Yogi In The City

A Friend And Teacher

2012-01-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

Buddhist Teacher Pema Chodron writes "Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it in. It's all we ever have, so we might as well work with it rather than struggle against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than an enemy."

I've been using these wise words to guide my own yoga practice this week, as well as the teachings I am offering in my classes too. Each time we step onto the mat we are working with a different body than the time before. Even within the same practice, moment by moment breath by breath we are working with something new, fresh, and unique.

If we slow down enough to allow the present moment to be our teacher and friend, we create so much space for the moment to reveal to us our body's innate wisdom about what will be the most healing choices to make in our practice. However if we work against the present moment, rushing into what's next, or operating in what I call "automatic pilot mode" we risk missing out on all the great information being presented to us.

For example, this week I have been having students focus specifically on their transitions to and from poses. Often times we skim the surface of these transitions, and in so doing we often sacrifice form for expediency sake leaving our shoulders, wrists, and knees compromised. Because it happens so quickly, we often don't notice--until it's happened so frequently that we start to get aches and pains and sometimes even serious injuries.

Specifically bring awareness to your hands in down dog and in plank/chaturgunga. Are your hands pressed firmly, are your index finger and thumb pressed down too? Every time? As you get tired are you still able to ground fully? If not, maybe it's best to come down to your knees. Are your shoulder blades on your back when you come down into chaturgunga or are your shoulders rounded forward? Again, maybe you need to come down on your knees, or even widen your hands if you have tight shoulders.

In standing poses are you able to press evenly through both legs or does one feel more dominant? Are your feet evenly supporting the pose? If you can't find even energy and balance maybe you need to change your stance for more support whether it means a shorter stance in poses like warrior 2 or even a wider one in warrior 1.

Every pose and every moment reveals so much to us. If we greet each moment as a friend and teacher our practice will refresh, heal and help us to grow. If we treat it as an enemy or something we have to avoid, ignore, or even work against we run the risk of losing out on some rich opportunities for healing and insight from our practice.

It's been said that the truth of the present moment is much more interesting than any fantasies we create about it. So work with what is true for you in this moment rather than anything made up, or anything you think your practice "should be" and let the fresh, new, and interesting nowness take you into a deep and powerful relationship with this present moment of your life and practice.

Have a wonderful visit with your new friend!

What is Sacred?

2012-01-21T17:39:00.000-08:00

‎"Freeing the body leads inevitably to freeing the heart" Gabriel Roth

Asana, the physical movement of yoga, has served as my gateway to a deeper and richer life. In fact, of all the practices I've done it's been the one that has offered me the most healing, and the greatest opportunity to open to life as it is. To me the body is inherently sacred and choosing to consciously create with it through the breath and intention is a holy act.

The body and the mind are not obstacles to a deeper connection to the divine or spirit. Breath is spirit and all we have to do to connect is breathe. The body is infused with consciousness and Spirit is woven into the very fabric of every cell of our being and its sacred pulse flows through us.

Practicing asana is a fun, engaging, and worshipful experience of co-creation with spirit. In a culture that is so far removed and disconnected from the body, asana seems like a perfect laboratory to, as Donna Farhi says, "ground spirituality in the body". The body is the gateway to a rich a mysterious union with all that is. Through breath and intention we create a fertile foundation that can grow transformation in the deepest layers of consciousness in all levels of our being. Asana makes us lighter and freer, and at the same time, grounded and connected to the source of all life.

Donna says in her book "Yoga Mind Body and Spirit" that this "down to earth, flesh and bones practice is simply one of the most direct and expedient ways to meet yourself" and that "the goal of asana practice is to learn to live in your body and to perceive things clearly through it."

Through practice we heighten our sensitivities, our awareness, and our connection to the source of life itself. We learn to trust, open, surrender, and embrace our inherent strength and resilience. In a world that has aimed to desensitize us, pollute our our bodies, numb our senses, and dumb us down, I can't think of a better practice to help us in waking up and participating in life in a radical, open-hearted way.

Any practice that can open us up to the sweet richness of life in the now and in deep connection to the spirit within is a powerful practice. You can trust and know deep in your heart that as you open you are opened to all that is.

Love,

Michael

A Delicate Dance

2011-12-30T11:23:00.001-08:00

This time of year we are bombarded with so many messages that encourage us to change this or that about ourselves. For many, this time of year also marks an annual ritual in which they examine their lives, at least for a moment, and begin to think through all the things they want to bring forth into their lives through intention and goal setting.

As yogis we enter this territory with a delicate balance of acceptance and transformation. What I have learned the hard way throughout my life is that unless this dance is approached with an attitude of friendliness towards "what is" about life in this moment (which includes my body, emotions, practice, etc) then a subtle, or sometimes even not so subtle form of aggression can take root, which in turn can impede any true or deep transformation at all.

So many of us, myself included, begin practices such as intention or goal setting with the premise that we are not good enough as we are in this moment, and so change is necessary to correct deficiencies within ourselves. When we do this, I think we create harm to ourselves. I also truly believe, because I have experienced this time and again, that even if we accomplish the goal we set out to, there will still remain a part of ourselves that still won't accept and love the self we have just created. There will remain an uneasiness, an undercurrent of discontent, that will still seek more ways to change even this version of ourselves because it's still not quite good enough. In that space of not "enoughness" we fall prey to others views and messages of all the ways we are not enough--but could be if we just follow their 10 easy steps to (fill in the blank).

If we approach our practice from a place of loving-kindness, which would mean developing an attitude of friendliness to all that we are in this moment, then our aggression moving forward would lessen. A shift in perception can go a long way in creating a powerful practice, a delicate dance between opening up to all that we are in this moment with joy, acceptance, and "enoughness" in partnership with revealing more beauty, fullness, and radiance of who we are.

Borrowing language from my social work background, I would call this a strengths-based approach to practice. So rather than beginning with what you think you don't have--tap into all that you do. While I am sure all of us think that we could be stronger, more flexible, this or that, it's also true that those elements already exist in abundance within you. The delicate dance we engage in then begins by opening up to the gifts, treasures, and power within you. Noticing all that is good, right, and true within and coming from that place first. Tapping into your strengths shifts everything. Then rather than trying to change yourself because you are not enough, you practice to reveal more of who you are.

May your practice reveal all that is wonderful about you!

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Generosity

2011-12-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

Opening up to generosity is a powerful practice. The acts of giving and of receiving, if done in a heart focused and conscious way, can be a conduit for increased happiness and contentment within our lives.

There has been a wealth of research done in the last 25 years which has shown just how powerful the act of giving can be, including simply just thinking about helping another! The research done by the HeartMath Institute has shown that just by thinking of extending a heart quality such as care, gratitude, appreciation, etc. towards another for even just 5 minutes has a significant boost to our immune system. While many yogis and meditators will already attest that they knew that practices such a metta (loving kindness) and tonglen (breathing in the suffering of others and transforming it into compassion and care) had powerful effects on their energy, health, and well-being--science is starting catch up, or at least show up to prove that these practices not only help us feel better mentally, but that they also make us healthier!

To begin to cultivate generosity in your practice this week start with harnessing appreciation and gratitude for all that has brought you to this moment. As you take your seat in opening meditation, take your hands to your heart and breathe deeply to and from the heart. Notice the beat of your heart, the feeling, the sound, all that you can-dive into the richness of the heart. When you feel immersed in the rhythm of your heart, bring to mind all the blessings that have brought you to this place. To have the time to practice and the means to support it is a blessing, to have the internet from which to read this is a blessing, to have good health, or at least decent health is a blessing- keep the list rolling and invite the goodwill from your appreciation to swell in the temple of your heart. Let your heart receive the generosity blooming forth from this practice.

As you begin to cultivate this feeling state, you tap into the natural abundance of all that you are and all that you have. From here it is much easier to give out freely and without attachment to outcomes. Throughout the physical practice connect to the breath cycle so that you are aware with each inhale what you are willing to receive, and with each exhale what you are willing to give. You breathe in to experience abundance, and exhale to share generously the gifts and blessings you have to give.

Then at the end of the practice, after receiving so much from the power of appreciation and gratitude, direct your attention to others. In meditation bring your hands back to you heart. Guide the breath there, in and out from the heart. Bring to mind someone or something that could use some heart energy directed their way and cradle them close in the energetic field of your heart. Repeat the mantra "may you be happy and free from suffering" or one of your choosing that conveys compassion and care. Stay in this energy for up to five minutes.

Close your practice with the chant: Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu May all beings everywhere be happy and free from suffering.

Peace to you!

The Yoga of Conflict-Part 2

2011-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

Continuing our journey this week we will explore the possibilities of applying the Niyamas to Conflict situations. The Yamas are how we interact with the external world, the Niyamas are how we interact with ourselves, our internal world. The five Niyamas are: Shaucha, Santosha, Tapas, Swadhyaya, and Ishwara-Pranidhana.

Shaucha- Simplicity, purity, refinement, clarity
Nischala Joy Devi says that through simplicity and continual refinement (saucha), the body, thoughts, and emotions become clear reflections of the self within. She continues that saucha reveals our joyful nature, and the yearning to know the self blossoms.

To me, applying this principle to my relationships with others means keeping things simple, and as best as I am able to, bring a sense of lightness to my interactions with others. One way in which this can happen is through my filter of what I assign meaning to, and how I interpret the behavior of others. One model of understanding how conflicts arise is someone says or does something, we create a story about why they did it in our heads, and based on the story we tell ourselves we feel something, and based on the feeling we act. It's no wonder complications ensue in our interactions with others! While the story we have told ourselves may be true, often times it is not, or at least is missing some key facts.

I have found myself fretting needlessly over situations that were quite simple, but because I created stories for others' behaviors, I made walls and walls of complications creating strain and stress for me and others. Think of the times in which others assigned stories, which just were not true, to your behaviors. Often times we don't even know if someone is acting off of what we said or did, or the story they created about what we said or did. However, if and when we do understand, it can be quite interesting to see just how conflict arises when we rely on the info from our stories rather than the facts of what actually happened. This can be understood by separating out what actually happened (observations) and what we think it means (interpretations).

As a practice of saucha, keep things simple. See if you can let what someone says, mean exactly what they say--try not to assign a story to it. If you just can't shake the story and you have bought into it fully, before you act on it, check in with the person to see if it's true and give them a chance to share more. When you do this, share your observations without the story and ask for more clarification if needed.

Santosha- Contentment, being at peace with oneself and others.

In Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication method there is a theory that behind every act of violence there is an unmet need. This may be a stretch to soak in intellectually, especially when considering the range of hostile, gruesome, and hate-filled acts that occur daily in our world. However if you allow yourself to peel back the layers of complexity of such situations, eventually at the core there is a basic human need that fuels the action of each of us, and no matter how unskillfully, or how violently we seek to meet those needs, what can give us hope in any conflict is that we all share those basic needs.

What is also true then is that through the practice of santosha we can lessen the impact that our behaviors may have in the creation of conflict. If it's true that most, if not all conflict arises in response to someone trying to get their needs met then it also is true that if we are content in our lives with what we already have then we are less likely to rely on others to have our needs met. So much conflict ensues because of hidden agendas and expectations that others should do something for us, or that rely on others to meet emotional and physical needs. Oftentimes we're not even aware that we are using people unconsciously to fulfill those needs.

Through consistent meditation and yoga we uncover these hidden drives and can choose to release them. We can choose to be centered and in love with the life we have. When we connect to the abundance we have and are grateful for it we rely less and less on others. When this happens it dramatically shifts our interactions with others and our relationships become more heart centered and rooted in integrity. People become less like pawns in our game to meet our needs, and more like companions in our life journey.

Tapas- Igniting the purifying flame

Every response is either a blessing or a blame. The former will bless you; the latter will boomerang back at you. If an attack thought enters your mind, surrender it to God rather than acting on it. Express to Him your willingness to see the situation differently. Your thoughts will then be purified, and you will respond from power instead of reacting from weakness. And thus we grow....Marianne Williamson

When we invite tapas into the picture, we invite a fire of purification. We release all attack thoughts and all thoughts that aim to horriblize the other get interrupted and transformed through a conscious heart alchemy.

A great practice to transform your thoughts about another person with whom you are in conflict with is to write out their positive qualities and all the things you appreciate about them. Think of a time in which they have been helpful to you, or another person. Then take 5 minutes to focus on your heart, breathe in and out from your heart, and bring to mind that person and think of all the things you appreciate about them practicing gratitude for what they have brought into the world that is positive and good.

Remember that if you hold on to negative feelings towards another, like anger or resentment it has negative impacts on your health and when you take time to cultivate positive energy and emotions for others it has a big impact on your immune system in positive way. So not only does it actually make you healthier, it will also transform how you approach your interactions with others. It shifts your energy from a heart at war, to one at peace. If you arm yourself up with all the "peace, love, and nonviolent techniques" and yet your heart is still at war it just won't work. The other person's B.S. meter will go off. If however you cultivate tapas and burn through the hard and complicated emotions that are triggering you and cultivate a heart at peace--it will shift the conflict.

Swadhyaya- Sacred study of the divine through scripture, nature, and introspection.

"You can't undo anything you've already done, but you can face up to it. You can tell the truth. You can seek forgiveness. And then let God do the rest.” ~Anonymous

One way to invite swadhyaya into the heart of conflict is to examine your role in the dispute. What if anything could you have done differently, what could the other person perceived as an attack from you? Being willing to examine your role and be accountable to the other person for anything you have done is going to support the process immensely. Often times after a conflict, once I have set aside my righteousness, I can find the ways in which I could have approached what I have said to others more skillfully, or with more compassion. It wasn’t necessarily that what I said was wrong, or untrue, but even truth needs to be tempered with compassion and heart and placed within the context of relationship. Take time to check in with yourself to see the ways in which the other could have possibly perceived you, center yourself in their shoes and discover what may have triggered their fear, defenses, or anger.

Beyond the current conflict you are in you can also take time to examine how you approach conflicts in general and through the insights you receive do the work you need to do to bring more clarity, openness, and care into your interactions so that you approach interactions with others with more mindfulness and integrity.

Ishwara-Pranidhana- Surrender to God Devi Joy states that dedication and devotion to the divine is key to unlocking our hearts. She continues with "When living with an open heart we see clearly as the pathways of our life unfold."

I have found myself in some conflicts in which no amount of planning or usage of a "technique" has seemed to do the trick. In fact some conflicts have been so overwhelming I simply tried to ignore them hoping that they would just go away, or handled them so poorly that the grew much larger than they needed too.

Albert Einstein said you cannot solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking that created them. Applying Ishwara-Pranidhana is to surrender the situation to the divine and ask for a change heart and thoughts. Say a prayer, or do a mediation in which you invite a miracle, healing, or forgiveness to enter into the situation. Invite possibility into the situation. If you stay focused on what went wrong, or what “they” did “to” you, it keeps you in the realm of the past. Ishwara-Pranidhana is opening up to something bigger and invites the broadening of perception and perspectives.

The Yoga of Conflict- Part 1

2011-12-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Having been immersed in conflict resolution studies as of late, I had been wondering if there were some ways to connect the time tested philosophies of Yoga to explore new angles to approaching conflict, or at least new lenses from which to see and understand conflict. For me, sometimes just a little twist on a concept or idea can awaken new pathways of understanding and make a practice come to life in a way it hadn't for me before. While I have so thoroughly enjoyed my conflict resolution studies, I wanted to see what Patanjali's Yoga Sutras could offer my reflections on how to communicate with others, especially in the heat of conflict. I am not approaching this process from a literal perspective, but rather what the concept inspires within me, allowing the principle to come to life in a way that can be applied to communication.

I want to note that I am working on some other writings right now related to conflict, including one titled the Heart of Conflict. For this article I am drawing on some of those larger works and plan to share the fuller versions of them when they are completed. For now, let's soak up the wisdom of the sutras.

Patanjali's Yoga Sustras are one of the most valued texts for yogis worldwide and is a foundation text for teachers and students of Yoga. I am using a translation by Nischala Joy Devi as it's one that I feel reflects a more heart centered interpretation (and it's one of the few translations by a woman). I most especially like her take on the Yamas and Niyamas (Guidelines for how we interact with the outer world and our inner world) and will be using those for an exploration into the yoga of speech. As Devi says, the Yamas and Niyamas, rather than being a list of dos and don'ts, are essentially, at a deeper level, a tribute to being- an affirmation of our divine nature. The point is not to beat oneself up if you cannot attain them in every moment, but rather to use these principles as a guide on your path to a more heart centered life.

To some degree or another we all enter into challenging daily interactions with others that provide us with monumental opportunities to engage with our deepest truth and integrity. And let’s face it - more often than not, we leave situations of conflict feeling an edgy tension - a feeling that if we had behaved differently, we may have had a different experience or outcome.

The truth is that every interaction, every word we speak, allows for either heart-engagement or heart-estrangement. It's easy to be accepting and compassionate when others behave how we wish or do what we want. But living in full integrity becomes truly interesting when others are not willing to do what we want or do not have the skill set to engage with us with a similar approach.

Engaging with others in full truth and integrity requires that we connect with the deepest reserves of compassion and understanding in ourselves. We can think of this as a heart-based approach to relating with others. Although we don’t often use the word ‘heart’ in association with relationships outside of our closest interpersonal ones, we can safely apply this language to any relationship we have. This is true because the primary relationship that drives this process is the relationship one has with one’s own heart. In this way, a heart-based approach using the Yamas and Niyamas can be used in the workplace, in organizations in which you’re engaged - even with complete strangers.

Let's begin with an exploration of how the Yamas can enhance our capacity to express the best of our heart when in conflict with others.

The five yamas are: Ahimsa. Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha.

Ahimsa: Reverance, love, compassion for all
This is the foundation from which all the others burst forth. If we could apply just one principle and see a shift in our interactions with others, it would be this one. All too often in our interactions we see guilt, rather than the innocence of another. This isn't to imply that the other has not caused harm on some level, what I am referring to is their essential nature. Connecting the spirit of Ahimsa is powerful work and requires that we dig deep to see the divinity in the other, the sacredness within them and then have reverence and awe for that energy within them. No matter what they have done if we choose to see their inherent goodness it shifts the conversation.

What is important to remember in these situations is that none of us are made up solely of our worst behaviors. One of the beauties of being human is that we have the capacity to change and grow. We are all capable of being reminded that we can make new choices in any interaction presented in order to bring forth a more generous and integrous version of ourselves. We can choose reconciliation over dehumanization. One important gateway to this experience is through compassion - which requires that we objectively (as much as we are able to) put ourselves in the other person’s shoes.

When we’re faced with a conflict with another person, we do not know the circumstances that brought them to this moment - we can only guess. But that curiosity is in fact the gateway to real compassion. If you find it difficult to easily enter into an empathetic space, being curious is the first key. You can try this with yourself. The next time you’re feeling like you’ve made a mistake, instead of jumping into judgement or criticism, ask instead - what could I have done differently, and why didn’t I do that? The answers may surprise you. When you’re curious, and you start to uncover the reasons for your actions, 9 times out of 10 you’re going to be instantly in touch with compassionate understanding.

You’ll need a healthy approach to self-compassion before you can extend that towards others, so don’t underestimate the power of working on your self first.

One simple way to start to engage compassionately with another person in conflict is to consider the phrase "just like me this person...", filling in the blank with what you think that person’s needs might be in the moment. This can ground you in the remembrance of some form of shared humanity - which is often completely inaccessible when someone is yelling at you! For example, you might think: just like me this person wants to be happy, or just like me this person wants to be secure, etc. When you become aware of that person’s full humanity, the likelihood of staying connected to your heart is high. And that connection is the key to maintaining the compassion that is essential for a heart connection.

If we see someone as an “other” - as a projection, or as a symbol of some idea - we dehumanize them, opening up the possibility that violence can occur. So in a moment of heated conversation your thoughts can either be judgemental: "this person is being completely unreasonable", or compassionate: "just like me this person wants to be respected".

There is an age-old philosophical debate about humanity’s inherent good vs. evil. But I believe strongly that few people wake up in the morning actually wishing to be a force for evil in the world. While many people do commit profound acts of evil, there is always hope (and much proof throughout history) that we can reform. We have amazing resilience and even the most troubled of us can be brought back from the brink of complete disconnection from our humanity.

If you were to sum this principle up it would be the willingness to hold back our condemnation and judgement of others and choose to see their fullest humanity, their sacredness, and speak to them from that place of reverence. Remembering they are more than what they have done in this moment or the past--they are connected to the source of all that is, just like you. Speak to that source within them and see if you notice any shifts in the conflict.

Satya- Truthfulness and integrity

When I think of satya one of the first things that comes to me is actually a spill over from ahimsa, which is the old Buddhist saying "First, do no harm". There are some who argue truth should always be spoken no matter what. To me, I argue that truth should always be tempered through the lens of ahimsa. There are ways in which we can say what we need to say without humiliating others, we can be both truthful and compassionate. Applying satya to our interactions with others means that we don't embellish what we have to say, but rather learn to be very specific and factual always speaking to others' behaviors without attacking who they are as a person and without blaming them (so rather than saying you made me feel this, it becomes "when this happened I felt this") it's a subtle shift but an important one.

Another way in which satya calls us to deeper reflection and awareness of our speech is through the way we share information with others. I am working on a longer piece right now on the topic of gossip, but for now I will leave you with this story from Socrates:

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.”

Triple filter?”

That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?” No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”

All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”

No, on the contrary…”

So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

This triple filter, which includes both satya and ahimsa is a good test of whether or not we should pass info on to others. One way to support conflict in ending is to stop fueling the fire.

Asteya: Generosity

Connecting to generosity in the heat of conflict is another one of the skills that is challenging to say the least. One way to do this is to shift gears from the win/lose mentality to a win/win heart focus. There may not be a path forward in which everyone's needs can be reasonably met in the conflict, but the willingness to entertain possibilities is what creates goodwill and flexibility. It's the openness that your generosity creates which fosters conduits for miracles to arise.

So rather than viewing the other/s in conflict as adversaries or opponents, there is a shift that occurs that extends in invitation to them to join you as a partner to cooperate to solve any given issue that is causing the conflict. So rather than, "I want to win", which means you have to lose, it becomes "I want to win, and I want you to win too."

In cases where win/win's are not possible, asteya invites us to explore authentic compromise as well. Is there an opportunity to provide avenues for as many of your needs to be met while giving up some of what you wanted that doesn't feel like you would resent what had happened or the other person for? Remember a true compromise won't leave you feeling like you truly "gave" something away, and if it is from a generous spirit committed to heart connection is becomes a choice that you made consciously to heal a rift in a relationship. When something feels like a gift, rather than something you had to do it makes a huge difference.

Another aspect of generosity/asteya is one of forgiveness. I am reminded of the quote In Matthew 18:21, 22, in which Peter asks Jesus “How many times shall I forgive my brother? Seven times? “ And Jesus says, ‘not seven times but seventy times seven’. This is often a reminder to be generous in our actions towards others. There is no cap on how often we should forgive others--no matter how many times they have missed the mark in our interactions. It doesn't mean not to hold others accountable, forgiveness is really an inner shift from which all we say and do manifests. There are two sayings that I have heard from Marianne Williamson (not sure of her source)which go "whatever you withhold will be witholded from you" and also "in any given situation whatever is lacking is what you are not willing to give". Be generous with your willingness to forgive others and notice the effects on you and the relationship.

Brahmacharya: Balance and moderation of the vital life force

Nothing can zap your life force or keep you stuck quite like conflict. When I think of bramacharya and it's applications to conflict I think of the idea of broadening perspectives, or stepping out side of the conflict to get a bigger view of what is really happening. I think to my own experiences and how very often how I react to others is usually not measured with what actually happened--meaning I react to what happened in way that is not proportionate.

So often in conflict we respond to others with what is called a fight or flight response. In some cases those strategies might be called for. Sometimes we do have to be fierce to prevent a greater harm from occurring and sometimes the smartest thing to do is to just walk away and say/do nothing. However, very often these two strategies are a default because conflict has either been festering too long without any action (except for the eating away of our life force from not saying anything) or has escalated to dangerous heights because we have said to much unskillfully (again when things have reached this point of extreme anger it has taken a toll on our health and energy).

Bramacharya is the willingness to find the middle path in conflict, the idea of neither fight or flight, but flow. Pema Chodron in her book Practicing Peace in a Time of War says that one way to broaden our perspective is to notice our habitual patterns of conflict and when we find ourselves beginning to step into that current again, remind ourselves of the typical outcome. If we want to have the same thing happen then by all means, stick with it, but if you want to open up to something fresh, something that maybe has a little bit more life affirming energy behind it, stop, pause, breathe, and choose again. It could even be as simple as saying in the moment of conflict- Let's start this over, I know that if we keep this up we'll end up fighting, I don't want that. Let's try again and see if we can focus on really hearing each other. Whatever the core issue is. You can always stop and get a fresher perspective. You, or everyone involved can walk up an imaginary set of stairs and look down so to speak and see if anything emerges from that new perch of awareness.

