The Woman I Love

I'm married to the greatest woman in the world.

I just LOVE her! She's the perfect partner for me. One thing about her that I discovered about her early on in our relationship was that because of my relationship with her I was a better man and a better person. She sees and celebrate my strengths. I want to step up to the occasion to be honor such an incredible woman as this. THAT'S how I knew that she was the woman that I'd spend the rest of my days with.

I'm so happy to have celebrate that love with her this Valentine's Day weekend by collaborating with her to host our Couple's Retreat.

We try to treat our relationship like yoga: as a practice. We all know that with relationships, just like with yoga, we can get out of practice, we can get into ruts, and we can down right suck at relationships sometimes. Sometimes the circumstances of a relationship can be out of your control. Sometimes you can steer things differently. Even when things are going really well, there is always something to practice.

Truly relationship (any relationship) is just the closest mirror to the growth that is happening within yourself. If you're not growing, your relationship is not growing. And vice versa.

Like yoga, we can always practice. Practice gives us permission to learn without the need to be perfect. Practice lets you use all for faculties and experiment until you start to get it dialed in. Practice lets try again if you've messed up.

I invite you to treat your relationships like a practice this week. Remember, the greatest gift we can give any relationship is PRESENCE.

Because the Woman I love lives
Inside of you,

 I lean as close to your body with my words
As I can--

 And I think of you all the time, dear pilgrim.

 Because the One I love goes with you
Wherever you go,
 Hafiz will always be near.

 If you sat before me, wayfarer,
 With your aura bright from your many
Charms,

My lips could resist rushing to you and needing
 To befriend your blushed cheek,

 But my eyes can no longer hide
 The wondrous fact of who 
You Really are.

 The Beautiful One whom I adore
Has pitched His royal tent inside of you,

 So I will always lean my heart 
 As close to your soul
As I can.

~Hafiz

“The Woman I Love” by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky from The Subject Tonight is Love by Daniel Ladinsky, published by Penguin Compass. Copyright © 2003 by Daniel Ladinsky. All rights reserved

There's Something In The Tea

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I lived in Korea for a year teaching English and studying meditation. I loved to explore the locals-only part of this fascinating country.

One day a few friends and I wandered into a tea shop in the old part of town. At the back of the shop was a man, dressed in the Han Bok, the traditional Korean habit, who noticed us enter the shop.

Without a word he began to prepare tea. It took us a few moments to wander to the back of the store. By the time we noticed the man sitting behind a small wooden table, the water was hot. He motioned for us to join him. Delighted, we sat on a few cushions lying on the floor in front of the low table. He poured the tea into the pot and allowed the tea to steep.

After a few minutes, he laid out a few delicate tea cups and performed the proper ceremony to serve tea.

He didn't speak English. We didn't speak Korean. Together we spoke the language of human beings sharing tea. We simply sat in each other's presence and enjoyed tea. We didn't need to make small talk. We didn't need to make charades. Words would have been excessive.

Several long minutes passed. Then, we rose and bowed humbly to him. He smiled and bowed humbly back. We left the shop but he has never left our hearts.

There's something in the tea.

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Presence: The Yoga of Relationships

Valentine’s day is a few weeks away. It’s one of my absolute favorite holidays because for me giving and receiving love is perhaps the most important thing in my life. I love the fact that there’s a day dedicated just to luuuuuuv. (Cue the Barry White)
 
One of my favorite Valentine’s Days happened a few years ago. Seneca and I had started dating a few months previous and I was (am) so madly in love with her. I really, really, really wanted to impress her. I wanted her to melt in my arms, into a puddle of love and cooing, and kiss me all over my face. I wanted to see that look on her face she gives me when I know she’s burning for me.  Sure there’s attraction in that look, too, but there but this is something sweeter and deeper, a manifestation of rock-solid, burning-heart connection. There’s nothing like it.
 
I knew that she loves a good lasagna so I went to Tony Caputo’s and bought all the mondo-deluxe ingredients to make from scratch The Lasagna to End All Lasagnas. Why even try after this perfection of tomatoey, cheesy, and Italian spiced goodness?? It had 4 kinds of cheeses, the best pasta, veg, and spices, cooked with the finest olive oil. Damn! I was expecting a phone call offering me an honorary degree from Le Cord En Bleu. This thing was an institution!
 
I bought a nice, expensive bottle of wine, a 2011 Altamura sangiovese, a favorite of hers I’d heard her reference with a swoon.
 
Then I bought two dozen roses, one for giving and the other to use for a rose petal path around my house.
 
Then, I bought a box of chocolates and ate all the chocolate. Stay with me! I cut out like 75 or 100 little paper hearts and wrote on each one something I loved about her. “I love to hear your soft breath when you are sleeping.” “I love your beautiful smile.” “I love your amazing chocolate mouse cake.” “I love how you are such a hard worker.” “I love how you love me” “I love your beautiful heart.” “I love your hot bod!”. . .  You get the point. I gave all the hearts to Seneca in the chocolate box. This was a fantastic exercise that made me tear up several times when preparing it.

Please use this idea for your love this Valentine’s Day. For the next few weeks, start jotting down all the things, little and big, that you love about your special person.
 
I invited her over to my house and when she arrived, the house was filled with the incredible aroma of the Lasagna To End All Lasagnas. There were flowers, wine, wonderful music, all the preparations.
 
The evening was INCREDIBLE! It went off without a hitch.
 
I think the biggest success of all was the chocolate box turned into myriad Valentines. Take in that whole box and your heart gets fat, your thighs stay hot!
 
I could just be me but I think that a lot of women just want to feel like you give a shit, you know? Like you care about them enough to make a plan. It’s shows presence, an essential element that every relationship needs. Guys are the same way. When Seneca comes home with a surprise for me, something small like a nice beer she thought I might like, it melts me to know that she was thinking about me and went out of her way to buy it for me. Little things like that make me feel like she's present with me.

It's about being present and observing one another. When we are hanging out in the evening, the babe’s gone to sleep, if we have a few moments together and one or the other of us isn’t present (usually me) there’s static in the relationship. Often, I need to pull my head out (of my work) and go over, sit next to her, stroke her hair and look her in the eyes and connect. Cultivating presence in your relationship is one of the yoga of relationships.
 
Ok. So make this Valentine’s Day INCREDIBLE! Make it one that your special person won't forget. Cultivate some presence with your special person in a way that is fun, romantic, and unique. Show your person that you thought enough about them to plan a INCREDIBLE day together.
 
Check this out! Seneca and I are offering you and your special person an amazing Valentines Day retreat at Snowbird Cliff Spa. Either Saturday February 13 or Sunday February 14 10 am to 4 pm. ALL COUPLES ARE WELCOME. We've figured out the details. You just need to show up.
 
Share your love with your person by having tons of fun, laughing, getting to know each other even deeper, connecting, learning ninja-like heart connection techniques, and relaxing together in the world-renown Cliff Spa.
 
