Couch-asana

Image credit: http://www.bauwel-movement.co.uk/sculpture.php

Ahhhh my favorite pose as of last night.   Two days of heat wave, a full week of 2nd grade, enrolling in the right preschool, last minute day care crisis, backed up toilets and figuring my teaching schedule to accomodate the world is enough to run even the calmest yogi ragged.

For the first time in over a year, I came home after my 5:30pm class and plopped on the couch.  I even ate dinner on the couch… with the TV on.   (Good thing the kiddos were already in bed because I just broke about 3 of my own rules.)   Wow!  So this is what a couch with a recliner feels like.   I like it!  I didn’t even have any energy to flip the channels and what ever channel was on was what I was watching.  Tyrah Bank’s Top Model.  So I watched it (or rather is the reason why I stopped watching TV in the first place.)   Never mind that cause I didn’t have much brain waves left to process anything else that was more complicated or thought provoking.

This is a first time in a long time that I knew that a yoga practice tonight was not going to help.  There are days that I know a good yoga practice will snap me out of my rut and energize me.  Then there are the few days (like last night) that a practice would probably take me to a dangerous edge where I might injure myself.  Being able to distinguish between the intuitive voice of “slow down and rest” and the inner ego of more, more, more is much of a practice as the asana practice itself.  I find the practice of stillness to be much more challenging than any posture.

So, is my ego bruised because I missed a practice?  Maybe.

Soul nourished?  Definitely.

10 Things I Learned This Week

1.   Only worry about the things you can control.

2.  Real, authentic, meaningful service will repay you in unexpected ways at the least expected times.

3.  Surprises are wonderful whether you are at the receiving end or the giver.

4.  Drive the speed limit!!!  Or try to weasel your way out of the ticket.  Has anyone ever gotten out of a speeding ticket?

5.  Sometimes a good cry is all you need.

6.  Being in nature is the best medicine.

7.  Being in nature with a great friend is the best day EVER!

8.  Do not hike all day in 100 degree weather without eating a thing but an apple and then go to a buffet afterwards.  It’s dangerous!

9.  I love open ended schedules with no plans and commitments

10. Vibrams five-finger shoes are the best!  I don’t care if they’re ugly!  Look where these shoes took me:

6,000 ft high top of Calico Trails Red Rock Canyon

It's hot up here but so worth the view

tagging the canyon

I think Nadia had low blook sugar from the hike

I heart Red Rock!

More pics from Red Rock when I get home

Doing Nothing That Means Something

photo from: http://www.yogaflavoredlife.com

Today I’m stuck.  It’s hump day and I feel like I can’t get up and over this day.  Energy stuck.  Mind stuck.  Emotions stuck.  Shoulders tight.  Hammies tight.  Back tight.  Hmmmm…

How to get unstuck?  And no, yoga was not the answer for me (surprise.surprise.)  Well ok.. maybe it is yoga.  But not the yoga you know me for.  Not power yoga.  I need some rest.  To stay in child’s pose, balasana for 10 minutes.  To put my legs up the wall in viparita karani for 10 minutes.  To stay in a supine twist 5 minutes each side.  And then to lay in savasana for 30 minutes.  Seems boring?  More like peaceful.

My mind has been racing too much this week and it’s no wonder why I couldn’t get into my flow during practice.  I felt like I was muscling my way through the postures and left with no energy afterwards.  Taking a more restorative approach left me feeling more powerful and renewed.

So yes, even a power yogini needs a restorative (whimpy as some of you might call it) practice.  But there is nothing whimpy about surrendering.  In fact, it takes some courage to admit that you need some rest.  We are such a goal driven, task oriented, more is more culture.  Admitting that you need some rest could invoke feelings of weakness, incompetence, and “I suck!” attitude.

One of my favorite poses is child’s pose or balasana.  I often remind students that not only does this pose provide a home base for their practice during class, but the “bow” is very symbolic of surrender both physically and mentally.  Sometimes the body just needs a break.  Sometimes our minds need a break too… a break from the ego.. to continuously push and challenge.  Sometimes it’s all mental and giving ourselves permission to surrender becomes the practice.   The word ‘bala’ means strength and ‘asana’ means posture/seat.

photo from: http://eternallycool.net

Today I am taking my seat of strength.  Letting go of my goals.  Dumping off excess.  Saying ‘No.’ Choosing stillness and surrender.  Doing nothing that really means something.

photo credit: http://artblart.files.wordpress.com

How do you connect back to stillness? To surrender? To your seat of strength?

