspective on Break Week

Hey Yogis,

Martin Luther King, Jr. day marks the beginning of our week away from studio classes (at least my studio classes!). I’ll be spending some time reconnecting with my closest people, the little ones, the medium one, and the big one. And hopefully trying something new to broaden my perspective. My invitation to you is to do the same: connect with your people & explore: Keep trying different yoga styles online and in person. Keep trying different teachers within the same tradition or style. Or dip your toe into a new movement practice like Qigong, Tai Chi, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, or join your people in some of their favorite activities.

Speaking of perspective, when I find interesting quotes or pictures, I print them out and hang them on my walls, so I’m reminded to look beyond my present thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Currently, I’ve got a lot up there in the kitchen, as well as some random ones in the hallways.

One day I noticed markings on my signs, went up close to take a look, found that someone had been doing some underlining. A few days later I noticed the little one flitting around the house with her pencil, popping up to my “sacred signage,” and making marks!! I noticed that this caused me anxiety, as well as surprisingly strong feelings of attachment to these insignificant pieces of paper. After reminding myself that the pieces of paper are, indeed, insignificant (compared to my love for this little graffiti artist), I smiled, exclaimed my surprise at this turn of events, and kindly asked her to stop. At which point she sheepishly began erasing the underlines.

Two things happened: first, my ego-self immediately felt the sacred signage would be even more damaged by the erasures, and second, my true-self realized that I had been too attached and too harsh. So I told my little one not to worry about the marks but to refrain from making any new ones.

She told me she was sorry and explained that she’d only been underlining the most important words. I walked over to see which words she had chosen and found these: Pause, Courage, Mystery, Love, Admiration.

Wow! I thought, this was profound. “Emma,” I said, “You can underline the words on my signs any time!”

“Well,” she replied, “I really just wanted to try out my new mini pencil.”

There are so many different ways of seeing.

********

My prayer for all of us is this:

May we practice awareness,
look closely,
pay attention,
and suspend judgement.

May we pause,
take courage,
embrace the mystery,
and love one another
as though our lives depend on it,
as though we are extensions of the same Ground of Being.

May we take time
to look for the jewels
in our own lives and the lives of others,
even when the jewels are hidden in the dirt
and buried beneath the snow:

Pause
Courage
Mystery
Love
and Admiration.

…and try out something new…!

Amen? Amen.

Last Week In Yoga: Both/And

Welcome to the “This Week in Yoga” Series.

I know, the title of today’s piece is “Last Week in Yoga,” but the idea has come a week into our first series, so, better late than never!

The concept we worked with last week is the idea that two seemingly disparate things, or, sensations, emotions, and thoughts, can co-exist. For instance, if one of your most physically challenging yoga poses is Revolved Triangle (parivrtta trikonasana) or Crow (bakasana), you might consider inviting a sense of ease into the pose by unclenching your jaw, or directing your gaze downward, lengthening the cervical spine.

Try it out (follow the links above for direction): once you’re in each of the postures, first, clench your jaw on purpose then let go; second, tip your face toward the front wall, ceiling or sky, then angle your nose toward the ground. Notice there is space between the upper and lower teeth, and space between the back of the head and back of the neck; tension is released, and ease is uncovered.

Now that you’ve created all kinds of space, notice how empowering it is to feel the strength throughout the length of your back leg, your side abdominals and back muscles, and your supporting and extending arms in revolved triangle, as well as your “everything else(!)” in crow pose.

The intention of practicing Both/And is to embrace the fact that ease exists alongside intensity. Our yoga practice doesn’t have to be “all intensity” or “all ease,” “all strength and high energy” or “all rest and relaxation.” This Both/And practice allows us to circumvent an experience of Either/Or: either complete boredom and atrophy, or, overwhelming strain and exhaustion in our mat-based (sometimes vinyasa) yoga practice. Instead, we get to experience our own power, the power to notice and acknowledge all that is present in the moment, which is no small accomplishment.

Keep in mind, our power is also a piece of this Both/And journey, for power is not strength alone, but a combination of strength and grace, and maybe even courage.

Happy Practicing!

The Catholic Yogi

Stay Curious

I repeat myself in class, constantly. I have no idea whether or not this bores my students, as no one has told me so. Incidentally, no one has told me that my class keeps them on the edge of their mat, either. Can you guess that the title of this piece is something I say over and over again?

“Stay curious!”

At home, I reply to my children’s complaints of feeling stranded in a sea of boredom with, “You’re bored? Wonderful! It’s great to be bored! It allows you to do so many wonderful things like think, and imagine, and not think, and pretend, and do nothing!”

Bent leg Uttanasana (Forward Fold) with blocks for support.

Staying curious on our yoga mat is a beautiful way to access our muscles, to listen to our bodies through the language of sensation. Consider what it would be like to twist away from the bent/front leg rather than toward it. Try exhaling in cow pose and inhaling in cat pose. Staying curious is also a sweet way to access the muscles we use to suspend judgement, the muscles of gentleness, kindness, patience, and benevolence. Consider what it would be like to laugh when you fall out of Twisting Half Moon Pose (Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana), or out of Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana) for that matter(!) Try waiting for the pose to unfold and open the body in its own time, and feel what that’s like to feel that.

Moving into Virabhdrasana III (Warrior Pose III) with blocks for support.

Off the mat, we might stay curious about our reactions to our circumstances, such as the way we bristle at a friend’s comment, or realize our vanity is alive and well when we wish someone hadn’t posted a specific picture of us on social media. Additionally, we can try out really listening to the person who is talking to us, being attentive to what they are saying without thinking about our own next word, sentence, or thought. We can be curious about responses we label as negative, and we might learn something new about ourselves. Conversely, when we look closely at things we categorize as positive, at what brings us joy, we might end up finding more of it.

This kind of curiosity has the capacity to bring us into new experiences of ourselves, and new wisdom, and I’m all for that.

May you be blessed with enough in all things.

Happy Gaudete week, Happy Rejoicing, Happy Practicing!

The Catholic Yogi