Soulful for the Holidays

Every year, as the season shifts into the colder days of late fall I watch students transition into bundled bodies of boots, scarves, gloves, and hats.  Fall gets pretty cool in most parts of the Utah and well, winter is down right cold.  Gratefully students seek shelter to sweat, breathe, and connect, & the studio fills with students eager to heat the room.

I notice shoulders rounded, chins dropping forward, and hearts pulled back & in.  We generally call this the "burr it's cold outside look".  And it's not just the cold air that pulls up the armor of the heart, rounds the shoulders in preparation for the weight of the world, the holiday season is before us.  With the holidays brings added stress of money, family, expectations, and cold/flu season.  This is my cue as a teacher to offer heart openers. 

Backbends are physically challenging, they expose us to our surroundings, while requiring a steady commitment to breath and surrender to something greater than our limiting thoughts.  Yes they challenge what we "think we can do" encouraging us to open up, let go, and discover the warmth of the heart. I consider several postures, not just backbends as heart openers, but yes, backbends are at the top of the list. 

Anatomically speaking, the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and neck, when constricted, limit the fullness of breath. These muscles assist breathing by lifting the ribs up & out,  When the chest is constricted, these muscles begin to tighten and can even trigger a stress response.  Breath becomes shallow,  the body lacks sufficient prana, and the heart sinks into the worries of scarcity.  Opening the heart, assists full diaphragmic breathing.  The diraphragms' central tendon actually massages the heart during exhalation.  The muscles around the heart are nourished, the shoulders give up their hold, and posture improves.  Deep backbends  massage the Kidneys & adrenal glands, which nourishes every cell and revitalizes the endocrine system.

Backbends are a most energetic remedy for the Holiday Blues.  Just like a frustrating mother-in law, or a longer than expected line at the grocery store, backbends require practice, patience, and a willing heart.  They expand from the most sweet of inner spaces, and open us up to our deepest wisdom.  They create space, and the softness to release judgement, and let opinions go.  They also require vulnerability and love.

The physical & pranic offerings of heart opening postures come in handy during the holiday season.  Just about all of us have some level of emotional ups & downs.  The holiday season can be particularly challenging for those who have lost family members, are away from family, struggling with finances, and so on.  I get it- looking back at some of the challenging years I put my parents through as a cherished daughter gone-estranged-hippy-living-in-the-wilds-of-Idaho, who may or may not show up for Christmas.

Backbends open us to the beautiful present.  They charge our prana & strengthen us to let go and forgive.  Even every day letting go's that can add up during times of stress if we close ourselves off.  So get inside, get warm, and open your heart!! 

I'll be focusing on many levels of heart openers throughout November & December!  If you can't make it to the studio as much as you had hoped, we will repeat these postures with the intention that you build confidence to pactice at home when needed!

And some of my favorite music to expand into:

Be the change (Bollywood Dub Omstrumental)  by: Mc Yogi

Lokah Samastah (Sean Dinsmore's Happy Free Mix)  by: Sharon Gannon 

Unity  by: Glen Velez

Memory Gospel by: Moby

Space Weaver by: Lisa Gerrard

shanti om.

Jami

So... I took a road trip...

Mindful

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for -
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world -
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,

...I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these -
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean's shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~

I love this poem!!  It really was a theme for this late summer road trip.  I wanted to be reminded in the most glorious and reverent of ways... how interwoven the majesty of a landscape is to a song, to a smile, to my heart beating, to the miles, and yes... destination.

I wanted to be reminded that we are born to partake of the beauty of life,

"like a needle
in the haystack
of light." 

Sometimes a change of scenery brings it all back again.  Yes i witnessed "the prayers that are made
out of grass", and "untrimmable light".  I also recognised how much space I had simply turned over to worry, doubt, and struggle.  Uncrowding the mind is one of the greatest gifts we can harness as human beings!  Om Namah Shivaya!!  What I found most hilarious, was the crickets!!  Yeah that's right... they are as loud in the middle of the desert as they are just outside my bedroom window... and the fact that, according to my road travelling ladies, I snore much louder then the crickets chirp.  Ha!

As summer gives way to cooler mornings and shorter days, please remember what you were born to do.  Pause and become present to any given offering from divine.  Look & listen.  Loose the ego self inside this soft world and fill your cup up again.  It is true that you don't have to travel any further than within, and so grateful that a little time on the road, can do just that. Reconnect to the sweetness within, and instruct ourselves over and over in joy!

Blessings on the path within,

Jami

Just This Orchard From Just That Seed

I love pitta season!  Summer is hot and full sunrise to sunset.  Less clothes and more ice, dinners on the porch, outdoor concerts, road trips, and the clouds that roll in during the month of August... exquisite!

With so much going on, and summer moving almost too quickly, the concept of common place miracles has inspired my practice tremendously.  This poem by Polish author Wislawa Szymborska is just that... a miracle...

