Slow Flow

Thursdays are my day off. Usually I make an effort to get to a yoga class for myself. Yesterday, however, I caught myself thinking I should go to class so to get inspiration to teach my own classes. Sometimes this works...and it is a necessary part of my own practice to study with others and be exposed to new sequencing, movements, etc. But for whatever reason, instead I decided to see if I could inspire myself on my mat.

My boyfriend was home from work, so not wanting to monopolize the living room with the nice hardwood floors, I went into our "sitting room", a carpeted side room off of our bedroom. The sitting room probably has the most warped floors in our apartment...maybe even in the old house (I had realized this when we moved in and tried to arranged furniture...everything looking all lopsided and like it was going to fall over and we had to fix it by putting cardboard strips underneath the legs of dressers and standing lamps--but I had forgotten about this characteristic until I lay my mat down). It took some getting used to, but putting my mat at a strange angle in the space seemed to be the best solution.

I turned on some music and set the intention for inspiration. I suppose I do feel inspired every day...but not enamored by it like I used to. But in order for this inspiration to flow through me and into my students, I must learn how to better grasp it, or, more accurately, let it grasp me.

I did not have any other intention or direction for my practice and so I just moved as I felt inspired. It was a slow flow, moving from down dog first, to ragdoll for ten breaths, back to plank for eight breaths. I did this about five times, stretching my breath as long as it would carry me.

In the midst of this slow flow I realized three things: 1. I can always find inspiration on my mat if I just slow down, close my eyes, and let my body lead. 2. Something I never realized before is that throughout my practice I will say to myself, "stop the struggle". That is when I melt deeper into a pose. It's how I find surrender and is a great sense of comfort to me. And 3. Sometimes, a real slow flow with long breaths is the way to go.

I continued to flow, linking postures and breaths in new ways that I had never done before. It felt good. I concocted a flow from twisting knee down lunge, windmilling the arms up and into a supported backbend. I studied the breath and how it felt best to inhale and exhale with these movements.

I stood up and despite the warped floor I did a long balancing sequence. I connected to my core. I realized another thing I say to myself in my practice. The moment I feel that tipsy feeling like I might fall, I say to myself "I can do this", and I do. In that moment when the mind has a choice to freak out and say "no no no!", years of practice (and muscle memory) have helped my mind to say very calmly, "yes, I can do this". I believe it, and so I stay. It's very simple.

Sometimes the best practice is at home by yourself where there is no one telling you what to do or what to feel. It is just like a poem: creativity within structure. The creativity is your mind and your practice, the structure is your mat. It is an opportunity to really listen to your mind and understand, maybe for the first time, the subtle words you speak to yourself when you practice. It is a chance to be inspired by the simplest things--by the only things that are truly with you for the entirety of your life: you body and your breath.

Bring Your Mat With You

I love to travel. It removes me from my everyday neuroses--mainly my controlled environment, routine, and perfectionism.  I've been privileged enough to travel to several different countries, mostly with other people. But there have also been times where I have stepped out on my own to explore the world.

One of my strongest and most cherished memories is traveling to England to study abroad my junior year of college. The experience as a whole fell a little flat, looking back on it, but there is one moment that I mark as a peak experience in my life. I had three large bags I was lugging around, trying to get from Heathrow airport to somewhere in the large city--a very new city for me. It was morning rush hour on the tube, I was hungry, disoriented, and extremely sleep deprived. As I arrived at my stop, gathered my bags and stepped off of the tube a great calm amidst the chaos washed over me. In this moment I knew that I was never alone. I knew that I was always with myself and that I was, in fact, my own best friend. It was such a relief to just buddy up with myself like this and it was such a powerful, secure feeling that I often think of it when I am feeling overwhelmed, out of place, or disoriented.

I contribute this insight to my yoga practice. It is fascinating to look back at the undulating, twisting-turning patterns that a consistent yoga practice takes--all on its own, it seems. Looking back, it's clear to me now that during this time in my life my yoga practice was beginning to open me up to myself. This opening never stops, it only changes perspectives, depth and clarity.

This weekend I am visiting my father in Illinois. I'm only here for a few short days, but I had to pack a bag big enough to hold my yoga mat. I didn't even think twice about bringing it. When I am out of my element, it is like a security blanket. Even if I don't use it while I'm here, its bright red mass reminds me that I'm always here for myself--no matter where I am in the world.

