“When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.”
~ B.K.S. Iyengar
What a beautiful thought for this magnificent Sunday! Like the blazing sun, I was up bright and early this morning, ready to meet the day with new awareness. I was on my yoga mat at 4:45, no alarm needed. My body and mind were demanding it.
After a week of slouching off from my practice, my body really felt it’s age yesterday. While I prepped the villa for incoming guests, knees crunched as I bent to wipe cabinets and didn’t enjoy coming back up out of squatting. My lower back was screaming at me by the end of the day, to the point that I had to put China Gel on it. This morning revealed old latent patterns of holding in my shoulders, which begins to effect the lungs and the heart on both a physical and an emotional level.
I mention this simply to point out what occurs after only seven days of non-practice.
Our generation is so “quick fix” oriented. If this is what seven days does, imagine what seven years does. It won’t be fixed in two sessions. It won’t be fixed in two months, or maybe even two years. But what consistent practice does bring is a new awareness. Each day, I am able to tune in and see where patterns of holding are arising. I work with the new holding, and then move into the old, which I now know quite well. Slowly over time, old will be better, and new will have less chance to take effect. Without consistency, I am unable to see. I am blind.
It was with slowness of breath that I approached my practice this morning, breathing long, deep down into the QL muscles of my lower side back. I breathed through the ‘self-contempt’ as my mind tried to tell me how horrible I’ve been for not practicing all week. Inhale: Gather strength from the divine. Exhale and say to self: Yea well, I’m here now, so get over it. I’m sorry for ignoring you, and I’ll try my best to get back on course. That’s all I can do.
But the calling to the mat comes naturally now.
B.K.S Iyengar said:
” Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.”
Spencer and another friend have asked me to work up a short morning routine for them, which I’ve posted for download below. Like myself, they have lower back tightness. Who doesn’t ?
Are you feeling tightness somewhere this morning? Take a moment to check in. Sit down. It doesn’t have to be on a yoga mat – it can be on a towel or a rug or the plain old floor. Slowly stretch and breathe into it. Your body will tell you what to do. Stop and check in like this a couple of times a day. Even one asana is better than no asana.
This is the practice of yoga ♥