Commonplace miracle:
that so many commonplace miracles happen.

An ordinary miracle:
in the dead of night
the barking of invisible dogs.

One miracle out of many:
a small, airy cloud
yet it can block a large and heavy moon.

Several miracles in one:
an alder tree reflected in the water,
and that it's backwards left to right
and that it grows there, crown down
and never reaches the bottom,
even though the water is shallow.

An everyday miracle:
winds weak to moderate
turning gusty in storms.

First among equal miracles:
cows are cows.

Second to none:
just this orchard
from just that seed.

A miracle without a cape and top hat:
scattering white doves.

A miracle, for what else could you call it:
today the sun rose at three-fourteen
and will set at eight-o-one.

A miracle, less surprising than it should be:
even though the hand has fewer than six fingers,
it still has more than four.

A miracle, just take a look around:
the world is everywhere.

An additional miracle, as everything is additional:

the unthinkable

is thinkable.

So beautifully acknowledged... so cooling for the mind.  During particularly challenging asana, when the mind is heated and ready to react, I hear the words, "just this orchard, from just that seed..." I give my mind the permission to be with the miracle of the many from the one.  Just one breath... just one more breath... soft face, steady gaze, expansive heart.  Ripen your practice from the seed within, and witness your entire life become a most abundant orchard... the world is everywhere!

warmth and om rays,

Jami

Photos in order of appearance by:

 pasotraspaso

JelleS

The Many Into One

It's 5:45pm.  For many students of yoga, it has been a very full day.  Any and all combinations of work, school, family, commute, deadlines, appointments... and the list goes on.  Sitting in sukasana for the opening OM of practice, I am always sensing the diversity of energies, needs, injuries, and asana wish lists.  It never gets old for me to lead students from the many to the one.  To encourage and navigate the harmonizing of the mind with the intelligence of body, as one collective in the satsang.

My favorite place to begin:  Foundation

Foundation, or root has everything to do with connecting the physical body with earth below, and also to our individual roots.  When we ground the physical body we sense our life existing much further then the on going fluctuations of the mind that once separated us.  We relax into the reality that are basic needs are being met in this moment and give ourselves permission to shift and change within this support.   Mentally exiting our work day, the freeway, the heated discussion from earlier.  It is a conscious choice and level of awareness to embark on the healing practice of unity.

Breath is next:  Ujayii Pranayam

Ujayii is particularly beneficial in the practice.  As a collective we breathe for all life, one another, and ourselves.  We hear the sound of our own breath, as a continuous reminder as to how we are contributing to the group flow.  Breath is the sutra of life.  It provides constant feedback as to the integrity of our practice, while purifying, strengthening, and opening us to communion.  Breath brings us back again and again, and fortifies our commitment to presence.  When the mind pays attention to breath, mental distractions and thoughts of separation cease.  The mind becomes full of the inhale, exhale, and the life of the entire being.

Intention is brilliant

With the unique history of a life, a week, a day, for any one of us, Intention is precious.  It opens us to become more intimate with our personal needs and purpose for showing up to practice.  Intention asks us to get clear, and commit to our dharma.  To harness the strength and surrender of asana as a means to deepen our yoga in life.  To study our tendencies to separate, judge, or check out.  Intention is our personal roll call.  We attend to our specific needs while honoring the group practice.  We may have very personal breakthroughs during class, that soften the illusions of separateness and competition.  We open to how we impact the we space, and how others impact us. 

David Whyte speaks of this so eloquently:

WORKING TOGETHER
 
We shape our self  
to fit this world

and by the world  
are shaped again.

The visible  
and the invisible

working together  
in common cause,

to produce  
the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way  
the intangible air

passed at speed  
round a shaped wing

easily  
holds our weight.

So may we, in this life  
trust

to those elements  
we have yet to see

or imagine,  
and look for the true

shape of our own self  
by forming it well

to the great  
intangibles about us.

~ David Whyte

Isn't this weather something to talk about !?!

Have a miraculous week,

Jami

photos by: Meanest Indian

How sweet is there Union

How sweet is there Union!

The whole world is too small too small

To contain them.

Yet they live in happily in the smallest particle

He takes the role of witness

Out of love of watching Her.

But when Her appearance is withdrawn,

The role of witness is abandoned as well.

 Through Her,

He assumes the form of the universe;

Without Her, He is left naked.

Excerpts from The Union Of Shiva And Shakti  by: Jnanadev

Creation does not come from confusion!  It has a rhythym, vibration, essence!

In the laguage of Tantra we discover the Self cannot be seperate from it's own self expression.  The drum beat is not seperate from the drum.  Expression always seeks to reunite with it's Essence.  Matter seeks union with Spirit.

Shiva Aspects:  Essence  Being  Insight  Choice

Shakti Aspects:  Expression  Becoming  Action  Karma