Spring in the Garden of Yoga

I have been working a couple of jobs lately - and I've just realized that I see a lot of similarities between these two roles.
In my gardening role, I remove last year's growth, and create a healthy space for plants to flourish, contributing to aesthetic beauty, in the most literal sense.
In my role as a yoga instructor, I create a safe, welcoming space for yogis to flourish.  It's my privelege to witness them shedding old growth, making space for new growth, and realizing the courage to shine their inner beauty into the world.

I had planned one of today's classes with a horticulturally inspired theme of rooting downward, and growing/expanding up/outward, very much like a garden plant.
And like a plant in the garden, from the support of our roots/foundations, we can all create the space we need to grow and flourish.  There is also much work to do in clearing out this hypothetical garden, removing old fears, tensions and any old perspectives or expectations which have long withered.

I love my saturday classes - these are yogis who attend with open hearts and minds, and they happily come along for the ride.  I'm so grateful for these people, they bring such lovely energy each weekend.  If I think getting out of bed early on a saturday is tough, I have only to get myself to the studio, and make myself available to them, and my day is suddenly brighter.
Like a garden of beautiful flowers, they are all so individual and they each bring me inspiration , all of these individuals who surprise and delight me regularly:  the couples who reach for each other's hands in savasana, the lithe athletic types, those who come with injuries, some with illness, and occasionally each of them with weary energy...  I am constantly inspired and heartened by their efforts and their presences.

I am blessed to watch them flourish, every single weekend!

Thanks to the horticultural theme, I was inspired to leave the class with my favourite bit of
Anais Nin:

Risk

And the Day came
when the risk to remain
tight in a bud
was more painful than
the risk it took
to blossom.


Wishing you growth and abundance this spring!
Namaste

Throwback Thursday: Lessons from the time machine.

A bit of writing from the old 3:15 experiments, this from April 9, 2011:

Pushing forward and upwards
Bit foggy
Bermuda Triangle?

Sometimes it feels like
I'm lost,
Sea-tossed
And wind beaten

Fuzz inside my head
Words escaping me
overwhelmed

Need a glimpse of the light
The beacon, that moment of
Clarity, to bring me back,
Grounding me

homeward:
 back to what was never lost.

I remember how I was feeling when I wrote that.  I was stuck in a job that wasn't right for me, too stubborn or afraid to leave.  I felt constantly drained, anxious, and overwhelmed.  It felt Iike I was living a life of shell-shock, frantically rushing from day to day, and actually experiencing as little of it as possible.
While I don't miss living that nightmare, I am grateful for the lessons learned during that tricky time in my life.  It took me a long time to learn them, and a severance package, but eventually, I got the idea.  Life is now.  This is it.  It's not happening in the future, and it sure as hell isn't happening in the past.
Despite all the delusions of grandeur...  This is it.
So take a good look around you, and see the good.  And if you feel too bogged down, held under and suffocated to see the good (as I once did) then know that change is possible.  It may not happen quickly, but you have an evolution to get on with.  So don't let yourself get stuck in the
proverbial (primordial?) mud.
Sometimes it's the mud that we need to experience before we learn to soar.

What's with the mala?

In my teacher training course, we each received a gift of a mala.  And now, you quite regularly see me wearing mine, either around my neck or wrist.
I had never used a mala before "yoga-camp," and I wasn't sure what to expect from getting to know one, so I went into it a blank canvas, with no expectations, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn how much I enjoyed that simple string of beads.
In training, we primarily used the malas for chanting.  If you've never been in a room full of people chanting together, malas or no, you need to try this experience!  It was electrifying and soothing all at once.  Using the mala beads for chanting keeps us all "on the same bead," as well as providing a tactile layer to the experience.
After each chant, it was as if my mala had absorbed all that lovely energy, from all those lovely people, and as a result, I loved keeping it with me.  On me.
Now, chanting along at home is not quite the same experience, but it does bring a reminiscence of chanting with the group, and much like a cat who purrs, I feel comforted, even by the solo chant.  And my mala is a reminder of and a vessel for that comfort.
 I use my mala for meditation, counting one bead for each full cycle of breath.  In this function, my mala is grounding and centering.
While I love the mala I was gifted in teacher training, I found with regular use that I wanted one to fit and suit me better, so I now have one that was custom made for me.  My first mala will have a loving home on my soon to be completed altar - to act as a reminder of my time spent in training.
So, what's with the mala?
It's comforting, inspiring, humbling, energizing, soothing, balancing, it's a symbol of dedication to my path, a symbol of love and of life...
I guess the short answer to that question is this simply:  Everything.

My mala, made with bodhi seeds and turquoise, from AhimsaOm, Kelowna.

There is a LOT I love about my job.  A LOT.  I'm so grateful every day I teach to be doing something that makes me so happy.
Over the past few classes, I've learned something invaluable from my students.  
I have thrown some trickier poses into the mix, with the intent of introducing them, along with all the preparatory positions on the way to the full expression of the asana.  Everytime I've included one of these, I've been blown away by the will and determination and ability of my students.  
I'm impressed with how they rise to the challenge, and I'm so delighted to see them taking flight - energetically and physically - in a pose that they formerly assumed was somehow "off-limits" to them.
I am so thrilled and honoured to assist them through these transformations.  It blows my mind, every time.
As I was locking up to leave, the chant "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" popped into my throat.  I know the chant, but I was foggy on the meaning, so I looked it up when I got home.
From Wikipedia I found this:

Krishna also proclaimed "Everybody should recite "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya" mantra daily whenever possible so that I will stand by them. I respond to the call of the heart immediately and invariably. See me in your duties. I am committed to those who are committed to their duties. Believe in putting faith in me and make me your own".
from:  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Namo_Bhagavate_Vasudevaya

So, yeah, I'll be down with that.  This job, this path, feels more like my dharma than any other career path I've been on.
And I can't tell you how much I LOVE it!

Shanti & Namaste

It's all about balance...

Right?  That's why we practice yoga in the first place - to balance our energies, our chakras, our bodies, our expectations, our busy monkey brains...  and a myriad of of other imbalances, misalignments, and uneven loads we experience.
Balance can be defined as purely physical:
  -an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady
Or, it can be defined in a way that gives a nod to the less tangible aspects of our lives:
  -a condition in which different elements are equal, or in the right proportions.
Or perhaps you equate balance with words like harmony, equilibrium, evenness, symmetry...

Any way you look at it, balance is a process.  It's not an easily gotten goal, it's not even static.  Even while you are balancing in Natarajasana, let's say, you feel a LOT of movement going on to contribute to the appearance of balance.  Balance changes every moment, every day, and we must do whatever possible to cultivate balance.

It's this changeable quality that makes balance so grounding, so centering.  Just try making your shopping list in your head while you balance in Natarajasana or Vrksasana!  Balance requires mindfulness, it requires your work and attention to maintain.  And that's just in a standing balance.  Imagine what is required to bring balance to a busy life?  To the schedules of all the people in a busy household?
Balancing postures give us practice in the art of using all our faculties to focus and maintain harmony.  Is it possible to take this practice and apply it to other areas of your life?  I'm certainly willing to try! Imagine dedicating the same work and attention to balancing your busy schedule, your spending habits, your eating habits...  the list is endless.
Just imagine what you can accomplish if you mindfully approach your life?

Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet wrote: 

"Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes.  

If it were always a fist, or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as 

beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings."