Being a student
It's been almost two weeks of not being able to go to a group class. For us yogis that is like dog years, like 7 years or something. We need to do yoga all the time and two weeks is a long time! I have kept practicing at home though, meditating and practicing, but still I miss and need to attend group classes. I finally made not one but two classes today. One was a class with my friend Jenny at Black Dog (such fun!) and the other a workshop with the fine and gifted Annie Carpenter at Yoga Works on Main Street. The workshop was on pranayama, with the intention of awakening and balancing the vital energies inside of us.
I treasure being a student- in fact, that is why I teach, so that I can continue to study, grow and then share every single thing I learn with my dear students in the clearest way that I can. And when I share it, I get to hear it again!
Today's workshop with Annie was chockfull of information.
Here is the sequence as I best can recall, since I took no notes:
Sitting and feeling our breath.
A few shoulder openers, hip openers, and down dog.
Lying in supported savasana and noticing the natural movements of the breath.
Taking a comfortable seat and then doing different pranayamas including:
*viloma breathing (literally means "against the grain")
*kappalabhati or skull cleansing breath
*sama vritti breath or "same/identical breath"
*sitali breath (the cooling breath)
*Nadi shodhana
*Om mantra going into silently chanting Om
*meditation
*savasana
I found myself feeling calmer and quieter. I loved something she said earlier to me before the workshop began about how practicing pranayama is "an act of love."
She had a light and bright energy and was confident in the way she shared her knowledge.
And I look forward to studying with her again.
I left the studio feeling centered. As I got into my car I noticed how beautiful the moon looked tonight (did you see it?) and marveled at how yoga makes us so aware and grateful of all that is already there, both within and without, that we often ignore.
I also noticed how I go to all these workshops, immersions, retreats, and classes to learn what I already know: that I am one with everything. That I am part of the divine light and consciousness that created the world. I know it, and I forget it, and I get to relearn it every single time.
This reminds me of a poem my friend and fellow yogi Abel sent me this week via email from Galway Kinnel. I feel it talks about this same sentiment. Enjoy!
St. Francis and the sow
by Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flower, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self- blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
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