Discussion of physical aspects of yoga (on and off the mat)
Sometimes it is hard to tell whether our actions are making a difference. Yoga would have us do it for the sake of the action, not the result.
Today I ordered my first batch of postcards to reach out to voters in swing states: https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards-faq/ in addition to giving additional contributions to my regular monthly support.
May what we do bring more happiness, safety, and health for all.
Here’s a friendly reminder that we’re not free until everyone is free.
How are you using the freedoms you have to uplift others?
The other day in group practice, someone said they wanted to work on a particular pose; another teacher had people working on staying present with pain.
I questioned whether they should trust someone who suggested that they intentionally put themselves in a painful position and then stay there to learn to be with pain.
I questioned whether creating and staying with pain was in any way healing.
I questioned what they meant by pain. I think it is useful to stay with discomfort, for example staying safely with a strong posture that requires muscular and attention effort to maintain.
But pain is an effective warning system. If the pain is sharp or abrupt or sudden or is in tendon or ligament, etc, there will be no benefit to overriding your body’s message to stop.
Better to build strength of attention and focus and body and then apply the practices when life supplies pain that you have no choice but to remain until it heals.
Thanks to the gracious hosting by Woven History and Silk Road, I will be offering my first public, weekly yoga practice, since the beginning of the pandemic.
It’s an all-levels, accessible, mask positive, donate what you may, yoga practice. We’ve chosen to begin with World Central Kitchen in recognition of those struggling to get food in too much of this world of which we are a part.
The practice will be Thursday nights from 6:00-7:15pm. We will practice either outside (weather and mosquito permitting) on the back patio (brick) or in the shop (carpet floor). Please bring what props you like for practice. It’s great to have at least a towel to have something personal to lie down on for any recumbent poses.
What we will practice will depend on who is there and what are the needs and wants of the day. Expect some combination of breathing practices, meditation, and movement focused on facilitating our embodied experience.
Woven History is at 311 7th Street, Southeast, between Eastern Market and the metro.
For questions about the space, including access (the front has a few steps), please contact Rabia at Woven History Road@gmail.com. For questions about the practice, please contact me or comment on this post.
It has been a special day. I met a skink when we were weeding at the Youth Garden. First time I have encountered one.
I am grateful for a life that is healthy and safe enough for such things. Wishing health and safety for all and giving of time and energy (though I am sure it ought to be more) beyond the prayers to help it manifest.
I spent most of the day working in the garden. As the darkness of the eclipse encroached, I thought what it would be like if I had not known in advance that it was coming.
Would I have known enough to heed the crows?
I sat with Ganesha, in the aspect of the one who can reveal to practitioners a skillful path amidst the obstacles that necessarily arise from the churning of space and time by the 12 Kalis and which are intrinsic to the fabric of the tandava generated by Siva Nataraja.
