Introspection

Studying yourself on the mat is a hallmark of the practice.  You watch closely where you place your feet.  You observe thoughts and register emotions.  You make good choices based on what you are feeling, and how your body is at the moment.  Stepping into the quiet of your mind and body is not an easy task for some and a welcome relief for others.   This week at Good Life Yoga we will encourage a quiet, steady practice that allows you to step inside yourself.

The deeper you go into the quiet, the more you are able to observe.  In a pose with silence all around, you can more easily hear your breath and sense the energy moving through you.  There is nowhere else to be.   You find the calm center of yourself and sit in a grand seat of observation.  Expect steady holdings, hip openers and breath work this week.  It’ll be good to be ‘home.’

Tapas – Harness the Power of Transformation

Spring is a big season around here.  Minnesotans smile for no reason at all while walking outside.  As one of my students put it, “it doesn’t hurt to step outside.”  Indeed, it doesn’t.  We are met these days with sunshine and warming temperatures, and an ever changing kaleidoscope of ‘greenness.’  The world is transforming right before our eyes.  There is a steady pulse; a deep vibration of Tapas burning through and creating tapestries of high energy and urgent greens. Snaps of color burst through transforming the grays and browns of our recent days.  The landscape no longer resembles its old self.   Behind all this transformation is the power of Tapas.   The third Niyama, Tapas, is described as heat, fire and even discipline.  As yogis we know that to harness this power is to invite transformation for ourselves. 

Most of you equate Tapas with sweating on the mat.  And you’d be right.  Just as water has to heat up to become steam; so too, do you need to ‘heat up’ to transform.  This week we take the grays and brown of your ‘winter’ self, add a little Tapas and presto; lively colors burst through.  It’s time to shake off your winter paradigm and surprise yourself with a kaleidoscope of fresh green Spring.   Are you ready to step on the mat and step out of your old self? 

 Beautiful Spring, Beautful You

Look around this fine spring day and you’ll see nature in the throes of a creative superstorm.  Right before your eyes buds burst free and new leaves emerge.   Life is being created and celebrated all around you. 

In this remarkably changing landscape you are being challenged to see your own ability to grow and create beauty in the world.  You too are capable of offering bright green ideas, and new expressions of delight.  Unfurl yourself!

Create beauty on the mat this week at Good Life Yoga.  Make every pose an artistic expression from your heart.  What’ll it be?  Big, glorious and showy like the lovely daffodils?   Or perhaps small and sweet like a simple lilac leaf?

Show up and burst free.  It’s all good.

Present Moment

At any given moment you are invited to step into your center, be aware of your body, and feel with all your senses.  You are offered bright blue skies, bright green buds and the day brand new.  Each breath is an opportunity to stop and truly smell the air as it rides over the newly warmed soil and icy cold waters.  At any given moment your life awaits your presence. Touch the trees, pick up rocks and savor the daffodil blooms.  Delight yourself in the now.  Present yourself to life.  Your next amazing moment is now.     

Plan to step on the mat this week with lightness and a desire to enjoy each moment.  Our poses will be full, every breath accounted for; steeped in gratefulness.   We are alive.  Together we practice yoga and together we are present to life all around and within.