imagine your breath has fingers

thoughts from yoga, 3/29


in savasana, let your wings fall through the earth, dangling off your shoulder-blades like broken compass arrows

growing in all directions, as much as you let go, you are supported

acceptance is not complacency, but rather, clear seeing, which is a motor of change

focus on the exhale, the inhale will take care of itself


you have choices.

looking back, then going forward

i took the train back to you
out
where the subway slices sky like a silver comet clicking on a tar rail
out
where we talk all night and watch the sun come up over manhattan-

you are new, but still play jazz

and i told you how:
yes, i am stepping forward into a new self
but there are claw marks in her from the old one

the old self is what brought me to you, howling, against the sky like the jmz line, express to all the old memories
i don't want to let go of
she is the one you knew
she sifted through your new apartment for old remnants while your back was turned

there are no relics
i became a hummingbird in your bedroom

because
now
before i open my heart
i have to
ground down and through:

i've learned how to grow
steady
from the bottom-up

YOGI CHOCOLATE (by donation)

More and more by-donation yoga seems to be popping up, which is great in its spirit, and for recession-practicality.

Here's some online by-donation yoga audio downloads!

YOGI CHOCOLATE

Ginsberg Documentary

Kids Yoga Classes in NYC

Here are a few pics from some of the kids' yoga classes I teach in NYC public schools....

Each class has 25 kids, and is about 40 minutes long.
Basic structure:
Tune In(OM), Warm Up(Sun Salutations), Learn and Try(Asanas and Games), Relaxation(Savasana)
The students are in grades K-4, and are learning a basic asana practice, sun salutations, meditation, and some Sanskrit.
There are 4-5 yoga classes a day, 5 days a week!

Free Yoga: New Studio

see:

http://www.thefierceclub.com/FREE_CLASS.html

For a free pass to Fierce Yoga, in Soho, founded by Sadie Nardini, Core Strength Vinyasa Girl.

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.

*
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.

*
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.

*
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.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

-Mary Oliver