Verbal Flow Archives
Surya Namaskar: A Peace Project
As the sun starts to ebb toward the equinox, balanced for a moment's time in the amount of light and dark we receive, I think of the ways that I have beheld this light with such gratitude--from my kitchen window or gazing out over ocean, the…
Peace Project: The Heart Comes Through the Hands
During our recent weekend of teacher training while we were working with this pose, Christa gave a postural cue to help bring us into better alignment. She encouraged us that “the heart comes through the hands.” I was immediately moved by how meaningful this cue is and on how many levels it works. In the asana, this means we use our strength, flexibility and breath to straighten and push our arms in such a way that we bring our torso further forward, moving the chest in through the arm space. In Urdhva Dhanurasana our world appears upside down and it takes a moment to figure out how to make this movement happen. But once it does happen, we move beyond a part of ourselves, yet more deeply into ourselves. We propel ourselves into a deeper embodiment of the posture, and perhaps into a deeper embodiment of yoga.
Today, some good. After Adrienne
I forget to live in love and gratitude. I get irritable and gossip and rush through visits with friends, and through life’s moments, too fast. I think I am not the only one who might say this. We all forget to savor the gift of blue skies and friendships and the quirkiness of our own and others’ pasts that create the story of who we are. We forget to taste and savor the gift of our body and the amazing plenitude of what feels so mundane. I think perhaps that is the one gift of death. That we are seated again in stillness for a time so that we can remember so much that is so easily forgotten.
Every Day, a Miracle
Suppose you started each day believing your day is a miracle. Suppose you believed with such “unwavering faith” in the possibilities that lie within “extraordinary effort” that you set out on each day with a plan to enact your best…
The Power of Seva: Peace Project with Kate Foster Connors
It is with this divine love that I understand my role as a teacher--to partake in, distribute, and share in an abundant spirit of love that exists always and everywhere. As I give, so too I receive. The power of service, then, means there is no helping. There is only unified participation in an endless flow of love and connection, available if only we pause to be in connection with all the layers of humanity before us, trusting that our open-eyed, open-hearted, willing presence will be enough.
Mental Hygiene
Imagine if caring for the mind were as common place as daily teeth brushing. Neuroscientist and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Richard Davidson, believes that just as we evolved as human beings…
The Peace Project with Mike Ward
I've been listening to a podcast called "The Robcast," with Rob Bell, author, speaker, and former pastor. In his first podcast of the new year, during a conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert in which she asks him to define 'lust,' Bell says…
Why Yoga Is Essential
I felt sure within the first month of practicing yoga that I'd teach this deeply intentional, contemplative practice. I understood that the benefits even at that point were vast, and that the benefits of me practicing rippled out beyond me…
A Blessing
Recently, this poem came after a restful and deep Yoga Nidra experience with Kate Powell. She reminded us that we are of, and connected to, the elements — earth, fire, water, and air. In that moment, I remembered that, as the New Year begins, it is all too easy to fall into the “get it all together quickly” trap. I have spent years feeling both excited and guilty at the prospect of endeavoring to make myself more, or better, or different. The impetus to grow is a fruitful and important one, I believe. Yet, falling into the trap of getting everything tidy and packaged at once can be depleting — mentally and physically.