Aparigraha: Awareness of abundance, fulfillment

When I contemplated this one the thing that kept coming to me was appreciation and gratitude for what the situation and person had gifted to me from the interaction. So rather than think about the harm the person has done, or what they have taken from me, I shift my focus to what I can learn, what new information they have given to me about myself, and life itself, what opportunities that they may have opened up for me. I appreciate the conflict for the chance to become a better expression of the divine in this world.

I recognize that there are many ways to get my needs met, and that so many of my needs are already met. I do not need to have this specific set of circumstances unfold in the ways I think I want them to. I do not need this person to do as I think I need them to do. My mantra becomes "this or something better". So much of our suffering and that of others comes from the striving and desire for things to be other than they are or from a perceived lack of material and spiritual resources.

When I appreciate what I have already and have true gratitude for it. I find that my need to control outcomes and behaviors of others to meet my needs lessens.

I also know to be true that appreciation and gratitude towards others can help to invite healing into any relationship. Recently when I had a conflict with a friend, before I approached them about the issue I was having I knew I needed to tap into a more loving energy towards them. I wrote down all that I loved about them, what I truly appreciated about them and it immediately shifted how I felt about our conflict. I even shared with that person what I enjoyed about them and it created a moment of true care and compassion, which I feel supported a more heart centered outcome for our conversation. I encourage you to do this with others when they vent to you about someone they are in conflict with (once you have fully heard them out) ask them to think of things that they like about the other person, or times in which they have done the right thing, or even qualities that they appreciate. When we recognize the abundance of gifts and resources that everyone has, even when we are in conflict with them we discover possible tools to draw from to help heal the relationship too.

Next week we will continue with an examination of the Niyamas.

What are you open to?

2011-12-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

The poet Rumi is the source of inspiration for my practice and teaching this week. He says “Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”

I've been thinking this week about the ways in which I open and close within in my practice and life in everything from people who I engage with, ideas, poses, practices, breath, thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc..

I've also been thinking a lot about when I need to be strong, or bring more effort into my practice or life situations, and also when I need to soften, or yield.

I've been mindful to not judge what I am observing, but taking care to reflect on if what I am doing is serving me, or holding me back from experiences and interactions that would serve me better.

To me Hatha yoga is a vehicle for greater depths of understanding within my own psyche and heart. It's a practice of mindfulness meditation, but also of awakening to what is true and alive in the present moment and working consciously with what arises.

So in practice, to help the words of Rumi come to life more fully for me and students, I have connected the principles of muscle and organic energy along with inner and outer spiral to the theme of cultivating balance. Taking those principles and discovering within to what degree those principles can be invoked to bring balanced action within the moment. For me it's been interesting to observe what postures I soften too much in, and also the ones in which I "muscle" through. I even had a fresh observation in my cobra pose when I was practicing yesterday in which I realized I was over doing my skull loop.

It has also been interesting to observe my students bodies in class and to see common themes of where many people soften too much (see this great down dog tutorial by my teacher des which shows too much softness, and then how to bring balanced action), or are too strong, and also the little nuances that each of us bring, our little challenges and also the beauty of balance within so many and how balanced action is different for everyone (and that's why bodies look so different in poses).

Rumi's words have supported me in a friendly heart-opened way to see things as they are and to notice where there is already balance, what is needed to bring balance, and also to remember that balance is like birds' wings, or like breath--changing moment to moment. Remembering that what brought balance yesterday, may not tomorrow, or even in the next moment. It's a continual process of reflection, action, reflection and so on. In this way, nothing is ever static, everything is always pulsing, alive, and moving bringing us, if we so choose, into greater depths of being in the moment.

Have a great week!

Opening up to grace

2011-12-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

This week I am focusing my practice and teachings on the Anusara alignment principle of opening up to grace. This principle is the first of 5 main alignment steps in the Anusara system, the other steps are: Muscular Energy, Inner Spiral, Outer Spiral, and Organic Energy. You can learn more about the other steps in an earlier blog post I did here

For now, I'd like to focus on opening up to grace, as I am finding its meaning and relevance for my practice and life so powerful right now. To me, opening up to grace is the perfect way to begin practice. It's an opportunity to remember to connect and commit to something bigger, not outside of you, but something powerful within. I think of it as connecting to the current and spirit of life-that which sustains, uplifts, nurtures, and guides us if we allow it to. To me, that's ultimately the gift of practice to help support us in aligning with the current and flow of life.

This week as I practice I am noticing the ways in which I contract and expand, open and close, and resist the flow on and off the mat. I am taking time to observe when I need to be strong and when I can be soft and soften. I am noticing when I am forcing or flowing, or when I am flowing without integrity or stability. Paying this much attention can be difficult without first opening up to that vast spaciousness of grace.

Here is a little practice you can do to try this week to support you in opening up to grace. First, come to Tadasana, Mountain pose. Begin by noticing how your body is receiving your inhales. Notice where breath moves easily and freely, and then also notice where there is tightness or heaviness. Gradually begin to grow your breath intentionally supporting and guiding it into the tight places that need it. Continue to nourish the body for a good 2 min with this focused intentional breathing.

Now open to grace. Soften everywhere and allow breath to fill that softness with powerful awareness. Channel that alertness from the ground up to your pelvic floor, heart and then all the way to the crown of you head. Notice where breath is flowing with that awakened energy. Sometimes we open only to the areas that we know well, leaving those areas that are hard to connect with "out of the flow". Check to see if your breath only in the front of the body, is all the awareness there? Open to grace and feel a sense of your full inner body growing in all areas. Feel the breath awaken the sides of the body long so that the shoulders are buoyant and the armpits are more hollow. Breathe attentively into the lower and mid back feeling the kidneys awaken with buoyancy and lift (and the sides of the waist draw back slightly)- almost as if bowing into that source of grace. Savor this, and then soften the skin and the muscles around the fullness of your bright inner body. You are supported from the inside out. Allow each inhale to make the inner body brighter, and each exhale wrap the outer body gently around the support and radiance of your inner body. Repeat this in every pose--before you put your effort into creating a shape, soften, grow from the inside first, then move into the the more active stages of alignment to refine the creation that grace began. See what shifts open up for you as you open up to grace.

Peace,

Michael

Being Fixed

2011-12-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

As I have continued my journey in my conflict resolution class I can't help but draw parallels with my yoga practice. One issue that I have been mentally chewing on is the idea of being fixed in my positions and beliefs and the ways in which it limits my ability to have new insights and experiences.

I have been bringing a new level of awareness into my conversations with others and noticing the ways in which my fixed ideas of right/wrong, should/shouldn't come out and the ways in which it impacts the quality of the conversation or interaction. I notice when others back down when fixed positions shine through me, or when others present or react with their own fixedness, and the ways in which dialog shifts to debate or silence when fixedness emerges.

I notice my fixed qualities in yoga when I take another teacher's class, attend a workshop, read a yoga book or article and the thoughts pop up--"well that's not true", or "that isn't good sequencing" or the best one "that's not how I would have said it, or done it". Does that sound familiar to you? What ways does fixedness emerge within your own yoga practice or teaching? Has your fixedness ever prevented you from trying a new technique of coming into a pose? Have you ever tightened up more in a pose in resistance to a teacher's adjustment? Have you as a teacher forced a student into a shape (outside of safety reasons) because you had a fixed idea of what they should look like or be capable of? Have you ever found yourself saying things like "Well the correct way to do this is..."

I'm not saying that there are no "right" or "wrongs" in yoga. And it's true as well that all of us have accumulated years of personal experience of what works well for our body too. There is however plenty that falls outside of the realm of "right/wrong" in which all of us fall into the fixedness trap. For example, ask any yoga teacher how to practice Triangle pose, when to practice inversions in the practice, which pranayama practices are OK for beginners, what should be taught to beginners, should music be played during class, should Sanskrit even be used unless you can pronounce it correctly, etc..

All of those issue are ones that have been talked about and debated in many circles and even in many conversations I have had with teachers, students, and others. Notice how when you read that your own positions came up. Did any of them feel tight, hot, fixed? I know my fixedness sure came up.

As I was thinking about all of this and about how fixedness prevents us from new experiences, new ways and opportunities of interacting with others and our practice, I was reminded of a teaching from Buddhism described clearly by Pema Chodron.

She writes "When you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha" which means that when you see that you're clinging or grasping to anything, whether conventionally it's called good or bad, make friends with that. Look into it. Get to know it completely and utterly. In that way it will let go of itself.

She then shares a story to illustrate the conflict that ensue when we become fixed in our positions: There was a god who knew how men and women love to believe things to be true and make clubs and religions and political systems with the people who agree with them. They just love to make something out of nothing and then write its name on a big banner and march down the street waving it and yelling and screaming, only to have people who believe the opposite come toward them with their banner, yelling and screaming. This god decided to try to prove a point about the human condition so that people might, in seeing the absurdity of it, have a good laugh. (A good laugh is the best way to kill the Buddha.) He constructed a big hat divided right down the middle, the left side of which was brilliant blue and the right side flaming red. Then he went to a place where many people were working in the fields on the left side of a road and many other people were working in the fields on the right side of the road. There the god manifested in all his glory; no one could miss him. Big and radiant, wearing his hat, he walked straight down the road. All the people on the right side of the road dropped their hoes and looked up at this god; all the people on the left side of the road did the same. Everybody was amazed. Then he disappeared. Everyone shouted, "We saw God! We saw God!" They were all full of joy, until someone on the left said, "There he was in all his radiance and in his red hat!" And people on the right said, "No, he had on a blue hat." This disagreement escalated until the people built walls and began to throw stones at each other. Then the god appeared again. This time he walked in the other direction and then disappeared. Now all the people looked at each other and the ones on the right said, "Ah, you were right, he did have on a red hat. We're so sorry, we just saw incorrectly. You were right and we were wrong." The ones on the other side said, "No, no. You were right. We were wrong." At this point they didn't know whether to fight or to make friends. Most of them were completely puzzled by the situation. Then the god appeared again. This time he stood in the middle and he turned to the left and then he turned around to the right, and everyone started to laugh.

This week, notice which practices you cling to, the ways in which you're fixed, and the ways in which the beliefs you cling to prevent you from opening up to something new, whether it be a relationship, pose, experience, or an idea. Ask yourself when you notice this quality of fixedness, in what ways has it served you in the past, or currently, and in what ways has it held you back? Also, when you are locked in a conversation with another in which their fixed position has either triggered silence or aggression within you, pause and remember the insights from your own questioning process and have compassion for them too. Remember anytime we are fixed, unless we examine it with compassion or spaciousness, we will tighten our grip on that issue even more--same can be true with others as well.

I'll leave you with a quote that can help your inquiry process this week:

‎"The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there's no ground." - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Have a wonderful week!

In The Flow

2011-11-23T10:02:00.001-08:00

I'm currently taking an online class in conflict resolution from the Australian based Conflict Resolution Network. In one of the first class modules I worked on, the concept of Fight, Flight, and Flow was introduced as a model for how many of us respond to conflicts within our lives.

I was struck by how much the model resonated with me not only with the conflicts that manifest in my interpersonal relationships, but also the internal conflicts that I have on the mat within my yoga practice. The model assumes that in any given situation in which conflict arises we are faced with how we will respond (better yet, will we react, or respond). Our options are to either escalate the conflict by engaging in fight mode, which invites aggression and resistance into the conflict. We can also react with a flight response, which means we don't engage with the conflict at all inviting passivity and apathy into the conflict. The third way, or response, which invites creativity into the conflict is flow. Flow is the approach in which we shift our mindset from "Ugh, another conflict, not this again" to "Ah, conflict, what an opportunity!"

For me I pondered how this plays out within my own practice when challenges come my way--how do I respond, with fight, flight, or flow? I took time to explore what each of these could look like and encourage you to explore the ways in which you fight, flight, or flow within your own practice too.

Fight mode in practice is when we let aggression take over. It can begin when we start to enter into poses we know we are not ready for, simply because we're trying to prove we can even when we know the modification would be better for where we are in the moment. It can be forcing our body to do things too early, or when we're too tired in the practice. It can also be the "should" voice in which rather than deeply listening to the rhythm within, we "should" on ourselves and do things in our practice that aren't truly good for us in the moment. For me, it's also inflaming the voices in my head that I call the "I suck" mode--the voice that says that anything I do is not good enough and which seeks perfection rather than opening up to and accepting "what is" about this moment. What are some of the other ways fight mode can manifest?

Flight mode manifests as the resistance to doing poses we don't "like" and not putting our fullest into co-creation with the breath and pose. It happens when we stop paying attention to our breath and focus on trivial things (like in pigeon pose playing with your toes rather than being in the experience of the pose). It's the convenient excuse to go to the restroom when practice hits an important peak, or when you are asked to try something new, or something you find challenging. What are ways that flight has manifested for you in your practice?

Flow mode is that space of bravery, of being willing to come face to face with the challenge and engage with it in a co-creative dance. It's the response, "oh this again, how fascinating." It's the spark of curiosity that opens up pathways of connection and beauty in practice. It's a state of being open and the willingness to be opened. What ways has flow manifested for you?

Thinking about all the ways to respond to challenges in your practice, do you notice any patterns for yourself? For me, I am reminded of the quote from A Course in Miracles which says a miracle is just a shift in perception. To enter flow mode all that has to change is our thoughts about the situation. The shift from, "oh this again" to "Oh! This again, what an opportunity" is huge.

Blessings to all of you!

It's always there.

2011-11-12T16:12:00.000-08:00

Rolling out my yoga mat has taken on new significance for me this week. I have been wonderfully reminded every morning as I have practiced that no matter how we change or what we have been through, the practice is always there ready to engage with us in co-creative partnership.

What a relief to have this experience, or remembering, after what felt like a long, and quite frankly, lonely exile from a relationship that had meant so much to me over the years. For the last few years, as I exited my role as a yoga teacher, my own physical yoga practice had changed quite dramatically. What was once a tool for deep and profound physical, mental, and spiritual exploration had become over the last two years a symbol of what my life once was. Every time I practiced, it was tinged with complex feelings that kept me wrapped up in the head and far removed from my heart. I had built up quite a challenging relationship with my practice and with my identification with the larger yoga community. My asana practice had become spotty and irregular, and when it had occurred I did not bring to it the same enthusiasm I once had. I was stuck in an old way of being and not quite ready to move on, and not sure even what that meant.

Additionally, having moved around so much in the last six years I had cultivated and created many wonderful relationships with several yoga communities. I made many friends, taught alongside many great and inspiring teachers, and had several incredible heart opening connections with students. One blessing from all of that is that anytime I need to be reminded of the ONE, I reflect on all of those whose lives touched mine, and whose lives I was lucky to touch. That being said, all that moving also prevented me from having long lasting and deeply rooted connections anywhere, and by the time I had moved to Portland and was no longer teaching, I had no physical sangha (community) with which I could connect with during this time of transition.

I found myself in an awkward place. Practice and engagement with yoga had lost the meaning I once had for it. What a crises. Initially I responded to the crises with indifference, and then resentment, and then eventually acceptance. I finally came to a place where I was ok with where I was both with my practice (which was spotty) and with my relationship with the larger yoga community (absent)...or so I thought....

It was clear to me, more than two years ago, that I was quickly becoming burned out from teaching and that my body was revolting from the practice as I had been executing it. I had become psychologically and emotionally drained and rather than take a break and regroup--I kept pushing the limits and one day stopped doing everything. A wall was created that I could no longer climb over.

For those who have followed this blog in the past, or who don't know my story, a short synopsis is that after five years of teaching yoga I stopped to go back into social work. For some reason I felt as if I was not doing enough to bring peace to the world, or to address social injustices. I felt that I could, and had to do more. What I have come to discover is that it was a false choice. I don't regret my decision fully, because I certainly learned so much from my time being back in the social work arena. Never had I been tested in all my life to deeply explore the values that I claimed to live by. I had to learn forgiveness, nonviolence, compassion, resiliency, and accountability in ways that I never could through the path I was on. I had to apply those principles in complex, confusing, and heart-breaking situations both with myself and with others. I am certainly a more awake and aware and better human being for the experience, but it's only in the last few months that I have come to see it that way.

For the first time in more than two years there is a bubbling forth of creative life affirming energy inside me. There is a growing yes where for so long there was a no. I don't think I am quite out of my cocoon quite yet, and I am not even sure what is waiting to fly out once free, but I do feel the spark and at last I am ready to co-create again. I can't wait to share some the plans I have for new projects once they are more fully developed.

What I can say for now is how amazing it is that we have this ancient, time tested practice that is always there for us, ready to meet us where we are, should we choose to enter into conscious relationship with it. As I roll out my mat this week, it is with more reverence, excitement, gratitude, and humbleness of the many gifts it has given to me and the gifts it has allowed me to provide to others.

The practice is always there for us, no matter what, and if we allow it to, it will change us too.

In gratitude always,

Michael

2010 The Year Of Service

2010-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I attended a service led by Marianne Williamson at the Church of Today in Warren MI, and she said, “So many of our prayers directed at God begin… ‘God look at the world and the mess it’s in — look at the violence, the hunger, the wars, the injustices, the corruption, etc... God where are you? DO SOMETHING!’ and at the same time we are shouting at God, God is saying to us ‘Kids look at the world and the mess it’s in — look at the violence, the hunger, the wars, the injustices, the corruption, etc, Kids where are you, DO SOMETHING."

While I don't think of God as a paternalistic concept, the sentiment of that story still resonates with me. I have long felt that any work we do on ourselves ultimately impacts the world because as WE change, the world changes. As we dive deeply into practices that help to mold us into more spacious and compassionate people, that compassion is hopefully spilling out into our lives and touching everyone we meet.

I understand too that we are all works-in-progress and that many of us are focused more on improving our Selves and may not have a conscious intention of being of service to our community. And perhaps that's justified somewhat, because we are healing, or we are "filling our own cup" so that eventually we DO have something to give. But I have noticed that in some spiritual and yoga communities that while a lot of the work that goes on within the walls of the centers and in the hearts of the participants is deep and profound, what happens as an extension of that work seems disconnected. It's like all the love and compassion that is being generated is being held in - experienced only by the Self - rather than radically being gifted through service to all in our communities and world.

I want to be sure to not discount some really great work that I have seen. For example I have some friends in Detroit who run a studio that is active in the peace movement and environmental sustainability and they provide many avenues for their students to get involved in that work. I also have a friend in Houston who is creating a nonprofit organization through her studio that will be helping people with cancer. And I know of a yoga organization in Portland that teaches yoga to kids living on the street as way to help them cope with the conditions they face everyday. There are some examples of this work beginning to happen in the U.S.--but it is only beginning to scratch the surface of the need for service work that exists.

I would love to see a mass movement led by yogis across the world that shifts our focus from just working on ourselves to seeking avenues with which we can work to heal our world and all who travel on it with us. Some actions that are happening now that attempt to do this are events such as the Global Mala, and fundraising activities for nonprofits such as Yoga-a-thons. However even these activities are limited in what they can do, because while they provide issue-awareness, fundraising, and a way for people to connect to a cause, my experience is that they don't always spur long-term action in the community. Perhaps organizers of such events could inspire more long term action--such as having representatives from the local peace group present to sign people up for continued action and to inform people of tangible steps they can take to make change happen now. However, I feel that what currently happens is that these types of events only serve to function as superficial actions - making us feel like we're doing something but in reality we're really just putting on a show that makes us feel good but does nothing to advance the very cause we set out to help.

If we re-frame our actions, our focus could be on choosing an issue that we can work on long-term LOCALLY (think globally, act locally). If actions like yoga-a-thon can channel people into tangible social movements for justice - then great! But if not, let's stop doing them and instead create pathways for our yoga studios and communities to advance a LOCAL cause for long-term good. Just throwing our money at an issue is not going to create the kind of deep systemic change that we need. Most of the issues of our time that we are facing off against will find our "enemies" out- funding us anyway. The one thing we DO have that can turn the tides is the potential for mass people power to fuel a local action-oriented revolution and we must begin now to find ways to channel that resource!

You may not be a part of yoga or spiritual center that already has a culture of service to the community but that doesn't mean you can't be a part of creating it. I had a teacher once who at every class brought vegan treats to share at the end of class and who shared vegan recipes with her students. She also planned service trips and events at least once a month for her students and eventually created a culture of service through her efforts. If you teach your students there is more to yoga than what is on the mat, they will learn it just like they learn how to do down dog. Remember we are all responsible for creating a new world. Peaceful and just communities don't just show up--they are built one conversation and one relationship at a time.

If you are a student and there is not a community driven focus at your studio, then ask to meet with the owner to discuss the potential to have such events. Sometimes the only thing lacking is someone willing to take on such projects. Remember too, that these things can start off small and then grow over time into much larger events and projects. I recommend just sticking to one issue at first and seeing how deep you can go with it. People want to be able to get a sense that their work is contributing to lasting change and that can be hard to offer when the energy of the group is diluted and working on multiple projects and issues.

It can become overwhelming to choose just one issue to work on - especially with the apparent mess we are in, but that is all the more reason to choose. Don't let the act of choosing paralyze you into non-action. What you put your energy into does matter. If you are meditating and doing a spiritual practice and think that is all you have to do to make the world a better place you are only working with half of the equation. I am a big fan of the AA quote "It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking then it is to think your way into a new way of acting". So no matter what our reason for action, action is in many cases the path that will take us where we need to be. And by giving of yourself in service to the world, you will find yourself in every interaction closer to the truths you have been seeking on the mat or the cushion.

I feel that the beauty of our work on the mat is that it creates the conditions for us to become powerful change agents capable of performing greater acts of compassion and love than what we could do without the knowledge and strength we have tapped into through practice. A favorite quote of mine from Albert Einstein speaks to this quite poetically: “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.”

Not only can we bring a larger perspective to the issues of our times but we have within our tool box a practice that renews us and allows us to recharge and come back to do social change work without depleting ourselves, which too often happens. When we are depleted and burnt out the work is uninspiring and the issues at hand become too daunting.

I have many friends engaged in service who all too often get down and believe that they are not doing enough. I can only hold space and bear witness to their feelings of being overwhelmed, while providing encouragement that every little bit helps. I have a friend who runs a goat rescue (on top of her own photography business and faculty position at a community college) who has often asked if what she is doing matters and my reply was that it does to the more than 800 goats that she has provided sanctuary for. Not only have the goats benefited, but countless others whose lives have been enriched because they have volunteered with the rescue and those who have allowed a new creature into their lives. On one occasion when I was at the rescue I bore witness to one of the goats dying, a new one who had only been there for ten days. The situation felt pretty helpless and futile and brought up some of the doubts my friend had been feeling. Even in this case I argue that her efforts for that goat were worth it, for in that ten days that the goat was in her care it received more love, attention, and care than in any time of its life and that is what counts. Anything we do that extends compassion, care, and grace into the world is what takes us closer to living in a world that reflects the greatest expression of our heart's potential. Love is fuel for humanity's spiritual evolution--thankfully it is renewable and potentially available in mass quantities.

I leave you this quote by John Robbins:

"The choices that we make today as to the way we treat each other, the way we raise our children, the kinds of families and communities we create, will determine how the future unfolds. If we treat each other one way, we can cultivate people driven by a death urge, who are despondent and mean. If we treat each other another way, if we encourage and uphold our essential goodness and capacity for loving connection, we can nurture a society of people who are healthy and whole and whose lives will bring healing, peace, and joy to those they touch.

I believe that the real news on this planet is love—why it exists, where it came from, and where it is going. I believe that ultimately it is the love in our lives that underlies and makes possible our greatest healing and longevity.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all have a choice to be either accomplices in the status quo or everyday revolutionaries. We have a choice whether to succumb to the cultural trance, eat fast food, and race by each other in the night, or to build lives of caring, substance, and healing. So much depends on that choice."

My friends, as 2010 is upon us, I encourage you to dig deep within yourself and commit this year to service. I have a feeling the world is going to need all you can give!

The sweetness of life

2009-12-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

There is a story of a woman who is being chased by tigers. She is running as fast as she can, trying to escape the deathly interaction with these ferocious beasts. She arrives to the edge of a cliff and the tigers are quickly approaching. She has no choice but to climb down the edge of the cliff—or face certain doom. As she leaps she grabs onto a vine, and yet she still hears the tigers that she thought she had out smarted. She looks down and sees many more tigers down below her. As she grabs more tightly to the rope she looks up and sees that the tigers above have caught back up to her swatting their paws in hunger in her direction. The tigers above and below are relentless and determined for certain victory. As she grips with (literally) all that is happening she notices a mouse gnawing away at the vine she is holding and seeing that he is only moments before eating all the way through the vine. Out of the corner of her eye she sees to her side a patch of green and a juicy sweet strawberry within reach. She looks up, she looks down, she looks at the mouse, and reaches for sweet delight and eats the strawberry enjoying it thoroughly. —My adaptation of an old eastern tale

Life is so vast and complex from moment to moment. Challenges arise within us and around us all the time and yet we are to live our life in the face of all of these experiences. We are asked to live bravely and couragously in the midst of all that comes our way. The root of courage, cour, means heart—and so we are asked to climb and navigate the mountains of life from our heart.