Yes, it’s going to be held at the legendary Snowbird Cliff Spa and access to the spa is included! We’ll do some fun partner yoga, appropriate and fun for all levels and experience—even if you’re a newbie. We will also do some wonderful, relaxing couples poses, an opportunity to stretch and open each other up comfortably. This will lead to the part where together you’ll give and receive a long, decadent partner massage. Knowing the technique, you can offer this to your partner when they’ve had a long day. This will help to continue to build your relationship with regular presence and intimacy.
 
One of the things I’m really excited about is practicing some mindfulness, breathing, and presence exercises together. This will literally breathe life into your relationship. We'll learn and practice some cool, esoteric, and very specialized yoga techniques to help build anextraordinary connection with your partner. You’ll feel your heart swell and feel more connected to your partner than you thought possible through these simple yet profound techniques.
 
There will be chocolate! There will be poetry. Great discussion. So many things for a perfectly fun day! You’ll leave feeling relaxed, connected, and in love with your special person.  
 
After it’s done, you’ll take your honey by the hand and go and get steamy in the Eucalyptus steam room, boil in the roof-top hot tub, or sit and whisper sweet nothings in the solarium. This is going to be an amazing day!
 
So, everybody is going to want to get in on this and unfortunately we can only accommodate a limited number of couples to attend each day so as to keep the experience intimate and fun. We already have several couples signed up but for the moment there is still room in both sessions.
 
This will sell out soon so please reserve your spot today!
 
Basic Deets:
February 13 or 14
Snowbird Cliff Spa
10 am to 4 pm with a lunch break
$250 per couple.

Arm Balances

Arm Balances:

I've said it a billion times but If I were to hold a yoga workshop where we bring our nemesis poses to class and work on them until we make peace with them, I could almost guarantee that it would be 2.5 hours of arm balances. If you're someone who is not on speaking terms with a lot of arm balances, don't worry, you're not alone.

As with any type of asana, when we understand the underlying principles of the pose it becomes not only approachable but fun--yes, even arm balances.  Also, when we remember that we are practicing principles in the form of the poses and not trying to simply perform poses, we lose our attachment to trying to mold the body into a particular form and become satisfied with understanding and accomplishing the principle. There is a version of arm balances for everybody. Even though we may not be attached to the form of the pose, when we are able to master a principle, it's fun to see how the body responds by accomplishing poses that perhaps we didn't think were possible.

Arm balances build strength and confidence, both in body and character. They cultivate our ability to hold ourselves in a way that different than normal. To practice arm balances, we use our deep inner-strength, our core.

The following are some of the principles weuse to practice arm balances:

Grounding
Establishing our ground is essential for every pose. For arm balances, we ground using our arms or hands. Therefore, we generally ground the hands shoulder-distance apart from each other. Connect to the floor with as much surface of the palm as possible by spreading the fingers wide then gripping with the fingertips to establish the muscular support for negotiating balance and decompressing the wrists. Wrist pain is often a deal-breaker for many practitioners. Strength in the forearms and gripping with the hands is one way to stay out of the wrists in arm balances. In class we will practice other ways to avoid injuring the wrists.

Legs, Hip Flexors, and Abdominals (Uddiyana Bandha)
To perform arm balances, not only must we ground in a way that doesn't use our legs butwe must also hold our legs off the floor. The muscles responsible for keeping the legs hugged into the body and/or our legs holding our arms are our hip flexors (the muscles in the groins), the adductors (muscles that pull the legs together) and the abdominals. Uddiyana Bandha (oo-dee-yana bahn-dah) is one of the three special muscular locks we use in yoga. It is the essence of our core strength and helps direct the flow of energy in our body. There are a few ways to perform Uddiyana Bandha. In arm balances we will practice this lock by drawing the lower abdominals up and in while maintaining our breath. In class we will cultivate awareness of the legs, hip flexors and Uddiyana Bandha as learn how to apply them to arm balances.

Breath
Breath is perhaps the most important principle in our asana practice. Especially when we are practicing challenging poses such as arm balances, sometimes we instinctively hold our breath and grunt our way through the pose. Holding our breath starves our muscles of oxygen and it's no wonder we find ourselves unable to do the pose. If we establish the pattern of deep breathing known as ujjayi (oo-jie-ee), in and out through the nostrils, using the muscles in the back of the throat to slightly constrict and elongate the breath, creating a whisper, we calm the nervous system at the same time that we provide copious fuel for our muscle fibers. This breath is key to all poses including arm balances.

Sense of Humor
As with all of these poses, we don't become any more enlightened by the ability to perform arm balances. Instead, enlightenment is what we learn is along the path as we practice these poses and practice life. The asana is simply practical application to the lesson, again practicing principles in the form of asana. So a healthy sense of humor is essential because it's not about the pose--it's about my attitude in the pose. Do I strain, grunt, and groan my way through it? Do I perform the pose easily and look around self-righteously at all the other losers who are grunting and groaning their way through the pose? Do I not even try for fear that I'll fail? It's all just a practice, just a game. Have fun with it. Do what is possible understanding that you are somewhere along a winding path of progression. If you don't master the pose today, you may still master the anatomical or mental or spiritual principles behind the pose. And who knows you might surprise yourself and someday master the pose, too.

See you in class.

Photo by Dan Morris

Ananda: Bliss! Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

Ananda is a state of complete bliss, sometimes achieved by experienced yoga practitioners. One never achieves ananda by perfecting any certain yoga posture. You may feel that you have accomplished something if you are able to understand the principles of and manifest a technical asana, however there will always be another asana that will be too hard. Ananda comes as the culmination of many things. Sometimes, by simply not taking ourselves too seriously.

We can use the asanas simply as tools to help us strengthen our bodies, find our breath, and hone our concentration, all of which will lead us to feel good and find similar joy as the blissed out yogis. Most everyone who has been to yoga, even a few times, has experienced this bliss, to some degree, upon rising from savasana, our resting pose. Bit by bit, we may see that despite life's challenges, there is much to be happy about. In fact, it may begin to feel that joy is our most natural state of being.

If a good sense of humor isn't listed in the Yoga Sutras as a pathway to our highest selves, it should be.

You know, we don't have to be so serious all the time. Take a room full of barefooted, lycra-clad, sweaty, heavy breathers and throw in some gymnastics and breakdancing, a few droning chants and there's a lot to laugh at. Especially because you know that every one in the room at sometime or other is experiencing flatulance anxiety. . .(you know who you are).

My favorite (and I'm guilty of this too) is to see the yogi "look-how-awesome-my-yoga-practice-is" photo performed by being photographed in some outrageous and death-defying yoga posture at the edge of a scenic cliff. How yogic is that? They'll be saying at my funeral, "he was doing yoga right up until the end. . . literally." Then in heaven, I'll have to sheepishly tell all the other people in line to get into The Pearly Gates specifically what stupid thing I did to end up dead. They'll be undoubtedly curious and want me to show them the pose. I'll tell them that I'd like to but that " . . um . . I'm not warmed up." I can see them looking at me and then taking a long look down and say, "well, maybe not yet."

