Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Releasing the Hot Spring Within


When our power has been stopped 

or shut down, we can feel rage at having our boundaries crossed 
and our creativity thwarted. 
Ana Forrest, Fierce Medicine.




Have any other parents with small children felt this internal rage building ready to rise forth? The quote above  certainly struck a cord with me. It knew it wasn't from being a full-time mom, that it was something deeper. I cherish the blessing of being a mother, and tried as I may to keep the creativity and spirit flowing along with raising two young children, but still there was a certain amount of bubbling from my inner hot spring of discontent.

The bubbling eased off dramatically when I started to tap into my own creativity, such as getting back into sewing projects. As well as getting back into yoga and doing daily meditation certainly helped. More recently, I have been pushing myself to find ways to creatively connect with my three-year-old son in ways that we both enjoy and that push us deep into experiencing the moment. Like making up silly plays about super heroes, and even involving my baby girl.

Super picnic baby, ready to save the picnic from killer ants,
 ferocious bears or other descending bad guys.


This has helped. Writing this blog has helped to release some of my bubbling "adult thoughts" that knock in my body waiting to explode onto the magic world wide web-o-sphere. Writing is how I connect to myself and feel more connected to the world.

However, if I looked deep within, there was still a wellspring of hotness brewing and begging to be released.

It has been a month since I started teaching a proper vinyasa yoga class (for just adults) at Mukti Yoga. The class is my own. There is no studio owner to obey or please. I feel no need to conform my teachings to any authority. It is just me, and the words that flows from my lips bursting onto my students with a frenzy because they have been locked up brewing inside of me for over a year.

I am back after taking a year off teaching a proper yoga class. We moved. I had a baby, and I was waiting for the right studio to let me in.

Before this, when we lived in Tennessee and my first baby was small, I was only able to teach one class a week at a hospital. I had many wonderful students, but given the parameters of the class, one hour, in a hospital health center in a cold, florescent-lit room, it was hard to go as deep as I wanted to go as a teacher. This class just barely kept my wellspring from  turning into a raging erupting hot spring.

Finally, I have a beautiful space, and students who want to learn and want to go deep.  They have opened up and let go and allowed me to lead the body and minds toward a deep (maybe a deeper) place within themselves. By doing so, it has released the hot spring brewing within me. Finally, I am connecting directly to other beings, and in my own way, I hope, helping them to see beyond samsara, or that dualistic world we all get so trapped up in.

It even feels like there is a bit of MAGIC in the air at the end of a good class.

This is when the students have worked hard with their bodies and minds, and have finally "let go" and *poof* there we all are, just breathing and being together. It is like we have opened a door to a more peaceful and pure place. That is the place that exists within each of us, but here it is, in this yoga room, the atmosphere pulsing and vibrant.

I can only teach if I have students. As a students, we all know, you can only go as far as you are willing go. I am so thankful for willing students.

It seems that by teaching yoga to willing and able students, it has allowed my inner power to finally rise forth.

This inner power has not been fully tapped into for what seems like years. Teaching not only unleashes my inner power, but also a vital aspect of my being - my creativity and intuition. Rarely do I plan out my whole class. I have a general idea, but use my intuition to see what is needed for those beings that day.

It can't describe how wonderful it feels to finally melt that internal agnst by breaking out of my little comfort zone at home and unleashing my teaching on those who will sit peacefully and endure it. I know I have a long way to go as a teacher, but for me, I suppose, I just need to teach and learn as I go.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

London Bridges: a fun pose for the whole family


London bridges pose has been a favorite in my family yoga class. It is also a wonderful stand alone pose to do at home with your kids. It is great for building strength in your core, legs and wrists. It also re-energizes the whole body. Encourage your whole family to join in. Watch the rejuvenating effects afterwards!



London Bridges Domestic Yogi Style: 
1) Sit on your bottom with your feet on the floor, hip width apart. Place your hands flat behind you, fingers facing forward, elbows in.

2) Invite your child (at least walking age) to sit on your lap facing you. Or have them watch.

3) Raise your seat up to shoulders height. Keep your feet parallel. Don't let your toes flail out - this will help protect your lower back.

3) Sing: London bridges falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridges falling down. My fair lady. If your child sitting on you, they can practice their balance by staying sitting up, or they may want to try laying back like my son in the picture. If your child is watching, encourage them to crawl under the bridge before it falls.

4) Let your seat "crash down" indicating that the bridge has fallen down. (Remember to go slow if you have a younger child on your lap).

5) Go back into the pose, and sing: Build it up with wood and clay, wood and clay, wood and clay. Build it up with wood and clay. My fair lady - o!

6) Repeat again, or try with straight legs (see variation below).

Variation

I like to do one round with bent legs. This way your body has a chance to warm up a little, and your child has fun balancing on top of you. Next, I like to do it with straight legs for the full purvottanasana pose. I recommend being comfortable with purvottannasana pose on your own first before trying it with a child on your lap. If you child wants to be on top, have them scoot up closer to your heart. Remember, you can always encourage them to crawl under your "bridge".




If you child is on your lap, keep your head up so you can watch your child and make sure they are safe. Your hips may not get as high as you'd like them with the child on your lap, but know you are still getting a good work out with the extra weight.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Rainsticks: make rain, create stillness


Kids love music. They also love to be creative and express themselves. Why not give them the opportunity to use their hands and their imaginations to create something sacred, beautiful and soothing.

I had the pleasure of watching four children, aged 2 - 4, for a day who were up for the challenge of making their own rainsticks. 