Eat Dessert First

Growing up, my room was always the cleanest in the house. Ever since I was very young, I had a compelling need for order in my life. These days, I still have that same hunger for organization--I surround myself with to-do lists, I have tidy piles of folders that contain my bills (in order) among other things. I make the bed every day. It's just how I am. It's how I thrive.

But I've begun to notice how this is also how I get in my own way. If I want to meditate all the dishes must be done. If I want to get on my mat, I absolutely need to fold that pile of laundry first. If I'm going to write I must respond to all my e-mails and take a shower and do everything else before I sit down.

Some people need more organization in their lives. I'm beginning to think that I need less--or maybe I just need to do what I really want to do first and do the dishes later.

I was talking to a friend yesterday and when I was telling her how I was compelled to leave my desk job to teach yoga full-time, she said, "Yes! this is not a dress rehearsal!" Though I find myself fulfilled by my career, I realized her words compelled me to look at my every day life and the ways in which I get in the way of doing the things I love. 

It's not easy making those changes, though. Here I am writing, feeling the nagging need to check my inbox for the first time today--'Oh my goodness! What if there's something important?' Part of me wonders. But really, what could be more important that doing what makes me happy in this moment. This is no dress rehearsal, this is life, the real thing. Live it.

Growing Pains

When is the last time someone told you that things are just as they should be? When is the last time someone told you that you're just perfect the way you are? What if I told you these things now, would you believe me? Probably not. These are things you have to know by yourself.

When I move through a rough patch in life, I have learned that the hardest part about experiencing that suffering is my belief that I should not be going through this. I think to myself, "I do not belong here!" I argue with my greater self/the universe/god that I work so hard to be a good person, surely I am not deserving of this! But still, no matter how I disagree and fight, my life moves through its undulating pattern and it pulls me with it.

Sometimes, though (and these times are rare), I am able to take a small step back from my stance as a victim of life's ups and downs. These are the times I am able to put things into perspective and understand that my life is so minuscule--like looking at a clear night sky and seeing a plethora of stars you didn't know existed; and yet, my being is at the same time a microcosm of the entire universe. 

Especially when times are tough and our lives are challenging, we tend to take it all so personally. That is good in some respects because we begin to learn how our actions and our energies have contributed to this struggle. At the same time, it is important to see that your life has brought you to this challenge so that you can gather experience and strength from it.

Life can sometimes feel utterly cruel, but ultimately, our lives are only attempting to open us up to our greater selves, and to realize that we are exactly where we are meant to be and who we are meant to be. Instead of struggling against the tide, next time you find yourself suffering, try to go with it, even embrace it. This is your experience to grow from--use it.

To Manifest

I'm beginning to see a common thread weaving through my life: I don't think I'm good enough. Sure, I know that I have good friends, I'm well-liked, I have people that love me for who I am and nothing more, but when it comes to manifesting the things in life I feel I deserve, I second guess myself. I stop writing because I think it's in vein. I spread my arts and crafts all over the kitchen table, dedicate a few weeks to creating, and then I hit a wall. I buy fancy cookware and cook books, and they collect dust on the stove and on the shelf. I have so many resources at my fingertips, but when it comes to going through with something completely, or putting myself out there in any kind of risky way, I freeze.

I'm taking this year to listen more closely to my intuition. She says to create, to flourish, to do the things I love. But there is a part of me that battles it out with my intuition, it asks the type of questions that hold me down time and time again--or rather, it doesn't ask questions, it simply says: you can't do that. It says, "You can't make money by selling arts and crafts, Jane." "You'll never make enough money simply teaching yoga," "You don't know the first thing about cooking," "No one is going to publish you...No one even knows about you,".

Instead of standing up to these voices, I give pause. Doubt, right now, is my biggest enemy. So instead of learning to listen more to my intuition this year, maybe I need to make the commitment to act on it more often. I fear that others will question me and doubt my actions, but I must remember that their doubts are only a reflection of my own. Perhaps that doubt is some form of parental love--only trying its best to protect me from myself. Perhaps. And if that's the case, I will simply say to myself, I understand that you're scared and you are only trying to protect me, and I appreciate that, but let's open up this channel that is blocked by fear and learn to manifest things that flow in and feed my spirit, instead of just protecting it. 