There are all kinds of yoga poses we encounter in daily life. One of my favorites is the balance-intensive, Putyourunderwearon asana. What are your favorite poses? Please leave a comment below.

If you want to read something really, really, funny about yoga check out this New York Times article called Guns And Yoga by Patton Oswald. My favorite line is, "Shooting guns and taking yoga on the same day was the biggest "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" moment I've had so far in my life." One day I'll have a mindfulness around guns retreat called GUNS 'N POSES.

Some people even practice "Laughing Yoga," where someone just starts laughing for no reason and it catches on until no one can stop. This happened to me last April. I couldn't stop laughing for a full 30 minutes. I think about the moment and it still makes me smile. Crazy!

Let's enjoy yoga this week.

Scott
 

Let Go!

The ultimate act of will is the act of releasing your will in the conversation with the Universe, Creation, God, or simply things that be. This final culmination of will and knowledge is known in yoga as Ishvara pranidhana. If yoga is anything, it is that conversation with what is real and practical in our lives and that which is ethereal. It is working up the courage to and knowing yourself enough to then finally step off the edge of the cliff and only when you begin to fall to you find your wings.
 
Ishvara pranidhana means to reach out your hand into the darkness and ask to know it. It is asking to be known deeper by what is in the darkness, the unknown. It is stepping out onto surfaces that you are not sure will hold your weight as you keep your fierce gaze at that which you love.
 
In this wonderful place, we allow our internal achiever to take a break and open up to simply being. And in the cosmic chess game of existence, we pause for a moment and allow for that which is larger than ourselves to make a move. And with this act of letting go, what we thought we knew about ourselves, what we planned on for our existence, doesn't seem to matter much anymore. The divine opens us up and we've discovered something new and magical about ourselves and the world, something exponentially greater than our previous conception.
 
David Whyte points to this perfectly in his poem,

The Truelove
 
There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
 
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
 
Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals,
 
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
 
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them,
 
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love,
 
so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don't
 
because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don't want to any more,
you've simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.
 
Come to class this week and let's practice ways to let go of tension, stress, worry, illness, old ways of being, etc. Open up to the Divine by practicing Ishvarapranidhana.

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Mindfulness Retreat

with Vicki Overfelt

The Winter of Listening

Jan 16,17

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Valentine's Couple Retreat

with Scott and Seneca

Snowbird Cliff Spa

Feb 13, 14

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Yoga Adventure in Spain

With Kim Dastrup

June 12-19

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What Is Mindfulness

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What does it mean to be mindful? I'm sure we could all describe it in a different way. Some might say focused, conscious, alert, aware. How would you describe mindful? I believe that being mindful is the goal of yoga, it's what we practice, and all the other stuff like peacefulness, health, clarity, wellness, those are all byproducts of mindfulness.

Once we become practiced at mindfulness, we'll find ourselves applying it to all the other things we do in life: work, our relationships, how we spend our free time, even how we do those things we don't love doing like taking out the trash. And let's not mistake being mindful for perfect or blissed-out or even happy. It's just mindful. To have an emotion, for example, and to be perfectly mindful, is to allow yourself the capacity to be completely aware of it, completely involved. And that goes for anything. To really appreciate time with our kids, practicing yoga, the enjoyment of a meal, or enjoying whatever we like to do, we need to be mindful, lest that fun or those flavors pass by unnoticed.

But maybe because of this mindfulness, we'll have experiences and see that what we are isn't defined by them, that what we truly are is bigger than that emotion, that time with our kids, or that yoga posture. And it's by being mindful we can actually use the experience of an emotion or yoga pose or whatever to witness our true identity, which is mindfulness itself. The emotion or whatever is simply the brushstroke on the canvas of mindfulness. Don't mistake the brushstroke as the painting. If it weren't for the canvas, there could be no brushstroke.

So as we are in yoga practice this week, let's practice understanding our True Nature by practicing mindfulness. I also invite you to practice being mindful as you leave your house to go about your day or drive to work. Notice everything: the feeling of the steering wheel (or handlebars), the feeling of the road beneath you, the flow of traffic, the song on the radio.

See you in class.

Scott

A Life Burning Well

Have you ever found yourself saying things that you didn't know you knew? What's that about? I think it's about understanding yourself deeply. There is something in the articulation of an experience or thought or feeling that taps us into our deeper knowledge. Writing, dance, photography, and blogging could all be part of the creative process that helps articulate an experience. I love poetry and I think that's what the essence of poetry is: understanding one's self and life's grand mysteries through bite-sized bits of awareness. Like the legendary Leonard Cohen says, "If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." The creative expression itself isn't the experience; it's a product of the experience. More than the craft and beauty of their writing, we love poets for the people they are to write such words. We love who they have become by writing their poetry.

I suppose I've been trying to learn about who I am my whole life. The same way writing or dance could tap this deeper wisdom, for me yoga and the separate practice of teaching yoga has been a creative avenue of personal growth and understanding. Yoga and teaching yoga has showed me hidden gifts. It's challenged me to confront my largest weaknesses. It's showed me how much I love people and love to be involved in their own personal growth. What a privilege! And in the process of practicing and teaching yoga, I've learned a bunch about myriad topics like philosophy, spirituality, anatomy meditation, etc. After learning about all this fascinating, intricate, and sometimes esoteric stuff, I invariably come to the same fat and resounding question: SO WHAT? What does any of this have to do with my daily life, or other people's lives? What does any of this stuff have to do with going to work and walking my dog and having relationships and fulfilling our dreams?

My search into "SO WHAT?" has led me to the wonderful and challenging and enlightening practice of writing this thing every week. This weekly blurb has been my wisest teacher. It's here, in this creative expression of my own inquiry, where I find myself saying the things that I didn't know I knew. I'm just happy that people want read my rantings. I don't write about what I want others to learn, I write about what I'm learning in this moment. Then when I teach it all week in yoga classes, I have so much more I want to say by the end of the week because I've learned so much more by the process of teaching it, a different creative expression. I should offer a post script to this thing at the end of the week to fill you in on what else I've learned along the process of articulating it.

I can't be having all the fun here. I'd love to invite you into this beautiful process of unfolding, knowledge, and experience, of finding your own deeper wisdom, by making your own personal expression of anything you do in life. I'd love to hear about or invite you to find yourself saying the things you didn't know you knew.

Here's my invitation:

1. Do something. Anything.
2. Document it in some way: journal, poem, Facebook Post, blog, photo, draw, dance, whatever.
3. Do it again
4. Document again, maybe this time explain it or teach it to someone.
5. Watch to see yourself say things you didn't know you knew. Watch for the insights that come naturally.
6. Then tell me all about it, because I'll be curious.

The end.

See you in class. 

