From Etty Hittlesum: Sometimes the most important thin in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.
These days sometimes it feels like the hardest thing is to pause...Our reading this week is short and evocative - experiment with it in your formal practice, and in your life in general.
From Etty Hittlesum: Sometimes the most important thin in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths. Welcome to session 2 for Fall.
In a greater culture that often values a "quick diagnosis and do 'x' to fix it" model of health and yoga practice, let's begin by first arriving and acknowledging all of how we truly are as we step onto our mat. Let's really allow our truth on all levels to come into our awareness, whether it is what we would prefer or not. Let's practice noticing and welcoming all the "opposites" of our present moment experience before we begin to move, so when movement and response arises, it is in the direction of harmony, resilience and balance. Our focusing reading today is from Mastin Kipp: There is nowhere to run to; there is nothing else to do except be in this moment and allow what is to be. From that place of radical acceptance, major change can happen. The first step in any transformational experience is acceptance and surrender to the present moment, the way that it is. From that place we have the awareness, humility and power to change what is. Hatha yoga is about balancing "opposite" forces, and we've been working on balance the past few weeks - both our ability to stand on our own two feet, and in the sense of balance between things - for example, the front and back or right and left of the body, the head and the heart...
In that vein, our reading this week is from Rolf Gates: Yoga is the study of balance, and balance is the aim of all living creatures: it is our home. Today is the last 6 pm Hatha class, and 7:25 pm Yoga Nidra of this session - we'll take a break for Thanksgiving and resume October 19th for five weeks. Restorative Yoga will begin Tuesday October 19th (1:30-3 pm) for a six week session (no class tomorrow). Registration is open for all classes. |
AuthorMisha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC Archives
April 2024
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