october has been a dense and challenging month for me.
the best parts have been early bedtime, regular pilates privates, regular iyengar classes, amazing clients and their stories and their progress, weekend with jai uttal....
i took a pilates private with kathy in which i finally addressed the issue of butt flesh direction, specifically in certain exercises. if you want to know what i mean more specifically, please ask me. in a previous class with kathy we pondered the idea of the "neutral spine" and whether or not that is an actual position of the spine, or if it is a window of positions for the spine... so maybe there is more than one neutral-- a lightly more anterior pelvis neutral and/ or a slightly more posterior pelvis neutral. a range of neutrals. maybe with the ideal neutral in the middle.... and then what happens when you strengthen the core muscles (psoas, transverse ab, multifidi) in neutral vs. in a posterior pelvis vs in an anterior pelvis. kelly kane says strengthen in neutral. but maybe it depends on which spine position reveals the most weakness.
also spend a weekend in hilton head island for my cousin's wedding. hilton head is a little like a golf-tennis disney world. unfortunately there isn't a big interest in organic food there. but it does have a gorgeous beach. it rained pretty much the whole weekend but i got some good beach time in with uncle bobby and christo. christo is a totally amazing acrobat and he was doing tricks on his bike on the beach that blew me away. such fearlessness. bobby mastered a few himself. me? im a scaredy cat. riding the bike against the strong wind was an amazing hamstring work out. and the sand patterns from the wind were insanely beautiful. all in this monochromatic gray landscape-- beach and sky and rain and puddles. i was covered in mud, and must admit, really liked that part.
weekend chanting with jai uttal and daniel paul was awesome. i met a harmonium teacher and ill start next week. time to learn some chords! i am mesmerized by jai. dare i say that i had a kirtan climax on saturday night during the radhe chant. the rhythm, the built up energy, the laughter.... sunday night was a little low, naturally. i can't wait for guatemala!
last night a client asked me "what is yoga?" which started a really cool conversation that im always able to find massive amounts of energy for. yoga is a state of being when a person experiences themselves as their true nature... when a person ceases misidentifying with all the layers of themselves that they ultimately are NOT (ego, personality, thoughts, feelings, body, etc) and corrects this misidentification by finally identifying with their most true and essential aspect of being: Atman, or Sat Cit Ananda (eternal bliss consciousness) -- so when one experiences this truth in the moment, that person is in yoga.... the methods or techniques for facilitating the accessibility of this experience include the physical practices, the mental practices, the lifestyle practices. so we need to understand the context in which asana is practiced according to the ancient purpose of yoga. asana is a tool... to free the nadis, to clear the central axis, which are prerequisites for the kind of mental, physical, emotional clarity needed to fully engage in feeling the Truth. i am afraid that many yoga teachers do not have the ability to articulate this context and this background. it is fundamental to the tradition. if we are going to use the word yoga, let's know what it means. (there are other ways to describe it besides the one above that are just as valid and historically and philosophically accurate). and so, when one has this experience of one's own true nature, which is pure and eternal and divine and awake and intelligent and not separate from the true nature of the universe and not separate from the true nature of each living being... then one becomes free, liberated!
the storm this morning is powerful and other wordly... maybe a message from vaikunth.
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