Your Wildest Dreams Come True

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Imagine that you’ve finally made it. That goal, the thing you’ve desired that has been so elusive, has finally come to life. Imagine you finally found the love of your life. Or you’ve changed your relationship with money to be working for you, not against you. Imagine losing the weight you’ve been carrying around, or doing that Iron Man, or finding lasting relief to anxiety or depression. Imagine discovering profound peace and joy in your heart and mind. 

Are you perhaps sabotaging your own amazingness? Is there a part of you that is applying the brakes to your life?

There is something inside of YOU that knows that YOU are capable of accomplishing the impossible. It’s a part of you that is deeper than your rational mind. It’s the part of you that doesn’t doubt your astounding abilities. It’s the part of you that shows up on December 31 and dares you to dream new, exciting, and sometimes scary possibilities for the NEW YOU in the new year.

This week, prior to New Year’s, I dare you to dream big! I dare you to go deep inside to find those dreams and find the source of your deepest power. I dare you to release the brakes and see what your life is capable of doing. Not only do I dare you, but I can show you how!

I have been trained to perform a specialized, powerful, yet simple technique, a method of accessing this exciting part of you so that you can source it to jump powerfully into the new year and dream what’s possible in 2016 . . . AND THEN DO IT! Then, MAINTIAN your progress with the same technique. And guess what? Not only is it powerful; what’s better is that it’s incredibly relaxing.

This technique, this yoga, is called Yoga Nidra. It’s an ancient practice but like asana (poses) it is adapted to match your needs of today. For me personally, Yoga Nidra has been unquestionably the most profound method of self-discovery I’ve ever experienced. I’ve trained with the world’s preeminent Yoga Nidra teacher Dr. Richard Miller. I’ve been practicing and teaching Yoga Nidra for nearly a decade and I’ve seen life-changing results for myself and students through this practice that is virtually available to everyone. With Nidra, I’ve helped students conquer long-held fears, finish first place in ultra-endurance races, and discover the peace of their profound nature of being. If you can’t tell, I’m absolutely passionate about sharing this with others and I want to share it with YOU as the way to source your amazing visionary inside and help you bound into the new year with power and presence to accomplish the impossible. . . at very least.

Yoga Nidra is like a guided meditation, a method of deep listening where you establish a deep awareness of all the different parts of you, including and especially that incredible part of you that doesn’t doubt your awesomeness and that will help you fulfill your dreams in the new year. Through practicing Yoga Nidra you can rewire the self-limiting beliefs that are holding you back from tapping your potential.

Here’s what you do: simply lie down, get comfy, and listen to me guide you as I help you to pay attention to your body, your thoughts, your emotions, and deeper. . . It’s so relaxing that you’ll find yourself moving into the state of mind that is like a daydream, not asleep yet not awake. It’s not hypnosis although some people describe it as such. This state of mind is the Nidra state and acts like the bridge between your conscious mind and your subconscious. But don’t let the relaxing nature of this practice fool you, this practice is very profound and will be the engine that drives your dreams into reality for 2016.

“Years ago, when I first met Scott, I was grieving the end of a nearly 20 year marriage, alongside the loss of my home, my career, and my place in the world— Needless to say, I was in pain. Then Scott guided me through my first ever Yoga Nidra practice and I learned of my ability to hold joy and pain simultaneously. Helpful, to say the least. In fact, it may have saved me. Without it, I was planning to let Pain have all the rooms in the inn for a long time. ( I’m sorry Joy, this place is all full. No, I’m sorry you can’t even sleep in the barn. Pain is keeping his horses in there. ) Thanks to Scott, I knew better. I was able to welcome Joy along with Pain, because Nidra had shown me my capacity. Every time I have done Yoga Nidra since, I have learned something more about how spacious I really am, how many worlds I can actually hold.”

— N. Seymour

Is it dangerous? Will you have me unknowingly clucking around the room like a chicken? NO! This is a simple relaxing technique that simply hones your awareness and leaves you feeling open, focused, and relaxed.

Yoga Nidra is like closing your eyes and allowing me to guide you through the secret passageways into the recesses of your house of awesomeness, the part of you that knows how incredible you truly are. When you arrive to this place of deep awareness, your dreams, your power, your focus, your drive, your life’s purpose, your gifts to the world will emerge like hidden diamonds in the mountain, and will show your conscious mind what’s possible in your practical world, things you perhaps didn’t know you knew. Then with this awareness, you move back into your life and start making these dreams a reality, executing with clarity and confidence. It’s absolutely amazing! And deceptively simple to do.

Just like other forms of yoga, one session can be incredibly powerful but most of the time it takes practice. So I’d like to offer you a FREE New Year Yoga Nidra practice to do several times as you plan to spring into an incredible 2016. You can click the link and download it and bliss out several times as training to move into 2016. Use it as a regular resource. Share it with your family and friends.

And if you are serious about discovering your dreams and making them into a reality, then I invite you to enroll in my new, 6-week course:

Yoga Nidra: Sourcing Your True Power!

You’ll receive access to 6 modules (one per week) that will include lessons about the practice, reading materials, guides, videos, and 6 specialized Yoga Nidra practices (20 to 35-minute recording) that you can keep in your audio library and that will guide you into deep relaxation as well as uncovering the power that lies within you to transform yourself. 

Enrollment for YOGA NIDRA COURSE: SOURCING YOUR TRUE POWER! begins Now. Don’t miss this opportunity to SOURCE YOUR TRUE POWER!

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In The Dark

One thing I've learned from life and from sages is that on the journey toward self-understanding, we must inevitably experience darkness, grief, and loss to some degree or other. Part of our understanding is to see the whole picture, not only the parts which are peachy. We evolve from our naive understanding of God or the Universe as something which is only beneficent to the ability to hold the fact that to understand the whole picture means that we have to hold both of life's pleasures and life's losses. That to truly fall in love with this life we must somehow embrace the darkness. And I guess the true lesson, that lesson that ultimately will apprentice ourselves to experience the greatest joy, is the lesson of how to sing when you are in the midst of great loss and sorrow, when you feel the most abandoned.  I guess we learn that it's not about that shallow definition of "success," but what "success" really means is defined by who can speak to whatever place they find themselves, who can stand at the end of the battle, when your house is burned down, your life feels like it's in ruins and stand with your integrity and honor and sing into the darkness. Or at least hum a little, even if it's interrupted by tears.

The Winter Solstice is today,  the 21st of December. This is when the sun is at its lowest point on the horizon, the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest. Solstice means "sun stands still."

Yoga, of course, is a mirror for our life. Our practice of every-day living finds expression and offers us understanding through the ancient wisdom of yoga. So join me this week as we sing to the darkness, as we learn to hold both light and dark and therefore celebrate what it means to be fully alive.  

Wendell Berry says it best in this poem:

To Know The Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Scott

Shoveling Snow With Buddha

I love this poem. It's perfect for today and expresses my thoughts on mindfulness better than I ever could in my own words. 