There will always be lions chasing us (challenges) there will always be the vine (security, attachments) that we think we can hold onto and the reminder (mouse) that we cannot hold onto anything. Most importantly there is love (the strawberry) always within reach and there to keep enough sweetness present to ground us, heal us, and keep us fresh and awake in our lives.

It is this sweetness that allows us to persevere and to step into life boldly knowing that it is why we are here. Life is sweet and precious and we must continue to light a path for ourselves and all others who wish to find and taste the sweetness.

God has written a thousand promises all over your heart
That say, Life, life, life is far too sacred to ever end.--Rumi

The Lotus Within-Out of the mud and into the light

2009-09-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

Make friends with your breath, make friends with your body. Little by little by little, make friends with what's arising. Keep the awareness intense and a little more intense. And pretty soon, by familiarity, fear retreats.-- Norman Fischer

The journey into inspired living and open hearted awareness is one that can be filled with challenges. As soon as we have our sights set on living a life of love and care, we come face to face with the heaviness of the mud that has been covering us for so long. Often times, we allow ourselves to get dragged back down by the weight of the mud, which prevents us from the fullest blossom of beauty that we could be. We must learn to go deep and practice creating space with our “stuff” and from the spaciousness, arise like the lotus flower, out of the mud and into the light.

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.- Joseph Campbell

The deeper we get on our journey the more muddy we realize we are. What’s even more fascinating is that just as we arrive at the moment where we think we are about to bloom and feel the light of the sun soak our petals, we fall face first back into the pool of mud because the touch of the first ray is so foreign, and while the mud is dirty it appears to be more comfortable than the embrace of the sun's rays.

I compare this experience to experiments that have been done with animals in captivity, who after being tortured into staying in their cages, when they try to leave, no longer try to leave because even though they are free now, they have been conditioned to believe that trying is futile (or worse will lead to torture).

Sometimes we don’t blossom, quite frankly, because we have forgotten the will and the power to bloom. Sometimes the mud, while disgusting, is still more comfortable than the uncertainty of the light.

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.~Joseph Campbell

When we are ready to make the courageous choice to open to the light and affirm it as our life giving energy that feeds us so that we may feed it right back we then open to the treasure and gift of life. It is because we have been so muddy and have been weighed down by the dark that we can with strength and radiance shine out with beauty.

Those who have dealt with dark yet have chosen the light have a depth and truth about them that cannot be mistaken. Those who constantly go to the well of love to quench their thirst have a fountain within themselves from which others may drink freely. We must remember we are not born a blossomed lotus, but that we grow into it and we must pass through the mud to get there.

Knowing this how do we uncover the mud? Quite simply we feel it and then from noticing it, quite literally shake it off. It can only be shaken off while it’s still wet though—if we let the mud dry up and harden it remains with us.
Eckhart Tolle’s, "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose" tells a story of the Duck with the Human Mind. He observes that after two ducks get into a fight, which never lasts long, they will separate and float off in opposite directions. Then each duck will flap its wings vigorously a few times, thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight. After they flap their wings, they float on peacefully, as if nothing had ever happened.
He points out that if the duck had a human mind, it would keep the fight alive by thinking, by story-making. This would probably be the duck’s story: "I don’t believe what he just did. He came to within five inches of me. He thinks he owns this pond. He has no consideration for my private space. I’m not going to stand for this. I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t forget. And on and on."
So literally like a duck we must shake the mud off us before it hardens into the never ending story. Whether it’s an external fight, or and internal fight—mud is mud—energy is energy—shake it off and shake it loose—and move on.

May you bloom beautifully!

Transition

2009-09-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me how quickly bad habits and behaviors can quickly slip back into everyday usage if we are not paying attention. The good news for me is that I have recognized my own slippage and am fully committed to bringing myself back on track. As I began my new job just over a month ago, I came in full of hope and excitement about contributing my talents to an organization that I thought was doing good for the local community, and the world. Within a week I quickly learned that the organization had some quirks and conflicts, and I chose to remain neutral and observe before reacting in any way. Then at about my two week mark, I chose sides completely missing an opportunity to bring peace, reconciliation, and love--of which I now commit to bringing again.

Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one. --Marianne Williamson

This is always a comfort to me, and is something I think we all need to deeply understand. Whatever is lacking in any situation is what we are not personally willing to give. That is a deep metaphysical truth. We can always use the excuse-- "But they won't let me shine" which comes in many forms, yet it is truly our own lack of clarity and commitment that dims our light. No one else can take anything from you without your permission. If we are committed to a life of love and compassion then the only way to experience it is to live it in every moment. As we live it, it is reflected back to us in every interaction. This is where it can get tricky. If you are walking into a situation such as the one I recently walked into, where love and compassion are lacking, then what is reflected is the call to love. In fact there could be hostility, fear, manipulation, and everything unloving and evil that you can think of. The task then is not to respond from the place of attack, but to dig deeper and remember that love first must meet everything unloving and unjust in order to fully know itself as love. How deep would it be to say we are loving people and live a life in which you never faced off with the cold dark piercing gaze of evil looking you square in the eyes? Love that has faced off against and touched the dark is way more powerful than an empty conviction. The empty conviction quickly flees when the evil strikes, the love that has rooted it's heels down and met evil's glance with grace, is the love that transforms fear, through divine alchemy, into love.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Carl Jung

So I must move forward, and we all must move forward, remembering not to meet dark with dark (although that seems like the easiest thing to do) but remember that all forms of attack are a call to love and that if we are committed to love--then that act of commitment is met with a universal challenge. If you commit to love the universe will put you face to face to with all that is unloving--so that you can help love spread on this planet and forever remove the stale dark force of fear.

I extend my love and gratitude to all of you! Love fiercely and deeply!

Loving What Is

2009-08-01T06:07:00.001-07:00

“Through practice, I’ve come to see that the deepest source of my misery is not wanting things to be the way they are. Not wanting myself to be the way I am. Not wanting the world to be the way it is. Not wanting others to be the way they are. Whenever I’m suffering, I find this ‘war with reality’ to be at the heart of the problem.” Stephen Cope

Making peace with our practice is one of the most challenging aspects of physical yoga. If we approach yoga with the premise that we are not already whole as we are, we run the risk of doing more harm than good. If there is even a hint of aggression based in a desire to overcome what we cannot accept, we run the risk of forcing or controlling to achieve a goal, rather than being with and allowing the journey to unfold in peaceful and loving ways.

This idea runs counter to the cultural programming we are bombarded with daily. While we have tremendous freedom in this country, we relinquish a piece of it with our obsession with consumption. Capitalism itself is not to blame. But when the common good is eclipsed by the desire for the dollar, the system becomes the problem. Capitalism gone bad successfully convinces us we are not happy or whole in order to sell its products. In order to be, we have to have, and in order to matter, we must consume.

Nowhere is this tactic more convincing than in the health and beauty market. There assumption is that there is always a way to improve your diet and to "look your best." We're constantly introduced to new fitness trends that make unattainable promises. “Want to get rid of your wrinkles?—here’s a new cream." Advertising preys on our insecurities and our fears of aging. Name the fear and this multi-billion dollar industry has the remedy. Many of us buy into the myths and the stories of how we are “supposed to be” and in weaker moments of self-delusion, gladly consume these products without question.

The practice of yoga can begin to chip away at these stories and reveal a deeper essence - something that exists beyond the control of the advertising industry. As we shed the layers of misinformation and misidentification we are brought closer to the revelation that sits at our core - and the true self that resides there. The truth is that we do not need anything external to define what happiness or beauty means—happiness and beauty are available to us free of charge. Any authentic expression of happiness and beauty first came from within— it has never been the other way around.

Certainly external sources can enhance life experiences, but only if they accentuate the deep reservoir of unshakable truth that where we are, who we are, and what we are, is good. A practice born from the truth that we are intrinsically good takes flight, where one based on fear or hatred towards the body or life itself, can only crash and burn.

Most injuries in yoga, from my experience, take one of the following forms:

The practice of trying to achieve something before we are truly ready (because we feel it has to be a certain way)
Rushing to catch up with others when our pace is really slower
Becoming angry and frustrated and losing our breath and focus
Coming out of a pose too quickly, thereby losing our concentration and connection with the alchemical process

Each of these demonstrates a misplaced purpose of practice, often with aggression the pesky epicenter.

As you deepen your practice, or if even you’re new, check in and discover what your motivation for practice really is. Do you think that who are in this moment is sufficient? Can you love “what is” about your weight, your body, your life? Whatever your answer, this is good work, because the yoga, the movement towards life, demands that you love what is, exactly AS it is. It is only then that true alchemy - change and transformation - can occur. If we choose to practice without such awareness, we will have experiences that keep digging up more of what is buried, until we work with it and come to acceptance. We need this experience to truly rise and grow.

My own experience may illuminate this. Through my practice, often revealed during the simple direct moments of physical yoga, I became aware of some internalized core values that were based on input from outside myself. I realized that I had based my own worth as a human on things I had learned to believe about myself based on the childhood messages I picked up from peers, family, and religion. To this day as I come to greater acceptance of who I am—I bump up against these messages of fear, hate, and disdain towards myself and about myself. Every time I get conscious of one of these old messages I try to love them and accept them. And the miracle is that as I do, they disappear. I have to maintain a constant state of vigilance or the negative thoughts plant new seeds that grow into dark realities of self loathing. The sweetest moments in my life have been the moments from which I have consciously shifted from fear to love and remembered who I am by letting go of who I am not. There is nothing in me that can be held back or limited in any way if I remember that my truest source of life is love and that this supply of love is unlimited, vast, and eternal. While the vessels of love may change, love never does.

Loving what is paves a pathway for loving action. Loving action provides the gateway for evolution. We cannot grow until we accept. We cannot move on until we work with what is. The sickness on this planet right now and the preoccupation with what we don’t have, and who we are not, saddens me. We could be agents of celebration and poets of praise for how much we do have and how great we really are. We could learn the truth that we are miracles unfolding into more miracles.

So what can we do practically to achieve this understanding? I suggest beginning each day with an affirmation. Choose anything that affirms your inherent worth simply because you are. Be creative, but don't worry about getting it "right." Here is a mantra that may get you started: “Sat Nam,” which simply means “I am truth”.

Yoga teachings can seem to send out mixed messages. On one hand we learn about the transformative powers of practice—then on the other hand, we learn about acceptance and loving what is. The truth, like all things, is multi-faceted. What yoga is asking of us is to open to life, whereas so many of us are trapped in a cycle of death and attention to what is wrong or bad. When I speak of change or transformation I'm speaking of the return to a state of oneness. Yoga invites us into this awareness, this very real state of consciousness. In reality we advocate acceptance so that there is space to glimpse essence. Once we are conscious of our deeper essence, we can open to the transformational processes of spirit which may lead us back the oneness from which everything occurs. When we find ourselves in that familiar place, where we push and tug, trying to force ourselves to change, we must remember that we can't get to that enlightening state of oneness through force, control, or aggression. By its very nature, the doorway to enlightenment can only be entered by allowing ourselves to be a vessel in which life moves through without obstruction.

I am reminded of the quote “Just as the caterpillar thought the world was ending it turned into a butterfly”. The cycle of life and our acceptance of it, paves the way for transformation. We ride on the waves of life movements and we become conscious navigators of life’s flow.

Then it’s not about trying to be, but simply about being.

“These days, my practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven’t turned out as I planned, in my body and in my life – for the ways things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It’s less about fixing things, and more about learning to be present for exactly what is.” Anne Cushman

The Joy of Discovery

2009-07-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have heard before that there are two main reasons to practice Hatha Yoga:

1. To celebrate life
2. To create spaciousness and open hearted awareness

Knowing this then allows for all of us to be free from anything else that detracts from the intent of the practice. It is not about sticking our leg behind our head (unless trying that makes you smile and brings about a celebratory experience), or accomplishing a set of poses. At the end of the day we are not a good yogi because we can stand on our hands or heads—but because we live from the heart and extend the joy of our “heart fire” into the world.

A yoga practice revolved around seeking perfection, and that weaves together nuances just for the sake of nuance, doesn’t serve the experience of life celebration. The attainment of a pose is just that, a pose. However, if we can use alignment to remind us to connect to something larger than ourselves, and use the poses as opportunities to claim space and live life—then that takes us closer to being participants in the big party. The first way stifles life, the later uplifts it. The way in which we move our body and line up is in respect for the experience of nature, and in honor of the craftsmanship and architecture of the vessel we inhabit.

I like the idea of principles to work from so that we do not connect to our practice time as a time to put ourselves into poses---but rather to create poses as acts of celebration and artistry of praise. If you work with principles you are co-creator, if you work with rules designed to get you into a pose—you are just following orders.

Poses are unique just like snow flakes and you have to align yourself with the principles of nature to find your way into the moments. What each pose asks of us is how do we adapt, change, evolve, and grow to meet what this pose/challenge is asking of us. The following principles give a map—and it’s just that a map—not rules or regulations. The beauty of this method is that you decide how much of each principle you need in every moment and that determines the outcome for the experience of the pose and the practice.

Align and Refine

The following alignment principles are my understanding of the Universal Principles of Anusara Yoga. It is not a comprehensive explanation, nor is it “by the book”. I am not an Anusara teacher—I just happen to use this method in my own practice and have laid out my evolutionary understanding of some of the principles. While giving my best to honor the tradition, I also have including elements I have found to be true in the execution of them. There are many rich nuances that can be revealed under the direct study of an Anusara teacher (or any skilled teacher) These principles are laid out here for you to work with in the your ritual of practice and are helpful reminders at how powerfully you can check in and use the body as a gateway to being in the moment.

Open to Grace-

“Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry

moving through and be silent.”

This principle allows for space—before setting up the pose or rushing in it’s an opportunity to soak in what is and with reverence and allowing be with what is. It’s the spender of recognition of the life force within in you and giving time to connect to that energy as the source of power for movement within the practice.

The following two energies can be worked with on their own as you are learning the principles, yet, as you grow in the practice the order that creates space for grace to blossom is muscle energy, inner spiral, outer spiral, and organic energy. First learn the synergy of balanced action within ME and OE

Muscle Energy- A contracting energy that moves from outside to in beginning from periphery to core. You can describe the sensation like that of hugging the muscles to the bone, or drawing up from the earth deep into your center. This action creates stability and strength. The idea is that you have to be strong in order to be soft.

Organic Energy- An expanding energy that moves from inside out-- beginning from the core and expands out evenly in all directions through the periphery. This action is finding depth from which to move from. In this energy you find freedom from the deep and powerful stability of ME. You cannot expand without first hugging in. You cannot be free until you are stable. You must root to rise.

A way to play with this to “get it” is to come to a lunge and rise up onto your finer tips. Lift and spread you front toes (that is muscle energy) and draw your legs towards the midline (squeeze them together like your hugging a wall between your legs) focus on pooling energy from earth into your pelvic floor—simultaneously bow into your heart and feel your spine round and belly tone. From this place of deep muscle energy consciously from your centermost experience radiate energy out pressing from the center through your front shin and back heel and lifting the heart while pressing the hips back (elongating the spine in both directions). Do that a few times—inhale ME and exhale OE.

The idea is that in every pose you reach in and touch something deep, something strong, and from that place of inner recognition of profound power--expand out and find freedom.

This concept is really helpful in poses like down dog in which we could check out in several ways. As we check out the shoulder may collapse, or we may roll out onto the outer edges of the hands and the wrists could hurt. Essentially we could be in the pose and not really be in the pose. Another thing that happens is when the legs check out and the heels roll into each other. It is important to note that none of these things make you bad, and doing the opposite doesn't make you good or right. What can happen though is that by seeking something powerful within yourself and touching it, tasting it, and so thoroughly understanding it---you become that very power. Then from the penetrative power of that understanding you have so much depth to come from that when you do expand out, when you do "stretch" it is a satisfying, illuminating, and touching experience.

In down dog to have that deep remembrance take a block between your legs. Be soft for a moment and know what it is to be soft and feel the sweet hum in all your muscles. Feel the anticipation building, the desire of freedom budding in every cell of you body. Then starting with your hands let the muscles in your hands accept the strength of muscle hugging to the bone squeezing arms towards each other isometrically and then press it back down to the earth sending the heart to the thighs. Keep that and then work your legs--spreading toes and feeling the shins hug in while you firm your thighs up and press the thighs back. When you connect to this work, your tail bone presses down to the heels--strength and steadiness, grace and fullness.

Pulse with this a few times--Hug arms and legs to the midline simultaneously and then press out from the heart to hands and from hips to heels. You can also try it another way, by engaging the dynamic play of opposites in back and front bodies. Inhale come onto the toes lifting heels and round the spine like cat pose, then take that strength and press it out through the hands and down through the heels. Pulse with the breath and discover how deep you can dig in and how dedicated you can be--to touch something inside yourself that you never knew was there. You will discover gems. You just have to be willing to shine them!

Play with this dance and reach in and find your power--extend it out playfully, joyfully, and completely.

Another way to understand this is through the concept “root to rise”. Come on to your belly in Cobra pose and place your hands on the ground spreading fingers out right by your chest and arm pit—bring the head of your arm bones up and back so that your chest is slightly lifting. Spread your toes and press them down, feel the knees lift up and the thighs firm— hugging muscles to bone—then from that deep strength and rootedness, pull the hands towards you (like your dragging yourself forward lengthening out of the rootedness and rise—lift your heart—but only lift while you are strongly and equally rooting the legs down and back.

The following two actions also work complimentary with each other and specifically work within the legs and hips to create balanced action in the body.

Inner Spiral- Begins down at the earth with the feet creating a spiral of energy that widens the thighs back and apart (sits bones spread) which create space in the sacrum and low back. This action provides a lumbar curve and helps to press the head of the thigh bones deep into the hip socket. This action is healing and therapeutic to the low back and hips.

Outer Spiral- Begins with the tailbone pressing into the space that you created with inner spiral and sends energy all the way into the earth through the heels. The inner spiral creates space and the outer spiral fills that space with strength. Outer spiral firms the top of the thigh muscles and tones the belly muscles. It also creates a sense of lift into the kidney region of the body.

A way to make these actions real within your body is to take a block between the legs and come into down dog. Begin with the knees bent and squeeze the block and try to slide the block back like a reverse “pedz” dispenser-- do this till you feel your thigh bones press back into the hip sockets and the sits bones spread. It may take a few breathes. Then when you feel you have created some space press the tail bone down just a little and feel energy move all the way to your heels. Pulse with this a few times without the block too—inhale widen the thighs back and apart and exhale press the tailbone down and heels towards the earth.

Side Bodies Long—Creating space and length all through the torso. From the waistline all the way to the arm pits getting long and spacious. The shoulders (head of arm bones) lift up to the neckline and there is a buoyancy under the arm pits like your holding something under them that you don’t want to crush yet don’t want to drop.

Shoulder Loop—Begins in the upper palate. Press back and slightly up through the skull (think almost giving yourself a double chin while someone is pulling your ears up and back) as you also bring the shoulders back (from the neck line) and the shoulder blades down the back as the tips of the shoulder blades curl into the heart. This action evenly opens the spine and creates space for the heart to shine.

Open to something bigger—Bow into the source of being. The back of the body is the symbol of the universal and the front is how it connects to the world through us. Every chance we get in practice we remember the source of where we come from and where we return to. This action softens us and creates room for breath to fill the sides and lungs and back body (think how easy it is to catch your breath after a long run when you place your hands on your thighs and “bow in”. This action also lifts your kidneys up, makes yours sides long, and tones the belly (brings low ribs into the body). This is a perfect step before backbends.

Play with these principles and observe the flow of grace as it blossoms open new territory for you to explore!

A time to pause.

2009-07-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be. ---sbnr.org

Sit still for a moment and notice all the sound around you. Listening for all the rich details and nuances--all the way to the most subtle sounds you can decipher, until it all leads back to silence. Find your quiet not by ignoring the sounds around you but by allowing yourself to be penetrated by them, and through entering you, you truly become absorbed into it, and are not separate from them.

See how long you can sit in this space without the need to do anything--no controlling the stories in your head, no entertaining yourself, just allowing yourself to be bathed in direct experience of what is going on around you and in you.

Emerge from this place of deep discovery full of an all encompassing spaciousness, a wellspring of depth and power from which worlds are created.

"The only way to gain power in a world that is moving to fast,is to learn to slow down. The only way to spread ones influence wide is to learn to go deep. The world that we want for ourselves and loved ones will not come about from electronic speed, but rather from a spiritual stillness that takes root in the soul. Then and only then will we create a world that reflects the heart rather than shatters it."--Marianne Williamson

Finding Freedom to become yourself!

2009-07-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

"There's a part of every living thing that wants to become itself: the tadpole into the frog, the chrysalis into the butterfly, a damaged human being into a whole one. That is spirituality." Ellen Bass

That is also the journey and practice of yoga--reaching deep inside ourselves to heal and grow and to find freedom in our growth to become greater expressions of our deepest and truest self.

Nothing outside of us can truly help us to become whole, that is a choice we must make. The practice of yoga can empower us to discover strength within that maybe we never knew was there--but ultimately as we find that strength we also have to be willing to use it and grow.

For many of us we give up just as we are about to hit the break through of transformtion--whether we "think" we can longer do something (because it's to hard or laziness kicks in), or quite simply we give up on our spiritual practice because we can't see all that is happening and burgeoning under the surface.

"Just as the caterpillar thought the world was ending it turned into a butterfly"....

Don't give up on yourself--just when you think it's not going to happen, just when you want to give up, just when it all seems like it's not worth it---you begin to spread your wings and fly.

Remember we didn't come here for ease--we came here to grow and Yoga is a tool so kindly given to us to grow. As Sharath Rangaswamy says "Anybody can practice yoga…Except lazy people. Lazy people can’t practice yoga". Yoga is for everyone but you have to choose to do the Yoga.

In practice you can use the tools from the previous post on Muscle and Organic energy to awaken the remembrance of who are and the path to become the you that is truly whole and alive. It is deep and powerful work capable of unleashing a deep and powerful you!

Staying with the theme of ME and OE--read the previous post and then reflect on this:

You hug in to remember and you expand out to become a greater reflection of that deeper truth. You hug in and you find the strength to sustain your journey to become and you expand out to celebrate and encourage others to do the same. You hug in to find your roots and you expand out to rise into a deep and powerful purpose to your life.

This weekend celebrate freedom in all its forms and allow yourself to become the truest expression of brilliance you can be.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
Dr. Suess

Touching something deep

2009-06-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings." – Rumi

This week in class we are exploring the dynamic play of Muscle and Organic energy. For those who are unfamiliar with this:

Muscle Energy- A contracting energy that moves from outside to in beginning from periphery to core. You can describe the sensation like that of hugging the muscles to the bone, or drawing up from the earth deep into your center. This action creates stability and strength. The idea is that you have to be strong in order to be soft.

Organic Energy- An expanding energy that moves from inside out-- beginning from the core and expands out evenly in all directions through the periphery. This action is finding depth from which to move from. In this energy you find freedom from the deep and powerful stability of ME. You cannot expand without first hugging in. You cannot be free until you are stable. You must root to rise.

A way to play with this to “get it” is to come to a lunge and rise up onto your finger tips. Lift and spread you front toes (that is muscle energy) and draw your legs towards the midline (squeeze them together like your hugging a wall between your legs) focus on pooling energy from earth into your pelvic floor—simultaneously bow into your heart and feel your spine round and belly tone. From this place of deep muscle energy--consciously from your centermost experience--radiate energy out pressing from the center through your front shin and back heel and lifting the heart while pressing the hips back (elongating the spine in both directions). Do that a few times—inhale ME and exhale OE.

The idea is that in every pose you reach in and touch something deep, something strong, and from that place of inner recognition of profound power--expand out and find freedom.

This concept is really helpful in poses like down dog in which we could check out in several ways. As we check out the shoulder may collapse, or we may roll out onto the outer edges of the hands and the wrists could hurt. Essentially we could be in the pose and not really be in the pose. Another thing that happens is when the legs check out and the heels roll into each other. It is important to note that none of these things make you bad, and doing the opposite doesn't make you good or right. What can happen though is that by seeking something powerful within yourself and touching it, tasting it, and so throughly understanding it---you become that very power. Then from the penetrative power of that understanding you have so much depth to come from that when you do expand out, when you do "stretch" it is a satisfying, illuminating, and touching experience.

