BREAKING SURFACE, by Mark Nepo

Let no one keep you from your journey,
no rabbi or priest, no mother
who wants you to dig for treasures
she misplaced, no father
who won't let one life be enough,
no lover who measures their worth
by what you might give up,
no voice that tells you in the night
it can't be done.

Let nothing dissuade you
from seeing what you see
or feeling the winds that make you
want to dance alone
or go where no one
has yet to go.

You are the only explorer.
Your heart, the unreadable compass.
Your soul, the shore of a promise
too great to be ignored.

Late morning yin-esque series

my late morning practice:

yin upavistha konasana--3 minutes

yin sidebend stretch in upavistha--1-2 minutes each side

yin upavistha again--1-2 minutes

yin butterfly--2-3 minutes

malasana

roll to back

hammock

windshield wiper stretch--hold in internal rotation 3x 45 sec to each side

roll to malasana

standing forward fold 45 sec

step to lunge right--1-2 minutes

pyramid--1 minute

down dog

lunge left 1-2 minutes

pyramid-1 minute

forward fold

malasana with twists--move with breath 5 to each side

yin seated head to knee right--2-3 minutes

twist right--left hand to outer foot--1 minute

hands behind back--arch back/puff chest

*pause

dandasana

*pause

repeat yin head to knee left-2-3 minutes

**i skipped the twist on this side--felt intuitively not needed.

hands behind back--arch back/puff chest

*pause

dandasana

*pause

malasana

roll to back

knees to chest

happy baby--roll left to right

savasana

Kidneys?

so after the fall, i had this weird pain in the bottom of my left foot, with a pea-sized tight spot...didn't seem to relate to a nerve and i didn't land on the foot or anything...so i looked up a reflexology chart:

KIDNEY POINT!

i then proceeded to look up the meridian chart for kidneys and work some of the leg points, as well as pay attention and breathe into that chronic tight spot at my left lower thoracic area--you know, where my spine is most collapsed, and the left KIDNEY resides?

voila.

the pain was gone!

i'm glad this experience taught me something new--and is a marvelous example of how there can be an explanation for what seems inexplicable. you just have to open up to possibilities that lie outside your knowledge base!

The Fall

and not the existential type. today i was running through the rain into the pet store and my right foot hit the sidewalk and slid out from under me, sending me back onto my right buttock and extended arm. i was embarrassed, but also a little bit hurt! my left shoulder and neck started to tighten up and i could tell my spine and hips got knocked out of whack. luckily, i work with other physical therapists so i was able to talk one of them into adjusting my hips...should help a bit!

so nothing is a better motivator to do yoga than being in pain. i didn't have a chance to move and practice until several hours later (after work was finished). i could feel parts of me starting to speak up a bit more, and knew if i didn't move, i'd be a goner tomorrow!

here is the practice i did tonight to nurse my wounds:

cat/cow
side cat/cow
childs, arms extended
table top
proud pigeon right
yin pigeon right
down dog
(repeat pigeons on left)
down dog
cat/cow
barrel roll in cat/cow
childs
vrasana
arms clasp overhead palms to ceiling
side stretch through extended arms right and left
"toe torture" vrasana
arms clasp behind back--focus on dropping shoulders
childs
slide to reclining buddha left
roll to reclining buddha right
yin sphinx
wide knee childs
seated baddha konasana slow progression to yin hold
roll to back knees to chest
"sloppy" supine twist--knees wide
shimmy
reclined head to knee with ankle circles right and left
reclined hero pose over bolster
supine baddha konasana with bolster
malasana

Yoga for me

today as i sat down to meditate, i found so many barriers and difficulties arising that were preventing me from dropping in. most of them were the usual:

• my cats are running around and need attention
• coffee (!) is waiting for me on the counter
• someone may have sent me an email--better check
• do i have any new facebook friends?
• it's raining out, so i better watch the rain (ok, that's not a usual barrier)
• i have too much to do to prepare for the day

but today i became aware another barrier, which writing this blog alerted me to:

i have a tendency to THINK about my practice, be it meditation or asana or pranayama. i can't just BE in my practice, because as a teacher, i need to remember how things feel. i need to be able to put my practice, my sensations, my awarenesses into words.

i spent the first 10 minutes of my meditation thinking about how to communicate the experience on this blog.

in other words: it's easier for me to practice yoga if i know i am sharing the magic with others. if i'm just practicing for MYSELF it doesn't seem as worthwhile to me.

wow. that is something i ought to look into.

do i teach because i was born to teach? do i do healing work because i was born to heal? or have part of my decisions in life been guided by finding a way to love others more than myself?

i am curious if other teachers or healing workers notice a similar energy--is your practice primarily guided by what YOU need or by what you want to share with others? are they one and the same?

Keep on Jammin'

So this weekend's Yoga Jam session with Kira Ryder at Lulu Bandhas inspired me to start a blog. Kira is one of my favorite teachers, and I feel so lucky whenever I get to practice with her! I have never entered into the world of blogging before, so I feel like I somehow have to have a thesis statement or something in order to make it more legit!

Hmm.

OK: The purpose of this blog is to track my own yoga practice and healing path, and to share inspirations and lessons that I have experienced. I will be posting classes that I teach, maybe some home practice sequences, discoveries I make, etc.

Maybe at some point I will link to cool things that I discover too. (Of course, I need to figure out how to work this thing first. Sorry--For now, you are stuck with text.)

I am realizing that I am setting a precedent in my blog by using capitalization, which I don't really do in my real life. Better switch that habit now, before people start expecting it.

ah...that's better.

i just realized that i am blogging about the process of blogging, which is not the intention of this blog.

so time to switch it up.

The beauty of an active practice

i admit that i am a lazy yogi. i work a lot, so when i get home, the last thing i want to do is move around and WORK. i am not an avid aerobic/athletic exerciser...occasionally i will walk or hike. but i love how yoga makes me feel, so i have defaulted to a more restorative and yin style practice.

for the past year or two, i have been immersed in yin and gentle styles of yoga. i have also been immersed in learning and playing with a lot of bodywork techniques dealing with the connective tissue. so yin is a natural fit for my interests. as i have practiced this style of yoga, i have explored the postures in many new ways, and made up several of my own, just because they feel GOOD. (don't tell the yin masters, please). in this exploration, i have accessed some really interesting "tight spots" in my body and in my emotional and mental layers. i have learned when to breathe and hang out there, when to move, how to open and deepen areas that haven't seen light in a REALLY long time.

the yin-esque practice i was doing was really working for me. my awareness of the subtle increased, i felt inspired and it held my interest more than any other style had...it brought me closer to Yoga, to expansiveness, to FEELING--a skill that takes a lot of practice. (at least it took ME a lot of practice).

so why do any other sort of practice?

this weekend, while practicing with kira and my lulu friends, i actually said, "sometimes i feel like i should have a stronger practice, harden my edges a bit more". quickly to follow with, "but most of the time i think, 'what's the point?'". i realized that what i had said was kind of funny, but i really did believe that--what IS the point? i'm getting SO MUCH from my practice as it is now. do i really need to do a stronger practice?

fortunately, i didn't need to look very far for the answer. on day 2, kira led us through a practice that did modified sun-salutes. (what? how do you do those again?) AND we even did a couple of chaturangas! it was geared toward opening the chakras and had a subtle anatomy bent (phew--not TOO far out of the comfort zone, please), but it was an ACTIVE practice.

when the class was finished, i felt so ALIVE and VITAL...then i remembered...new pranic pathways and stores get discovered and built up during the yin-esque yoga that i do. but it takes MOVEMENT to actually move the prana. i knew that. it was in my head. they tell you these things in yoga classes. but i had forgotten, because i hadn't really FELT it in such a profound way before.

thank you, jam session peeps! :)