Enjoy!

Shoveling Snow With Buddha by Billy Collins

In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok
you would never see him doing such a thing,
tossing the dry snow over a mountain
of his bare, round shoulder,
his hair tied in a knot,
a model of concentration.

Sitting is more his speed, if that is the word
for what he does, or does not do.

Even the season is wrong for him.
In all his manifestations, is it not warm or slightly humid?
Is this not implied by his serene expression,
that smile so wide it wraps itself around the waist of the universe?

But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow.

This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me.

He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence,
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.

All morning long we work side by side,
me with my commentary
and he inside his generous pocket of silence,
until the hour is nearly noon
and the snow is piled high all around us;
then, I hear him speak.

After this, he asks,
can we go inside and play cards?

Certainly, I reply, and I will heat some milk
and bring cups of hot chocolate to the table
while you shuffle the deck.
and our boots stand dripping by the door.

Aaah, says the Buddha, lifting his eyes
and leaning for a moment on his shovel
before he drives the thin blade again
deep into the glittering white snow.

Billy Collins

You Can Never Go Back

The crossroads is a magical place. It’s the place where the ethereal, spiritual, and philosophical meets the physical, real, and practical. Where these two roads intersect is the holy ground of transformation, it’s the place where we have to drop our one-track thinking and see the many roads. Practicing yoga means to be at the crossroads.

One legend of the Crossroads involves the King of the Blues, Robert Johnson. It is said that one night, deep in the South, the Delta, Robert Johnson left home and as the clock struck midnight, he found himself standing at the intersection between here and there, now and then, this way and that way. There he found the Devil who showed him what was possible with a guitar and told him he would never amount to anything unless he sold his soul in exchange for learning how to play the guitar like nobody’s business. Robert Johnson weighed his options and cashed in his soul (or maybe found it) by making the deal with the devil. He threw his guitar over his shoulder and walked down the road to there, possibility, and everything, giving up on the roads from there, safe comfortable, and the predictable. As he strutted down the road he said to the Devil, “I am the blues.”

These crossroads don’t only involve the devil and the blues. Crossroads exist all over the place, wherever the other world meets this one, wherever the spirit world meets the physical one. Places like churches, temples, and holy sites. Places like your yoga mat. It’s like a tabernacle, what ancient people used as a traveling temple. Your yoga mat is the traveling temple where spirit and body meet to show you what’s possible inside of you. And yes, I’ve meet the devil there before. I’ve seen him in sitting on my tight hip in kapotasana, pigeon pose; on my steel hamstrings in hanumanasana, the splits pose; and I’ve seen him doing a victory dance on my quivering raised leg in that damned standing splits pose. I’ve come face to face with my physical limitations, yes, but also with my own neurosis, my deepest fears, self-limiting thoughts, and deep, deep wells of grief. I’ve seen that everything is linked to everything else. I’ve meet the divine on my mat as well.  I see regular joy in handstands, pleasure and peace in savasana, fun in transitions, and possibilities in postures. I get regular hits of insight, of purpose, and a deep sense of belonging. Most importantly, at the crossroads of where physical meets spiritual, I get regular glimpses of the real who and what I am.

Robert Johnson sold his soul, meaning he gave up the simple, naïve way of seeing the world for a richer, more comprehensive and real view of the world. And for us to experience the larger view of ourselves we have to give up something. I believe instead of selling our soul, we sell the armor that protects us from experiencing only the good, the simple, and the happy. I believe that sometimes we must walk down the roads of grief, struggle, and pain to see how immensely beautiful life is. It’s the larger view. It’s the view of heaven and it will cost you your life. At least, the way you’ve been living it before now. And you can never go back. But in the end after seeing what’s possible, would you want to?

This week, meet me at the crossroads. Meet me at Centered City Yoga on your yoga mat and explore that place where heaven meets earth.

Samurai Do It, Pro Tennis Players Do it, and World-Class Lovers Do It.

Breathe. Of course. Breath is life. We talk about it all the time in yoga. Without it we’re dead. Our breathing is regulated both automatically as well as the deliberately. In other words, unlike our heartbeat, we can manipulate our breath if we want to. Unfortunately, being unconscious about our breath, or things that help us breathe such as good posture, often contributes to habitual, shallow breath that only allows us to receive the bare essentials for living. In this state, our muscles, organs, systems, and brain are literally running on power-save mode, reducing us practically to the walking dead.

Pause for 5 seconds right now and take a long exhale, then a faaaaat inhale, followed by a long breath back out your nostrils. Then do it again. Simple. Easy to forget. Notice how good that feels! Do that once in a while.

Ok. Now that power-save mode is off, let’s talk about how we can use the secret power of this vital yet ever-present element of breath to do more than just survive—to thrive. For millennia breath control has been one of the biggest life hacks—a way to get more by doing less. Check it out . . .

Yoga is the combo of body mind and spirit, right? Well, I think of breath as the ambassador to each of those realms.

Biologically, our breath fuels every cell in our bodies. It’s the key element of the production of ATP for you biology nerds out there. Using our breath consciously is like enabling a fuel injector for our muscles. Most martial arts make a regular practice using the breath for power and control during a fight. Anyone who begins to breathe uncontrollably will soon hyperventilate or starve their muscles and brain of oxygen and will soon succumb to their opponent.

In fact, the kiai (read: Hee-YAH!) is the Japanese term for the short little shout during a strike in many forms of martial arts. It’s a way of harnessing the power of an exhale for maximum power. Also, ever watch a pro tennis match? Those athletes also belt out a grunt, something akin to the kiai, that helps them to harness the power of their breath to rocket the tennis ball at their opponents, often at speeds of over 200 miles an hour! Even if you’re a lover and not fighter, by consciously using your breath, you unlock a secret power to get more doing less, whether that’s pounding up a trail, busting out a yoga posture, or even climbing a flight of stairs.

Mentally, your brain functions faster and more clearly when we have a good, solid, and steady source of oxygen. Too much or too little makes our mind frantic or dull. Interesting how breath seems to be a primary component of almost every discipline of meditation. Those who find themselves in a life-or-death situation often survive by their ability to keep their mental cool, often by keeping their breathing at a slow, steady pace. This allows your brain to function optimally without jamming it with or starving it from oxygen. One of my favorite meditation exercises is to simply count my breaths backward from the number 30 to zero, starting over every time I lose count. This will also work wonders to reduce anxiety.

So we’ve heard about the power of breath toward body and mind, what about spirit? The Latin word for breath is Spiritus. Prana is the Sanskrit term meaning the life-force energy, or spirit, in everything. Prana is what makes galaxies spin and is also what makes you tick. Breath is the simplest, easiest, and the most powerful way of affecting your own prana. By the skillful use of your breath you can master a control of your energy which in turn will produce greater power, vitality, and even a connection with others.

