Honor the Dark, Renew Hope with the Light

Theme: honor the dark and celebrate the returning light. 

It is very important for me to I remember pulsation. I learn the beauty of pulsation from nature. For example it isn't always light and it isn't always dark. That this duality is a vital and beautiful part of life. Sometimes when I experience a darker feeling or shadow aspect of myself I feel like it will last forever! But just like in nature I remind myself that this too will pass. I remind myself this even when I am ecstatic and on top of the world, that yes this to will pass. This helps me not cling to or avoid feelings or situations because I know wonderful and challenging aspects of life are pulsating into and out of my experience always and I can be grateful for both. As cliche as it is, we can not have the light with out the dark. So on this day of Yule/ winter solstice when we are experiencing the darkest night we can honor the darkness and all that it brings and we can also celebrate the return of the light. 

Anecdote: winter solstice 

UPA: inner body bright 

Apex; visvamitrasana 

Heart quality: Hope 

Props: strap, 2 blocks, blanket 

This is an abbreviated excerpt of "A Celebration of Winter Solstice" from The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr.

"There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. Many people do not like constant days bereft of light and months filled with colder temperatures. They struggle with the bleakness of land and the emptiness of trees. Their eyes and hearts seek color. Their spirits tire of tasting the endless gray skies. There is great rejoicing in the thought that light and warmth will soon be filling more and more of each new day.

"But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.

"The winter solstice celebrates the return of hope to our land as our planet experiences the first slow turn toward greater daylight. Soon we will welcome the return of the sun and the coming of springtime. As we do so, let us remember and embrace the positive, enriching aspects of winter's darkness. Pause now to sit in silence in the darkness of this space. Let this space be a safe enclosure of creative gestation for you."

Warm up: 

Cat/cow

Table jump rope spine 

Half moon side stretch 2x 

Basic:

Sun b 3x 

Utkatasana twist- L twist- warrior 2- rev warrior - AMS- utt

Mod. Parsvak 

Parsvak 

Dolphin- pincha manyurasana 

Harder:

Lunge t arms twist- rev L- high runners lunge twist- Anjaneyasana twist with quad 

Pigeon quad 

Twisting pigeon quad 

Parsvakonasana 

Ardha hanumanasana with front foot wide- scandasana 

Apex:

Double pigeon - compass 

Visvamitrasana mod. 

Cool down:

Janusirsasana 

Parsva janusirsasana prep fold down middle 

Parsva janusirsasana strap 

Shavasana supported supta baddha konasana 

A Winter Solstice Prayer by Edward Hays from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim.

The dark shadow of space leans over us. . . . .
We are mindful that the darkness of greed, exploitation, and hatred
also lengthens its shadow over our small planet Earth.
As our ancestors feared death and evil and all the dark powers of winter,
we fear that the darkness of war, discrimination, and selfishness
may doom us and our planet to an eternal winter.

May we find hope in the lights we have kindled on this sacred night,
hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice
that spans the world.

In the heart of every person on this Earth
burns the spark of luminous goodness;
in no heart is there total darkness.
May we who have celebrated this winter solstice,
by our lives and service, by our prayers and love,
call forth from one another the light and the love
that is hidden in every heart.
Amen.

Sadhana

Sadhana is the term for spiritual practice and literally means “that which takes you to your goal”. One of my goals is to experience less tension + more ease and life and therefore experience more happiness. Well I learn through Anusara Yoga that I can reach these goals through practicing alignment. Sadhana is something that I can practice every moment. So in every moment I can work on enhancing my alignment. The hope is to that the more you practice good strong alignment on the matt and off of it those muscles that hold you in good alignment will get stronger and your body will naturally start standing in better alignment with less awareness on your part. The problem is… it FEELS easier to stand with poor alignment. For example it seems easier to stand and roll the shoulders forward and let the head come into the front plan of the body (this posture is called forward carriage in physical therapy and comes with a whole host of injuries + pain + discomfort). So in the beginning it takes a lot of awareness and smart alignment action to retrain the body out of this “lazy poor posture” into a “efficient beaming with happiness posture”.

I love looking at the cycles that are created in nature. One cycle you can look at is the results of your posture:

Lazy poor posture -> leads to pain in the body “ouch my neck is tight and hurts” (not only will bad posture enhance old injuries it will cause new ones)-> which leads to pain in the mind “I have headaches all the time” -> which leads to UN-HAPPINESS -> which leads to not enjoying life because you don’t feel up to it… because your in PAIN!

Good alignment -> leads to the body HEALING ITSELF (not only are you not accumulating more discomfort but you are healing past injuries and pain patterns) -> which leads to your body feeling TERRIFIC! -> which puts you in a WONDERFUL MOOD -> which leads to HAPPINESS -> which leads to wanting to enjoy all that life has to offer because you feel so GOOD!

SO how cool is it that our spiritual practice can be watching our alinmgnet on and off our matt and working to make it as optimal as possible. Another cool thing about yoga is that lines blurr so easily. You start focusing just on your physical alignment to help cultivate more happiness in your life and then slowly with or without noticing it you begin to start noticing how your actions, thoughts, emotions line you up with happiness. Maybe you start to notice that a cigirate, or food, or shopping, or negative self talk, or gossipling or whatever it is, is not leading your to your goal of happiness. This was my experience I started praciticng yoga because my back hurt I wasn’t interested in a higher power, or my relationship with myself others or the world. But slowly the lines blurred. I got hooked and as a result my life is 100x healthier and I experience so much more happiness and ease as a result of looking at my alignment in all ways and forms.