In down dog to have that deep remembrance take a block between your legs. Be soft for a moment and know what it is to be soft and feel the sweet hum in all your muscles. Feel the anticipation building, the desire of freedom budding in every cell of you body. Then starting with your hands let the muscles in your hands accept the strength of muscle hugging to the bone squeezing arms towards each other isometrically and then press it back down to the earth sending the heart to the thighs. Keep that and then work your legs--spreading toes and feeling the shins hug in while you firm your thighs up and press the thighs back. When you connect to this work your tail bone down to the heels--strength and steadiness, grace and fullness.

Pulse with this a few times. Hug arms and legs to the midline simultaneously and then press out from the heart to hands and from hips to heels. You can also try this another way engaging the dynamic play of opposites in back and front bodies. Inhale come onto the toes lifting heels and round the spine like cat pose, then take that strength and press it out through the hands and down through the heels. Pulse with the breath and discover how deep you can dig in and how dedicated you can be--to touch something inside yourself that you never knew was there. You will discover gems. You just have to be willing to shine them!

Play with this dance this week. Reach in and find your power, and extend it out playfully, joyfully, and completely.

Magic Mystery and Awe

2009-06-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

“Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent”

The magic of practice is finding the sacred in every day moments. You begin to shift energy from the external world of needing to be entertained or “do” something and allow the opening to awe in what’s already happening right in front of you, all around you, and inside of you.

The way to experience the magic of the now in all its simplicity and complexity is to realize that this very moment, this very point in your life, is the moment you have been waiting for (Notice how often we get taken away from what we are doing only to be seeking the next thing). Now is the time to show up for your life.

Having this reverence for life begins very simply by taking an interest in all the details of your life. Not in a neurotic way but in an appreciative way. Soaking in the details of what is going on grounds you in what is actually going on. It creates a process from which you shift from thinking to awareness. This awareness is the opening to a fertile and potent magic. When all of our energy is directed and focused in what we are actually doing it paves the way for more power to be drawn forth into the actions we do—this is a state of supreme aliveness.

By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive. Albert Schweitzer

If all of us began the practice of finding the sacred in every moment think of the implications. Every word we uttered would be of reverence. Every action we put forth into the world would be one to uplift peace and harmonize relations. Life would stop becoming a busy dance just for the sake of busy dancing—but would rather become a dance with a beat to connect to the beat of the universe.

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.-Joseph Campbell

Aligned with nature and in rhythm with the universe we tap into the power of the creative energy of the world. Magic then is the ability to harness that power in real and tangible ways. Magic is not something found only in Harry Potter books or fairy tales but it is the power to open doors and windows into the shed that contains the tools of a transformative life.

“When we begin to live the greater life--not "seek" it, so much as simply choose to participate in it--then and only then do we find that it's all around us, all the time."--Marianne Williamson

As we become full participants in life, life grants us access to its tool chest of magic. In fact life has granted us all a special power that can only be used if we are in the moment and in our lives as active co-creators-not spectators. ABRACADABRA means create as you speak--so literally as we think, as we speak, we begin to create. However, what we conjure with our spells only works if we are in the mystery (now) and the magic uplifts the vision and mission of creating harmony with life. Meaning we don’t get what we want, but through clear intention align with what we need. The magic is creating the connection that aligns heart and head to create a powerful life. We have to be mindful crafters of our words and use spells to uplift our heart, and to put forth our vision into the world with integrity. It is not about the attainment of things but about the fulfillment of life. So the spell is not “God grant me and give me more stuff”, but rather “God grant me the ability to seek and find life--to live and love from a wild and passionate heart”. “Give me grace to create beauty in the world and to send magic and miracles to the world to heal and uplift”. “Give me the strength to move mountains and alchemical prowess to transform hate into love”. You can probably think of many spells on your own—but you get the point. The magic of the universe only works when it’s aligned with the highest purpose of divine love.

“When the heart of your heart opens, you can take deep pleasure in the company of the people around you . . . When you are open to the beauty, mystery, and grandeur of ordinary existence, you "get it" that it always has been beautiful, mysterious, and grand and always will be.” - Timothy Ray Miller

Take time right now to align with the mystery. Take notice of the beauty around you and inside of you. Feel connected to the spirit of awe and to the community of souls that have joined with you to create this critical moment in history. Feel the breath you are breathing now and know it comes from the same source that all others on this planet are breathing now too. As you breathe out know that all others breathe out into space creating fertile compost from which creation sparks forth new visions of possibility.

What you are a part of is far greater than you ever could imagine and so simple is your task. You only need to align with the divine (now) and channel grace (magic) into the world. The rest quite simply is in higher hands.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein

Heart Wide Open

2009-06-18T18:17:00.001-07:00

Inspired by my yogi's tonight I am offering up a progression towards Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel pose). Have fun with this and please take your time to really feel that the body is granting you permission to do this. Ease your way into the pose breath by breath and feel invited into the pose rather than forcing your way into it.

"A kind of deep flame of inner ecstasy burnt more and more strongly in his heart."--Dostoyevsky

Begin standing in Tadasana (Mountain pose) First begin by deepening your breath as you place your hands stacked on top of each other on your heart center. Spend a few moments circling your hands clock wise over your heart and set the intention to let the deep flame within your heart burn to inner ecstasy. Backbends are a celebration of life so allow the celebration to be expressed in every breath. Take a moment right now to give thanks for all that you can celebrate within your life.

Now invite life fully into your body. Lift and spread your toes and draw energy up your thighs--as you hug up--also root down through the heels from the power of the tailbone and hips. Feel the top of the head lifting up to the sky bringing length and space into every vertebrae in the spine.

Inhale lift your arms up to the sky--plug your shoulders into the back and as you plug reach up more through your fingers to the sky. Maintain the deep rootedness in the heels while lifting up your thighs (hugging muscle to bone).

Exhale fold forward and interlace the hands behind your back. Microbend the elbows and draw your armbones (top of the shoulders) to the neckline then hug shoulder blades on the back more and pull arms straight. Fold more deeply. Keep the heels grounded as you shift more energy towards the toes. Microbend the knees lean forward stretching the arms more to earth, plug the heel deeper and press your thighs back. Take a deep breath into the spine and soften the heart to the earth,. Pulse with the breath this way a few times--sinking deeper into the fold while rooting fully into the earth and pressing thighs back.

Inhale free the hands and step the right foot back for a long lunge. Come up onto the finger tips. Keep rt fingertips on the ground and twist lt up to the sky. Press your thighs back (think back thigh to sky) then press even through front shin and back heel. Keep working lt hip back and pull navel and heart open to sky. Curl head back and bring shoulders back too. Legs are stable and strong so that the upper body can be free.

Step back to down dog. Come to down dog in a way that gives apace to the shoulders. Bend the knees a little and then press your thighs back. Shift awareness to the hands and spread the finger out so much that the webbing of the fingers stretches. Root the hands so that you know they are grounded. Squeeze your arms together and lift the armbones up to the sky creating space in the armpits. Keep that space and press the heart to your thighs. Notice if the shoulders collapse--try to keep them lifted--armpits buoyant.

Shift forward to plank. Keep sides of the body long. Thighs firm and heels press back. Soften the heart to earth (blades move together) and lower all the way to earth. Come onto finger tips, armbones back, head back, cobra pose. Feel that you are pulling forward and up at the same time. Keep the legs grounded (toes spreading and thighs firm--tailbone lengthening to the heels).---check in with Cobra ask if the body is liberated or oppressed, celebrating or over partying. Soften more--breath into the heart expand bright from the breath inside--expand from inside out.

Press to table top. In table lengthen your sides and soften the heart--press the soft heart to your thighs as you lift up to down dog.

Step the right foot through for lunge. Come onto the finger tips, keep lt hand grounded and twist right arm up. Then lower it and step forward fold.

Repeat that opening sequence a few times to warm up--you can also add in side plank to spice it up (vasisthasana).

Main Sequence:

Warrior 1 with Garudasana arms

From Down dog step the rt foot forward between the hands and root the back foot down 45 degrees. Lift and spread toes and hug legs to the midline. Press strongly through the legs. Take both hands on to the rt thigh. Bow in and feel the back body expand. Take the expansion and lengthen the spine up to the sky--arms lift up. hug arms together and bring shoulder blades on the back. Cross rt arm under lt elbow and bind hands as best you can coming to eagle arms. Lift elbows up and hands away from the face--feel a stretch between the shoulder blades.Curl head back (by pressing through the back of the skull while lifting up the tops of your ears up and back. Keep length and space in the neck).

Release arm bind and lower hands to earth.

Lower left knee to ground and shift it back some. Step right foot our 45 degrees. Keep toes active. Left hand roots down and the rt hand reaches back for the left foot/ankle for twisted thigh stretch. Tail bone is grounding to the earth, navel and heart twist open. Think cobra with your spine. Press through the back shin. Stay alert and active everywhere--celebrate the pose give it life through the breath.

Release and step back to plank. Pivot to outer edge of rt foot and keep right hand grounded. Step left foot behind right knee about 5-8 inches. Come on the toes of the left foot. Press your waistline back and tail bone to the right heel. Shift hips and heart to the sky and curl into a back bend with the upper body--Wild thing vasisthasana.

Release and bring left knee to chest--puff the spine up to the sky and step back to plank. Lower slow all the way to the earth.

Come to sphinx elbows under shoulders. Legs grounded. Focus on the pelvic floor and hug legs to the midline. Hug energy from toes to pelvic floor and extend back out from pelvic floor to the toes.Pull heart forward as you feel the legs press back.

From here grab rt ankle with rt hand -Ardha Dhanurasana press through the shin and you try to touch heel to sky. Lengthen upper body forward as you stretch the heart to sky. Switch sides. If you want take your opposite hand out in front on finger tips place it way off to the side and lift up you front body to deepen the stretch.

Repeat standing pose sequence second side.

When finished with standing sequence second side come down and do full Dhanurasana (bow pose) --Before you come up make sure you press your thighs back--it helps to lift the butt up and feel the sit bones spread then press the tail bone into that space then thighs firm and shins back--then you'll get a big heart lift.

Handstand

Go to a wall and practice the handstand L (come to table top feet against wall. Make sides of the body long and back body full (cat pose) rise up to dog pose and then walk feet up the wall) Keep shoulders buoyant. and press powerfully from heart into earth and follow the echo of that movement up to the tail bone and then press the tail bone into the heels and root deep into the wall with your heels.

Take it deeper:

Face the wall and from down dog step one foot forward half way and come onto the toes. Lift back leg up and squeeze thighs towards the center. Lengthen your sides and firm the belly. Look toward your fingers. Just lean and lift as far as you can into the handstand. Harness the wildness and discipline it into powerful yet soft lifts into the handstand. Even if it's a inch off the ground--your learning to lift lightly.

Intermediate/Advanced option:

Measure fingertip to elbow away from wall. Place hands where elbows were. Lift up to hand stand and bring both legs to the wall. Press your butt to wall so that your thighs are pressed back all the way--lengthen your tailbone up to the heels. Pump your heart out to the front of the room opening up the shoulders--think wheel pose here while legs are against the wall. This may trigger a fear factor :0 Keep arms steady by hugging in and root the hands down--while pressing up through the heels.

Forearm balance.

Beginners--just come to dolphin--elbows under shoulders--arm bones forward to neckline then soften heart. Keep kidneys buoyant. Lift legs up like down dog and press heart towards thighs--while keeping sides of the body long (waistline to armpits stays spacious while your melt the heart and press it back).

Intermediate. Take block between hands (thumb on front rooted into earth and fingers spreading around sides of block flat against the earth). Prep same as dolphin but have feet against wall like the handstand prep. Press up feet against wall--press heart to wall(you'll be like the handstand L except in forearm prep).

Come down to earth and onto your back. Come to Robot pose (feet grounded, knees up, arm bones grounded, forearms and finger tips lifting to the sky, palms face each other--think robot on its back.

Press through arms and skull and feet and lift just your chest--a curve will enter the spine. Keep the hips down and just try to work the shoulder back while lifting the heart. Feel the shoulders and the skull looping back into the earth to open your heart.

Repeat this a few times.

Wheel:

Face a wall and place a rolled up blanket right against the wall/floor corner.Go wide with the hands and place them against the rolled up blanket--palms pressed into the thickest part and fingers facing your head spreading out wide. Turn your fingers out at an angle just slightly. Spread your toes and make your legs strong. Inner thighs press down to the earth--and tailbone lengthens into that space as you lift your hips up. Plug you shoulders in again here as you press up onto your head. Use this moment to go a little wider with your hands and hug your shoulders in more--shoulder blades are supporting you. Then start to press your skull back and your heart to the wall.

Wheel Two--set up the same but place two blocks at the wall and place your hands on the blocks and try to lift up this way into the pose.

Now try it without any props :)

The key is to keep the shoulders plugged in and the legs strong. Notice if the feet are turning out--if this is the case for you squeeze a block between the thighs.

Also many people skip the step of coming onto the head--don't skip this part. Press onto the top of the head, then go wider with the hands and spin them out to an angle. Draw the shoulder blades on the back then press up like a push up--press strong through the legs and arms. Make sure the hands are solidly connecting to earth from the power of your heart.

If the low back is hurting in this pose make sure that you begin with thighs back(sit bones spreading, curve in low back, and thighs pressed down to earth--and that the tailbone lengthens into this just a little bit. What happens for most is that we have too much outer spiral in this rather then a strong inner spiral.

Have fun!!! Let me know if you have any questions on this.

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks--Tennessee Williams

2009-06-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

I just got done listening to an amazing speech from Patricia Clarkson from which she quotes Tennessee William's Epitaph "The violets in the mountain have broken the rocks".

She began with those words and then went on. "To me, its meaning is simple. The hard, the cold, the oppressive will--at long last--be broken apart by a force that is beautiful, natural, colorful, and alive.

We're a bunch of violets breaking through the rocks. And it is happening. The rock is cracking away. The rock of hate and falsehood is being broken apart."

I haven't seen the Tennessee Williams quote used in this way before, but I love it.

I am applying those words to my practice this week and allowing what is beautiful, natural, colorful, and alive to break through the rocks in my life and the boulders in my heart, mind, and body.

Most of the time what is needed in practice (much like society) is just a change of heart or mind. The biggest breakthroughs (the sweetest violets) are the moments where perception shifts--this is because the thickest rock is usually a thought through the form of attachment.

How many times do we cause harm to ourselves because we force things too quickly? How many times to we oppress ourselves in the search for freedom because we're attached to freedom meaning something outside of us--rather than in us? Freedom is a state of mind that then permeates the body. The purpose of practice is to find that place and work from it rather than think we have to start from scratch. Freedom is a place that is already in us and yoga is the art of recognition.

There is a gentle strength within us that seeks the light and finds the light no matter what. The violets in the mountains will break the rocks. The light in our soul will break through our rocks--because that's what violets do---from the rich nourishment of the earth they lift up to greet the sun.

In practice nourish yourself with the breath. Feel the mountain that you are a part of and breathe to expand inside it-feel how much space there is. While solid there is still permeability to the mountain--openings for new life from your already fertile seeds to spring forth and cover the mountain top; and sides, and to extend in all directions to the farthest foothills. Be soft as you begin your practice and allow the breath to animate your body. Be filled with a deep strength filled with the support of spirit. That way when you start to engage the muscles they wrap around the spaciousness of the breath and can extend out from that breath. As you begin to move in to the body recognize the violets within you--feel their roots and allow a gradual blossoming to unfold. We don't have to take dynamite to the rocks--our light of transformation is explosive enough.

When we finally recognize the essence of the violent within us than all that is oppressive from outside of us and inside us will fall away. When in reflection of the beauty of the violet within we will become reminded that something that beautiful can only be grown from love--and all hate from outside won't stop our growth, and all hate from inside will be composted into love.

The beauty and aliveness within you has broken through the rocks. Enjoy the freedom.

Mandala Namaskar-Journey to the center

2009-06-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

"The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.

"The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose."
(From Mandala: Journey to the Center, by Bailey Cunningham)

This week in practice we are engaging in the ritual invocation of the mandala. Carving out a sacred space from which we connect to all that is. We step out of the rectilinear pathway that so often takes up space in the practice and instead invite the spherical--a living embodiment and reflection of nature. We invite ourselves to the center of creation and find it to be the source of our nature. The circle reminds us of our infiniteness and paves a pathway to shift our awareness from external sources to the rich internal planes of consciousness that take us to the evolutionary "big bang"--the recognition of the fertile energy inside us.

Each of the mandalas I have crafted for this week's practice are rooted in one of the elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Air. Connecting the elements in way that allows us to experience the sustaining, nurturing, and transforming qualities of those elements. To invite the ritual of connection and celebration of co-creation with the elements.

Earth- A very real sense of groundedness, nurturing, support. Something that we can root into so that we can rise. Something symbolic that we can compost our issues into that will transform into rich nutrients for our soul.

Fire- Giver of life, spark of divine energy. To burn through whatever separates you from you. To create from the depths of spirit.

Water- Ritual cleanse. A current from which we can navigate life. An ocean of power and support. Shiva Rea a teacher of mine often points out “Our bodies are 70% water, which nourishes and purifies and is the conductor of prana, nutrients and life energy.” For Shiva, the way to tap into the potential of our fluid being is to connect to the wave motion within the body and nature. “How do we relate to the fluid beings we are?"

Air- The freedom of flight. The vast spaciousness which reflects the nature of consciousness itself. The wind that cuts through our obstacles and free us.

Sequence

Child's pose (I am grounded, I am supported)
Table Top
(Flow between the two with breath--and then eventually add in half push-up)

Exhale Child's pose, Inhale Table, Exhale half push-up, Inhale Table etc..

Transition- Down Dog

Grounding in the earth element. Focus on what is touching earth and feel the nourishment in the hands and feet. Hug the rich nutrients from the earth into the body and then compost it through deep attentive breathing and give it right back to the earth through your fingertips and your heels.

Inhale to plank (push-up) and press through the hands and feel the support of earth, then press through the heels to send that energy through the body. Make your heart soft and lower all the way down to earth. Become rooted through the legs, making them strong (spread the toes) Keep the legs rooted and rise through the heart for a low Cobra. Feel the hands isometrically pulling towards you so that you rise forward and up simultaneously.

Exhale Back to Down Dog

Mandala Prep:

Inhale the Rt leg up behind you. Stay strong in your body--feeding the earth element from hands to feet. When you lift a leg up the shoulder could become unstable and sink--squeeze your arms towards each other-- that will help to keep your arm bones lifted--stay lifted then press your heart to the legs.

From single leg down dog step through for low lunge. Come up onto your finger tips inviting more lift. Inhale bow to the heart (look into it) the spine will round and belly firm and exhale lift the heart and press energetically through both the legs. Do this a few times. Keep the back leg active with the exhale so you feel a stretch at the top of the thigh. Think front shin pressing forward and back heel presses back. In this pose you can also squeeze hips together with the inhale (like you have a block between the thighs).

Inhale spin to the left facing the side of your mat for squat. Turn feet out 45 degrees and grab the inside of your ankles. Lift and spread the toes and ground the heels. Traction knees over ankles and align elbows with knees. Inhale bow to the heart and round the spine (back of the body becomes full and spacious) and Exhale pull heart forward as you press your thighs back. Repeat three times.

Inhale spin to the back of the mat lunging lt leg. Three pulses like first side.

Inhale step back plank. Hold it--be strong. Exhale lower down all the way heart first to earth, Press up Cobra. Exhale Down Dog.

Leading with the rt leg again. Inhale leg up behind you and exhale step through for lunge. Repeat earlier steps to circle back through the the front.

You make a full circle.

Repeat circle with Left Leg (make sure to make a full circle and keep leading with the left).

Now if you want to do one more round of the Mandala prep--you can, or you can deepen it if you like by adding in Maha Pigeon instead of lunge (go to outer edge of foot and walk hands out further in front. Leg is like pigeon and you press through the outer edge of the foot while keeping it strongly engaged and foot flexed/ankle strong. Inhale same process of bowing in and then exhale like a push up come down and widen the outer thigh bone of to the side. Head of thigh bone goes into the hip socket more fully.

Then rather than malasana squat you can do sideways lunges side to side (skandasana) Foot pivots out 45 degrees, knee over ankle, press thighs back and upper body pulses in and out of a push-up shape.

End the earth element with Bakasana (Crow)

Ground your hands, and expand your back body (round it with power and depth) go wide with your hands and shift into your finger tips like your clawing the earth, and then squeeze your feet to your butt. Feel that your kidneys are lifting up more than your butt.

Fire-- I am burning. I am creating. I am Rising

Begin in down dog. Inhale extend rt leg behind towards to sky. Invite fire by hugging to the mid-line-spread toes to feel fire all through the legs. Step through to lunge, rise up crescent warrior (arms to sky). Pulse in the warrior, Inhale bow to the heart and firm the legs and exhale curl the heart open to the sky energize the arms and press proudly through the legs. When you inhale the back body puffs up and as you exhale the spine elongates and expresses the fullness and power of the back body.

Inhale step into warrior three (back leg lifts up arms stretch out in front of you). Stay in the fire and lift your belly. Keep arms and legs pulsing with the aliveness in your center. The rt leg is grounded into earth from the top of the hip to the bottom of the heal. The back leg is reaching to the wall behind you. The back foot is flexed so you can press through the heel--like stepping into earth.

Step back crescent. Inhale pivot to the left high squat. Feet turn out 45 degrees. Clasp hands behind head. Press thighs back and deepen the squat (this is a wide leg squat. Knees over ankles. Exhale side bend to the right,and inhale back to center, exhale to the left and inhale back to center. Do this several times, lengthening the sides of the body and strengthening the core.

Pivot the the left facing back of mat and when ready step forward into warrior three second side. Hold for 5 breaths.

Step back to lunge then to plank. Lower down to earth. Interlace hands behind back and rise up bound locust. Keep legs grounded. Press up down dog.

Continue the circle leading with the right leg.

Second circle begins with the left and you lead with the left the whole time. If you want to deepen the fire experience you can add in bound warrior three--hands interlace around the back ankle--ends up looking like Nataraj.

Water: I am bathing in. I am washing away. I am in the current of.

Continuing the journey of the circle. Begin in down dog but add the element of water. Bend your knees and shift onto your toes lifting the heels. Scoop your tail bone and begin to round the spine shifting towards plank. Get to plank and bends the knees to the earth and press butt back towards the heels and keep doing that--creating a wave in your spine.

Then lift the right leg up. Exhale knee to chest and circle leg off to the side and repeat 5 times. On the fifth step through to lunge. Rise up Warrior Two. In warrior two inhale make the front leg straight and bring hands to heart. Exhale lunge back into it and radiate the arms our in both directions. Express even energy in the legs. Inhale you hug muscle to bone and hug energy from earth to pelvic floor and as you exhale send the energy out in all directions.

After a few times--pivot to the left and come to wide leg squat. Embody water element here (this is like a loosely inspired tai chi movement) The arms become like the ocean swaying side to side as you sink to the hips more.

Pivot to second side warrior two. Repeat pulse. Lower to earth and step back to plank. Lower all the way down to the earth. Come up to cobra and sway side to side and floss the shoulders out, let a river run through and remove the silt of tightness.

Repeat leading with the right side again. Second circle you start with left side.

Air: The freedom of flight. I am spreading my wings. I am free.

Handstand/Tripod circle

(Note this round is for advanced yogi's only) If you are newer than go to a wall and practice the handstand L (come to table top feet against wall. Make sides of the body long and back body full (cat pose) rise up to dog pose and then walk feet up the wall) Keep shoulders buoyant. and press powerfully from heart into earth and follow the echo of that movement up to the tail bone and then press the tail bone into the heels and root deep into the wall with your heels.

If you want to move into the circle from down dog step one foot forward half way and come onto the toes. Lift back leg up and squeeze thighs towards the center. Lengthen your sides and firm the belly. Look toward your fingers. Just lean and lift as far as you can into the handstand. Harness the wildness and discipline it into powerful yet soft lifts into the handstand. Even if it's a inch off the ground--your learning to lift lightly.

Then pivot to the left wide leg forward fold. If your head easily touches root the head and hands in prep for tripod. Press into the head--rooting it. Head of arms bones forward and shoulder blades on the back. Come onto the toes lifting heals up and rise up tripod headstand. Lift through the heals as you squeeze your thighs. Come down. Pivot to the back leg lunge and try handstand with second side. Repeat circle.

Bringing back to the earth. Child's pose

Finish practice with some forward folding and then a sweet long resting pose.

Enjoy!

So what you just went through is the experience of finding your connection to the sacred pulse of the all that is. Your place in the larger circle of life.

"Micro to macro

Representing the universe itself, a mandala is both the microcosm and the macrocosm, and we are all part of its intricate design. The mandala is more than an image seen with our eyes; it is an actual moment in time. It can be can be used as a vehicle to explore art, science, religion and life itself. The mandala contains an encyclopedia of the finite and a road map to infinity.