Soon, I hope to learn to approach these challenges in my life the same way I approach challenges on my mat: just going for it. I remember being a beginner and thinking to myself, "I can't do that!" Now, several years later, I can't remember the last time I had those thoughts in class. It doesn't matter if I can't do it perfectly, I always try. If I fall, I laugh. If I get hurt, I take it easy. If it takes years to do something, that's okay because I'm still doing something I love.

The Wisdom of Full Bloom

I have been taking note lately, and noticing more that there are no blanket statements that can apply to all of life. Wisdom, instead, is knowing when it is appropriate to apply certain lessons, teachings, understandings to a particular situation. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Our lives are constantly transforming, and so our understanding and the wisdom we apply to our constantly evolving life situations must adapt.

There are two books I am currently bouncing between: “Healing Wise” by Susan Weed, which was lent to me by my sister and “Nothing Special” by Charlotte Joko Beck. “Healing Wise” is a testament to the Wise Woman tradition of healing—or nourishing, rather. It discusses the difference between this tradition and the Heroic tradition, which includes many other forms of alternative healing, and the Scientific tradition, which we understand as modern medicine. The crux of the book—the way that I understand it—is that, in the Wise Woman tradition, we are always whole, and always possess the power to heal ourselves through nourishment—not through constriction or adding or subtracting anything. By simply accepting what life offers to us, in our health and in our sickness and struggles, we learn to honor the wholeness of our being. We do not need to cleanse or purify or take complex medicines—all of our healing can take place through acceptance and looking to the earth for our nourishment in the form of weeds—things that grow wild and freely, much like our natural sickness and struggles.

It’s an interesting thought, and one that I understand mostly through the lens of Buddhism that I am more familiar with. Not surprisingly, “Nothing Special” draws deep parallels to this message in “Healing Wise”. Interestingly enough, the chapter in Beck’s book that draws the closest parallel to the Wise Woman tradition is entitled, “Preparing the Ground”. This chapter explores the “path” of our practice and the challenges that we find along our path:

“In a sense, our path is no path. The object is not to get somewhere. There is no great mystery, really; what we need to do is straightforward. I don’t mean that it is easy; the “path” of practice is not a smooth road. It is littered with sharp rocks that can make us stumble or that can cut right through our shoes. Life itself is hazardous. Encountering the hazards is usually what brings people to Zen centers. The path of life seems to be mostly difficulties, things that give trouble. Yet the longer we practice, the more we begin to understand that those sharp rocks on the road are in fact like precious jewels; they help us to prepare the proper condition for our lives…There are sharp rocks everywhere. What changes from years of practice is coming to know something you didn’t know before: that there are no sharp rocks—the road is covered with diamonds.”

In essence, both “Healing Wise” and this chapter in “Nothing Special” are talking about the same thing—that our sickness, our struggles are the jewels of life that enable us to grow and to flourish. Often times, however, it is not until we are looking back on our path that we recognize the true value of these struggles. While we are stuck in the struggle, we cannot see outside of the awful situation. It takes practice to step outside of the struggle and see diamonds, instead.

And yet, while I read these books and begin to understand their message, I am struck by one more thing: my garden. Last weekend I cut some flowers and brought them inside. I filled the vase with water and arranged the brown-eyed susan’s, the peonies, and lavender in the glass. The peonie was bright pink and in full bloom. Two buds were formed: bright pink balls sticking out from the vine like the antennae of a butterfly. For a few days I watched the blossom that had been in full bloom the day it was picked, peak, and begin to wither. The petals drooped, some fell onto the counter. Then I began to notice that the buds that had been bright pink began to wither along with the other blossom—but they had yet to bloom! How could I save these buds and give them their due? I let what was the full bloom wither for one more day, and then I did what any gardener would do: I cut off the dying part. I cut it off so that the other two buds would have a chance to blossom. And they did. Today they opened up, beginning their accent into full-blown, full-bloomed glory. Bright pink petals unraveling from the center. 