THEME OF THE DAY: RAIN!

While we made our sticks, we listened to meditative "rain" music.  For inspiration, we also watched some YouTube videos of people making music with rainsticks. 

We talked about rain:  how we feel when it rains and why it is beneficial. We talked about storms: how they can be scary; why they happen; and how powerful it is. 

We added feathers and rainbows to our rainstick because they are other beautiful things that are found in the sky.

HOW WE MADE THEM

1)  CARDBOARD TUBE: We used a short mailing tube, (18" long x 2" wide).

2) SPIRAL: draw a staircase-style spiral from one end to the other of the tube.

3) NAILS: Each kid hammered in 1.5" nails along the spiral line. 

The kids had a great time doing this in fact. The younger one practiced nailing into a spare piece of Styrofoam, while the older kids got to work. Each tube had about 30 - 40 nails in it. Our tube was a bit hard to get the nail through the cardboard initially, so after they tired of doing it themselves, I started the nail and they just had to finish it off. 

4) FILL UP THE INSIDES: Beans, lentils, rice and lavender (we cut from our bush outside).

Eight little hands scooped up their selection and had fun funneling it into their rain stick. We filled the tube until almost 2/3rds full.

5) DECORATE: cloth fabric, ribbons, feathers, beads, rainbow ribbon.

Each kid choose one or two pieces of fabric to wrap around their stick. I glued it on for them. Then they all chose one ribbon which was tied on along with a feather, beads. Each one also had a rainbow ribbon glued on, and a hawk feather, to help give the stick more "sky power". 

6) PLAY!

Now each child has their own unique rainstick to play and dance and dream with. It has a nice soothing sounds if tilted slowly. Unfortunately, the "rain" does go a tad quick. But it is peaceful to sit and tilt and listen. Or, as children tend to do when around each other, we had fun dancing and playing energetically with them. Another way to express our true spirit!


SIMPLE VARIATIONS

You can also use a papertowel tube, and poke it with toothpicks or straight pins. Then tape up the ends.

For older children or teens, I would of spent more time talking about using the rainstick as a way to bring them back to their own sacred peaceful place. It is so important to teach children and teens ways to find a moment or two of inner peace. Using a rainstick, decorated guided by their inner self, and listening to its soothing power, is a way for them to calm their mind, and reconnect back to their inner self.

Each stick as unique as each child

RAINSTICK ORIGINS

Rainsticks are musical and ceremonial instruments used from ancient times to the present day. Their name describes the soothing rain-like sound that these instruments produce. Although rainsticks were used by many different cultures, they were primarily used in Chili where there is a legend that rainsticks were created to remind the spirits that rain was needed. 

Rainsticks are made from the wood skeleton of a dead cactus plant. The cactus needles are collected and poured back into the skeleton, along with tiny stones and pebbles. Other historic tubular rattles are made of either whole reeds (such as bamboo) or plaited reed strips. They have palm needles stuck into the walls of the tube, and are filled with pebbles or hard seeds.

Traditional-style cactus rainstick

Monday, June 6, 2011

Can the Teacher Hear My Thoughts in Yoga Class?

Short answer: yes.

Most likely, the teacher can't hear your specific thoughts, per say, but rest assured they can pick up when you are thinking, verses when you are completely absorbed in your breath/body awareness.

Can the teacher tell when you are having "unpure" thoughts?

Yes.

Seriously?

Yes.

But how? Do yoga teachers have special super powers?

Uh, no. Or, at least not this one. It is simple really. When in a good yoga class, the attention is inwards.  The energy of the room shifts from the normal "mental/visual" level,  lets call it, to a more inward/intuitive energy.

A good teacher knows inside and out the feeling of deep, one-pointed, non-judgmental, conscious awareness. Or more simply put, pure consciousness. While teaching, the teacher has "feelers" out, receptive to what is going on in their classroom. The teacher can feel when students are emitting that pure conscious energy. They can tell who is in their zone, and who is not.

Whenever a student is not reaching this potential, a different sort of energy, a tainted or "unpure" energy is emitted  Aggression and ego have certain energy. Lust and envy have another energy. Distracted thoughts of past or future emit a sort of lower static or scattered-type energy.

The other day, I had a couple new students in my class who were in the front row. Try as I might to lead them to a quieter place within themselves, I could not over-ride their loud thoughts hurdling at me like poison darts as we moved through a variation of sun salutes. "What the hell is this? What the hell is that? Not this again! Why are we going so damn slow..." the thoughts kept hurdling.

After a while, the fresh prana starts to kick in. Their thoughts start to slow. My energetic shield lowers.

I find that any "unpure" thought in a yoga class environment is amplified. Even if the student is just thinking a mild, what the hell? The thought still has a direction (at the teacher, at themself, or a fellow student) and is still received as a poison dart. I bring this up to illustrate how powerful and harmful our thoughts are to ourselves and others.

Unpure thoughts are like poison darts. Poison darts people!

So remember this while practicing yoga. Stop hurting others and yourself by launching poison dart thoughts. Become aware when you are out of your zone, and take a deep breath. Refocus.

Even better. Remember your thoughts are powerful on and off the mat. Before you start launching your darts, take a breath. Find your heart center, think Cupid.

There is nothing sweeter than students emanating Cupid bliss arrows. They are not hurting anyone. They are melting the impurities and knots within, planting new seeds of pure-loving kindness in their bodies. They move from the heart and their light seems to fill up the room. They may even be helping to purify the energy of the classroom to help you back in your zone.