How to Have a Yoga Body Part 5

This is Padangustasana, toe stand. I love it because it is all about having balance through focus. 

Drishti is a Sanskrit word that comes from yoga. The practice of Drishti is a gazing technique that develops concentration and teaches you to see the world as it really is. In yoga, drishti is a point of focus where the gaze rests during a posture and meditation practice--gazing outward while bringing awareness inward.

How to have a yoga body? Practice, practice, practice.

How to Have a Yoga Body Part 4

How to have a yoga body: take the body you have to the yoga studio, and do yoga with it.

Beth Galis captured this cool angle on my savasana. In the Bikram style of Hatha yoga that we do at Yarrow, there are many opportunities to practise this pose. I like to think of it as letting go. During the standing half of the class, we do very short - probably 5 second - savasanas between each pose. It is the chance to let go of the previous pose and move into the next pose empty of judgement (if I felt weak in the last pose) and empty of pride (if I felt strong in it.) The goal is to be present for each pose. I often find that thinking too much, dwelling on the past or even the future, keeps me from being present. Savasana to the rescue. Time to simply be. Honestly, when we get to the floor, I sometimes think that the studio must be built on top of a lava flow. The floor feels hotter than the air. I have a trick that I use when I am having thoughts of the heat, or anything really that is other than the simple joy of being in the room. I imagine that I am lying on a bridge - like the suspension bridge at Bowl and Pitcher - there is a cool river flowing below me and the space between the boards allows air and sometimes water to cool me. I imagine my thoughts flowing out of me and being carried away by the river, so I can remain as empty and present as possible. Sometimes, I imagine I have a tail that reaches into the river to play in the cool water. We get 20 seconds between each floor pose to lie in savasana. It is here that we soak up all of the benefits of the class. I will gather my thoughts and write more about letting go at some point. It has been transformative for me this Spring and Summer. Thank you to Beth and all of the instructors at Yarrow for teaching me how to benefit from savasana. 

The fresh air of happiness

Each year, as we get close to Independence Day, there is a phrase that follows me in my thoughts. It comes in whispers, the earnest last words of men and women long dead, urging me to consider. If the words are true, then I have something in me that is inalienable, something I cannot give up, nor can it be taken from me.  The phrase turns into questions. How am I caring for my life and liberty? Where am I in my pursuit of happiness?  Honestly, for a very long time, I lost the path. At this time of year, when I could be reveling in summer and the long hours of light, the questions seemed heavy.  I felt like a failure, like the alienable American.  The pursuit of happiness did not seem like a viable venture to me, so I searched for things I could pursue other than happiness. I would catch my face resting in a frown and feel deeply unhappy. I may have wanted to be happy, but I didn’t know how I could do happy.  Then, quite by accident, I discovered that in my body, I have a passage that I can access through which happiness can come in. Does that sound strange?

Everyone knows that the eyes are the window to the soul, and, I hear Pete Townshend when he sings, “let my love open the door… to your heart.” Why not have a hatch we can open and let in the fresh air of happiness? I want to say:

A smile is that passage through which happiness can enter the soul.

For several years, Beth Galis has been telling those of us who attend her hot yoga studio that a smile will bring ease to the practice. After taking more than a year off of yoga to recover from a back injury, I decided to come back to the practice and to enjoy it. I am there because I choose to be there. I know it is good for me. There is no place else I want to be in those moments, those hours. I breathe, I smile, I listen, and I do.  Smiling is what I do to inform my face that I am there to enjoy my body and soak up all of the goodness I can from the practice. I started smiling because Beth said it would make the practice easier. Who doesn’t want easier?  It works. The more I smile, the more I enjoy the class and the easier it is to do it. Then I had a private healing session with Beth in which we were able to identify and release some negative emotional baggage. Soon afterwards, I found myself driving down the road and smiling for no reason and not willfully. It just welled up from inside, and I recognized it as actual happiness. What a gift.  I smile a lot these days. My happiness is independent of any other person or circumstance. No one and no thing made me happy. 

Happiness surrounds me, and when I smile it comes inside.

How to have a yoga body part 2

How to have a yoga body: take the body you have to the yoga studio and do yoga with it.

Another one of my favorite things about practising at Yarrow is the visualizations given to me by the instructors along the way. Going into standing bow pulling pose, I imagine roots growing down through my feet, spreading out to cover the room and beyond to wrap around the whole world. Those roots hold me in place while I envision a pulley attached to my kicking foot, pulling straight up. I picture myself suspended and attached at the same time. My eyes have a soft focus on my forward hand in the mirror, as I dance between Earth and sky. 

I am hoping to make this a weekly thing, posting the photos and comments. I would love to share my yoga journey with you. I hope it encourages some of you who spend a lot of time behind a sewing machine or at a desk to get out on your mat and work up a sweat.

How to have a yoga body, part one

How to have a yoga body: take the body you have to the yoga studio and do yoga with it. 

After 14 months off, I am back. I gained a lot of weight in the year plus that I did not exercise, but I can't let that be an excuse to not get myself to the studio. My chosen practice is hot Hatha yoga. We have a great studio in Spokane, Yarrow Yoga and Wellness. I have always been athletic and never thought yoga was for me, but when I found this place and this style, I fell in love. I practised pretty hard for 2.5 years, about 900 hours. I was always stronger than I was flexible and that caught up with me when I gave myself a major back injury. Thus, the long hiatus.  Some thoughts on my practice:

One of the things I love about this style of yoga is that all I have to do is show up, listen, and do. When it comes to a posture like rabbit pose where my back injury prevents me from fully realizing the posture, I can still listen, and follow the cues until I reach my limit. After that, I listen and picture myself in the full expression of the posture. There is no disappointment or lack of benefit. In my mind, I am a perfect rabbit.