The Life You Have Planned

 "You have to be willing to let go of the life you've planned, in order to have the one that is waiting for you."  -Joseph Campbell

I referenced the above quote this morning in a conversation with a friend. It is such an interesting concept. One I have been working with and reminding myself of for several years now. A concept for those muddy endings and beginnings in our lives, when our  efforts to tidy our world melt....and all of a sudden I am talking about Wisconsin in the spring time (we cut firewood for the woodshop stove today. The horse pasture is tinted green with the courageous first blush of grass, and the sun is lying lovingly, warmly on the bare land, in just that way it does in early spring). Oh, this in-between-the-seasons time when the snow is too patchy for skiing and sledding yet the ground is too soft for biking and camping. When the activities normally planned are not an option, and we find that there is one waiting for us...such as cutting firewood and throwing it in the back of the truck.

But that is a tame example. How about when a relationship falls apart...or you have to give up a job...a home....

Three yoga tips for sleep

Please, if you have any eye problems do not attempt any inversions. If you have significant back or neck issues, consult with a yoga teacher or better yet a doctor whose opinion you trust before attempting pose number one. The same goes for any discomfort that is not easily resolved with a slight shift of position. 


1) Legs-up-the-wall pose, also known as Viparita Karani or the Great Rejuvenator, is my favorite way to wind down at the end of the day. It's also very good for anyone who has been on their feet a lot, as it helps reduce edema in the lower extremities and facilitates circulation back to the heart.

2) Side-lying Savasana.
 Note the placement of the pillows. The one between the knees effectively brings the knees out to hip-width, relieving pull across the lower back and back of the hips, and I sometimes add a pillow lower, so that I support not only the knees at this width, but also cushion and support the ankles. The pillow between the arms is very comforting and soothing, so it is also important, and of course the pillow under the head helps keep the head and cervical vertebrae aligned with the rest of the spine.

3) Shakti mudra.

 Can be combined with the last pose to good effect: Simply place the corner of the pillowcase between the ring and little fingers. According to Gertrud Hirschi, author of Mudra: Yoga In Your Hands, Shakti mudra "intensifies the respiratory impulse in the lower chest area". This helps us transition from a shallower breathing style to  a deeper one, which encourages the release/relax phenomenon that is necessary for us to fall asleep.

Wisconsin

Long time, no write-y.

A quick catch-you-up: Last summer, as many of my readers are aware, I left the Mendocino Coast of Northern California, where I had been living and teaching for several years, for the Bay Area. Shortly after I made that move, my father passed away, and I spent the rest of the summer in Wisconsin, with my family. I returned to California to finish one last semester of school, chilled for a month, and am now back in Wisconsin, where I will stay for the next 5-6 months or so. Ah, winter in the midwest. If anyone has ever doubted whether I have a streak of crazy in me...;)
Actually, that's not fair. There is a great deal of "doing the right thing" involved with the timing of my move back to the Midwest, and that I am moving in flow with the universe has been shown to me in all the wonderful things that have happened since I left California and arrived in:

the only-Frank-Lloyd-Wright-inspired-airport-that-I-am-aware-of (it was a dark and snowless Wisconsin night...).



Anyway, I have begun teaching again; picking up a couple of classes at a lovely local studio, here in my hometown. The name of the studio is Second Star, and this sweet space saved me many times last summer, when I was feeling like so much flotsam in the wake of my father's death, being roughed up by unseen currents.

 My weekly classes:
Thursday nights, Mixed Level, 7-8 pm.
Sunday nights, Candlelight Yoga, 5-6 pm.
And a special workshop on Saturday, February 25th: Yoga Mudra, 9:30-11 am.

Isn't it a beautiful space?

I love that the studio also hosts an art gallery, which space you can begin to see to the left of the paper cranes in the picture above.

Second Star Studio

The poem that sums up what I've learned the last couple of years

Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Teaching tomorrow

Although I'm in the middle of moving, I will be teaching tomorrow at Hot Yoga of Mendocino. Hopefully it will be a good class. I'm completely addle-brained with all the driving, packing and unpacking.

Looks like I need to fix the pictures in the previous post too...:)

shadowy valleys

I have been thinking a lot this morning about humbleness, and the power it has to transform our lives as we turn our affairs over to a force greater than ourselves. Partly this arises out of my own realizations of how much easier life is when I keep myself humble, and glad, and move from that space. Partly this comes from a conversation I just had with a friend, who is moving from a place of despair, confusion, and anger, to the realization that they can, in fact, reap the benefits of change and a deeper connection. I flipped open one of my favorite books this morning, Marianne Williamson's Illuminata: A Return to Prayer:

Dear God,

The pain of this life is more than I can bear.

I feel as though death would be better.

My thoughts are dark, my sorrows huge.

I feel as though I shall not endure, and there is

    no one and nothing to turn to now.

My hurt is so big,

I cannot handle this.

If You can, dear God, please do.

If You can, please do.

Amen.

Personally, I like to substitute the word goddess for god, because I find that the words have a deeper resonance in my body when I do so. The feminine face of the absolute resonates more resoundingly than does the male, in my current, feminine, form. Although my Sunday morning is full of light and joy this week, personal experience will never let me forget that we all go through dark times, and need to know not only how to handle them, but how to find our way out again, and how to maintain an inner equilibrium while going through our personal valleys of shadows.

Pictures from the Mendocino yoga day...

Well, I taught at the 6th annual Mendocino Yoga Day, as promised, along with Rosy Nolan, Helen Jacobs, Lisa Orselli, Maggie Norton and Diane Watjen. That was back in April, the last Saturday...I believe around $1200 was raised, in raffle ticket purchases and class attendance-related donations, for the Mendocino Coast Community Care Program. So thank you to everyone who attended!

Diane Watjen teaching...

Hannah taking class...

Beautiful room

More of Diane teaching...

Ladies in purple taking...

Maggie & Diane

Hannah teaching

Looks like fun, doesn't it? I know we all felt amazing at the end of the day. If you missed it this year, just hang on until next year, for the yoga smorgasbord!!!