DAILY With the need for increasing mental, emotional, and physical flexibility to see us to the other side of enormous change, I shall be writing on the helpful and subversive ideas and teachings of four talented Instructors. This week Aaron Cantor, followed by Daniel Orlansky, Jen Yarrow, and Shiva Rea. Spring opens the body from winter weight. Eclipse seasons are change-funnels, sometimes like tornados, asking shifts of perspective and path…as in “The barn’s burned down, now I can see the Moon.” (Eclipses impel, or cut us off, often occurring in the unsettled seasons of spring and fall. Lucky us, we have three eclipses coming: June I, June 15, and July 1.) Massive shifts are due not only to spring, or Eclipses, but to prominent planetary energies making these fast and furious years ones of transformation. Think late 60’s. Bodies and minds are layered with pre-emptive strikes to be different, be better, or die. Relationships, particularly, require we surpass old tribal connection and expectation, especially relationships with Gaia. We are in the cauldron of learning to share heartfelt fire and recourses in profoundly meaningful ways. The question is, how do we shape-shift to meet many layered obligations AND hold on to who we are, to our core Self? Can we? Should we? As usual, I don’t know, but recently I’ve been given ideas to share, thanks to the serendipitous synchronicity of being with singular teachers. Much of their power comes from their decisions to follow their own voice, to have the courage to create a unique path, to not play it safe. It also emerges from their talent of combining areas of information and expertise, refining a vision of what works for them. Aaron Cantor began by asking, “If you had a superpower, what would it be?” He then proceeded to embody, and teach… Read more »
Read moreInspirations: Transformation
Face Value
If feeling unhappy in a pose, or unexpectedly hurt by someone’s random comment, or suddenly uneasy with a stranger or new situation, it is smart not to take it at face value. Often it is something within the pose, the person, or comment that sparks old hidden fires of fear within. Like the mind, muscles hold memory. Often ancient, forgotten memories embedded in the muscular structure are triggered by seemingly random events. Some people believe that they don’t have to be of this life time, but that a karmic triggering can take place when the body is ready. And Yoga is constantly getting us ready. It is one reason to be aware, and listening to the Practice. What secrets are being revealed? What layer is being peeled away? It is one of the main reasons Yoga is used as a healing agent for physical, psychological, and spiritual ills/ imbalances. Sometimes we meet people we whom we have an instant affinity, others give us chills. We are foolish beyond belief when we do not pay attention to these signals of ‘high alert,’ for the body has greater access than the brain to the kind of intelligence that is particularly important at a profoundly personal level. When we move past the face value of, “I’m tired, I’m uncomfortable, I don’t like this pose, that person bores me,” to question why, we begin a journey for our holy grail. This grail is the cup holding essential soul-self, and as we effort to strip away outer layers, bypassing assumption, laziness, fear, those band aids placed in strategic positions long ago, we begin our true journey. Since we are more willing to start up new journeys in January, questions for this road might be: 1. Is this person/pose/experience pushing me off balance? How? Why… Read more »
Read moreTurn Turn Turn
It’s been said that ‘turning over a new leaf,’ ‘turning a page,’ ‘turning toward the future,’ are good and true actions come January 1. Frankly, I’m for turning over and pulling up the covers this year. I’m for ripping out the page and burning it. Turning toward the future only reveals the fridge, where I’ve stuck my head in a jar of fudge. I’ve lived long enough to know that this too shall pass. But hell, the pabulum of dreams unmet, and desires railroaded, is like eating an inch of cold grease off an old griddle. No? The grease and un-answered dreams clog all manner of drains even when we wishing to pull forward and turn a new leaf, or a page. It takes an enormous turning of the will to not be destructive about being destroyed. Yes, shredding is part of the process. It’s called, ‘transformation.’ Hee hee hee. Transformation is nothing but ‘destruction’ blithely written, or said by your Astrologer seeing Pluto approach. No matter what we call it, transformation is the only game in town these days. But please don’t ask me to do that. Don’t ask me to give up the ego’s wishes. I don’t want to change what I’ve constructed. I don’t want to surrender when I’ve worked so hard to hang on…. Oh Waugh waingh wallyeee. Apparently, wynching is good for the soul. I feel much better now that I’ve spread my cold grease around. Lucky you! There’s something about writing the angst in black and white that often reveals its pettiness and absurdities. This creates enough light to re-boot. There is just enough laughter to take a small step toward the year’s unknown demands. Thank you for listening. Your turn. Are you ready to begin the New Year? Or are you kicking and… Read more »
Read moreDeath’s POV
New moons are 28 day deaths. The continuous re-birth cycle of Sun and Moon are the Ha and Tha (Hatha,) the Yin and Yang of earthly life. This surrendering to death is very like practicing Savasana-Corpse Pose. There are many ways to release the old, and give up what is necessary, but living with and by Lunar cycles and the cycles within a Practice, invite greater awareness, helping shift old POV’s. Death, for all its fearsome omnipotence, is only a POV. Inviting death in as a Practice, beckons knowledge of, and comfort from. To that end, I share with you a wonderful writing I’ve just received from a wise and lovely friend. It was written by Henry Van Dyke. I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says: “There, she is gone!” “Gone where?” “Gone from my sight. That is all.” She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: “There. She is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: ”Here she comes!” And that is dying. Energetic Forces: Asana: Astavakrasana– Eight Crooks Pose, dedicated to the sage Astavakra. Begin with feet about 20… Read more »
Read moreBeam Me Up Scotty