Speaking of energy and connection with others, here’s where this bit about breath gets gooooooood (cue the Barry White). Since breath controls our energy, and sex (that’s right!) is such an amazingly energetic exchange, we can use our breath to be world-class lovers. Yep. In fact, some people are so sensitive to energy that they feel most satisfied sexually by the ability to feel the energy of their partner. I don’t intend to go into the nitty-gritty details about love making here, you can look up Tantric love making for the finer details on this, but one thing you can practice immediately, which I guarantee will improve your love life, is a G-rated practice involving your breath.

Try this: (turn down the Barry White a tich)

Sit down on the floor or on the couch in front of your partner. Set a timer for 5 minutes and agree to stare deeply into each others eyes THE WHOLE TIME and breathe together. Keep your eyes locked! Breathe when your partner breathes. Visualize breathing into your heart and expanding your heart outward. Practice feeling the heart of your partner as you breathe in and out. Sexy! You might be amazed at the level of connection you will feel toward your partner. Do this a few times a week.

Now write this on your calendar: On Valentines weekend, Feb 13 or 14, Seneca and I are going to offer a couples retreat at Snowbird and explore several simple ways of connecting with your partner that involve positive communication, fun couple’s yoga poses, and some great breath and meditation practices to begin to share energy with your partner.

Of course, in yoga we focus on our breath as well. There are several breathing exercises called Pranayama (working with prana) which, done independently from poses, will harness the power of our breath to do anything from reduce our anxiety, to raising our energy, or like other athletes, give us the power and calm we need when performing anything challenging. Combine deliberate breathing techniques with yoga postures and you become an unstoppable machine of power, grace, and energy. Yoga teaches us that when we meet something challenging, to greet it with a long breath in and out. The effect of combining breath and movement is one of the not-so-secret secret weapons of yoga. It’s what differentiates yoga from merely exercise into a transformational body/mind/spirit experience.

Lastly, there is something really magical that happens sometimes in yoga class with a room full of people who are all breathing at the same time. As the teacher, I feel privy to something incredible: the collective body, mind, and spirit. Truly, it’s the magic of breathing and is similar, I imagine, only to the conducting of a symphony orchestra. Come and lend YOUR breath!

Like I said, the Latin word for breath is Spritus. To conspire, therefore, means literally to breathe together. Let’s conspire together this week at yoga.

FOR THE LOVE!!!

Gratitude is a miracle! It is the antidote to selfishness, hurt, grief, animosity, and vengeance. To borrow a phrase, it’s what drives us toward the better angels of our nature. It reframes the entire world with beauty and grace. I also believe that gratitude is a practice, one you can practice in yoga and in the practice of life. You can become good at gratitude and you can suck at gratitude. Stretch your gratitude muscles this week!

Gratitude is love. For me to simply express gratitude isn’t enough. I want to beef up that emotion and really give myself a moment to gush about those things I love, truly love. Love is the graduated form of gratitude.

Here goes . . .(tissue, please?)

First of all, I’m married to the most amazing person in the world. She’s brilliant both in that she shines with an amazing spirit and she’s wicked smart. She is the best baby-mama there is, so patient and loving with our little guy, Elio. She puts up with me, a that fact puts her in the running for a humanitarian award. She’s brave. She’s fun. She’s funny. She’s HOT! She’s an amazing partner. I’m so lucky to have her in my life and everyday I celebrate the fact that we met and fell in love and are working out this life together. She’s changed my life forever and I’m so in love with her. There’s not enough room in the cornucopia for this kind of a love. It’s like after your third plate o’ potatahs, turkey, and oh yeah 3 more of moms homemade rolls cuz their too good AND another piece of pie, the pecan this time cuz you already had a piece of pumpkin and apple, it’s like that kind of full of love with this woman. I love her! Most importantly, and the way I knew that she was the woman for me, the partner for my life, is that she makes me a better man. She sees and celebrate my strengths. She understands and loves me with my failings and shortcomings. She can laugh at my idiosyncrasies . . .unless that idiosyncrasy is pushing snooze for the fourth time and going back to bed, waking her up every time J. She is an amazing woman and like every couple, we are figuring it out with each other and through life as we go. We don’t have it all figured out, we know that we must forge this path as a couple. But we know that we have each others back and that we compliment each others strengths and that our love will be the machete that cuts through the tangles that impede our way toward our purpose together. I’m so thrilled to be living my life with her. I love that woman with everything I’ve got. I’ll go to the ends of the earth with her. My greatest work is to be the other half of this amazing coupling. She’s the yin to my yang, the cream in my coffee, the peanut butter of my chocolate. She is Venus De Milo. She’s the Mona Lisa’s smile. She’s Monet’s Water Lilies. As we were falling in love, we went to Paris for a week. It was her first time. I have so many wonderful memories from that trip together but there is a flash in my head of seeing her from behind as we were running in the streets like children, in love with life and each other as we ran from shop to shop to look at the jewelry in the windows. I remember the explosion of simple love I had for her, perfectly represented by her red sun dress she was wearing. I shall never forget that burst of an image. Surely it will be with me as I die.  She’s my everything. I mean check out the look in this woman’s eyes right before she married me! I see pure love and adoration. Not to mention that she looks as bright as a sunrise in this picture. Damn! I’m simply so full of love for this woman. M! M! M!

Next comes a love that I don’t even know how to describe. People warned me when Seneca was pregnant that I was going to experience a love like nothing else when Elio. Sure, sure. Kids are great and you love ‘em, right? They are cute and cuddly and what not. After being with Seneca through her labor process and watching this kid come into the world I looked at him almost afraid to touch something so precious and pure. He just looked around the room and at me with a look that said, “holy shit this is a big world!” Here he was! Sure, I’d seen ultrasounds and could feel him kick inside Sen’s belly (I swear that kid’s going to be an MMA fighter with those kicks!) but to see him in flesh and blood, ready to take on whatever this incredible world will teach him, I felt an enormous responsibility to protect him from the dangers of the world but more importantly to teach him how beautiful and loving the world can be. After he was born, he was hanging out on Sen’s chest for the first few hours of life, connected to that heartbeat, his guiding rhythm, that had brought him into the world and which would continue to guide him as long as his beautiful mother is alive. But when it came time for ME to hold him and I felt his little frame in my arms and pulled him into my chest and looked at his face as he looked at mine, it hit me. It was what everyone talked about, that tsunami of emotion. To call it love would be far too small a word to describe what happened in my heart.  Now, 5 months later, In the mornings when I’m home when he wakes up, I’ll go into the bedroom and greet him and give him loves and good mornings while he looks up at me doing his baby stretches and I’ll bask in the sunrise of his smile (he gets it from his mother). His new trick is to stick his tongue out so he’ll stick his tongue out and smile at his Papa and is so happy, pure happiness, to see me after a long night, so content and thrilled to be alive and stretch his little body. I love, love, love, LOVE that little kid. It’s a love that makes me stop writing because words can’t describe it and trying to do so seems to reduce it to something you could even describe and you can’t.