This is a longer discussion for another blog… moving on

Principles of emphasis:

Open to Grace = Side bodies long: lengthening up through the sides of the torso and up through the sides of the throat, into the dome of the palate. Lift your chin to help create a natural lordotic curve in the neck.

Muscle Energy= With Muscle Energy, the upper arms set back into the shoulder sockets, and this creates support in the shoulders

Expanding spirals of arms = when the arms are in the over hand plan like in down dog, handstand, pincha, Urdhva hastasana… the inner deltoids and arm pits broaden to the back plane of the body expanding around the neck. When they are in the lower plan like tadasana, cobra, bridge… the inner deltoids broad to the front plan of the body and continue to wrap around and to the back plan of the body creating again space around the head neck and shoulders.

Shoulder Loop= Shoulder Loop reinforces the lordotic curve of the neck. It begins in the soft palate and curls the head back. The muscles of the back of the neck, from the base of the occiput flow down toward the bottom tips of the shoulder blades and into the heart.

Skull Loop = it initiates at the soft palate and flows back toward the occiput, then lifts the back of the skull up and over the crown of the head.

Organic Energy ₌ there’s an extension from the active focal point first down into the earth and then up and out. From the back of the heart extend the arms out and fully straight. I have been noticing in class bent elbows so organic energy should straighten, but not hyper extend, the elbow joint.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Virasana hands on shoulders elbows bent. Have elbows touch in the middle. Inhaling up exhaling down. 10X circles in each directions then 3x in each directions. Without taking a break take arms out to a “T” make firsts with hands and turn palms up and down flossing out the shoulder socket with the head of the arm bone. Take the arm in front of the body for a outer lat and shoulder stretch and then take elbow toward sky for a triceps stretch.

Succasana: neck stretch

Table

Puppy pose (work rotation of upper arm bones) -> DD

Tadansana -> half-moon stretch (thumb facing toward back of room bend elbows rotate inner deltoids and elbows toward back of room plug in muscularly from hands to back of heart and extend from back of heart and straighten arms as you take the side bend)

Cobra on finger tips (manual adjustment) -> normal cobra inner deltoids go toward front of room, out to the sides and toward the back of the room

PARTNER puppy pose -> dd -> cobra adjusting expanding spiral of arms

Lunge clasp hands behind back rotation of arms -> hands by sides palms facing out thumbs toward back of room -> circle arms toward sky thumbs toward back of room

L. L repeat same alignment actions as above

Cobra on finger tips -> shalabasana clasp hands

L twist -> L.L twist quad

Eka pada rajakapotasana clasp -> quad

Virachadrasana 2

Trikonasana

Handstands at wall

Partner handstands

Virasana clasp hands wrist circles -> wrist stretch (repeat in other direction and stretch other side)

Supta twisting core + shoulder work

Supta tadanasana -> zobie arms up toward ceiling praciticng loops plug shoulders in well and organically extend arms towards back of room thumbs only thing that come to floor if you can extend fully 3x

Shavasana

 

First Principle

This morning Tyler and I were talking about doing chataranga out of alignment and how much it can hurt your body over time. I mentioned that just doing chataranga with good shoulder alignment can actually heal shoulder injuries because you are training the body and inner body how tho hold itself on and off the matt.

Tyler then mentioned that one of his favorite qualities he has gained through yoga is the ability to lengthen his spine and maintain that length through out the day. Tyler practices yoga once and a while and he rarely comments on the benefits he experiences so this made me smile. I said "oh, oh that's on aspect of first principle". He kind of shrugged. One aspect I love from the practice is how now through out the day I expand my torso brightly, this is also an aspect of first principle. I asked if he noticed an expansion with the length, "yes, its like a balloon coming up in my chest" oh my, this made me even more giddy. He looked slightly confused. "How does all this length and balloon in your chest make your feet feel?" Tyler said his feet feel so feet feel good and his knees are not hurting as much.

I stopped the conversation at this because it was early in the morning and as much as I would love to continue to talk about first principle spontaneously showing up in our life it was early in the morning and I don't think Tyler shared my excitement. I wish we could have taken the conversation a little deeper. Yes, Tyler confirmed that he experiences  physical aspects of first principle: good foundation, side bodies long, inner body bright.  But I wander if he also notices an outer body softer. And what really gets my wheels turning is wandering if he has been noticing that he is putting the highest first? and to talk to him about the other non-physical aspects of first principle that we learn through practicing yoga asana.

Off to work, this was just so good that I had to blog before I left.

opening to Grace

In the immersion I am taking with Adam Ballenger we have been focusing on the first principle: Open to Grace.

I used to be so embarrassed that I was hanging on to really unhealthy habits and behaviors as I was studying yoga so intensely. I felt like such a hypocrite. Now I understand that I have been pursuing yoga for so long because I so badly wanted to open up to Grace but at the same time I was even more attached smaller then Grace “stuff”. I now see that it was just part of the journey. Although the relationship I have with food and body image has caused me a lot of pain I am grateful because the amount of pain it brought me was enough for me to fight it, learn to let go of it, so I could be in a place to open to Grace. I remember a specific day about two months into treatment where I was really focusing on surrender, “Surrender, surrender, surrender, do what you treatment team is telling you and take a leap of faith”. This was the start of me really opening to Grace. It had to start with an active surrender of my attachments to smaller then grace stuff which (through lots of effort) took so much weight off my shoulders allowing me to rise up get stay grounded. Life is still hard and it is a fight but now over all I feel bright, bubbly with joy, a deep surrender and acceptance. Before although I was a good actor my inner body was very dark and I felt pain, judgment, anger, fear, and anxiety.