No Internet and No More Nose Pickers

sip sip sip

Today is the day after I challenged myself to be without a computer and the internet for a whole day… I failed miserably.  It went fairly well in the morning until my plans to go enjoy the outdoors was rained on by mother nature.  Now what to do with a 4yr old on a rainy and windy day with no computer, no internet, no tv?  We get back to basics: board games, books, and what rainy day would be complete without a cup of hot tea?

Ok that fun lasted for a couple of hours and keep my mind off the work I needed to do online until my phone rang for the first time.  This is what I see when I answered the call:

So tempting to check the mail

I  felt like I was being tempted by a dark chocolate bar.  Perhaps the next time I do this challenge, “no phone” would be added to the list.   I’m glad to say I didn’t give in (yet that is).   And it paid off cause after another hour or so passed, the rain passed and we saw this beautiful rainbow over our backyard:

This would have been missed if my nose was buried in a computer

Thanks Mr. Sunshine.. now off to the backyard to work on the garden:

So far so good… kept busy in the garden for 4 hours cleaning off the tan bark and prepping the soil.

After dinner, as the day settles, I am reminded by all the things I needed to do online and a map that I needed to get for the next morning.  I also remembered an email that I was suppose to respond to.  Now I wouldn’t have jumped on the computer to send that email but I have a pet peeve of doing something or being somewhere if I’ve already committed to it.  It’s rare that I will break my word if I’ve given a definitely “yes, I will do it or yes, I’ll be there.”   That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

The thing is once I was online, it was hard to not check on anything else.  I guess that’s how the internet “wastes” our time.  In hind sight though, being offline for a day really back logged me.  I had so much to catch up on today that it felt like it was not worth it to go without for an entire day.  It is possible to live without the internet, but I would prefer to live with it.  It saves me time to not have to go into the bank.  I can pull up a map within seconds and don’t have to carry around a paper map that I can hardly navigate.  It connects me with people I would have never met if I didn’t facebook.  I can send the grandparents a picture and video of their grandkids.  Oh and all the online learning programs and activities for the kids… I heart the internet.  It’s convenient therefore freeing up more time for me to be doing other things.  (now you know the tricky part is to pry yourself away when you’re done doing what you’re doing online so you can go do other things.)

On a side note…

Everyday this week while stopped at a red light, I’ve had nose picking sightings by the driver to my right.  It wasn’t your sniff sniff rub the nose cause it itched.  It was more like digging for gold.  Today was the golden day though.  While at a red light, I see in my periphery vision a digger.  As I turned to look, he flicked his booger out the window.   I am filled with gratitude that my car has AC and my window was not rolled down.  Eeewwwww!   What are you trying to tell me dear Universe?  I am keeping my eyes fixed on the red light the next time I stop for the rest of this week!

photo from week long symposium on the future of nose picking http://syntaxofthings.typepad.com/syntax_of_things/2007/08/sot-announces-w.html

Sava-aahhhh-asana

I love wednesdays cause not only is it midweek, but it’s my turn to be a student… a real student, the day I don’t teach.  But in the end, I am still a teacher regardless of whether I’m facilitating a class, chatting with a friend, or hanging out with my kids.  Baron always said, “in the end you are either a teacher or a warning.” LOL  Really needed this reminder today at lunch.  Niko and I met a friend at a new restaurant and once again he was denied a plate during appetizers.  After reacting to yesterday’s dinner experience, today I choose to let it be.  Waitress even apologized and when we laughed about it she brightened up.  Service was much better.

Being the teacher and the student is like asking what came first?  The chicken or the egg?  One enhances the other and the other prepares for the other.  Which ever way you look at it, it’s like holding a pose and trying to find that balance between engagement and release, effort and relaxation.   For many of us the later is often a challenge.  In our world of complexity and multitasking there is never time for relaxation.  When we do find the time, it’s often not relaxing cause our mind is already racing to those things that we could be doing.

After my practice tonight, I took an extra long savasana with complete awareness.. and not my usual fall asleep and crash pose (but to my defense it’s often a crash pose because it’s so late into the night that I have time to devote to my practice).  It was a conscious effort.  I took the time to feel each body part come to a complete surrender.  As I experienced my body heavy and still like a corpse, the pause between thoughts came more frequently and lasted seconds longer.  As my mind got to rest, my body surrendered even deeper than I would have expected it to.  It was a great sava-aaaaahhhhhh-asana.