Did you know that I have a twin? Yeah, we are identical. I love him too. He lives in New York and is an amazing guy. He has 4 kids and has really been the perfect role mode for being a dad. He’s an incredible brother. If you were to hear our voices on the phone, you probably couldn’t tell who was who. He’s an amazing person and someone who has shaped me probably more than any other person. Growing up it was truly like having an alternate existence through this other person who shared a bedroom with me. When we were babies, we learned to speak late because we already had a language all our own that we would use. When we were small enough to share a crib, our parents would put us on opposite ends of the crib and in the morning we were snuggled up next to each other, just like we were when we were in the womb. When we were old enough to have our own cribs, our parents would come into our room to see us standing up at the ends of our cribs, talking to each other in our own language, like neighbors leaning on the fence and gossiping about the neighborhood. I love him.

I have an amazing family, two great sisters and two parents who are all supportive and loving. I love them. I have friends who are family to me. I love so many people who aren’t born as family but who have become family to me, friends that I just love to pieces.

I love music. I love jazz. I LOVE playing with my soul band The Soulistics. There’s nothing like standing on a stage in front of thousands of people at a festival blowing your guts out through a saxophone with an incredible 9-piece rock band laying it down behind you. Damn! Such a rush!

I love sitting on on the deck with Sen and Elio, grilled veg off the bar-B and a glass of wine, soaking up the summer evenings. Perfection.

I love a good read. I love listening to a good podcast while on a long run along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. I love to practice yoga. I love to teach yoga. I am THRILLED     to make a living doing something that I love so much. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

I love you! Life is so incredible!

I offer you THE LOVE LIST CHALLENGE (dammit! Sorry, I just get so excited). Set a timer for 5 minutes and free write all the things that you love. It’s ok to repeat things. Just keep your pen moving, a skill my dear friend Nan taught me in her River Writing workshops. Skip gratitude. That’s been done and is tired. Go straight for the jugular. Go for loooove! Write it down and share it with me and everyone else who is doing this on Facebook or you’re welcome to post it in the comments section of this blog. Maybe share it with a few people on the list.

Ayurveda: The Science of Life

Ayurveda is the fascinating and practical science that studies the world and how we can best come into harmony with it. It is the sister-science of yoga and is an observational practice that puts you into the driver seat of your own wellness. What I love about Ayurveda is that while it can heal imbalances and maladies, it is most often used as a method of maintaining balance and well-being rather than only treating illness. One of my teachers told me that to truly understand yoga, you must also have a working relationship with Ayurveda.

Ayurveda studies three basic qualities called doshas. In their combination these doshas describe everything in the universe. To simplify, these qualities are: vata, wind quality; pitta, fire quality; and kapha, earth quality. Just like everything in the universe, each person has a unique expression of these qualities called a prakruti. Understanding your prakruti empowers you to negotiate the elements in your life in order to guide yourself toward radiant wellness for body, mind, and spirit.

Have you ever wondered why you don't feel fantastic even though it seems like you are doing all the right things that should make you healthy and feeling great? Have you ever followed a popular diet or exercise regimen only to feel worse? Sometimes even the kind of yoga we practice makes us leave feeling off. Understanding your prakruti helps you to guide yourself (sometimes with the help of an Ayurvedic practitioner) toward specific types of life-practices that optimize your unique chemistry. Remember, Ayurveda suggests that each person has a unique pathway to optimal wellness.

 Excessive amounts of any dosha causes us imbalance. Understanding this and correcting imbalances, often by simple and practical means, puts us back on the path to balance. Ayurveda acknowledges that what may be health promoting for one person may be diminishing for another. Regarding anything that affects our health, be that medicine or food or yoga, Ayurveda always asks, "For whom, how much, when, and why."

 Sometimes it takes an Ayurvedic practitioner, a trained guide, to help you figure out your prakruti and place yourself on a regimen that will guide you toward optimal wellness. With even a little understanding of Ayurveda and your prakruti, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to keep yourself feeling wonderful. With this understanding you will find the best food choices, sleeping, yoga and exercising patterns, and even scheduling, that will keep you feeling amazing.

 For fun, take this online dosha quiz and find out which dosha seems to match you.

This week, perhaps you can choose which yoga classes you attend based on what you feel like would give you the greatest balance. Feeling Kapha, (earth): sluggish, slow, or weighed down, or unclear? Get your bones outta bed and try coming to Monday morning’s 6 am (you heard me!) Rise and Shine class and give yourself a powerful start to your day and your week. Feeling Vata (wind): ungrounded, flighty, agitated, or nervous? Try coming to Restore Yoga on Saturday and settle your nervous system. Feeling Pitta (fire): overheated by a project or feeling of expectation or perfection? Try channeling some of that energy into a Power Class on Monday or Friday night at 5:45 pm. Use Auyrveda to direct your yoga choices.  

 This week we have the unique opportunity to have Arun Deva in town. Arun is an Ayurvedic practitioner whom I trust and have worked with personally. Getting a little insight about your particular balance will help empower you to find the wellness and balance you’re searching for. Details below.

Well-Earned Pearls

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

~Leonard Cohen

Brilliant!

Like the grain of sand that becomes the oyster so too is the illness, the imperfection, or the improbable life-circumstances that beset us and therefore makes us perfect. Truthfully, it is not our problems that make us perfect but the practice we must develop to problem-solve around them that does.  Choose a problem, any problem, and whether or not that problem ever resolves, in working toward overcoming (or sometimes simply yielding to it) you will be put on a path of understanding and mastery that will illuminate all your gifts, that will enlarge your soul, and will teach you more about the Universe and yourself than any other thing. An easy life free of problems does not ask you to give birth to that immense but perhaps latent power within you, the being of light within.

The university decal I want for the back of my ride is one that says I attended Knocks University, The School of Hard Knocks. And if you’ll forgive the dad joke (I am a dad now and those come readily), it's actually quite true that those things that have taught me the most have been my struggles and challenges. This is why one of my teachers, Judith Lasater, says, “My gurus all share my last name,” meaning that while close relationships are sometimes hard, they are the things that will teach us most poignantly about our True Nature and place us on the path to our own understanding.

We celebrate and even embrace the natural process of our own growth through our challenges as we bask in the heat of our own transformation through our yoga postures. Knowing and celebrating that we are all imperfect allows us to practice yoga without any end in mind other than simply practicing. The same way that we are not perfect, none of our poses can be perfect. Or better said, we and the poses we express are all perfect in their imperfections, the well-earned pearls of our textured existence.

Come and celebrate your own divine nature through your imperfections and see how the light gets in.