Carl Jung said that a mandala symbolizes "a safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness." It is "a synthesis of distinctive elements in a unified scheme representing the basic nature of existence." Jung used the mandala for his own personal growth and wrote about his experiences.

It is said by Tibetan Buddhists that a mandala consists of five "excellencies":

The teacher • The message • The audience • The site • The time
An audience or "viewer" is necessary to create a mandala. Where there is no you, there is no mandala. (from: You Are the Eyes of the World, by Longchenpa, translated by Lipman and Peterson)."

Find out more about symbolic meaning of mandalas at http://www.mandalaproject.org

Is there a goal?

2009-06-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. ~Joseph Campbell

If there were a goal to our practice of yoga I would like think of it as being something along the lines of what Joseph Campbell describes. There is instant recognition upon reading the words "to match your nature with nature" of what occurs within the practice of yoga. The very act of breathing with consciousness starts the journey of alignment to our nature--the return to primordial essence. Primordial essence in this case refers to a concept laid out in "SHAMBALA The Sacred Path of the Warrior" as meaning without condition.

It is a place that we can attune to through a disciplined engagement of movement and breath--synchronizing mind and body to unite with Spirit. It is through this union that the heartbeat of the individual connects with the beat of the universe.

It is an amazing discovery that can be made on the mat with a dedicated practice. The promise of practice, rather than the goal, is a heightened sense of connectedness to the underlying current of aliveness contained within the world around us. The poses and breath unite to act as pathways into the rich energy of the universal beat--which provides a cosmic metronome for us to step into rhythm with.

For brief yet increasing periods of time we march to a larger rhythm than ourselves and rather than being the sole instrument, we play in the grandest orchestra that surpasses all that we have ever felt, heard, or played for.

The practice and life it offers us deepens our relationship with the world and all sentient beings because it connects us to the source of where we have come from and where we are going. For moment after precious moment that we are in this space--which is spaciousness itself, we are all that ever was and all that ever will be.

Stepping onto the mat is an act of celebration, creation, performance, giving, receiving, acknowledging, sacrificing, surrendering, and opening. It gives us access to the cycle of life and the story of our place in it. It is the wow factor, the hugeness of what we are actually a part of--and the recognition of the sacredness of being alive.

"There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being." ~ Albert Einstein

The Power of Prayer

2009-06-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

What I know for certain is that when I remember to pray miracles happen. While I am not sure prayer changes anything about the situations in my life--it changes me. A Course in Miracles says that a miracle is just a shift in perception and that's exactly what prayer does.

It had been a long time for me since I have prayed--somehow in the midst of all the practices I do (yoga and meditation) I forgot just how cleansing and cathartic prayer can be. Prayer also helps me to clarify what I am willing to put forth into the world and what I need support from the universe for that vision to happen.

Today in the middle of a really hard feeling state I remembered to pray. It was very simple but it shifted things enough to create a miracle. I simply just asked to be supported in bringing more light and love into the world and to be led and guided for the right words to say to my classes and the best actions to take with my students today. I asked to be inspired so that I may inspire, and then I just spent a few minutes in gratitude--deeply appreciating the circumstances of my life.

Einstein has a quote that I love that says "The problems of the world cannot be solved from the same level of thinking that created them" so literally we have to pray so that our minds can be lifted up out of the level they are at in which we were suffering. That is exactly what happened for me today.

So while I am not sure praying "gets" us anything it surely does align us with the right frequency so that we are clearer and in tune with the will and energy of the universe.

I was humbled by this remembrance--that a tool so powerful is always available to create a miracle. Thank you universe for such an awesome blessing!

Ahimsa--Cultivating peace

2009-06-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

It has been said that the foundation of a yoga practice is built on the concept of Ahimsa which means "non-violence", or the cultivation of peace. I like to think of it as a simultaneous expression of what we don't do and what we do to ourselves and others.

As I was recently engrossed in Pema Chodron's book "Comfortable with Uncertainty" I came across her chapter on "Not Causing Harm" and deeply appreciated her perspective on this path of peaceful living.

She writes that "non aggression has the power to heal and transform society". Her premise is that the most harm, the most aggressive act we can do to ourselves or others is remain ignorant by not having the courage and respect to look at ourselves truthfully and gently. She states that the ground of not causing harm is mindfulness. With mindfulness we gain clarity and compassion for what we truly see--without hiding, denying, suppressing, or imagining things to be some other way.

When we look sincerely and openly at ourselves we see how we are in the world and we see how much aggression and violence (thoughts, actions, etc) we put out into the world. Without judging we just see, truly see, and that is what creates space for grace. Without seeing we can't do anything about it and live as though we are not leaving a trail of suffering behind us. First notice, then create space, then operate from that deep and profound space that allows room for growth--for love to take its course.

Ahimsa has many expressions but I have to agree mindfulness comes first. Before we act we have to act from a place of knowing. It's like the difference between speaking off the cuff, or taking time to dig deep and come from a place of depth as you begin to give birth to words in the world.

Peaceful living means we allow ourselves to be with things, our lives, as they are. We just sit with and open to life as it is. At the same time we stay open to the moment and remember that nothing is fixed. This is why acceptance of this moment is key. Without acceptance without opening--there is gripping and clinging which can only lead to violence as we try to change rather than allow what needs to unfold to unfold. We open and stay open. We feel and simultaneously explore all the possible options and paths that the freedom of openness in the moment allows for us.

There is freedom that comes from this opening and the freedom creates space for peace. It's a steady peace that does not rely on things "working" or becoming "fixed" but it's a peace that fueled on the knowledge that life is a wild ride filled with adventures and growth expeditions (we came here to grow). Peace begins when we truly get on the ride and quite trying to stop it, or change it, or get off it.

Peace externally begins from the peace of deep opening within us. The more you open and allow, the more allowing and grace flow through you. Then Ahimsa is not a thing you do--but it is a thing you are---and that makes all the difference.

Great Post on Inversions from Yoga Nerd

2009-06-03T13:10:00.001-07:00

Inversions

Great Anusara Blog

2009-06-03T12:48:00.001-07:00

I happen to come across this blog and think she is doing a great job. Check it out!

Yoga Nerd

The thrill of revelation

2009-06-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

I have written on the concept of concealment and revealment before on this blog (like maybe a year ago). With all things as we grow in practice, the practice reveals more to us about a given subject including ourselves, and so in the spirit of evolutionary growth, I offer my thoughts on the idea of concealment and revealment.

In Hatha yoga and meditation there is an opportunity to open up to ourselves in such a way that anything that is concealed (hidden) can be brought forth into conscious presence so that we can align with it, create with it, or allow it space, or to release it. We are like the sculptor who in the moment has a slab of concrete and through his or her art form (yoga, meditation) reveals the art beneath the slab. They do not create anew, but reveal the inherent beauty that is there already. They allow space for the form to emerge from the formless. They release the heaviness and allow freedom for the art to express itself.

The practice is this, and yet, I am finding it is much more in the context of revealation. Not only is it the total process, but also the individual moments of practice. Each breath, each pose, reveals to us, if we pay attention--something that has been concealed or something that can assist us in freeing up more space and beauty inside ourselves.

Each pose can reveal what we are holding back, how we respond to fear, what excites us, what we are passionate about, what makes us laugh and smile, what challenges us and how we respond to challenge, what feels sensual, what feels pleasurable, what bores us and how we react to boredom. All these things and so much more are revealed to us within a moment, within a practice.

Our task then when on the mat is to practice being with the revelations without judgment and remain open to the process of self study that this provides for us. We allow what has been hidden or stuck to come forward. We have tremendous freedom in opening up to the revelations because the more we allow what is concealed to be revealed--we know more about ourselves but also allow more space around everything.

From this place of deep and healing space our inherent spaciousness is revealed and we remember that in any given moment we can align with that as infinite creative energy. From this energy we can sustain our artistry and allow our artistry to expand to new heights.

Sit with this passage from the radiance sutras:

#20

The radiance of space permeates the body
and all directions simultaneously.
Space is always here,
Already here before your noticing of it.

What we call space is a presence,
Permission to exist
And worlds within which to express.

Without thinking about it,
Without forming mental images of it,
Rest in this vast expanse,
Friends with Infinity.

(find out more about the radiance sustras www.lorinroche.com)

A leap towards love

2009-05-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

One of the avenues that we must travel down eventually on the path to the heart's full expression into the world---is how we engage with the physical world around us--and how to cultivate a fully loving and supportive relationship with the world.

The more we align with the fire of the heart, the more we connect to the inherent oneness of the world--we realize that we are the world and the world is us. I love the following description from Deepak Chopra who gives a great example of how we must connect to the heart to shift from thinking to awareness, from mind to heart--then back again in the context of building a right relationship with the earth.

"The best thing you can do for the planet is to shift your perception. There is no hope of healing the planet as long as the word 'environment' means something separate from you. Each of us has built our happiness on ignoring the Earth's balance. We wouldn't do that to our own homes: who would tolerate a living room filled with decaying garbage? We wouldn't do that to our own bodies: who would deprive their body of half the oxygen it needed? So, forget that you ever heard the word 'environment.’ Instead, think of ‘my world’, and look upon Nature as ‘my body’ in extended form. Having done that, treat the world with care and intimate regard. This should be your guide to a new way of being happy. Until millions of people have made the same shift, saving the planet will remain a worthy cause that never quite gains the whole-hearted support it needs".

The truth is we can "do" all we want and the little steps surely help. However, the most radical and most powerful shift begins within the heart/mind connection. A Course In Miracles says that "A miracle is just a shift in perception" and a miracle is truly what we need to save our relationship with the earth.

This is not about wishful thinking, or wishing the problems of the world to go away. In fact it's the opposite--it's about becoming real and checking ourselves back into the relationship. It's like we're the lover who abandoned our partner and left the house in shambles and decided that we didn't have to do anything and that someone else was going to take care of the mess we left behind.

However when we connect to the path of the heart and begin to feel the shift from smallness to the vast all encompassing reality of who we are--the oneness, the richness, the sweetness of possibility and potential of this human experience--we have no choice but to go back to our lover and clean things up. We must atone and with humility and deep reverence apologize and at the same time be grateful that our partner is resilient and capable of healing beyond our comprehension.

Must connect now and invite the shift into our hearts fully and make it a practice everyday to see ourselves intimately connected to the earth and her ways. To think of ourselves as a lover, a partner, and in the love relationship feel the union of possibility.

In every choice we make we ask not is this good for me--but is it good to the whole of me. Not the small me, but the vast me--the me that is in union with all that is--the earth and all her inhabitants. Can you feel the enormity of every decision play out and the chain reaction of effects that it has on all parts of your unified body and consciousness.

When you deeply get this your life will transform and you will no longer be capable of making decisions that are not rooted in deep love to the earth. But you must be willing to love yourself whole heartedly--all of you.

If you can sit down and meditate right now and begin to do this work of shifting your perception. Focus on your heart and breath deeply into the heart. Begin to feel your heart beat and relax into the vastness of the heart. Begin to visualize the earth as best you can and when you see it clearly place it lovingly into the chamber of your heart. Breath consciously into the earth and place your awareness into the center of the earth. Feel your essence there feel connected and at home there. Feel yourself as earth and feel yourself expanding to fill the earth with your essence. When you feel alive inside the earth from the rootedness of being inside and all through the earth--channel your awareness back into the heart of your physical body and feel the essence of yourself as earth inside the power of your heart. Feel the radical shift of aliveness--the hum of the earth inside the beat of your heart. Feel the union. Be the union.

In every act you put forth into the world ask yourself is this the best I can do in the spirit of love? Does this actions serve "me" out of convenience or is there a better choice that would serve the vast ME and contribute to the health and well being of all those who reside in vast expanse of the heart of hearts.

Love to you all!

Modern Day Disciple

2009-05-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."-- Goethe

I was inspired by this passage and am using it as a frame work for inviting tapas into the practice for this weeks classes.

“Tapas” is a powerful concept laid out in the Yoga Sutras. The word “tapas” comes from the Sanskrit verb “tap” which means “to burn”. The traditional interpretation of tapas is that it is “fiery discipline”.

When I had brought this up to my class at the beginning of our session today many of the students responded with nervous laughter :) Tapas it seems has quite a reputation! The idea of discipline and especially fiery discipline it seems can trigger certain responses of fear, trepidation, or resistance.

I reminded my students that Tapas really is the invitation into the depth of practice. Tapas is commitment to the practice and to the awakening of our spirit through the work. We know from our time on the mat--even after the first time there, that the "work" and the ritual of practice has far more power than we could ever imagine. The discipline comes into being when we feel the fire of commitment to invoke that magic on a conscious level time and time again.

It's the old saying "you know what's good for you, and you like what's good for you, but sometimes you still choose not to do it anyway". Sometimes we just need the fire of Tapas to bring us back to the practice--to remember what it means to be a disciple ready to learn and burn from the practice.

The word discipline comes from the same Latin root "discere" as discipleship; it means, literally, "to learn." So Tapas really is the burning enthusiasm/desire to learn and to be a student. Yoga is incredible because it is not only the study of the self, but the study of the current of life. You become a conscious student of life--not in an abstract way--but in a deeply relevant way--life as it manifests through you!

Practice then becomes an invitation to immerse oneself in the intensive of life. Every practice becomes a ritual of learning--a dynamic synergy between student, teacher, classmates--a circle of knowledge and learning fueled collectively by those thirsty for knowledge.

The words from Goethe that I feel invoke the potency of Tapas are "Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it" Tapas is boldness. It's the path of learning in which one shifts from just being a receiver of knowledge to one who is pursuing knowledge. One who can not only listen but also simultaneously explore. One who can feel magic and power in ritual and use the ritual as a doorway, a path towards a higher learning.

Tapas then begins to take on a fresh meaning one not laden with fear or hesitancy--but one that requires the seeker, the disciple to awaken to empowerment. You set the intention , and the practice (the teacher) takes steps to light your fire even more, and the practice grows within all involved in the learning process. The more drive you bring to learn the more your practice will illuminate and brighten your path of self discovery.

May we all remember what it means to be a disciple--ready to learn--ready to burn!

The ocean and the wave

2009-05-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

My theme in classes this week as been the invocation of the water element--Jala Namaskar. In the first part of the week I focused on weaving together movements that helped us to align with the currents of our breath much like a river and allowing the body to tap into the current helping to create a pathway for the river to flow through with ease. Just like in nature--over time a river carves out its pathway through the thickest of earth--we too can carve through with the water element the thickest of "earth" in us as well. The movements of the practice were very fluid, creative, and liquidy.

Later this week I focused on invoking the power of the ocean as it expresses its waves. I brought in the principle of opening to something bigger (which makes the sides of the body long, head of the arms bones draw forward, and creates a strong kidney loop *puff*) We sometimes refer to this as opening to grace. In the practice this week I was referring to it as receiving the power of the ocean and as we moved from that power expressing the unique wave of movement from that depth and strength.

You can think of the movement into the ocean like cat pose, but with power and focus. Think of the tides receding and going back into the fullness of the ocean from which they came, and then with full force come back. Think of a Tsunami that draws back and then with intensity unleashes its strength again. The idea is that we are a part of something much larger and in practice we can align with that to create more depth and power as we express our uniqueness and personalization in the practice.

The emphasis was also that when a wave expresses itself out of the ocean, what we see is it's peak out of the body of water, but it's important to remember that below the surface its power is still connected to the ocean and the power of the wave begins from underneath not above. So as our wave expands, we have to remember to stay connected to the body of the ocean. Keeping our depth while expanding our fullness.

It's a basic evolutionary practice of transcending and including. As we evolve, we also hold space for the energy that made the leap possible. So as we tap into the back of the body and feel its power we don't then just let it go into the wave. We draw into it and skillfully navigate the waters as the wave hits it's peak and begins to move back towards the ocean or earth it still does with the remembrance of the inner energy it took to draw it's strength from.

For example in a backbend such as Ustrasana (camel) You would open to something bigger and feel the back of the body expand (draw into the ocean) from there keep the ocean buoyant and full and lift up out of it keeping the sides long, the kidneys lifting to support the spine, lifting the heart with the tips of the shoulder blades, feeling the power of the wave curling the shoulders, heart, head and neck all back together--keeping the wave beautifully symmetrical so the spine is one wave of energy. Keeping it not just a wave, but a wave with the support of the ocean. This same principle can help to reduce the bananas in your inversions as well. You want to feel a deep ocean of support before you express the wave of uniqueness in each pose. Something of depth to refine the beauty.

O friend , understand: the body
is like the ocean
rich with hidden treasures.

Open your innermost chamber and light its lamp

-- Mirabai

May we all dive in and find the possibility for great expansion and powerful expression of our innermost treasure!

Be like a duck

2009-05-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

"Try to be like a duck, with its joyful body paddling along in the loving water of the river. Just enjoy that"---Rumi

Our friends in nature are powerful reminders of how to live in the now. Anyone who has an animal companion such as a dog or cat knows how they live moment to moment so fresh and so unique. A dog gets excited to eat every day as if they have never had this food before (even though mine have had the same food for quite some time) Every time the leash gets picked up they get excited, every time I come home they get excited. Nothing gets boring, their world is fresh and alive and in the present. Every time I start to get bored with things in my life I try to connect to this energy and remember that things are only boring if I myself am boring. It's like the rumi poem above--we just have to enjoy the simplicity of our essence--doing exactly what we are doing with a spirit of buoyant contentment.

Peace!

Aligning With Nature

2009-05-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

The Pathless Path to Immortality, Shri Gurudev Mahendranath wrote:

Man is born with an instinct for naturalness. He has never forgotten the days of his primordial perfection, except insomuch as the memory became buried under the artificial superstructure of civilization and its artificial concepts. Sahaja means natural. It not only implies natural on physical and spiritual levels, but on the mystic level of the miraculous. It means that easy or natural of living without planning, designing, contriving, seeking, wanting, striving or intention. What is to come must come of itself.

It is the seed which falls in the ground, becomes seedling, sapling, and then a vast shady tree of wisdom and teachings. The tree grows according to Sahaja, natural and spontaneous in complete conformity with the Natural Law of the Universe. Nobody tells it what to do or how to grow. It has no swadharma or rules, duties and obligations incurred by birth. It has only svabhava - its own inborn self or essence to guide it. Sahaja is that nature which, when established in oneself, bring the state of absolute freedom and peace.

This past weekend I did a workshop on Sahaja within the yoga practice. The session was an invitation to align with nature. Connecting to that place within ourselves that is free of condition and rules of how things "should" be and movement instead towards the living and creative energy inside of us that can give birth to freedom in the body, heart, and soul.

So many of us have so carefully been handed down rules and regulations for all the many expressions of asana. We have come to know our bodies in such rigid and regulated ways. For many the ways in which we have lined up have been forced or contrived and while it looks good, has never really felt good. We have learned so much about the way things are "supposed" to be that we are fearful to stray at all. In essence we have shifted a practice that is born to create freedom to one that has imposed so many rules that have left many fearful to play, change, grow, evolve, and return to and align with nature.

I want to be clear that I think that there are many really wonderful reasons to line up in certain ways. It surely has it's place--especially when we have been so far removed from our nature that we really are so disconnected that we no longer have any intelligence in the body. Things such as learning some basic biomechanical principles are important. At the same time however, it's important to remember that even biomechanical inspired ideas and practices need to be explored to align to the unique sahaja of each person's body and practice (You cannot have cookie cutter approaches to the body when everyone is navigating vessels that are so unique). As practioners we need to be empowered to align with our nature--what shapes make us come to life. Each pose should be like sticking the prong of a plug into a light socket--we light up from it's power and electricity and feel the powerful life flow through us.

Nothing in nature is linear, nothing in nature stands still. Yet in practice so many of us think of that as the goal. To come to a pose, hold it very very still, and some are even being told to keep it rigid. Not only this but if we stray from this form we are doing it "wrong" or worse "you're going to hurt yourself".

Nature is spherical and nature is vibrating dynamically all the time. Even things that appear to be still such as the stones and mountains are teeming with life and vibrating with space and spaciousness.

Aligning with nature means returning to the spherical. Within our bodies recognizing the patterns of nature and moving in ways with our body that mimic nature. Sometimes in modern day yoga classes it feels like modern day construction. We tear down all the nature first and then construct our house, or new building, and then try to put some new nature in to accomodate our new structure. Meanwhile we just displaced thousands of nature's inhabitants and whatever we put in was not in alignment with nature. Same is true for the body. First we must listen to our Svabhava--from deep listening hear and feel the deep life force within and allow movement to erupt into the dance of yoga. Stillness does have its place, but in service to the recognition of the life intelligence inside from which we breath and move.

Emerson says "Everything in nature contains all the power of nature, everything is made of one hidden stuff" Our practice then is to awaken to the "stuff". We invite the power of the waves, the flight of the bird, the power of the mountain, the speed of the cheetah, the strength of the wind, whatever quality we wish to align with that in that moment can liberate our body and open our heart.

Movement then in the practice is not about forcing, controlling, subjugating our body, but rather on returning to the natural state of sahaja--free of condition and just as spherical as one wave crashing down into the other.

"Rocking, undulating, swaying,
Carried by rhythm,
Cherish the streaming energy
Flooding your body
As a current of the divine.

Oh radiant one,
Ride the waves of ecstatic motion
Into a sublime fusion of passion and peace."

--Radiance Sustra 60 translated by Lorin Roche

May we all be inspired towards a living practice rooted deep in our svabhava!

Peace!

Enter the Fire

2009-05-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

As I finish up my Midwest workshops a new realization was sparked in one of the fire workshops I was teaching. I often speak of fire as the element that helps to burn through whatever separates you from you. Whatever it is that prevents you from realizing what your deepest gifts are to the world and from giving those gifts freely to the world. Fire when you consciously invoke it and navigate it can help to open you to the truth of who you are and give you strength to birth it into the world.

Entering the fire is also about the commitment to evolve. I wholeheartedly believe that we experience limitation and challenge to remember to expand. As we bump up against fear, limitation, lack, challenge--therein lies freewill. The universe gives us a choice to either give up--or burn. If we choose the fire we remember and connect to that aspect of ourselves that is Flame already and remember that the fire cannot hurt us--but can only transform us. With our whole heart we then enter the fire for the fire is the present moment--capable of evolving us. Free from past and not bound by the future--we become creatures of the present moment with all the fertile potency of fire.

"There is no greater weapon than the human soul on fire"--

I have been so pleased to see so many of you willing to be consumed by the flames. It is an act of profound bravery to allow oneself to step into the fire fully. From outside--the intensity of the fire can sound and look very harsh, painful, and scary. So many stay outside of the fire for the fear of change is to great to bear and even if where they are in life isn't truly where they need to be--they stay outside of the the flame. The truth is though if you enter the fire you get cooked in the best possible way. However, staying outside the fire you still feel the heat--and resisting fire is like resiting arrest-- it ain't going to do you any good and will keep you in your own personal hell/jail for a very long time.

Great change takes great courage. The Latin root of the word courage is "cour", which means heart, and it is with heart that we move into the fire. The head would never allow such change to take place. Only through the heart can we live a life of transformation. The head is rarely open to life in the now--it's constantly seeking to be entertained and to drudge up the past(and play in it's mud) or create fantastic futures. While we need the mind to navigate the world--the heart is the key to a dynamic, full, and powerful life. The heart is open to new information and the heart is the most powerful energetic and biological part of who we are. It is from there then that we must approach the limitations and from there open to life fully.

When we allow ourselves to be set on fire--we do become the most powerful weapon on earth. This weapon is not set on the destruction of our fellow man, nor the earth and her inhabitants. This weapon is set on destroying illusions of separateness. Just as fire within the individual helps to burn through what separates us from us, when the whole world lights up from all of our fires, the collective fire will burn through what separates us from all others. Then we will truly have a fire from which a new world can be formed

Burn on and spread like wildfire!

I don't care!

2009-05-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Well you should. At least you should try. The research done by the Heart Math Institute has shown that care is one of the most powerful core heart feelings (those that help to boost the immune system and keep a healthy balance in the body's autonomic nervous system--see previous post).

It is common for many of us to think that we don't have time to care, or that we care too much already, or that we won't know how to care--but the truth is we can't afford to not care.

Caring is like wildfire--once lit up it spreads--creating a cascade of uplifting and regenerative energy that permeates our world and those we touch. The care we put out comes right back into us--feeding and nourishing every cell of our being.

One of the best ways to express care is through touch. Hugging, holding, caressing all while holding space for a core heart feeling has tremendous benefits for both giver and receiver. Research has shown that when we touch someone the electrical energy of heart is transmitted to the other person's brain and vice verse. We literally shift to match each others energy.

This aspect of touch also applies to our interaction with plants and animals. Studies have been done with animals that report that the mortality rate of cardiac patients with pets was roughly one third of that of those with out them. It has also been found that kids with pets have a higher degree of empathy.

