thoughts from yoga : 3/1

Your bones are the architecture of your ancestry: your muscle and flesh are inherently yours to move and build with: the choice of whether to activate and utilize that which is your own present expression or to rest on the bones.

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Kapalabhati (breath of fire) mimics the breath pattern of sobbing, or mourning, and sends messages to the brain and body that you are experiencing these things. The amount we mourn and let go = the amount of new space we have created. If you've loved deeply, you must mourn deeply, and vice versa.
If you do not activate something new while mourning, you'll have nothing to let go of the past for. Inhales are essential to exhales....if we have something new to breathe in, we will be more able to fully breathe out and let go. If there's nothing to let go for, of course we'll go back to the past and will not move forward.
Full inhales and exhales after kapalabhati = new breath, new life.

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Yoga teachers strive to balance receptivity and assertiveness in a room. If there's too much forcefulness, too much pushing towards a challenge, giving support and encouragement can counter that. If there's too much ease, softness, a challenge will counter that. In this way, the teacher is dealing with rajas (activity, passion) and tamas (inertia, introversion) and aiming for balance.

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If you know what you want, you are sending out energy clearly and without hesitation and will generally get it. If you are unsure of what you want, life will bring you challenges to help you clarify what it is you want. In shoulder-stand the toes are important: if they know where they are pointing, the whole leg will be engaged and the pose will be uplifted. If they are not activated and directional, and are unsure of where they want to go, the whole weight will slump into the shoulders and neck.