Intelligent Movement

There are several avenues to understand and experience your highest being. The mind and heart are only two avenues. Have you ever considered that you can understand and experience “enlightenment” or realization or whatever you want to call it by mastering the knowledge of your physical being? Yoga is about understanding ourselves through listening—paying attention to anything, including our physical body. The body isn’t something to master or to subdue on the road to higher consciousness. Rather, it’s a fundamental tool, a vehicle, that drives us toward our ultimate understanding of Self. Understanding how the body works, how to be efficient and powerful with it, is a mastery that will serve us our entire lives and will even give us great insights into all other realms of our being, including our heart and mind. Perhaps on our quest to expand our minds, we must first learn to expand our hamstrings.

My car mechanic knows how to drive my car better than I do because he understands much better than I do about the underlying form. His knowledge changes the way he drives because he understand deeper what makes it drive. Similarly, as you understand how to move not just the human body but YOUR human body, you’ll learn to operate it in a way that will increasingly build presence. I proffer that with presence you will move better. Your conscious movement will build greater presence. And the cycle continues.

I’m thrilled to explore an entire day devoted to intelligent movement with my upcoming day of workshops at Snowbird THIS SUNDAY, November 1 from 10 am to 4 pm. My good friend Maya Christopherson is an expert at intelligent movement and will be my co-teacher. I’ve personally learned so much about my yoga practice from practicing Pilates with her. We’ll be practicing and discussing Pilates and Yoga, exploring their similarities and differences and celebrating intelligent movement. Then your tuition gets you into the world-class Cliff Spa to relax after our day together. You don’t want to miss this!

Please find the details by clicking here. Space is limited so please register soon.

Scott

Not Troubled

Yoga gives us a chance to start seeing our reactions: our aversion to suffering, and our clinging and attachment to pleasure and joy. It gives us a breath, a pause, a chance to ALLOW for the world and our lives to play themselves out, even if it is uncomfortable or awkward or even painful sometimes. We can take lesson, as usual, from nature, of which we're a part...
      The Buddha teaches his servant Rahula:
     "Develop a state of mind like the EARTH, Rahula, for on the earth all manner of things are thrown, clean and unclean, dung and urine, spittle, pus and blood, and the earth is not troubled or repelled or disgusted...
     "Develop a state of mind like WATER, for in the water many things are thrown, clean and unclean, and the water is not troubled or repelled or disgusted. And so too with FIRE, which burns all things, clean and unclean, and with AIR, which blows upon them all, and with SPACE, which is nowhere established."
(From "The Glass Palace," by Amitav Ghosh)

May we see the beautiful world we live in. May we breathe and move, and practice less attachment and aversion this week. I hope see you in class (but I’m not attached!).

The following is an ancient mantra that my teacher Erin Geesaman Rabke taught me:

May we and all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May we and all beings be from sorrow and any causes of sorrow.

May we and all beings never be separated from the sacred happiness which is beyond sorrow.

And may we and all beings live in equanimity, without too much attachment or aversion.

And may we live recognizing and honoring the equality of all that lives

Sarva mangalam. (May the greatest goodness unfold)

Scott

Why I Wake Early

I wake today and sit enjoying the silence of a the morning. Even as I sit, I'm watching the bright morning sun dance its procession around my front room. It is playing with the crystal hung in my eastern window and splattering rainbow prisms across each wall. Even as I look, the color changes and fades, showing me that the earth is revolving around this sun. Things are changing. As I look out the window the sun is celebrating these autumn trees with its light, making the yellow leaves explode with color against a cloudless and pale-blue sky. I see a small bird sitting in a shadow who decides to leap up higher and rest in the bright sun's warmth. And then it begins to sing.

Aren't we all like this bird, eager for the creature comforts of warmth on our skin, eager to leave the shadows for the sun and the opportunity to feel life pulsing through our veins, eager to feel how we may reflect that same brightness and joy through our song?
 
And perhaps this is why in yoga we practice celebrating the sun with Surya Namaskar, or sun salutations. Surya means "sun" and Namaskar means "a deep honoring." You might notice the same root word Namas as the base of the word Namaste, another Sanskrit word meaning to honor the True Nature or heart of hearts, the most sacred element and potential of another. Surya Namaskar is like offering a Namaste to our source, the sun, as it brings life to us and everything on this planet and we're dependent on it for all aspects of our well-being. Sun salutations are also a physical practice, a ritual, for acknowledging and honoring anything else you feel is your source (God, Creation, the Universe, Buddha nature, or whatever). But just as important, this practice reveals that we are part of that source and reflect a bit of that same light within ourselves. By acknowledging this similarity between ourselves and our source we empower ourselves with the memory of our True Nature. We are not dark creatures in a dark world, and where there is shadow, we can choose to leave it for the sun or shine light into it. We are beings of light, filled with life and love. And we are here to celebrate that, to learn from it, and to shine our light everywhere.

Mary Oliver says in her poem:

Why I Wake Early
 
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety -
 
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light -
good morning, good morning, good morning.
 
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
 
Please join me this week as we practice Surya Namaskar and other poses to remind ourselves of this bigger picture. We show gratitude, rekindle our fire, and celebrate our own light.

To Whom Are We Beautiful

I wish I knew the beauty in leaves falling.
To whom are we beautiful when we go?
David Ingnato
 
And to whom are we beautiful as we go? This poem seems to point to the fact that even in our failing, there is a part of creation and therefore a part of ourselves that can grant a magnificence to any loss. Such a beautiful concept. Such a bittersweet truth. And perhaps this is why Autumn is so colorful: it is the opulentfuneral procession of the death of so much. It is the rush of fireworks before the quiet stillness of winter.
 
Many of the Hindu icons tell stories. The Dancing Shiva is a story-telling icon depicting Shiva, the creator of the universe, and illustrates the five acts of Shiva. The concept is the same whether you call the creator, Shiva, God, the Universe, or Krusty the Clown. In this statue, these 5 acts are depicted by his many arms, one of which is celebrating creation, another that is sustaining his creation, another is allowing death, and another that is not only inviting things back to life, but to live again with a higher consciousness than before. This statue reminds us that our job is to allow Shiva to lead in this dance of life, to follow along as we are slowly refined into greater beings. It reminds us that death is a part of life and with a broader perspective, we can, to some degree, appreciate it as a necessary part of the cycle.
 
Mary Oliver writes about learning to accept death and loss in her poem, Maker of All Things, Even Healings. I love the title of the poem because it suggests that the healing, the bringing back to life for a fuller measure of life as in the Dancing Shiva, comes only after accepting death which she does so humbly.
 
All night
under the pines
the fox
moves through the darkness
with a mouthful of teeth
and a reputation for death
which it deserves.
In the spicy
villages of the mice
he is famous,
his nose
in the grass
is like an earthquake,
his feet
on the path
is a message so absolute
that the mouse, hearing it,
makes himself
as small as he can
as he sits silent
or, trembling, goes on
hunting among the grasses
for the ripe seeds.

Maker of All Things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow--
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.

As we celebrate the panoply of fall colors, may we, too, remember the beauty of leaves falling, the beauty and magnificence of this amazing dance in which we are all twirling, living and dying.

Scott