One thing is for certain without care, or the need to care, our lives lack meaning and our systems literally begin to shut down. In a state of care however our body illuminates, radiates, and we reap the wonderful benefits of supreme aliveness.

Besides touch we can send care to others through sending out love and compassion to them. You can sit down, or even while in the moment of doing whatever it is you are doing just focus on your heart and bring that person, pet, or animal into mind and focus on the energy of love, compassion, appreciation--whatever you can connect to and send it to them. Visualize them receiving it and feel the response in your body of giving that love and care. Soak it in to every cell of your being and do this for as long as you like. Whether you know it or not you just boosted your IgA levels (immune system) and brought your heart into coherence which just made you that much healthier in every major system of your body.

This is a great thing to do in those moments where the world feels overwhelming and you just feel hopeless as to how to create change or help someone. The homeless family you pass on the street, the suffering dog chained to the fence, the victims of war torn countries, the friend who lost their job. There are many things which we just cannot do anything about other than just bear witness. You can compare that to the situation that Jesus was once in in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to god to take his burden away and wanting nothing more from his disciples to bear witness to his suffering. They couldn't stop it nor could he--but he still needed their care and support to face the challenge. Same thing could be compared to the last installment of Harry Potter as Harry went to face his demise--Dumbledore knew the importance of care and support in those moments and gave harry a stone that connected him to all the loved ones he had lost to help guide him into his final challenge against Voldermort.

We need to feel cared for just as much as we need to care for others. It extends to causes and issues we care about as well. What we need to pay attention to is that we don't over care. We need to remember the lessons from the Bhagavad Gita and to not attach ourselves to the fruit of our action. We can care without worrying about the results of the care. Give generously without overindulging the ego's need to be recognized or get something back. Remember the act of caring if sincere already benefits your health--what a reward! Plus it just feels good to give.

A nice practice to engage in is Metta Meditation,or Tonglen. These two meditation practices really connect to the heart and help to give out care, love and compassion. Both are also really good if you are in a place where you find yourselve working with a lot of anger towards the world or others. The Heart Math Foundation also has many techniques--check out their website and most important pick the book up "The Heart Math Solution".

Here is a link to practice Metta

And one for Tonglen

and again Heart Math

Love is the answer

2009-05-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

"If you give your life as wholehearted response to love, then love will wholeheartedly respond to you"-- Marianne Williamson

It is a pattern that many of us enter into because it is addictive--the high of negativity. All it takes is one negative thought and then BAM it spirals into the next creating a wave of fear and a drought that sucks all the happiness dry from around us. The Course in Miracles says we achieve so little because we have such undisciplined minds. What that is referring to is that the cascade of negativity that runs rampant through us isn't the problem--that we cannot control, what is the problem is our reaction to it (or for that matter our lack of reaction to it).

It is our tendency to lead with our wounds (leaving the mind unchecked) that has been referred to as woundology. In every moment our mind is racing to discover what is wrong with this situation, this person, this moment. It doesn't relent until it has found not just one but many and even then it needs it's high to stay up and can find even more. Left unchecked this spiral towards the dark leaves us in a pit of disenchantment with the world--far removed from love, and far removed from our powerful creative spirit and vision of our heart.

The good news is that we don't have to stay within the spiral towards the dark, for our nature is light. The dark is a part of us too, but it's the part of us we need to remember that we have freewill. It's the limitation we need to remember how much we can expand. We can remain in the dark, or we can remember that we are love. Love when given a chance to create--shapes our lives in such a way that opens us up to more beauty in the world. It's remembering that the heart much more than metaphor is our connection to the light.

"There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the highest heavens--this is the light shines in our heart"---Upanshads

If we so choose we can shift our consciousness from the wounds of the mind to the light of the heart. From the heart we can then return back to the mind and from the light darkness cannot remain.

Rumi says "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built up against it"

When we live in the dark--every thought of darkness literally takes the life out of us. The research being conducted by the Heart Math Institute has shown that every negative thought we think throws the nervous system out of balance producing heart rhythms that appear jagged and disordered. Not only does it make the heart rhythm incoherent but elevates the level of cortisol in the body. High levels of cortisol have been shown to impair immune function, reduce glucose utilization, increase bone loss, reduce muscle mass, inhibit skin growth and repair, increase fat accumulation, and destroy brain cells.

This isn't good news for those who choose to live in the absence of love. What's more is that it's a powerful reminder that we are the ones who are responsible not only for what put out into the world, but also how we react to what the world puts into us!

With both the words of Rumi and Marianne we are reminded that we first need not to seek for love but look at the barriers we have built up against it--moment by moment how and why are we choosing not to love and receive love? Then from that place remembering that if we feel as though we are not being loved, not receiving love--are we really giving and putting love out to all those who cross our path--and even to ourselves?

A quote often recited by Marianne is "Love is what we are born with, fear is what we have learned here". Love is a radical shift that only the strong of mind and brave of heart choose to make. When the whole world is stuck in victim mode and the ideology that is common is woundology then it takes tremendous vision to choose love.

We have to be as committed to love as others are to hate and destruction! The Heart Math Institute's research into the heart has shown that the heart’s electromagnetic field is 5000 times greater than the brain. The field not only permeates every cell in the body but also radiates outside of us. It can be measured up to 8-10 feet away from us. When we are in a state of connection to the heart such as in a feeling of care, appreciation, or love--we can literally pull all the body's systems into state of coherence creating a cascade of well being though the body that revitalizes all major systems--boosting our immune system and heart health. Not only this but since it is a field that extends outside of the body we literally affect everyone else around us as well--affecting their brain and heart waves.

Every thought we think gives us a choose--do we respond with love or fear. Cumulative fear based living literally kills us (as shown by the heart math research)--and it affects everything around us destructively. Do we respond with love which is harder and takes more discipline? Are we willing to be committed to love? Are we willing to be as passionate about love so that in every moment we ground ourselves in the energy of the heart--bring to our focus a feeling of love, care, or appreciation?

"We have not come into this exquisite world to hold ourselves hostage from love. Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings, Run like hell, my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart"--Hafiz

What is your vision--love or fear? If love are you willing to give your life as whole hearted response? If so your mantra is "I am love and my only response to this situation is love". Try it today. Start your day off in the heart. Close your eyes and take both hands on top of your heart. Take several deep breaths and connect to your heart beat feeling it all through the body. From here invoke a heart quality such as appreciation/gratitude, love, or care. Breath it deep into your body. Feel it all over and remember this feeling. Notice how the body responds, notice how the mind responds. Stay here, dwell in the heart, keep inviting more heart qualities in. Do this often and stay in the vision and leadership of your heart. I am love and my only response is love.

Peace and Love to you all!

For more info on the amazing research of the Heart Math Institute click here www.heartmath.org

Also stay tuned for my new book "Heart Fire Yoga: Practices to Awaken, Inspire, and Transform Your Heart" I am diligently working on it and hope for it to be completed by the fall.

Here we go

2009-05-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have connected on this pathway with all of you. I have missed coming to this place to share with you and look forward to reengaging this avenue over the summer. I have had quite an adventurous few months and have just come to accept that maybe my life is just meant to be adventurous for now. I don't think that is in my path for the time being to settle down in one place, but rather to open to the guidance of the universe as it takes me into connections with people, places, and groups all over the country.

I have had some amazing times traveling out west, down south, and now back through the Midwest. I have enjoyed meeting new people and new yoga communities. What inspires me is that while the places are different the intention of the practice to help transform our lives from merely existing--to thriving into creative, innovative, and inspiring beings is the same.

My home base for the time being is going to be Houston TX. From here I plan to launch a series of new projects including a book, some "you tube" videos to help guide you into some radical expansions in your practice, as well as some innovative meditation trainings and new yoga workshops.

I look forward to this period of intense creativity and hope that I can share the work with you in the upcoming months. Stay tuned to my website for all the details and in the meantime I hope to see you at my up coming workshops in the Midwest (Chicago and Ann Arbor coming up next). If you are in Texas--look for me at Yoga Rasa www.yogarasa.net in Houston.

If you would like for me to visit your yoga community let me know :)

108

2009-03-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

What Does 108 mean?

For those who are curious about this reference in classes--here is tons of info mostly at the bottom...Pretty interesting stuff.

The beauty of balance

2009-03-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

“God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one” ~ Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Our practice can serve as a fertile learning ground to explore the depth of opposites within us. Rather than seeking the right way of being we can expand into the fullness of our BEING by touching the possibility of every movement, breath, feeling, experience and find the balance within the full range of expression.

So often we can get stuck in patterns and habits and beliefs of right and wrong as well as judgements about pleasure and pain that we don't open fully to what is, yet alone what could be. It's like we are being held prisoner from potentialities and worlds within us that have yet to be discovered all because we afraid to touch the hidden places within us.

If we let ourselves touch both end of the poles of sensation, feeling, thoughts, everything--then we KNOW what it is we are. We open to expansion--we open up to flight. Notice this week when you get turned from one "feeling" to the next if you resist and can you open to the path and let both your wings be born from experience so that your flight and your journey this week is one rich with depth, integrity, and fullness.

Sweat Your Prayers-Ishvara pranidhana

2009-02-27T00:41:00.000-08:00

There is nothing quite like letting it all out on the mat. You step onto the mat and you let go and in the letting go you become a conduit for grace--you enter the flow. As you open you are opened.

Pranidhana means to surrender and Ishvara is spirit, or God. In practice it is the remembrance that we can allow ourselves to be supported by stepping out of the way and opening up to something bigger. The "Bigness" surprise surprise is actually not outside of us anyway--we just have to step out of our OWN way. There is this power far greater then most of us ever touch that is in us so deeply-- woven powerfully into every fiber of our being. It is the programming in us for greatness and when we are aligned with it we are the embodied GREATNESS.

We are all much more capable of magnificence and far more able to perform magic in life and on the mat.

The author Starhawk says it best I think:

Energy is ecstasy. When we drop the barrier and let power pour through us, it floods the body, pulsing through every nerve, arousing every artery, coursing like a river that cleanses as it moves. In the eye of the storm, we rise on the winds that roar through mind and body, throbbing a liquid note as the voice pours out shimmering honey in waves of golden light, that as they pass, leave peace. No drug can take us so high, no thrill pierce us so deep, because we have felt the essence of all delight, the heart of joy, the end of desire. Energy is love and love is magic!

The Magic show begins though when we allow ourselves that deep surrender. If you're clenching, holding, blocking, resisting in your practice--you're blocking the pulse of energy that can take you to that sweet shimmering place that Starhawk so beautifully describes.

The first step in practice is to feel before you act. To notice what is and to feel the body, heart, mind opening up to vast spaciousness. The way to surrender is to deeply feel the breath and notice it. To ride the crescendo of each breath until you feel synced up with the larger current. In that larger current your body responds to the pulse and then you are in the Spanda Shakti

The practice invites us to become more of ourselves--to tap into the depth of our fullness--to reveal more light, to relish in the radiance, and to expand consciously into greatness. We just have to be ready to open and to surrender. You ready to sweat your prayers?

What's your story?

2009-02-03T23:01:00.001-08:00

It all begins with the breath. Nothing is more important or fundamental than the breath in practice. It's one of the easy ways to be empowered in practice--because while you may not have all the say in the sequence, intensity, etc--you have a say in how attentive and responsive to the breath you are. The breath is the foundation from which everything else is built around. It's what allows a practice that could form around aggression be infused with a sweetness and nurturing that only a deep and spacious breath can provide. It is what grounds and connect us to the creative pulse that animates all things.

Think of it like this. The breath is like the formation of words. From this the poses become animated expression of the words--sentences begin to form. From this the poses flow together to create a story--the story of you in any given moment. Unlike other art forms the well spring from which you draw your creativity is endless. --the breath is always there waiting patiently for you to notice it--to create with it--until you take your last breath.

What kind of story are you writing now? A larger question is--what are you willing to write now that you know it's within your capacity to craft your story.

Here is a practice for you this week. Notice how the breath starts off as you begin your practice, and then moment to moment remember you can harness a different breath--constructing new pathways of connection. Your willingness to open to and create with the breath is all in your hands. Your practice can become poetry in motion.

Breath freely!

I also want to direct you to the first few meditations in the Radiance sutras on breath...here is one:

The Radiance Sutras have this to say:

"The life essence carries on its play
through the pulsing rhythm
of outward and inward movement.
This is the ceaseless throb, the rhythm of life -
terrifying in its eternity, exquisite in its constancy.

The inhalation, the return movement of breath,
sustains life.
The outgoing breath
purifies life.
We breathe out the old air, the old thoughts, the old feelings.

These are the two poles
between which respiration goes on unceasingly.
Between them is every quality you could ever desire.

As the breath turns from in to out,
and again as the breath
curves from out to in -
through both these turns, absorb intensity."

(the first few sutras have beautiful breath meditations--go to www.lorinroche.com for more info on the sutras)

The Invitation to Burn

2009-01-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

Yoga is hard. It doesn't really matter whether you are "burning" your thighs in a warrior pose or burning through old habits and "memories" that need to die away. It's all hard. Change is hard, but most importantly I think allowing ourselves to feel is hard.

There is a passage from the Radiance sutras from the recently translated Lorin Roche version, sutra 30 that goes " Imagine the entire world consumed by flame. Stay steady, do not waver, As the fire transmutes form into light. The Soul reveals itself to itself as Radiance. "

When we practice we can invoke the alchemy of fire to do as the sutra describes. In fact I read this and think simultaneously of my inner "worlds" as well as my outer experience of the world. What would happen if it all just burned away. It's a nice practice to engage in. What would REALLY happen if it all was just consumed by flames.

In our practice of yoga we have that chance to burn if we so choose. We can see our whole practice light up and rise into a flaming inferno of change. The question is how thirsty are we for fire? Can we allow ourselves to be like dry wood and literally allow ourselves to be saturated and danced into by the sacred flame itself?

When you feel a burning sensation that come from the deeper work of physical yoga--invite yourself into the intentional flame--go there and do the work maybe even using an intention--I am opening up to flame and let yourself burn areas in your Psyche that need to burn. You can also do intentional healing, like when you feel that fire--send it to somewhere in the body that needs it. Like maybe you have a sore throat and you have fire in your core--send that fire up to your throat. The possibilities are endless. The symbolic becomes the real.

Burning is learning is a quote I like, and it follows, cremation is education. Yoga is an invitation to burn. You can of course just skim the surface, you may even dance a toe or two in the fire, but if you choose you can sit down in the fire and let yourself be drenched and consumed by the fire.

May you burn brightly.

All we need is love?

2008-12-19T10:17:00.000-08:00

"Love makes life very simple. If we take seriously the idea that love is the only thing that needs to be changed in any situation, life can become quite simple. Life becomes a series of opportunities to learn to love more. We need not concern ourselves with matters like wrong and right because the only thing that is important is how much love we are expressing through our actions. Only we can determine that for ourselves, and there is no need to defend ourselves if we find that little love is being expressed through our actions. That fact becomes the very thing we need to love. Life is learning to love."-----Gay Hendricks Learning To Love Yourself

I began to read this book as part of my own healing journey. My heart warmed as I read this quote. I was just thinking could it really be this simple and my heart replied yes. It was so refreshing to connect to this idea, more importantly I am excited to live it. What would my life look like if I was more loving and if my only response to any given situation was love?

What would my interactions with students be like, what would my cuing be like, what would my practice look like if everything had it's orgin from this love vibe?

There is a quote that says something like "only from the heart can you touch the sky" I am going to see if it's true.

My love to all of you.

Ann Arbor--Here I come!

2008-12-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

January 9-11th 2009

It's been a long time since I've been back. I hope to see many old friends and also hope to meet some new yogi's

www.a2yoga.com

Friday:

Candle Light Vinyasa Class $15

Sat

Beginner:

Expanding Your Vision-Arm Balancing With Courage $30

Sometimes in practice we don't do just because we think we can't. In
this workshop we will expand our vision of what our practice is for
and open up to something even larger than what we thought possible.
You can do arm balances and in this workshop you learn how and create
steps to begin your journey into the full poses over time. Bring your
enthusiasm and willingness to expand your vision and potential for
greatness in your practice.

Intermediate

The Freedom of Flight- Arm balance Extravaganza! $30

Take your arm balances to the next level. Feel the joy of discovery as
you build more capacity within your backbody and core to sustain
longer holds, playful sequences, and dynamic arm balancing within your
practice. This is for those who have the basics down and can perform
crow, and can sustain a strong plank and down dog. You will need a
strong foundation to play in this workshop 

Sunday

One Giant Leap--The Path towards Hanumanasana (Splits) $30

When facing the challenge of moving into the splits and other
difficult poses--do your cringe? Do you think "yeah right"! Begin to
cultivate a more friendly and encouraging vibe towards this amazing
opportunity to leap into your own power and expansion. This pose and
the path towards your giant leap is a beautiful evolutionary journey.
The class/workshop will systematically and playfully guide you towards
tools and movements to open up the hips, groins, hamstrings, and
thighs to create space to help you make one giant leap within your
practice. Come find out how to embody the playfulness, power, and
magic of the heroic Hanuman.

Long time

2008-12-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm back. It's been a long time since I have felt drawn to write. I have had a period of contraction so to speak and now feel like I am opening and expanding.

I love the quote "Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings." -- Rumi

Sometimes we need to hit our reboot button and let our system stop running all it's programs. I needed to do just that. I had to many programs running and not enough energy to support it. So now I feel like it's time for me to begin to slowly allow my newly refreshed programs to run again. Hopefully entering into the world with more fire and passion and life to give to all of you.

I look forward to seeing you in class and to writing more on the blog in time.

Peace!

Chicago here I come!

2008-12-05T15:49:00.001-08:00

Hope to see you all in chicago!!!!!!

Sat, Dec 13 : 1:00-4:00pm $40($45 after Dec 5) Sun, Dec 14 : 10am-1pm $40($45 after Dec 5) Both Sessions$70($80 after Dec 5)

Sat, Dec 13, 1:00-4:00pm The Freedom of Flight- Arm balance Extravaganza!Take your arm balances to the next level. Feel the joy of discovery as you build more capacity within your backbody and core to sustain longer holds, playful sequences, and dynamic arm balancing within your practice. This is for those who have the basics down and can perform bakasana (crow), and can sustain a strong plank and down dog. You will need a strong foundation to play in this workshop.

Sun, Dec 14, 10am-1pm Spanda Sahaja Yoga--Practice and PlaySpanda is a Sanskrit term for the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. Spanda can be translated to mean vibration, movement, or motion, referring to waves of activity issuing forth from an unseen Source of spontaneous expression. Sahaja means spontaneous natural joy of a divine nature. This practice combining these two naturally arising energies takes us to a playful, vibrant, and ecstatic expression of movement within our practice. Bring your passion for creativity, your desire to open and to be awakened to the sacred pulse within.

You can register at moksha

Amazing!

2008-11-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

I am totally digging this book I just got by Lorin Roche "Meditation Made Easy" . I have read some of Lorin's work before and his translations of the vijnana bhairava tantra (Radiance sutras). IThis book teaches meditation from a tantric approach. The book teaches meditation the way my heart feels it should be taught. I would encourage all of you to pick it up and give it a shot--especially those who have taken my Art of Mindful living class before--i think it will pick up where we left off and even take you further into new depths.

Check out his site too it's filled with all sorts of good info!

www.lorinroche.com

Heart Moved

2008-11-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Awake my dear
Be kind to your sleeping heart.

Take it out into the vast fields of light
and let it breathe.

Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz

I just spent the last week with Shiva Rea at Esalen which is near Big Sur, CA, which I think has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The workshop was on Living Tantra with a big emphasis on allowing ourselves to live deeply from the heart and to be "heart moved".

Most of the class time was spent on setting deep intention for the asana. Most days the three hour time slot allocated for asana had just about an hour for asana with the rest on intention setting, ritual, and dance. Shiva wanted to create space to liberate the "diving in" to asana and to set a fertile ground for there to be greater potency for the asana's to bloom open from our heart's expansive energy.

I am one who usually loves the three hour asana only workshops as it really allows time and space to explore the more complicated and exotic asanas. There is nothing wrong about that at all. Shiva connected to another side of me this week that was ready for something different because all the classes were really simple and rather than spending tons of time building sequences towards complicated poses--most of the time was spent deepening the easier asanas, repetition of asana, and then infusing every movement with deep intentionality with spoken words, chanting, breath work, and inner yoga.

It was different than anything I have done with her in the past and different than most yoga workshops. I have to say I really like it for where I am right now. I think the workshop in which we just spend time on asana is great. I think building up to and working on creative asanas is a great way to give the expansive energy in us an opportunity to create and grow. I also think that evolution of asana is deeply connected to the unfolding of our spirit and heart into more vibrant and powerful expressions. I also think that sometimes we need to nurture our soil so to speak so that the seeds of asana can grow fully into a bountiful harvest.

Being heart moved to me means allowing yourself time to tend to the hearts flame. To be inspired and excited about life and the opportunity this body and world have to offer and what we have to offer it. To live life passionately is the greatest gift we can give to the source that gave us life.

Feel into your practice and notice if you feel inspired. Notice if the movements are passionate and exciting. Is there just focus on the form without filling the form with an inner expression from the heart. Is there a cynicism as you read this about "living from your heart"? What kind of ritual or action could re nourish your soil? What could make your practice sweeter and more nurturing? What could allow you to feel heart moved in your life and practice?

"The time has come to turn your heart into a temple of fire." — Rumi

Spanda and the birth of asana

2008-10-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

The topic of spanda has been covered here before, but I was inspired today to approach it from a different viewpoint.

In the context of yoga asana practice we all can be protective of concepts of right and wrong as teachers and practitioners. Whenever I feel myself needing to protect my viewpoint or hold on to what I think is the right way--I remember the quote "If you see the Buddha kill the Buddha" meaning that if you think you got it right then boy are you in for it :) You can truly only be right in the moment and then after that the next moment opens up and you have to evolve into it--no holding on to what was or the ideas or rightness that was that moments--each moment has it's own "rightness"

I like the quote from rumi---

"Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there."

I think that if we are in Spanda we can't go wrong--because we're not seeking "right" but rather living energy, spirit. From that place a practice emerges that is no longer a practice but an experience of being that living energy.

"Spanda is a Sanskrit term for the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. Spanda can be translated to mean vibration, movement, or motion, referring to waves of activity issuing forth from an unseen Source of spontaneous expression. On a more personal level, spanda refers to consciousness as it orients through thought and intention to organize into authentic action. You may experience spanda as a desire to live according to your own innermost urging, act in line with your interest, follow your curiosity, and attend to your body's natural rhythms as they harmonize within the grander scale of natural life seasons and cycles.

Living in a way that keeps us connected to our core beliefs and desires brings health, stamina, and joy. When we lose our creative "spark" or spanda, disconnecting from our own personal expression of vitality, we lose energy, focus, and a sense of well-being and may eventually fall ill. Connecting with what drives us, feeling that presence in our bodies, is also when we are most aligned with the natural spontaneity that defines life processes." from www.spandayoga.com

I also like how in the book "Bringing Your Yoga To Life" by Donna Fahri, she says this "Every asana that has come down to us today began with an authentic inner impulse that was felt and experienced by someone at some time and then recorded so that it might be shared. Literally translated as "comfortable seat" the word asana means to relax into the consciousness of life as it manifests through the expression of each posture." (page 87)

Thar inner impluse she is writing about is Spanda. So even if you take shape in a traditional pose--the idea is not to express it the same every time, nor to mimic the teacher--but to get inside and feel the spanda and express the living energy you feel. Try it see what happens. Begin to notice the evolving shapes your body makes. As long as you are moving slow and mindfully and listening (big one here) to the feedback your body is giving you then you will never hurt yourself practicing (living) this way.

Try it in your old familiar friends and see what begins to emerge--who knows maybe you'll even create a new asana!

Peace!

Make It Happen

2008-10-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Connecting to the Rhythm

2008-10-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

"Everything in nature contains all the power of nature, everything is made of one hidden stuff" --Emerson

How powerful it is to remember that within us is the same life force that animates all things everywhere. Emerson reminds us that there is not a single thing in nature that does not have that animating power. The power of the wave is in us, the flight of the eagle is in us, the strength of a hurricane is in us. How we channel that life energy is up to us of course and how it manifests within each of us is truly unique and awe inspiring.

In the practice of our asana and breath work we can begin to glimpse this "hidden" stuff and begin to reveal this energy that has been concealed and channel it towards greater realms of creativity and brilliance. The more we recognize this energy the more this energy reveals itself to us. It can begin to manifest through the power of our spoken words, the energy of our touch, the strength of our intention and visions, the living energy within our eyes, the creativity of our thoughts, the bravery of our hearts, and the courage of our being.

