I’m honored to be spinning around in this cosmic confusion with you all. Each beautiful, sassy, silly, brilliant, intelligent, creative, generous, nerdy, queer, unique one of you.
Not letting it show is not letting it go. It’s just hiding it. It didn’t go anywhere except into an abscess of my body-mind-spirit where it’s causing infection.
Yoga frees us from a life of “feeling bypass” to one of immersion and growth and balance.
My eyes are tired.
They are tired of screens and electronic lighting.
They are tired of seeing the harshness of the world; trying to see things your way; not seeing what I need to. The eyes – the windows to the outside world and the portals to our inner vision and inner spirit guides – need just as much attention as hips and core and legs.
Sticking to the same thing is hard. I know I’m a fan of (if not addicted to) variety. I don’t like to eat the same thing every day. I don’t teach the same way every time.
“What better day than our Inauguration Day for us to maybe keep in mind our greater connection? “So, what is it that we wish to send out, not just what we want to develop for ourselves on our mat? …But maybe we can then carry that in how we help one another, in how we listen to one another and how we forgive one another. “
This insertion of silence is a crucial part of yoga practice. Turning off the distractions of phones, computers, music, other people’s voices …. Leaves us alone with the inner distractions and chatter. It helps isolate our attention. It helps create an honest and authentic space of practice. It makes it your own.
I’m not gonna lie. It can also drive us crazy! I notice how after a few times through I sequence I can hear my inner voice say, “cool, now you know what would make this better? Let’s play some Beyonce to the sequence next!”
Intention does not replace surrender to truth. Intention should direct us toward it. Intention also isn’t the destination. When the drive becomes the objective we get consumed in constant doing that goes nowhere.
This week’s practice is focused on taking a pause and reflecting. Often in our day-to-day we shuffle through activities and actions like we are swiping right on our phones. Swish, next. Swipe, next. Life has become an assembly line procession of doing and getting and building and acquiring and … it’s incessant, never ending, never
Tapas, or devotion, is a key fire in the engine of our yoga practice. Applied energy toward positive change – a healthy body and mind-spirit. Tapas is one of the Niyamas, or ways of personal behavior, in yoga. The Niyamas guide the “what it’s all about.” “Tapas is the conscious effort to achieve ultimate union
When we are confronted with an inability and lack of power to influence a situation or emotion we interpret the resultant feeling as suffering
Our yoga practice is a great canvas for us to explore and learn about effort. Poses show us when we are straining or giving up. Breath reveals the quality of our ease. Our mind can be the birth place of our effort and where we cultivate sustainable effort, aka focus.
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