Had I only known the Wise Woman Way, and blindly followed the advise in “Nothing Special”, I would still have a dying flower, pulling the nutrients from the water, keeping the two buds from bring nourished into their full potential. And where’s the beauty in that?

As we walk on our path, struggle can be a gift, a lesson, a diamond. Some struggles, however, no longer serve us, and these struggles need to be cut off from the stem where we are still growing. True wisdom not only holds many truths, it holds truths that seemingly contradict each other. Living with wisdom involves knowing that there are no blanket statements and there are no rules with how we walk on this path.

A Taste of Freedom

This winter seemed to drag on longer than usual. Cooped up in a small 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with my loving boyfriend and 2 cats, brought the both of us to our knees. For the first time in my life, I felt what depression was like—the longing to just lie in bed all day long, not having to face the grim world. I think it was a combination of forces that made me feel this way—the winter, the living situation, the dismal state of our country and the world. Wallowing in a dark cloud of misfortune, I started feeling so unlike myself that I knew I needed a change. I needed to get away. There was some yearning inside of me that I did not know how to appease. How would I get life back to the way it used to be?

One evening, I just made up my mind to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time: I signed up for a retreat at the Insight Meditation Society center in Barre, Mass. At the time, I didn’t even know what workshop I was signing up for—it was the one that fit best into my schedule, it was short (Friday night – Sunday noon), and it was accessible (only an hour and a half drive). I booked it and that was that.

Of course, I booked it about a month or two out, and as spring began to make her subtle entrance, I was already feeling better. When the weekend finally rolled around, there was a part of me that knew it would be different, it would be hard work, it would be unfamiliar…I debated not going. But I am very disciplined and I went anyway.

The course I signed up for was called “A Taste of Freedom” and it was a silent retreat. All we did from Friday evening until Sunday at noon (seriously) was sleep, sit in meditation, eat, volunteer job (mind was washing dishes in the kitchen), sit, walking meditation, sit, walk, sit, walk, sit, walk, eat (thank god! Lunch!), sit, walk, sit, walk, sit, tea (=dinner), sit, walk, sit, sleep, Repeat. The first half of the retreat was torture. I kept noticing that my mind would jump ahead of me and start to formulate how I might be able to pass the time more quickly, how maybe I could just skip the next sitting mediation, maybe I will go for a walk instead. Whenever I would sit in meditation, my mind would go foggy and I would drift off into a dream-like state. That is not good meditation.

But after lunch on Saturday I noticed a shift. I had gone out into the garden after the meal and sat on the bench facing a large Buddha statue. There were twigs and flowers and beads sitting in his palms and resting on the alter—gifts that other retreatants had put there. I just sat there in the cool air and asked this statue if it might help me clear my mind. Could it help me with my meditation?

When we went back into the sitting hall and I closed my eyes, there was a sharpness there that certainly hadn’t been there before. My attention was steady, on my breath, and I would notice the split-second when my mind would begin to wander off. I would watch it, notice it, and then I would gently draw it back. There was a physical ease, too, to this sharpness of mind. My body was more comfortable sitting for the 30 minutes, and I could almost feel the focus resting in the front part of my brain, right between my eyes.

When that meditation session ended, and I opened my eyes, I felt refreshed, not tired. I thought to myself, “I could meditate for another half hour right now, and it would be great”. It was the first time in my life that meditation felt wonderful. For the rest of my time at the retreat, I enjoyed myself fully with every moment. I did not let my mind wonder off in ways that would distract me from the task at hand. I would simply sit when it was time to sit, walk when it was time to walk, eat when it was time to eat, and sleep when it was time to sleep. It was easy, and it was blissful.

By the time it was over and it was time to go home, I did not want to leave.

It has been a few weeks now since the retreat. Re-entering the real world with lots of noise and TVs and radios and people chatting and cell phones and computers and talking and taking care of things…it was jolting to say the least. I think it actually took me about 24 hours to remember how to multi-task. But that sharpness of mind, that blissful state that I experienced was so authentic that even though I do not feel it now when I sit in the mornings, I know that I have the potential to feel that way, and just knowing that is blissful in itself.

This was the meditation hall. I was the sixth row back from the alter, third cushion in on the right side. I had to count because we weren't really supposed to make eye contact with people, in respect for the silence (that part, I didn't really understand. But that's okay.)