The power of nature while different within its various aspects such as plant, animal, wind, wave, gravity, us--has a common unifying presence which we can recognize as the inner impulse towards life--creation. It's the seedling seeking sun, it's the touch of lovers, the flow of practice, the breath inside the breath.....

So what is to be done?

I'm suggesting a return to a primordial language.

One that exists as the deepest knowledge and expression that humanity knows.

It predates spoken language, it has its roots in the emergence of awe.

It is present ill everyone, as an elemental music and reflection of molecular and stellar movement.

It is a genetic design built into leaf patterns and the bobbing of sea horses.

It is eminently present to children, we have educated it out of them.

But it is the story of our place in the universe and we must begin to tell that story again.

What we are losing is our ability to speak to the hole.

The songs of celebration, the poetry of praise."

(Author unknown)
from Bringing Yoga to Life by Donna Farhi

May you all have great revelations within your practices and may those revelations lead you deeper into the song of celebration and poetry of praise.

Peace and love to you all!

The Yoga of Food

2008-10-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

The issue of food has been coming up a lot lately so I thought I would give some resources and suggestions. Nothing we do has a greater impact on our health and the environment as the food choices we make. From what we eat, to where we buy it from, and whether it's filled with harsh chemicals, genetically modified, fair trade, or organic --all makes a difference on our health and that of our local economy and the environment.

This is tricky because food is such a sensitive topic that covers a broad range of issues along the lines of economics, personal preference, environment, health, and animal welfare, etc. When we educate ourselves and really see things as they are on this issue we will all begin to make great decisions for us and our families that work for where we are along all those issues.

Rather than preach about it (which is what I feel I have been doing lately) I'd like to ask that all of you who read this blog start looking in to this issue more closely. It seems that if we are doing this deeper work of yoga to make ourselves healthier then it would be fair to take a look at our food choices and the impact our choices have on the world around us.

Check out this site: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

see if you can order the book and read it. Not only is it a good read but very eye opening.

Rent this Documentary The Future of Food

(you can also see on you tube)

Read -Healthy at a Hundred

and

Food revolution

and

The China Study

I would love to hear if any of you take this up and what you think.

Peace and Love

Being the present moment

2008-10-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Eckhart Tolle's book "A New Earth" and have really enjoyed the overall message of the book. It's always nice to be reminded of truth as it's spoken in many different ways through different teachers. While it wasn't exactly in line with how I have been experiencing life through my study of Tantra--it was good to be grounded in the message that the present moment is the only thing that is real.

My favorite moment from the book was when he talked about allowing ourselves to be OK with stripping away our "identity" and to be fine with not knowing who we are or what we are doing. Rather than finding who we are from what we do or what we have accomplished, to find the deeper truth that we are really the stillness and the space that is surrounding all of it.

My favorite quote from the book, although not from Eckhart is "It has been said that stillness is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation.” I find that to be so true. Words and language lose through translation the depth, peace and space that can be found from stillness. An example he gave in the book is just look up at the stars at night when you can--especially in a place that doesn't have light pollution and just feel the sense of awe about how much space there really is. What we actually experience in our day to day is so small compared to all that is around us. Even what we see as space is so limited as there are things our eyes and our telescopes just can't see. He then goes on to say how that space is the same space that can be found within us. I have heard that said before in a book by Marianne Williamson in which she said the Universe is holographic meaning that everything contained within the whole is present in every piece--so literally we are what the stars are-so above so below.

It's nice to remember that spaciousness is what we are and while we have form even within the form our atoms and molecules have so much space between them. So while it appears that we are quite solid--we are actually much more spacious than solid. Our solidity is an illusion. The more we come to accept this--the more freedom it brings to us. I love applying it to the crowdedness I feel around me, in my body, in my life, and as soon as I remember this spaciousness my identity shifts from limitation to space. I do this in my practice as I find myself trying to get into poses to just be still for a moment, listen, feel, and grow into the space and realize that it's infinite. The boundaries of my body are an illusion--I am space. It changes everything because while my "body" in its form may have a boundary, my inner body which is formless and spacious does not. This is where I feel the yoga really gets interesting is through becoming more and more aware of that spacious place and moving and expanding from that.

I also like how paying attention to this inner body awareness completely grounds me in the present moment--which is the only thing that is real. Play with this idea in your life this week. Notice how often you are not in your body and just try to feel awareness in one part like your hands and just keep attention there. Notice how the mind takes you all over the place, and keep bringing yourself to "beingness" notice how often you want to be entertained and distracted and try to bring yourself to stillness and just allow all your senses to be drawn into that deeper listening. You are not trying to do anything--you are just allowing yourself to be. Notice how often your try to define yourself and what you base your worth on, and see if your worth can be based on the stillness you feel and the beingness, rather than on the doing and accomplishments. How freeing! We don't have to do--just be!

The best advice from the book I think was when asked what workshops this student should attend Eckhart replied that any of them would be great, however, all they would really need to do is pay attention to their breath as often as they could for one year and they would be transformed more than they would from attending any lecture, hearing any teaching, or doing anything else (and it's free!). That's a good challenge for us all--pay attention to your breath as often as you can when you notice your breath you are in the moment--the only thing that is real.....

Peace!

Thank you Chicago

2008-10-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to express my thanks and gratitude for all who came to the workshops this past weekend in Chicago. I had so much fun connecting with old friends, and meeting new adventurous yogis as well. I look forward to harnessing more powerful energy with you all into the future. I know for sure I will be back in March, but I may be coming back before then too---so stay tuned for more info about that.

Peace,

Michael

Good Stuff here

2008-09-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

http://sattvafitness.com/NoDenial.pdf

This is good--gives really concrete steps to help the planet and you out :)

Some other good reads right now:

Healthy at a 100 by John Robbins

Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight- Thom Hartmann

Passion For Peace

2008-09-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity this past weekend to take part in the Global Mala in LA. My body is still feeling the ritual movement that thousands took part in all over the world of 108 sun salutes. It was easy to accomplish with the expert guidance of such gifted teachers as Shiva Rea, and Saul David-Raye as well as live kirtan by one of my favs Donna Delory.

My favorite moment though was the Friday night ceremony/speech given by Andrew Harvey
who gave a wake up call to all in attendance. Andrew is passionate about peace and life. His speech was infused with the passion of Rumi and his message was lit by the fire of the divine itself. I have felt a stirring my soul for quite some time now that the world as we know it is coming to an end. I haven't had the words to describe how and why I felt this way but in my heart I sensed that how we live and the conditions on the planet are just not sustainable anymore for life to survive much longer. Andrew had a much more articulate way of saying this and in fact gave support and advice on what we can actually do.

Andrew kind of said what I thought--that there is no way to escape this "death" to the way things are. Like all deaths this one is going to be painful and we all might not survive this dark night of soul so to speak. What he said though as guidance is to embrace our sacred practice and to dwell deep within our source of love and to remain true to that love. That no matter what happens to keep helping others and awakening our compassion for the coming times. The best advice I thought was to search deep in your heart to find what are you most passionate about and to use whatever energy you have to spare to act locally to help that cause/group out. You don't have to solve everything--just give what you can to one thing fully. If we all do that--maybe this dark night won't be as painful.

Transformation is not easy ever. As I have mentioned before about the fire element--which this coming time is symbolic of--fire destroys before it creates. We have to just allow ourselves to be open to the flames. Remembering that sometimes there are more important things than whether or not "we" survive. What matters most I think is how we live and how deeply we love. To not wait to love as deeply as we can right now, however we can. If you feel you are holding back any love right now---please use your practice to awaken your heart and set it on fire.

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

This quote was spoken at the global mala and it's one I have loved and explored many times. We are at that point where our creativity and ingenuity can spark a revolution of the human heart. I am not sure how this "death" will take place but as it begins and as it progresses I want to be part of the fire. I want all who have crossed my path to help me light this fire. In your practice touch your heart and commit to giving your energy out to those who need it. In all areas of your life start living fully and giving your passion out deeply in what you do. To your friends, neighbors, family--give them love like you never have before. Think of ways to extend yourself to a cause you can support--ask yourself what am I withholding and why--what is my deepest gift to give the world right now. Most importantly look at the world. Stop ignoring what's happening. Don't pretend that everything is ok. Take a good look at the world, your habits, and how you cooperate with the structures that are ruining the world. How can you support businesses and structures that are trying to create change?

Set your life on fire and surround yourself by those to fan your flames!--rumi

Love and peace to you all!

Intention/Prayer For The World Today

2008-09-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

May all of our hearts be inspired to greatness in which acts of kindness and compassion replace fear and destruction.

May any act of contempt or hatred be lifted from the desire of any mind and be replaced instead with the impulse to create beauty and community with others.

May any one who has fallen far from the human family and the connection to earth be brought back into the fold with welcome arms without judgement or condemnation.

May we all strive to see the good and work hard to lift up those who are struggling, angry, and oppressed.

May every thought and action from all who are willing to create a better world be a light to cast out any shadows aimed at stopping the rise of love and peace to power.

May we all remember that this is no time to be humble but rather to be as bold and as bright and as brilliant as we can be. The world needs our light, and may we all commit to shine even if we don't know how yet.

May we all be led to authentic paths that help us create a better today.

May we all remember no matter what happens everything is linked, everything is one, and that everything deeply matters, now and forever.

And may we all step into a more courageous heart filled expression of our life and may that help everyone we meet take the necessary leap towards peace in all aspects of their life.

Peace Peace Peace

Namaste

How can we be lighter?

2008-09-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

This is the question I am playing with in my own practice right now. As I make transitions between poses, as I set my hands and feet into earth, and as I invert, how can it all be done lightly and with minimal effort. The question is--What is really necessary to make this happen? What needs to work, and what can be soft?

As you begin your practice this week take time to first notice the energy flowing in your body. Where do you feel strength? Where in the body do you feel light? Are there places that feel heavy and stuck? Where are they? As you begin to notice these things direct your breath to the places that feel light. From the places that feel light and strong feel each breath growing that lightness and strength. Visualize the breath filling the body with more lightness and strength from the reservoir of that energy within you already--enhancing the growth of it as well as stimulating the source of aliveness in your body.

Then as you develop that growth keep feeding the body your deepest breath and as you inhale keep holding space for an intention of what it is you are willing to rise into (for example more lightness, or stepping into more strength) as you exhale hold space for intention for what you are allowing yourself to be rooted in or grounded in. It doesn't have to be every breath but maybe at pivotal points in the practice. Feel that intention deep within your poses letting the movements of the body wrap themselves around the intention of the breath. Let the energy of the breath create the shape of the pose. Give yourself time in the poses like at least 10 breaths--even more if you can to really explore this practice.

This is good for those moments when you are feeling heavy and sluggish-you might notice some shifts the longer you hold things. You can ask your body "What can I bring to this moment that will make me lighter"? If you have a pose or a transition that doesn't feel right what if you hit the redo button as I call it and try again but with intention of approaching it lightly and experiment a few times. It makes practice more fun I think and starts to take you out of automatic pilot mode.

See if this approach also makes it into the rest of day. How can you be lighter in other ways in your life?

Hope this helps.

Have wonderful practices this week!

Namaste,

Michael

A good yoga blog to check out

2008-09-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

http://sacred-earth.typepad.com/yoga/

Discovering Beauty

2008-08-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's because I am in this fresh new landscape, or if it's just the pure power of it, but everyday seems to lead me deeper into a sense of awe about the world we live in. Everyday I am blessed to visit the ocean and to connect to it's vastness and power. Everyday is filled with dramatic sunsets that leave me feeling humble at the artistry and intention present in the world. As I witness all this raw and wild beauty around me in nature I am also finding my heart opening at the preciousness of the beauty that is closer to me as well. I find myself appreciating more my partner and my two little dogs and finding that my time with them is more sacred than I ever imagined or experienced before.

This sense of sacredness and appreciation comes from the sense that the world we live in is changing very quickly. I feel an urgent need to appreciate the beauty in it's current form before it's gone. Nothing ever stays the same and I am just trying to appreciate the world as it is right now--and everything in it, knowing it's changing right now and will always be.

My open heart brings a sense of tenderness, sadness, and joy all at once. I want this earth and the richness of it to stay beautiful and vibrant. I want healing and restoration to the sick and dying aspects of this earth. I know though that change is inevitable. The earth is always changing, species always coming and going, and life manifesting in new creative ways. My lesson then is to find the beauty in the death and rebirth happening all around. To learn to be OK with death is hard, but in reality it's how things work. It's natural and it's the way nature and divine intelligence works to bring forth new life. It's all the same in the end anyway.

I am holding space within my life and in my yoga, to pay attention to the death and birth cycles. I can feel it in my breath, my thoughts, my movements, and my interactions. I am trying to feel at ease within the change and to open without resisting it. The beauty is in the movement towards that flow--breath it in, breath it out, feel it and release it. This way I am aligning with nature in the chaos and order.

What a beautiful mess I am in, we are in. How blessed our journey is, and how interesting our world is shaping out to be. I am trying not to be fearful of the changes I can deeply feel are on there way for our planet and way of life. May our practice keep us strong enough to face this challenge with courage and love.

May we step into our evolution conscious of every action and its impact--helping to create more beauty than when we started our journey. Every breath, every movement, every interaction as creative and beautiful as the source that gave birth to the energy of this planet.

Peace and Namaste

October Chicago Workshops

2008-08-15T09:18:00.001-07:00

Please spread the word :)

Friday Oct 3rd 6-8:30 p.m.

SUNSHINE Yoga & Spa
9031 W. 151st Street, Suite 205
Orland Park IL 60462
(Located within the Orland Atrium Bldg., 2 stoplights East of LaGrange Rd. on the South Side of the Street.)

708.873.6030

Mystery,
Magic, and Awe - A Yoga Adventure
Is there something missing from your yoga practice, like Joy? Then this PLAYshop is for you. Take time for this light hearted adventure that will surely awaken your senses to more aliveness in your practice. We will take time to journey into variations of Mandala Namaskars (circular movements/salutations), hip openers, arm balances, and backbends. This is a mindful alignment based vinyasa practice open to all levels who are adventurous, curious, lighthearted, and playful (best if you have some yoga experience, but don't think you have to be a yoga rock star).

Saturday October 4th 3-5 p.m.

Bloom Yoga Studio, Chicago IL www.bloomyogastudio.com <http://www.bloomyogastudio.com/>

Workshop Theme TBA
possible...

Expanding Your Vision-Arm Balancing With Courage

Sometimes in practice we don't do just because we think we can't. In this workshop we will expand our vision of what our practice is for and open up to something even larger than what we thought possible. You can do arm balances and in this workshop you learn how and create steps to begin your journey into the full poses over time. Bring your enthusiasm and willingness to expand your vision and potential for greatness in your practice.

Sunday October 5th Total Body Yoga

210 Terrace Drive
Mundelein IL 60060
847-772-9642
info@totalbodyyoga.com

Sunday, October 05, 2008 2:00 PM: Rasa Flow: Sensual, Sweaty and Sweet

RASA FLOW: SENSUAL, SWEATY AND SWEET:Rasa, the juice of life is contained within our breath and body waiting patiently to be discovered by our senses. This class is for those open to and curious about playful, pulsing, and expansive ways of being in their body. This class/playshop is an exploration of breath, movement, and life through creative namaskars, hip openers, forward folds, backbends, and deep delicious twists.

TIME: 2pm - 4pm

COST: $25.00

My First Adventure

2008-08-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

I will be subbing for a month at Bamboo Yoga in Coronado www.bambooyoga.com
Tu at 4:30 and 5:30
Th at 5:30

Wish me luck!

If any of you have friends in San Diego send them along my way for support!

Stepping into courageous new beginnings

2008-08-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have been in San Diego for a few days now after an adventurous cross country trip that brought me do the deepest highs and lows of emotions that I knew of--or thought I knew. It began with a week long adventure with my fav teacher Desiree Rumbough at the beautiful Kripalu center in Lennox, MA.

The workshop was called Raising Your Vibration. Not only did that take on a whole new meaning--but I felt within my body and heart a lift that helped me step into a more courageous way of being in this world. The root of the word "courage" is the Latin word "cor," meaning "heart." The English word "core" comes from the same Latin root. For me this means finding my center through my heart and moving into the world from a centered heart (brings a whole new understanding to core work right!)

Within the past few weeks I have had many opportunities to engage the world from this new found center. I am once again trying to navigate a new city trying to find work and a yoga community to call home. Relying on faith right now that just as before it will happen in the right time and right place--perfectly unfolding. I just have to do the work and enter the flow. Keep my heart open and let my heart lead--not my head, or my doubt--or fear.

I have been encouraged by the heart felt words written and spoken from by many of you. Thanks for your support and for the well wishes as we make our new home here in San Diego. I will write more as I grow into the new surroundings.

I have met some really amazing people in the last few weeks, and have deepened friendships with others. I have enjoyed the honesty that change brings us to face--and the openness that change brings to our hearts. I feel so courageous and grounded in my heart. May we all find our courage and live from that heartfelt expression of life.

What if practice was play?

2008-07-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Usually we think of practice as a progression--something that we do that leads us up to something. For example, "I will do core work and that core work is going to make me strong so that I can do my inversions better". It could also be like "if I continue to do this in (pose of your choice) then eventually I will be able to do it right or correctly". I will be the first to say that I am all for alignment. Many of you have heard me say the quote "Order creates space for grace to blossom"--so I do think it's important to line up. I also think that energy alignment is important--sometimes even more so than anything else. I think that if we line up from deep within ourselves--with intention and inner body awareness--allowing breath to literally animate muscles and bones-then we have something really interesting happening within our practice.

From Yoga Spandakarika by Danial Odier:

...This is the most difficult thing to attain: accepting the freedom of movement, the creativity of life, understanding that a fixed state, as marvelous as it might be, is not compatible with life.

Think about an Indian musician. He presents the theme of the raga; then subtly and slowly, he explores all the expressive possibilities of the raga, he ventures out, he touches lightly, he penetrates, he withdraws, he allows himself to be taken to ecstatic joy, returns to the most masterful variations, allows the theme to lead him to an expressive climax and, little by little, comes back down to silence. Never will he play that raga in in the same way........

Let us enter the great spherical movement; let us forget the rectilinear pathway that assumes there is a progression and the attainment of a goal. Let us be like a wave that accepts its pathway, its strength, its weakness, its freedom, the absence of choice.

Once we leave the rectilinear behind, we enter naturally into subtlety. Our meandering movement movement in a forward direction, but movement toward the living, the spontaneous, the creative........

What would happen to your practice if it was more about creating movements towards the poses and movements away from them as well. The pose within the pose and everything in between. Finding all the sweet, joyful, playful, interesting, and complexities awaiting to be discovered by you. You just have to be willing to play.

For those who were with me this last week thank you so much for playing and for entering into the spherical. May we all continue to find ways of connecting to the living, spontaneous, and creative life force.

Love Light and Peace to you all!

A2 THIS WEEKEND YMCA

2008-07-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

YMCA 4-6 p.m.

Radical Expansion-Preparing The Heart To Open

Connecting to the principle of opening to something bigger--this workshop will give the opportunity to experience deeply in your body this idea of opening up to the universal. From this place of openness you will learn to expand fully and beautifully in backbends. Learn to backbend without pain and explore fun and unique backbends in safe nurturing and enthusiastic setting.

Hope to see you there!

Sept Workshop Athens Ohio--come join me :)

2008-07-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.inhaleyoga.org/michaelworkshop.htm

Sacred Moment

2008-07-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who gave so beautifully at the noon time class today at Moksha Riverwest. It's classes like that that fill the universe with so much more shakti (creative life energy). You gave your hearts to the practice--you embodied the fire element and lit up my heart and I hope all of your hearts as well. Thank you all so much for bringing more light to the world.

Namaste

Fueling the Fire-Fanning the Flames

2008-07-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are regulars to my classes and this blog know how much I like to talk about fire. I invoke the imagery in classes and I reflect on the element daily as my personal practice. I even have fire etched in my skin as a reminder to be conscious of it's energy in me and around me. To be fair I like the other elements too and think of them as well, but fire is for sure my work here and now.

I want to create space for myself and for you to be able to work consciously with this element in our classes and personal practices so that we can learn to be with intensity without trying to control it and stop it. I want to honor this element within us that is capable of creating so much space by burning what needs to be burned--whether it be aspects of ego that no longer serve us--bringing in more humility and surrender, or literally emotional and physical energy that is blocked within us that only fire can burn through. I know that water can move through tough spots too and create space; earth can ground, nurture and support; and air creates great space and freedom--but fire is what I am connecting to as my healer and teacher.

Fire is sometimes seen as too harsh or hard. Like in class if we stay connected to that fire element for a long time--the class gets hot, hard, intense, and really makes us have this choice of how much am I willing to burn? In fact some good questions might be what can I consciously burn and what can I surrender to. What can I make space for? Where can I let this fire energy travel within me?

Fire can be seen as the destroyer--but is that bad? I see fire, even in the sense of when it happens in nature, as a very natural cleansing act. It's not destruction--but the creation of space. In fact it creates space and in nature when there are wild fires it actually is like the phoenix. The aftermath of all the trees burning actually creates space for the new growth to be brought forth. It takes many years for that process but it happens. I am not saying that the destruction is not painful especially when tragic circumstances occur like the loss of lives and property. I am speaking to act in general. The act is very natural within nature, and it is in us as well.

That is why we need to cultivate an understanding of how it works within us, and maybe how we work against building the fire (also paying attention to how we build it--remembering that all good fires take time to build). Learning how to cultivate our strength within this element can go a long way in making us play with it without overcooking ourselves--and again--sometimes we need to get "well done" so there are no rules--only what is necessary and true to our experience and navigation if life. We can only learn from doing. One of my favorite quotes is "If your very very careful, nothing really good, or really bad will happen". Meaning if you never build a fire--sure you may not burn, but also you may never have new growth either. At the same time just as in nature sometimes we don't have a choice--sometimes a wildfire just happens. It's good to just know the element intimately either way.

I'm drawn to fire because naturally I tend to be more comfortable in air/water like movements. I know though that for my growth and evolution that I need more fire. I'm not naturally that way. I know that might be a surprise to some, but really being in the fire is work for me. It's challenging, hard, tough, etc--at all levels of my being. Teaching the fire then is equally hard--but I know it's what I am supposed to do because it's where I have gone and where I am going within my own life and practice.

I am inspired by Rumi who often refers to fire within his own spiritual practice-

Set your life on fire.
Seek those who fan your flames.
~Rumi

"Thinking gives off smoke to prove the existence of fire. A mystic sits inside the burning. There are wonderful shapes in rising smoke that imagination loves to watch. But it's a mistake to leave the fire for that filmy sight. Stay here at the flame's core."

If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.
~ Mevlana Rumi Quotes from Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance

May you all continue to burn and burn brightly seeking those who fan your flames. As I travel on into my next journey I hope that each of you continues to spread fire throughout the city here so that all of us burn through what separates us from being fully vibrant radiant expressions of grace and love to each other and the world around us.

Peace Peace Peace!

Moving from inside out

2008-07-11T07:30:00.001-07:00

It's real easy to allow our practice to become mechanical--especially if we have a strong alignment based practice. I like to remind myself that even when I have a strong focus on alignment that I have to align from the inside out. Attitude before alignment, and it's comes from within the heart. When we get quiet within our meditation, or beginning centering to class it's a great time to check out what's happening with our inner body--that which animates the muscles and bones and draws forth our life force. That inner body is also connected and enhanced by our thoughts and emotions and intentions. If we can connect to our poses from this place and move from the inside out, the poses take on a powerful meaning moving beyond just mere physical expression and beauty, but a depth of expansion that sparks a momentous creative act. You are celebrating, you are creating art, you are honoring that animating and energy and taking ownership of your abundant nature.

You will find that as you begin to explore this is in such poses as backbends for example (which we are working on this week) that if you cultivate this inner body awareness and move from outside in, to inside out, your poses will become so full and all pain associated with backbends will cease. I can't tell you how many of you this week have found new freedom in your backbends--how cool is that! It can keep on happening too! You don't have to have freedom some of the time--you can always to it. Remember it's about opening up to something bigger and then hugging in to that remembrance, and then expanding from the depth of that connection--moving from inside out.

What do you hug into? At given point there are three main places to hug in these are called focal points:

FOCAL POINT A localized power spot within the body. Muscular Energy draws into it, and Organic Energy extends out from it. There are three possible locations for the Focal Point: the core of the pelvis, the bottom of the heart, and the upper palate. In any given pose, only one Focal Point is active. The active Focal Point is the one nearest the most weight-bearing part of the pose. When the three possible Focal Points are equally weight-bearing, the pelvic Focal Point becomes the active one by default.

So for example in Backbends the focal point is the pelvis.

What are we hugging in and expanding out?

Muscle Energy The second Principle organizes and steadies the body, stabilizing the wild periphery of the body to move into the stillness and power of the core. Embrace your intrinsic goodness. Be steadfast like the earth.

