Accessible yoga

I just got to spend 4 whole immersing myself in accessible yoga with Jivana Heyman and Amber Karnes of Body Positive Yoga.  Totally inspired.

It was a rich experential training, where we were empowered to come up with poses that are accessible in the moment.  I created a cool Dancer's pose using the wall and chair on the spot, for example.  Each day every student got to practice teaching a short sequence with an integrated or mixed class, i.e. some students in a chair and some not.  I am in such need of this knowledge as I prepare for my Spanish language yoga series next month. 

I learned so much about yoga philosophy and sutras too, which I wasn't expecting and found incredibly rich and profound.  You realize how deep and ancient this practice is when you read the sutras.  Feeling blessed. 

Best of all I made connections with yoga teachers of color living in the Portland area, including a beautiful African-American elder who is my neighbor. 

Dynamic aging and nutritious movement

I just learned about a book called Dynamic Aging, plus her web site, a blog created by her co-authors and other resources through Petra Fisher's email newsletter.  I ordered the book and eager to get reading and learning about ways to age dynamically. 

Reading my blog? A prize for a first comment

If you are reading this post, you found my blog.  Yeah!

If you make a comment to a post and live in the Portland area, I will offer the first Portlander a free reiki session.  If you don't live in Portland, I can send you reiki infused bath salts with organic plants from my garden.   I grow amazing lavender and calendula, so be ready for some amazing bath salts folks. 

So get reading and commenting!

On being grateful

I adore On Being podcasts.

I adore this particular one because the guest is an elder, a Catholic monk with so much wisdom, talking about topics that make my heart and mind sing.  

The defining and refining of gratefulness, thanksgiving, spirituality, and religion (using the apt metaphor of a dormant volcano that lacks the fiery spark)....so many layers of insight, reflection and learning.

Hearing Br. David Steindl-Rast talk about how our society, rooted in oppression, is collapsing before our eyes.  It's rare in mainstream media or society that people openly state that, so I find it refreshing, even if the words make my breath get stuck in my throat. 

New resource

A coworker who I respect and has deep experience working with traumatized communities shared this resource with me for guided meditations and visualizations.   

Two caveats: it costs money to use, and I haven't personally tried it out yet. 

If you use it, I'd love to hear your feedback.  Post a comment to the blog.  

Somatic meditation: resources, experiences and reflections on my big toe

As I drive around town I've been listening to an audiobook by Reginald Ray called Awakening the Heart: a somatic training in Bodhichitta.  While it might sound really esoteric, it's really incredibly tangible and real.  Our bodies are the most tangible thing we've got going; way more than our thoughts. 

There's so much to unpack that I think it will take way longer than a blog post to do it justice.  The bummer is that I had to return the audio book to the library because 18 people have holds!  Clearly a popular topic.

Luckily Reggie Ray has a great web site, so I will have to satisfy my learning needs that way for now.  Go in and explore.  It's pretty rich from my initial look.  I am so grateful that the site offers guided meditations.  The ten point meditation practice is one of the foundational practices in the audio book, and one that I found quite challenging.  I love that he pokes fun at it, i.e. joking that we might find it challenging to make time to breath into our big toe. Really that is part of the 10 point practice. No joke.  I found it challenging to even notice any feeling in my big toe.  One of my observations is how numb or disconnected I seem to be from many parts of my body, and that according to him, this is not unusual for people in the modern West.  It's even worse if you are a survivor of trauma.  I guess I hit the jackpot.  Must be why I am so passionate about yoga and movement at this stage of my life and journey. 

Our guests

One of the gifts of my yoga practice has been cracking open my heart to being aware of feelings and states of being, and trying not to judge/shift or ignore them.  To sit with them, notice them, as meditation teachers have intoned, "like clouds in your sky."

Sit with fear.  Sit with grief.  Sit with sadness.  Strive not numb out with food or TV, or whatever addictive substance or activity or thought pattern is your thing. 

There is a poem that I discovered in the course of my meditation process (Insight Timer app is amazing with all these cool guided meditations) that broke open my heart when I meditated to it.  In the aftermath of the election, filled with so many painful emotions, I meditated and wept, as the poem was read aloud.  It broke through the shock, the numbness. 

I share this poem with you, so perhaps you might find a glimpse of sitting with your guests too.  I would love to hear what you think or if you have another way to sit with kindness with your "cloud of sorrows."

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

— Jellaludin Rumi,