Open to Grace

Last week, I was privileged to spend time with my dying 93 year old grandfather.  Saying our final good-byes we discussed his ultimate departure from the body – Freedom – is the word he kept coming back to. 

The first principle of alignment in Anusara Yoga harnesses this desire for freedom - Open to Grace.  By softening and surrendering we open to the freedom that is our ultimate birthright.  This freedom is the ultimate reminder that we are connected to something bigger than ourselves. 

This intention to align with the big energy is foundational to our practice.   Our attention to our physical foundation is infused with this intention.  We set our feet in a way that offers the best possible alignment to this big flow.  Each toe offers it share of devotion to the task.  Right now is good.  Right up until the end, my grandfather knew this truth, this universal principle – he opened to the Grace in his heart and was offered alignment with the greatness of his self. 

Because of the unexpected interruption in our schedule, I will continue this theme through next week with a change in sequencing.

Creating a Masterpiece  

Last week we worked on strengthening our abdominals and connecting to our core power.  We remembered that we are responsible for assuming this power, for stepping into the flow of our gut instincts.  Oh, and there might have been a few sore abdominal muscles along the way, too.  Let them be reminders of your great strengths!

This week we step into the power we created and continue to create and offer it back to the world in the form of art.  What is art?  It is seeing and forming beauty where there was none before.  It is taking something you have, a talent, a brush, a trowel, an idea, a pose and calling forth its full potential for beauty.

Assume this week to be the artist in everything you do and say.  On the mat, we strive for the fullest possible pose infused with our joy, and our desire to create and offer.  Form the finest Triangle you are capable of.  Showcase your signature Side Angle pose.  Only you can do the pose as yourself.  Why deny the world a chance to live, breathe and enjoy the art that you are? 

Nurturing our creative selves will come from the juice garnered in backbends.  Backbends engender a quality of courage that is necessary to stand in your own beauty; to create the finest masterpiece that you are capable of – and you are capable of so much.  Come, gather and create a showcase of joy, strength, and beauty that only you can produce.  The gallery at Good Life Yoga is open and you are the masterpieces.

Gut Instincts

Many of you just love the ‘abdominal’ section of class when we routinely work on developing a strong core.  I’ve decided to expand that section and to explore that region of the body in terms of housing our ‘gut instincts.’

Tuning in to our intuition is tricky for many of us.  How many times have you had a ‘gut instinct’ about something, did not respond to it and later wished you had?  Our instincts and our intuition are closely related as they are part of the greater wisdom of our spiritual being. Learning to trust this natural sense of order around us and within becomes more of a habit when we practice yoga.  We begin to trust in ourselves.  We trust in our ability to know where we are at in space in any given pose and we become more comfortable with our inner space.

How many times in my yoga class have you been asked to ‘check in’ – to ‘hear’ the thoughts moving through your mind, to make space for the emotions running through you?  Just about every class.  This is training for our natural intuition or ‘gut instinct’.  We begin to intimately know our inner space and trust this place as home base.  When a ‘feeling’ moves through it seemingly apart from this space – we sense this as intuition.  As tantric yogis, we intellectually know that this sense is really not separate from us – it is simply another aspect of our selves that literally ‘graces’ us when we are tuned in.

This week is ‘abmania’ yoga style.  We choose not to create limiting ‘6-pack’ abs, but instead choose to create strength and awareness in our center of intuition.  I can’t help but add here that the word ‘Gut’ in German, means – Good – so let’s work on Good Instincts and great Abs!!