Autumn Light
Appreciation of beauty-a wonderful source of healing and nurture. Photos taken on my walk through Lincoln Park to get an end of the work week massage.
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Shins In/Thighs Out (and Rabbi Hillel)
Rabbi Hillel is famous for having said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me; if I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?” Taken in its best light (and not as the recruiting technique for going to war this quote has served), this means we must, as they say on the airplane, “put on our own oxygen mask first before helping others.”
I often think of this principle, when I am emphasizing the fundamental physical alignment principle of shins in/thighs out. If you have taken even just a few Anusara classes, you have probably heard the teacher say “shins in, thighs out.” It is really short hand for the action of muscular energy that hugs the legs to the mid-line, followed by the spiraling upward and backward expansion of inner spiral.
When applied with enthusiasm and in the right sequence, “shins in/thighs out” protects our knees and opens the groins, hips, and pelvic floor in a way that gives us greater access to finding the strength of our pelvic floor, low back and abdominal muscles. It is a perfect example of an appropriate personal boundary: it leaves us open and available to receive and observe all that is good, while creating a protective and appropriate boundary from which we can grow safely better to serve.
Yoga for Our Troops
It is too far from my current world and beyond my temporal limits at the moment, but if you are interested, please contact my friend Robin through the website link below, who writes:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As some of you may know, the last 5 years or so I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to take yoga way beyond the reach of a yoga studio and teach yoga and iRest meditation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It’s been a life-changing experience.Though its only 5 minutes away from the WSYC Takoma Studio, Walter Reed is a world away in many ways. I’m sure you’ve heard the news reports about the soldiers suffering from trauma, brain injury, loss of limbs, etc. And their families carry enormous burdens that are not all met by military services. I regularly see 22 year old women with a baby on back and toddler beside them pushing a young husband who is seriously injured in battle. And these wounds may be more readily addressed than the wounds that are invisible to the eye — depression, flashbacks, anxiety, sleep deprivation, mood swings and isolation.One piece of good news is that the military is now beginning to embrace mind-body approaches such as yoga and bring them into healthcare settings.Several teachers, including Karen Soltes, and I have created a training program that helps (200 hr +) yoga teachers to teach safely and effectively in military settings. Our experience shows that one must have a respectful understanding of the culture of the military AND a basic knowledge of the signature war-related conditions and injuries.Part One: Fundamentals of Teaching Yoga and Meditation in Military Settings is a 7- week teleconference program that you can take from anywhere with just a phone and email. It runs Wednesday June 8 – July 20. If you miss a class, we record every one of them so you can listen at your convenience.Please visit our website at www.warriorsatease.com. I’ve attached a flyer, if you feel inclined to post this at your yoga studio. Let me know if you have any questions.Also, please pass this message on to anyone in the country or Canada who might be interested in working with the military community.Take care and thanks so much, Robin
Equations Around Town
I am led to think of the stories of dyads and binaries, triads and trios, pentacles, and the divisible and indivisible.
Memorial Day (and service)
Hanuman, the monkey god, is one who reminds us to serve. When Hanuman was a kid, he was rather full of himself. That was not surprising, really, as he had wonderful and magical powers of strength and agility. When he got too audacious playing with his powers against the bigger gods, he was cursed to be able to remember his powers only when he was serving with true love and devotion. When he was serving Ram and Sita, then, the full force of his powers were available to him to help in their dilemma. (Yes, this is a rather creative summation).
Some of my strongest memories from childhood were observing my father when he was providing draft counseling for those conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War. My father did not talk on the phone because it was tapped, but we heard a lot of conversations about whether to be a soldier, be a conscientious objector, find a basis for deferral, or otherwise protest or avoid the draft. Although I was raised to think that war did not serve humanity (though my parents engaged in debates about whether all wars were bad, discussing the difference between fighting against Hitler and fighting in Vietnam), I was also raised to believe strongly that we all have a duty to serve. I meet many in the military here in Washington, DC. What I find is that those who have chosen military life have a strong sense of service. Even if I do not believe in most of the basis of the service (just as I don’t hold much truck with whom Sita was expected to be and the basis of the battles in the Ramayana — more on that some other time perhaps), I respect that those who were conscripted and felt they had no alternative or those who chose to be in the military put their lives on the line to serve.
I try to think of Memorial Day as honoring those who have served and not, as I did when I was younger, dismiss it because it was more societal indoctrination to perpetuate the war machine. When Natalie and Joe Miller invited those at Willow Street to join them in service by helping to clean up part of Long Branch Creek, I signed up. I appreciated their way of making it easy both to honor peace (by helping the environment) and those who have served (by ourselves serving). We will be taking our yoga of the mat and into the world with a morning of seva— selfless service.
A Costume
Sometimes people put on a costume to invoke energy or otherwise engage in ritual. Do you have ritual outfits or objects to wear?
Protester dressed as “Ranger Rick” heading to demonstrate in front of the United States Supreme Court in support of the Clean Air Act, February 28, 2022
