Been using this mat for home practice. It has this texture that feels like grass and sand under your feet. It’s 100% biodegradable! Feels good on your body and on your conscience:)
Categories
Super FULL Moon hang so big, so ripe ! So close, you can reach and touch it – the soft glow, hanging low brushing the horizon this evening …It was simply… BEAUTIFUL. Full Moon night class – if only they knew what they are missing … Loved having few mommies practicing for two (?) so analogous to tonight’s cosmic power – modified to shift it more pre-natal and therapeutic but the essence of my intention was there: To detox, so to purify and to reclaim the beginner’s mind that are full of possibilities.
Super Full Moon ritual starts from ME:) Activating my intentions as the super moon slowly rises higher up on the night sky seen through the trees. A mom-to-be with a ripened belly said – I want to be more powerful … That wish is granted – this is THE practice if you stick with it, that empowers you. More power comes not just from whipping yourself into shape, but knowing ways to quiet the agitation, balance the nervous system and enjoy the baby like quality sleep that allows you enjoy a wakeful conscious wholeness. When we are fully present, we find bliss –
in spite of the struggles, there’s emotional balance and the ease and bounce you have in your steps. Then … your body will thank you and decide there’s no longer any need to stock up on excess fat. We will slim down to a level that’s just … right. Left unhampered but supported, our body has an intelligence to know what it needs; what it doesn’t. It’s a full circle. Don’t worry so much.
Looking up at the sky, the full moon, as I feel the anticipation of soon graduating with my Yoga Therapist certification after 800 hrs. of training (unbelievable to me as well), I am feeling the ripened sense of accomplishment mixed with the sense of remembrance of what it means to be a beginner that I wish to be each day:
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s mind there are few. ”
― Shunryu Suzuki
Categories
Today’s Populized Sun Salutation
Just FYI:) And so I may do them for fitness but this may be also why I am drawn more to softer, “real” side of yoga … My “theory” is that as Yoga traveled and spread to the East (as opposed to West), certain parts of Yoga meshed with Taoism in China (maybe … just a theory)… and the physical aspects with Marshal Art forms in China (shao-lin kung fu, qui-gong, Tai-chi), Korea and Japan (Judo, Karate, Aikido, even Kendo… maybe) … and in Japan, certain, aspects (the 7 out 8 Limbs of Patanjali Yoga) meshed with Shinto-ish beliefs, Buddhism and the emergence of Zen school of Buddhism, Zen Buddhism. It’s just a hypothesis and I am not a scholar to dig into historical archives to research – that would definitely be a lifetime work and I rather experience yoga than study it as theory. I rather … practice… the fusion, the integration of all.
Anyway … what was it ?
“Yoga is 99 percent practice, 1 percent theory.”
But when there’s not even a 1 percent, that 99% is probably not yoga. Body building is a fine intention too – we want that too – in moderation:) As with anything we undertake, it’s informed and defined by our intention.
A pursuit to find relief and more freedom in our body; to recognize our body to be a safe home … that is … enough. It’s simple. Ultimately we want to optimize our health, body, mind and spirit to live fully with joy. It’s all good. 100%:)
This is the world of muscles … if hardened and rigid, needs a good way to stretch and release … the coiled tension.
Then there’s the rest of the body …and deeper inside, more and more. Then, there’s the mind, the psyche … all connected and presents itself as One. Or does it?