Using a Water Bottle?

The other day, I did it, the full primary series. It has a been a long while since I pulled out the water bottle to spray my legs to get my arms through my lotus posture and roll my body back and forth around in a circle (garbha pindasana). But my intention was to stay focused, breathe and do the whole primary series. All the jump backs, all the chakarasana's, even setu bandasana. I felt cleansed afterward. I felt sore afterward. I felt like I could do anything afterward.

Even though it was FAR from "perfect" in form, I felt a calm come over me.

Breathe and move......Vinyasa yoga!

Distracting?

Okay, this photo is of when I was pregnant over a year ago, but it is the only one I have on file of me all propped up. For those of you who come to my public classes you know I love to use props. Not just to use them, but to teach something of value. For this same reason I love to practice with them. They are my teacher.

This morning, after 5 days of the stomach virus, I got a chance to go to the studio and practice. I went to The Yoga Workshop, my second home, and did morning "mysore" practice. "Mysore" refers to a place in Southern India and to a specific sequence of poses done in a room with a teacher who assists you through out your practice. You go at your own pace so everyone in the room is at a different part of the sequence.

I start with the sunsalutes, all the standing sequence.........then I start to think about my twisting workshop this Sat. and do some exploratory positions on the wall. Then I pull out the HUGE backbender and do a few poses there to open my spine and hips. Then I decide I better not use all my energy before 9 am, I still have the whole day with my toddler! So I do a long shoulderstand with the chair, strap and bolster and a reclining pose to open the lungs and rest the legs (supta virasana) on the heart bench. ( a cool wood structure that opens the chest) Then relaxation pose.(corpse) on the heart bench also.

Okay, now the point. I am thinking afterwards that my practice with the props may be distracting to others. (Very few props are used in the Ashtanga practice. But, I think again, wouldn't someone with stinky feet or a loud breath also be distracting? Can't we just practice and trust that the teacher and the student will make the right choices in the moment to support that student?

Seva and the Stomach Flu

It started on Friday. Anahata came down with a stomach virus. Lots of bodily fluids. You don't even think about how gross it is. You clean it up and serve. Wow, no one mentioned this part when I was pregnant or loving up my newborn. But, here it is!

Saturday morning I am not feeling so well. I stay in bed in the morning and by noon, I am emptied of all of my fluids. Anahata is still sick and will pretty much only ingest breast milk. So I do what any mother would do and has done, serve.

Saturday night Stephen comes down with it. He spends most of Sunday resting. Anahata is still sick but picking up a bit of steam.

Monday we lay low. Anahata is still sick but eating a little and I re-schedule my Tuesday morning but keep my plans to go to a yoga class for the evening.

Tuesday starts out good but after Anahata's nap more fluids are flying. I am still not 100% and I cancel my Tue. eve plans go for a walk with my sweet daughter. I wipe her forehead and do another load of laundry. This is hard work this mothering job!

So, send a lot of love your mothers way this weekend. We don't even realize how much they have served us and how much they love us that they would do anything for us!

Happy Mother's Day!

Great Spirit-The Eagle

Yesterday Anahata and I went for a walk near our home. On the trail we saw a man and a woman on bikes stopped off to the side. The man was looking up, the other biker was on her cell phone. Of course I looked up also to see what he was looking at. A majestic bird, up quite high, in full wing span flew over my head. Next, the man yells, "watch out, he dropped it!" Not knowing what was happening or where "it" was I moved forward a little quicker. I then heard a loud thud behind us.

A falling prairie dog. The sky wasn't falling, but a prairie dog was. The man said it was an eagle and that he was glad he was there and said something or it would have hit us. I asked him, "how close was it?" He responded, "very close!". I walked on a bit dazed, but not too terribly freaked out. I was looking for the meaning of it all.

I called my sister in law, Sue West. She had an animal book with meanings of these kind of things. This is what her resource said. What a message!

The Eagle is a representation of the Great Spirit. It is of the realm of spirit and of the realm of earth. Take heart and gather your courage the universe is giving you the opportunity to soar above the mundane level of your life. Broaden your sense of self beyond the horizon of what is presently visible. Attack your personal fear of the unknown. Love the shadow as well as the light, to see beauty in both and take flight like the eagle.

Peace is Every Step

For the last three nights, my daughter has woke up in the middle of the night, screaming. Those of you who are parents have been there. Those of you that are not parents, you might be able to relate to this by imagining what is was like for friends, family or your parents. It is terrifying.

Anahata is only 1 year and so far can only sign, "milky". So telling us what is wrong is out of the question. With tears down her eyes, her little back arching and her crying loudly, she tries to communicate that something is wrong. Stephen and I are challenged to speak and listen to one another as we panic. We wonder if we should be heading to the emergency room as we helplessly trade her off to comfort her and flip through our pediatric health book. I wonder if the piece of yoga mat she ate earlier today is lodged in her intestines or if the eucalyptus oil I used in the bath and on her bed is burning her skin and nostrils.

The more we panic, the louder she cries. After singing, "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and dancing with her in a circle, Stephen hands her off while I try to comfort her. I decide to calm down and really listen to her. I try to connect on a level of intuition. I am quiet. Peaceful. I breathe in and out. Soon she is quiet too. She takes my breast and starts to fall asleep. I stay here on the couch for another 10 minutes or so. Then we go to bed.

Peace is every step. It is every moment. Present moment. Wonderful moment. Even in our fear.

I thank Thich Nhat Hanh for his wisdom and inspiration.

Rejuvenate this Spring

April 26th at 2-3:45 I will teach the Rejuvenate/Restore Yoga class at The Yoga Workshop.

For more information you can scroll down to prior postings or go to www.yogaworkshop.com

Sraddha=Faith

Just 1 year and 1 day ago a huge blessing came into this world. Our daughter, Anahata, was born! The journey to that day and the journey to today was a huge leap of faith, sraddha. In 2004, I found out that I had three large tumors on my ovaries. They had to be removed because of the risk of them rupturing or twisting my ovaries and damaging my ability to have children. So, 6 weeks before my wedding I decided to have open abdominal surgery to remove them. It was supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour surgery, it took over 4 hours. When I came to, my doctor told me that we would have to see if I went into menopause since over 1/2 of each ovary had to be removed. I prayed. I chanted. I believed I would be able to have a baby, to not go into early menopause. I had faith that what ever happened it was a journey into the unknown.

4 weeks to the day after my surgery I had my cycle. I celebrated like it was my first cycle! About 4 months after that, with a clear bill of health, we decided to start trying to get pregnant. We did about 1 year later, but lost the baby soon after finding out that we were pregnant. So, back to the faith! After another year, we got pregnant again and then our sweet Anahata came to us on April 6, 2007.

In Pantanjali's Yoga Sutras, 1:20, Pantanjali writes, "Wholeness is preceded by faith, energy, mindfulness, union, and awareness. " We need to have faith in the process, the practice, the outcome, the teacher, and the yoga. Faith is made up of trust in ourselves and trust in the experience of life working out. Faith is the williness to step forward with no guarantee that we won't fall. The mystery of the universe and our existence in it demands faith in all that we do.

Cheers to Faith........Sraddha!