Organic Energy The fifth Principle extends the radiant power of the core, aligned through the first four Principles, through the rest of the pose in the culmination of its expression. This expression is the result of the intention of the first Principle – Opening to Grace to align with the Universal. Shine – extend freely like air.

I hope this gives you some tools to have expansions in your practice this week!

Namaste!

The gift of change

2008-07-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who have been my students here in Chicago, as well as Ann Arbor. You all have been amazing to work with and have allowed my teaching to expand to new heights, and my heart to open in new and profound ways.

It is with sadness and excitement that I share the news with you that I am moving at the end of the month to San Diego, CA.

Moving to me is one of those things that always is hard, but then again change is always hard. When I first moved to Chicago just about a year ago I thought I would never be able to create what I had in Ann Arbor. I was right..but the gift of change is that it brings us what we need, not what was or what we want even. Somehow though the change always transforms us powerfully into who we need to be. Life is larger than my individualism and when I accept that and know that my greatest purpose is to serve--I cannot dictate where and how I serve.

When I opened up to what it was I was supposed to do here in Chicago--it all worked out as it always does. Now in my groove here in Chicago--a deep heart felt longing in addition to a great opportunity for my partner has lead me once again to follow the larger life and expand from what I want to opening up to change.

I am not sure what this current incarnation will bring. Already I feel myself shying away from anything fixed in terms of planning the next few months when I move there. I have a sense that something way better than my planning mind can come up with will be presented to me in all good time. I am just listening, getting online so to speak and connecting to what the universe is saying.

What I do know for sure is that all of you have touched me in countless ways. You have inspired me to be a better teacher and a better human being. Thank you for letting me serve you in this way. The light in me honors and adores the light that shines so brightly inside of you!

Peace!

Who are you?

2008-06-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

That's a good question isn't it? I think yoga gives us all a chance to really be with that question over and over again. Every day when confronted with the unique challenges of our practice every moment and every breath reveals a little of who we are and are not.

I for one keep on finding that I am so much more than I thought. When I practice I can give in to my limitations, or rise above them. I am always making a choice of what I am willing to give--and therefore what I am willing to receive. It's amazing to be there on the edge of that choice--especially when I decide to be more than I thought. When I say yes to life--life responds back with a jolting high five that is electrifying and deeply powerful at all levels of my being.

It's not just in practice but at all times. I can't control what is external no matter how I try, but I can decide to give to life freely and fully without reservation. This is about trusting the mystery of life--letting go of everything and being in the currents fully. This isn't about giving up and just going with the flow and letting life happen--but fully participating--even joyfully participating and opening to "good" and "bad" equally as my guide and teacher.

I am learning more and more that who I am is really about what I am willing to be. I am what I am willing to open to. I am a part of the great mystery and as it is unfolding so am I. We are co-creating this all together. Nothing is fixed, nothing. Nothing makes that more clear than how we create on the mat. Pay attention notice this idea--what are you willing to give and receive. What are you willing to create. Do you open and give or refuse and close?

Who are you? Are you ready to find out?

Peace to you and may your journey be filled with joyful discovery of your potential. May you expand and open in ways you never dreamed!

Opening to something bigger

2008-06-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

In the hands of a great teacher amazing things can happen. I had an amazing weekend with one of my favorite teachers Desiree Rumbaugh.

Throughout the weekend Desiree designed a practice that opened us up to our backbody, or to something bigger as she said. (If you're in my classes right now you'll be doing this all month long as our focus )

In Anusara yoga the back body is seen as the connection to the Universal (divine consciousness) and the front of the body as the individual. The idea is that the whole is present in every part leading from the back and expression through the front.

Most of the time in our practice and in life we spend most of our time focusing on what's in front of us and opening up from there. You may even have heard me or other teachers talking about opening up the heart in your poses. Opening up the heart is good, but everything if it comes first from opening to something bigger becomes so much more powerful.

As Desiree put it "You can't have too much grace". I found myself expanding into things I never thought possible. As I expanded into my body, of course it created space in my heart and mind as well.

In the moments where I thought I couldn't do anymore, I opened to something bigger and grace carried me through. I am excited to see where this can take me and as it takes me into more space, I hope to share that with you.

I am so thankful for all my teachers. I am thankful to my students who give me a chance to share this practice in meaningful ways. I thank the universal for giving us ways to celebrate life and love to create joy with this practice.

Peace and Namaste!

Organically Expanding

2008-06-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have been experimenting lately in classes with not saying names of poses and just allowing a few cues to take us into shapes and then to allow breath to guide us deeper. I am finding this to be extraordinary in terms of releasing expectations and boundaries in practice.

When we say the name it triggers an idea in our brain of "oh Triangle, that is done this way" and we end up pretty much exploring it the same way we did before. Every day we are different and that should be reflected on the mat as well as we work with our bodies. Once we're in it a while I'll say it just so they know a little about the foundations, but also not so much so that they lose the intention of the voyage into the pose.

It's not that knowing where we are going is bad, sometime it is helpful in terms of triggering some memories of things we know feel good always, or things that have felt bad to avoid, or special things we need to do to feel safe in poses. It's also helpful to sometimes practice being OK with exploration, curiosity, and not knowing where you are going until you get there.

The best advice though really for safety in any practice is to deeply listen to the ongoing dialogue between your body and breath. The body is always talking. It's telling you how far it can go, what it can do, what it wants to do, etc. The practice of yoga really is just deep listening and then responding the inner cues. You have to feel invited to do the things you do. Not just do to achieve something.

I like to think of this as organically expanding, or spontaneous yoga. There is a more formal name for this called Spanda.

Spanda can be defined as:

"Spanda is a Sanskrit term for the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form. Spanda can be translated to mean vibration, movement, or motion, referring to waves of activity issuing forth from an unseen Source of spontaneous expression. On a more personal level, spanda refers to consciousness as it orients through thought and intention to organize into authentic action. You may experience spanda as a desire to live according to your own innermost urging, act in line with your interest, follow your curiosity, and attend to your body's natural rhythms as they harmonize within the grander scale of natural life seasons and cycles.

Living in a way that keeps us connected to our core beliefs and desires brings health, stamina, and joy. When we lose our creative "spark" or spanda, disconnecting from our own personal expression of vitality, we lose energy, focus, and a sense of well-being and may eventually fall ill. Connecting with what drives us, feeling that presence in our bodies, is also when we are most aligned with the natural spontaneity that defines life processes.

Yoga practice encourages this conscious connection. Through yoga we learn to listen attentively to our own inner guidance as well as work creatively with the archetypal forms and timeless instructions passed down through the millennia."
---Spanda Yoga www.spondayoga.com

When we tune into spanda we check out of automatic pilot mode. When we lose the names of things and the definition of the poses and allow them to spontaneously and joyously emerge something amazing can happen--we open.

When we go into things with expectations or ideas of what it's going to be or what it should be--we cling, we hold on to, we try to force things into our mold (or the instructors mold).

I'm still sorting all this out--but that's my thoughts on things right now.

I am really inspired by the work Shiva Rea is doing along this line www.shivarea.com

I am looking forward to continuing my studies with her this October.

I am also looking forward to sharing more spanda yoga with you.

Peace!

All Dried Up?

2008-06-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

I had a fun dream last night that I wanted to share. In my dream I was walking through this old building and in the building were all these beautiful plant and flower arrangements that had not been taken care of. They were on that brink between life and death and in desperate need of water. I went around and gathered what water I could find and fed each plant as much I could. was like watching a beautiful miracle unfold as each plant sparked to life again, some even sprouting new growth before my eyes. It was like every plant in the building was born again into a more fresh vibrant existence.

I was thinking about how sometimes we get dried up, in our lives and practice. We are missing our connection to the sacred water element. Try this week refreshing yourself with fluidity in your practice and life. Ask the question how can I do this in a fluid way. How can I make this more liquid, more watery? Remember water is soft but also has the power to carve out earth. Let the boundaries of your body and your life be softened through the gentle strength of water.

Peace!

New Classes

2008-06-02T17:09:00.001-07:00

Come join me for my new classes:

Moksha- Thursday at 4-5:30 p.m. Intro to Yoga/ Yoga Basics www.mokshayoga.com

2nd Nature- Tuesdays 6-7:30 p.m. www.natureyoga.com

Moksha Lakeview- Saturday 8:30-10 a.m. Vinyasa 1-2 www.mokshayoga.com

Special 4th of July Moksha Lakeview 10-11:45

Light the fire

2008-05-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire.
~ Mevlana Rumi Quotes from Rumi Daylight: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance

The element of fire is alive inside of all of us. It is there to burn brightly to create or destroy depending on how we wish to invoke it's power within our lives. In effect fire creates space through what it helps to release. Fire burns through what no longer serves us and allows us leave behind whatever separates us from us. What we are left with in the ashes is love. It gets hot and intense and sometimes feels like you are going to burn away completely, and sometimes that is true as well. Sometimes we need to pass away for the larger life, or larger love to live on within us. Ultimately that's where the practice can take us.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says it like this "Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

Fire is something you have to spark though. You have to invite the fire in. No one can do it for you. If they try it's like trying to light a wet piece of wood. It's not going to happen no matter how hard they try.

In every moment and in every practice can you give yourself permission to burn?

More Books (Art of Mindful Living)

2008-05-21T21:47:00.001-07:00

A Path With Heart- Jack Kornfield

Anything by Pema Chodron

This is another teacher I really like, her books are good-Sharon Salzberg

Please also refer to some of the previous posts

Thanks so much for the wonderful discussions tonight

If I remember anymore I'll keep posting. Also if you have book suggestion just reply to this post and offer it up.

Have a great weekend!

Keeping Quiet

2008-05-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

I love the following poem by Pablo Neruda and am using it as the inspiration for this weeks class. It's hips again for those of you who have been working with me the last few weeks, we keep on opening up to what's there and seeing if we can work with it, be with it, and grow with it. Here's to your hips!

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth,
let's not speak any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn't be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren't unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.
Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I'll go.
-from Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon
Translated by Stephen Mitchell

This present moment is as open as you are willing to be....-David Deida

2008-05-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

I love that quote from "Naked Buddhism" By David Deida
It is a reminder to me that opening is a process that I have to choose to make. Nothing outside of me will invite me to open. The invitation to open to life more deeply and fully is mine alone to make. David also has a chapter in his book that talks about sooner or later this present moment will be your last. This breath right now could be it, or the next, or this one. Just as you are reading this your very life could end. That's a little morbid but truth is when we think of death it reminds us to live, when we don't think of death, we fear it.

Opening up to life deeply means also opening to death deeply. To notice the inhales of the day as well as the exhales. To feel freshness, as well as closure. In our practice of yoga we have an opportunity with every breath, every pose, every transition to open to everything. We can observe the creation, sustaining, dissolution, and then the concealment and revealment. This is known as the five acts of Siva. Nothing is fixed and everything is along the journey in process within these five acts.

When we feel like we are resisting, clenching, clinging, for whatever reason the beauty of opening is that at any given point whether you are enjoying your life or not, if it's good or if it's bad, the truth is it is already changing right now, it's in process along the 5 acts. The key is to not get stuck in to believing that any of the acts is forever. In fact every dimension of life, your life and the life of everything is in stage along one of the acts. Every relationship, situation, life form, etc is in motion along the 5 part path.

When we open we allow ourselves to be in the journey, arriving not at somewhere but just allowing ourselves to experience fully our path in the act right now. Not to rush, change, manipulate, or anything, just allow ourselves to open to the moment as our guide and teacher. Knowing that what will unfold if we open rather than resist will lead us beautifully into the next chapter.

You can feel this very tangible in an asana practice. The more you force things to happen, the more you run into resistance. The more you practice with this mindset of this should be this way, that should be that way, then the more risk you run of losing what can be. The more fixed you are the less spontaneity, creativity, and freedom you allow and then practice and life become a function, or a to do, rather than willing experience of profound opening.

Right now, are you opening or are you stuck? Can you gently encourage yourself to open?

This moment is as open as you are willing to be.

Peace,

Michael

One of my favs is coming to town!

2008-05-06T12:49:00.000-07:00

Desiree Rumbough is a gifted and amazing teacher who will be visiting us here in the Chicago area. I encourage you if you can to check her out. You will be expanded--deeply.

Check it out at Yoga Werks

Thank You Ann Arbor

2008-05-05T11:18:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all of you for participating in the weekend workshops. It was so great to see many of you again and nice to meet so many new faces as well. Your enthusiasm was heartening and inspiring. I can't wait to come back. Stay tuned for the next installment of workshops :)

For those of you who asked for the book recommendations here ya go:

Bringing Yoga to Life

Everyday Grace

The Gift of Change

The Wisdom of No Escape

Yoga Body Buddha Mind

A great yoga asana book (anusara)

Hope these are helpful. A good start at least. Anyone have other recommendations?

Stay up to date on my workshops across the midwest at www.michaelfaithyoga.com

When boredom sets in

2008-05-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

You know you have those days where what is between your toes is more fascinating then the pose you are in. The lint on the mat, or the whistle of your neighbors nose seems way more important and interesting than your breath or the alignment of your hips.

I know I've been there too. I am often reminded in very humorous ways that sometimes we check out at varying degrees in our practice. Sometimes we check out just for a moment, or maybe for many days, weeks, or months at a time in our practice.

I am often reminded of the quote from Marianne Williamson from her book Everyday Grace that the only way to be excited is to be exciting and excited yourself. No external circumstances need to be our entertainment. In practice the same is true.

This week I have been having everyone start in child's pose. Connecting to this pose invites us to explore the archetype of the child. Connecting to the freshness and the willingness to be in the moment. Inspiring awe and magic because anything is possible and everything is open--including us! Life hasn't closed us yet, or at least not fully. Child's pose draws us into the remembrance of what it means to have a sense of innocence. (note-I realize that not everyone has had or does have a happy innocent childhood, but I am talking about archetypes/myths).

From innocence I feel all of us are then more connected to the possibility of a larger life. Innocence create space and openness. When we are open there is magic and miracles. I like the idea in Marianne's books about how if we think of miracles as metaphors then they will be. If we honor and give power to the possibility that miracles do indeed happen and in fact magic DOES happen then those things amplify within our experience and life. It's kind of like you either believe you are a part of all that is, or you're not. If you are, you have access to everything, there is nothing separate from you. You are woven into the very fabric of divinity and in that spaciousness everything and anything is possible. Not in some cheesy kind of "secret" way, but in a very real, practical and sacred way.

Our lack of magic, or our lack of experiencing magic in our lives doesn't happen because it doesn't exist. It happens because we no longer care to see it. When it happens through grace we usually chalk it up to coincidence or randomness. Miracles and magic are happening all around us. When you return to your open self you see it. It happens from within you too. I (or anyone) can't open you to a magical or miraculous existence. That is you, you are that.

Practice takes us there. When in your practice you start checking out just remember your access to miracles and magic depends on you allowing it room to blossom. Nothing can take place without your permission. In any given moment you have the choice to open or close. It's such a huge responsibility, and one we don't often take. I know for me when I check out I often blame the environment, or the class, or the teacher, or the music, or anything other than my own unwillingness to shine bright in that moment. It's kind of like sometimes we know how to do it, and know what it will do, and yet we don't do it. Isn't that funny? We know something will be good for us, we know exactly how to do that good thing, and yet we don't give ourselves that. We have the key, we see the lock, we know it fits, and yet we don't turn that key sometimes. Wow.

The intention this week for me and I pass it on to you as well is to see how often we are there with key in hand refusing to open and rather than close, even if it is hard to do, can we open. Let us all have a magic filled miraculous weekend grounded in our willingness to open open open and be free.

Art of Mindful Living News

2008-04-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

To those who recently finished up the Bloom session with me here is the link I told you about http://chicago.shambhala.org/

There are many groups around town that offer meditations so I encourage you to explore and maybe tell others on this blog about them just hit the comments section below this post.

There is also talk at Bloom about maybe adding a permanent meditation class in the future if there is interest....so send them feedback if that's something you want to see on the schedule there.

Thank you all for your interest in the class and for your energy you brought to the practice.

Peace,

Michael

I am going to be teaching 2 yoga sessions at this event

2008-04-29T19:16:00.000-07:00

Celebrate Your Life

I was excited to get an email last night from one of my employers about this conference that is coming to town that is seeking a yoga instructor. My favorite speaker (and former minister) will be there. Those of you who take my classes will often hear me quote Marianne Williamson
who will be key noting the event's closing ceremony. There will be a diverse group of folks speaking there so it should be fun.

I will be teaching two classes on Fri and Sat mornings 7-8 a.m.

Wish me luck! Should be a fun event!

Peace!

Remaining Open

2008-04-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

A student of mine sent me this. I thought it was good as a reminder of why we meditate.

We come to meditation feeling that parts of our live are difficult and that perhaps a meditation practice will make them less so. But that is not how mediation works. The desire for peace and happiness is noble; the expectation of instant results is unreasonable. Mediation is a matter of slow and steady experience. It is not a cure. It is not a set of moral values. It is not a religion. It is a way - a way to be fully present, a way to be genuinely who we are, a way to look deeply at the nature of things, a way to rediscover the peace we already possess. It does not aim to get rid of anything bad, or to create anything good. It is an attitude of openness. The term for this is attitude is mindfulness.

Buddhists call this mindfulness meditation maitri practice. Maitri is often translated as "unconditional friendliness." Meditation is the practice of unconditional friendliness toward whatever is happening in the moment - the moment during which we sit in meditation, and all the other moments of life, whether things are going well or falling apart. Meditation helps us find an internal witness with which to view external events. This might sound like a small, easy matter, but it is not. In fact, discovering and developing an inner witness may be the most important act of our life. Being able to observe ourselves honestly, with acceptance and friendliness, trains us to do the same with others at home, at work, and in the world.

Mindfulness meditation trains us to be less reactive to whatever is in life that causes us suffering. It gives us an ability to experience without identifying fully with it, and therefore to be more free from it. Because of that experience during meditation, we begin to fear life's pain less, to contract around it less. We become more easy going with ourselves. We still suffer, but with much less of the dramatic flair that only adds to our suffering and makes it overwhelming.

Elizabeth Lesser

NEW CLASSES

2008-04-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I am excited to announce I have a few new classes. Starting in June I will be teaching a Vinyasa class at 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. at Moksha Lakeview.

come visit me nice and early and start the day off right :)

Also I am subbing in May at Exhale Spa an Tuesday and Thursday 4:45-5:45

I also have an intro to inversion class starting up in June on Wednesday nights 6:30-8 p.m. at Bloom

Peace,

Michael

Should I ?

2008-04-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

So I am thinking of doing this and using them for my class plans, or maybe even to put on here to share with you some sequences. What do you think? Would it be helpful? Let me know.

http://www.yogastickmen.com/

Handstand FAN

2008-04-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

I found this on another forum and thought is was good. It speaks to something I think about a lot as a teacher. So next time we're in handstand :)

(note--these are not my thoughts, but from here:http://www.yoga.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18191&posts=8)

Would someone please tell me what the freakin' Anusara facination (sp) with handstands is all about?

It's funny, but I have been pondering this question as well. I love handstands and it is one of the reasons I love anusara is because they do seem to focus a lot on it. So I began to wonder why?

Here are my thoughts (I don't know if they have any basis is reality):

First, as a teacher handstands are actually safer and easier to teach than headstands and easier to align than shoulderstands. The more I teach, the more I worry about my students and the more I find that headstands are scary because people just don't listen. No matter how many times you tell them not to kick up, they insist on kicking up. You tell them not to turn their heads and they immediately try to turn their heads. But with handstands they concentrate more and they don't risk hurting their necks as much. They hurt their toes and wrists more, but it's better than headstands.

Second, it favors the less flexible person that can't put their head on the floor and walk their feet in really close or can't keep their arms bent around their head. There is much less time with "preparation" poses and modifications. Almost everyone can do it against the wall and a few people can start to come away from the wall. It builds strength in the arms and shoulders that translates better to forearm and headstands...the opposite is not true: headstands and forearm stands do not prepare you as well for handstands.

Finally, a big point is that handstands are very good at illustrating the balance of Muscular and Organic energy that is the cornerstone of Anusara yoga. Muscular energy is that inward energy that contracts the muscles and pulls muscle onto bone and limbs into the sockets and draws your energy to your midline. All of which are essential to handstand. Equally as essential is the application of Organic energy. That which moves from the core out and shines and expands. It opens the heart and grows out in every direction. As you push into the floor and shine up through the balls of the toes you apply organic energy. When you are in handstand you really start experience that sensation of balance.

Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about...

What are your thoughts?

Open to Grace

2008-04-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite quotes is "order creates space for grace to blossom." This week I got to see some blossoming in many of my student's practices, which was so much fun for me. I had several folks get into headstand for the first time on their own, and one student found a fcreative and engaging way to come up successfully in twisted crow (parsva bakasana).

I like to celebrate those moments. Just as we celebrate and welcome the changing of winter to spring, spring to summer, we should welcome the new life our practice springs forth. Just as in wintertime life is there teeming below the surface, the same is true in our practice as well. There is always something there waiting for us to uncover and reveal it. When it gets revealed it's exciting and fun!

The concealing and revealing is the dance of this practice. Sometimes we're learning the steps, and sometimes we are the dance. Both are good and important. We need the order (learning the steps) to create a fertile ground for big revealments our practice. I like to think of this as just opening up to deeper expansion of who we are. We just keep getting bigger--in a good way as the practice makes us more open and radically expanded. More expansion, more light. It's so good.

I like the idea too, and I know it's true just from seeing it in my own life that as we change, the world around us changes. The greater container of life and light we are it becomes infectious-- spreading beautifully to anyone who is open to feel it. That's grace.

Great job on the expansive leaping everyone!

Peace to you and happy weekend!

Heading to A2 and other workshops too

2008-04-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hey if you're in a2 check this out:

http://www.a2yoga.com/events.html

Hope to see you there!

It was great seeing some of you at the Dalai Lama event. Whew that was something else eh?

Hope to spend more time chatting and catching up. It was so nice to actually take class with Jo! My thighs were thinking of her fondly for several days. Thanks Jo. I love you.

Check out Bloom for a whole slew of workshops I am doing there over the course of the next months.

Shakti Moment

2008-04-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

My head today was filled with so many ideas of what to co-create with my students. I entered into class unsure of what to do. I released my sense of control and turned it over to them with trust that the creative force of their wishes and my guidance would provide a fertile ground for play today.

Trust that Shakti force is all I can say. Bravo to the energy you all created at Bloom today.

I am looking forward to more of that!

Peace and happy sunshine days to you!

3 P's

2008-04-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Anusara Yoga often refers to the three A's which include Attitude, Alignment, and Action
which I find so helpful with my teaching and practice. I have also found lately as I work with both continuing and beginning students the need to talk about the 3 p's which are Patience, Persistence, and Practice.

Patience- To remember to start each day and practice feeling into the "whatness" of the present moment experience and really committing to working with that. To deeply connect with the rhythm of breath and heartbeat as a grounding place and to gradually build up from that foundation--one breath at a time. Remembering that practice is not a race, nor life, but rather a beautiful unfolding into more and more spaciousness. There is no hurry to "get" poses or to "get" peaceful, those are gifts that slowly and thoroughly open over time. Patience is exploring what it means to pierce deeply into the life experience. How cool is that?

Persistence- You fall, you get up. You fall again, you get up again. With grace and a sense of Humor you persist, not because you have too, but because you have patience and know the rewards of practice outweigh those of giving up. Persistence gives you a chance to say YES to the moment. Maybe in the last moment things didn't work, but now you open up to the freshness of this breath and this action and take action with confidence and enthusiasm. Watch to see if anger or frustration arise as you keep trying, and see if you can soften and open to what's real. Say to yourself, the truth is I am just doing crow pose, or whatever it may be. Remind yourself about what it is your doing, smile, breath, open, aaaahhhh. Nice.

Practice- There are so many good books on Yoga. We can talk and theorize on it too. However magic happen when we do. Practice whenever you can--you can do Yoga all day long if you want. The asana's and breathwork connect us to the universal most clearly if we're not used to being there, but once you feel what that is--do it when you can.

How to do yoga all day long:

1. Breath consciously when you're driving to stay calm (Ujjayi pranayam).

2. Yoga before you shower (or after I guess)- just some sun salutes to start the day

3. Silently bless everyone you meet

4. Practice some form of asana daily if you can. Try for 15 min at least even if you don't have a home practice you can get good ideas from what you do in classes.

5. Begin and end each day with some form of meditation centering breath work, or restorative yin yoga

6. Try to be doing what you are doing as you are doing it all through the day. Be in the moment as the moment.

I am sure you get the idea and can think of other ways throughout the day to do Yoga

Maybe post them here! Also can you add some more to the Three p's? Give an example of your P in action?