Under this full moon, eat green melon, dream large dreams, wear silver twined with gold, see the highest vision, trip the light fantastic, and hold nothing but your heart. What is demanding your attention in this moment? Where is your focus? Do you have one? Or has it mutated so many times in the past few weeks, it’s become a blur of mad cows across the horizon? This equinox is one of the year’s high energy points, with many oppositional face-offs, and inner pressures creating explosion and implosion. The equinox, as one of the four change quadrants during the year, can be a time of re-focusing, and re-commitment. Earth can access a larger intelligence using the solstice/equinox beams as homing devices to connect personal desires to light years streaming the galaxy. Outer planetary doorways beckon an alignment with desires, which can happen now. Be aware of what you wish for. The impetus for transformation is forcing bodies beyond usual fears and limitations, The Universe has turned up the heat so that as difficult as present change can be, outcomes offer rich, profound sensibilities, along with more sensitive radars. Trekkies, remember “Beam me up Scotty.” Now it’s your turn. Energetic Forces Asana: Hamsasana/Swan-Another beautiful, impossibly difficult bird pose. The difference between last week’s Mayurasana/Peacock Pose, and this week’s Hamsasana lies only in the position of the hands. In the Swan, fingers face forward, toward the head, making this more difficult than the Peacock. Begin on all fours, Bend elbows, with forearms as close together as possible, and rest diaphragm on the elbows, chest on back of upper arms. One by one, extend legs back, keeping them together, strong and straight. On exhaling take body weight onto the wrists and hands, lifting legs off floor, if possible. Stretch the back and head forward until… Read more »
Read moreFighting Chance
How do we give ourselves a fighting chance when the deck is stacked? How do we change someone who overwhelms the psyche? How do we fight constipated bonfires of rage, destruction, and carelessness? As usual, I have no idea, but in order to change something we must alter the energy that creates it. Therefore all seemingly enormous forces outside of self must first be addressed within. It is an opportunity to see them as part of our makeup, a mask of our mysterious spiritual-soul self. Caroline Myss, author and intuitive healer, speaks of universal archetypes, as did Carl Jung, who proposed that the collective unconscious was populated by faces of psychological patterns, such as victim, mother, trickster, or Queen. Myss feels that a combination of 12 archetypal patterns, much like the 12 houses of the zodiac, work within each of us, creating personae and personality, mainly creating shadow material from childhood as grist for our adult spiritual mill. Learning to identify these faces, or energies, observing them rise up again and again to sabotage the creative self, we begin to have a fighting chance to overcome a stacked deck. As we open perception to name our hidden subversive powers, be it contracts with the saboteur, prostitute, or innocent, we can then “invoke it, assimilate it, and express it.” * What overwhelms the psyche, is us. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We change us by awakening our own divine potential, liberating ourselves from childhood/societal limitations of old parental decrees. These shadow-archetypes, destructive when hidden by darkness, become our strongest ally’s when illuminated. The spiritual challenge is not to fight the constipated bonfire, first we let go the ‘old shit,’ and second, we do not sit so close to the fire that we cannot… Read more »
Read moreBurn Baby, Burn
The weather is only half the heat we are contending with this summer. If ever there was a time to learn about ‘turning the other cheek,’ it is now. And what, pray tell, does that phrase conjure? If I slug you, do you ignore me? If I patronize, or lie, do you then roll over? If I, as your best friend, drunkenly crash into your car, do you not press charges? Just what is that other cheek? We are going to have to come to terms with an inability to do what is right. All too often we either over-react, or we do nothing in fear of standing up for ourselves and being heard, or worse, disliked. The oh so fine and difficult line down the middle requires great heart, perception, and follow through wisdom, products in seeming short supply. The impersonal, and the profoundly personal changes the world is offering are going to present themselves ever more furiously. Our talent to separate chaff from wheat, past from present, and inconsequential from profound will mean we will survive this time with Self, family, and friends intact, or not. The spiritual, emotional, physical muscle we have been strengthening these past years is going to have to be flexible enough to bend at many moment’s of irrational demand. ‘What now?’ Is all that counts. What are the consequences? How huge the price? The present choice holds and forms past and future. The stakes are high, higher than we think, and turning the other cheek may be the worst decision in our life. It might be the best. We will not know until it is our cheek, until it is our ego assailed and humiliated, our child maligned. Then the question must sit in the heart of our wisdom-muscles to know if the… Read more »
Read moreConsciousness Boot Camp
Getting ready to be ready, sounds fun, as if packing to go on vacation. Getting ready to be ready for anything is another matter. If we approach that with the same enthusiasm and excitement we do packing for a smashing holiday, we might face present uncertainty with greater skill. Being human animals, uncertainty makes us nervous, and in trying to be ready for all the surprises now being offered, we shrink. There is no glow of anticipation. Worse, fear jumped in the suitcase, under the new cocktail heels. Stepping out with confidence in 6 inch stilettos, through high, and low grade insecurities requires élan, if not bravado, care, if not criticism, and faith, if not hope. Hope is dead, long live faith. The difference between them is packing for a vacation when you know you’re being sent down river in a pair of stilettos. Only faith will see you through the rapids. Hope capsized on the first rocks. Heading through rapids, one can only grab reality by the round dangles and squeal, if not in delight, then in passionate brays for the unique charm of vicissitudes. If one is being hurled willy-nilly down river, then not only do we need to know how to swim, but handle category five rapids. Learning to roll with the punches, and then roll again is the boot camp of consciousness. The stilettos may look fabulous, but it is time for muscle, not mincing. And no, there will be no walking around the falls… Over we go, facing each moment as opportunity to be alive, to face fear if not conquer it, to reach out, and open the heart in the headlong tumble. Sign up now for the best boot camp around. Asana: Sarvangasana Cycle/Shoulder Stand series. First remain in Sarvangasana five minutes, then do… Read more »
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