In yoga, we're all about creating freedom. Freedom from things like limitation, tension and lack, and the freedom to be who we need to be in order to feel alive, awake to our own potential, and of course, happy. On my off hours at the Omega's Institute's Being Yoga conference, I stumbled across Byron Katie's intriguing book I Need Your Love-- Is that True? It brings up valid questions about how much energy and time we waste trying to get other people to do what we want. I instantly saw the parallels to how and why we practice yoga.
The root of suffering, according to so many spiritual traditions, including yoga, is seeking fulfillment from outside sources. We know this, yet we still do it all the time. "You're late again!" we fume at our partners, while sitting at a restaurant with friends. "I hate it when you disrespect my time like that!"
But hold on there, yogis. You were at a nice restaurant with friends. Why not want your partner to get there when its organically right for them, and in the meantime, isn't there wonderful conversation to be had with your tablemates, precious time for the three of you to create your own special dynamic, or even a wine list to peruse and discuss with the sommelier? Which truth creates more harmony, increased life affirmation, and allows love to flourish? And which creates a diminishing, negative space?
In the part of our yoga practice that includes a sticky mat and poses, we quickly learn that truth is relative. When in a long-held Plank, Pose we can choose this one:
"I can't do this--my arms are going to give out!" Or this one: "Wow! I'm getting super strong right now, even though my arms feel like they're going to give out!" Or a million alternatives that may or may not serve our ultimate goals the best. And that's the key to happiness.
When you're engaged in a lifestyle of awareness and health, your main goal is not to make other people keep you stable and loved. It's for you to be stable and loved, from the inside out, all by yourself. Otherwise, you're leaving your inner state up to the wild and unpredictable world of others. And no matter how much they want to be there for you, they cannot be you. Knowing this ignites your inner strength and potential to reclaim the power you hold to self-generate satisfaction right here, right now.
Only you can ensure that you turn all moments to your advantage, and that you see the love and unity inherent in every situation, instead of the separatism and doubt, and move into your best life even so. Am I telling you to put up with abuse? Of course not. In Warrior I, you should get some kind of growth and transformation, and then you move on, before you overdo it and end up tearing yourself down. When you really look at what you do in yoga classes, meditations, and other spiritual disciplines you're engaged in, you'll see they are sending you direct messages about the road out of suffering. Whether you take it or not has nothing to do with anyone else--and everything to do with you.
Here's a pose I teach my students to help them engage in the practice of what comedian Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness." In other words, see how you can shift your perspective into something that lights you up and keeps your heart wide open, instead of the opposite.
Core Pose: Side Angle Preparation
Sure, you might be able to get your hand to the floor or block here, but that's not the point of this posture. I invite you to back off to go deeper. The practice is to bring yourself out of full external expression and hug into your inner world.
Come into a Warrior stance with your right foot forward and back foot angled slightly forward. Heels either intersect on an imaginary line or step wider to hip distance. Place your right forearm on your right thigh and sweep your left arm over the ear. Widen both shoulders and maintain the downward ground of your forearm. Breathe slowly and deeply through the nose.
Root your heels and balls of the feet deeply into the mat to create a corresponding lift and support through the legs. As the fierce intensity builds in your legs, your dedication may begin to waver as your mind begins to give you all sorts of excuses encouraging you to bail.
Instead, breathe more deeply. See if you can shift your focus to something empowering, like maintaining the engagement of your low belly, building core strength as your tailbone lengthens, promoting space in the sacrum and lower back. Spin from your lower ribcage and offer your heart to your highest self, even though you're enduring a lot of sensation. This is the same as any high emotional state that threatens to knock you off center. This is your practice of staying your ground. Most of all, enjoy feeling yourself transform. It's not always comfortable, but it can be powerful--depending how you look at it.
I'm writing this from the Omega Institute's Being Yoga conference, in Rhinebeck, New York, where I was a presenter. While here, I got to sit in on Gary Kraftsow's talk about resolving the concepts of Dualism (the universe, and everything in it, is made up of two essential unchanging natures: good/evil, body/mind) versus Nondualism (although things appear distinct, they are actually not separate: you, me, the trees, God). Fascinating stuff.
Now, how can these two seemingly polar opposite philosophies be resolved or brought to common ground? Gary offered that in order to perceive the Universal (sameness) in all things, we must have the context of relationships to things. And, in order to understand that we are all one, there has to be a "we" to unite. In the end, he says, our search for humanity and our search for divinity are, actually, one in the same.
Now, there's a lot more to it than that, but as I approach the next part of this conference, it helps to know this. I'll be attending what's called the Lineage Gathering, where teachers of different styles and belief systems will come together and join in conversation about yoga, life, and the role of the teacher in today's world.
I'm honored and excited to be a part of such a prestigious gathering, and envision myself sitting in the back row, observing and taking it all in. After all, there are lifelong scholars and teachers here, like Aadil Palkhivala, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Lilias Folan, Sharon Salzberg, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, David Life, Sharon Gannon, and others. I'm intrigued to learn how they reconcile their different philosophies and styles of teaching for the greater good of leading others toward balance, harmony, presence, and clarity.
One thing I'm sure of: There will be no shouting, storming out of the room, overturning tables, or hurling expletives at one another. That's because every one of these teachers is trained in the art of integrity and respecting others. They know how to contain themselves in the face of adversity. Does that mean they always do? Probably not. But it's far less likely to see Gary Kraftsow or Beryl Bender Birch throwing a hissy fit than your average Joe.
The practice of yoga goes far beyond the performance of asana. It's a training ground for remaining non-reactive even if you're feeling intense sensations in your body, mind, or heart. Remember that next time you're in a long-held Chair Pose and you feel like bolting from the room--or throttling your cruel teacher's neck. If you can maintain your rhythm and grace on the mat, you can do it when things threaten to get heated in your relationship to the outside world. Yoga teaches us to stop, breathe, and use the tool of introspection, thus helping us avoid the slippery slope of hurtful words and actions.
Today, let's all take a cue from our master teachers, and act with a little more reflection and a little less reaction, and agree to disagree when we find ourselves with a difference of opinion. I bet Jivamukti's Sharon Gannon isn't going to convince me to go vegan, nor I to get her to try a free-range steak. However, we will bow to one another, recognizing the greater purpose we are each here to serve in the world.
Here's a pose I use to prepare me for the discomfort of being misperceived, of disappointing others, or of feeling wrongly criticized or judged. It won't be comfortable, because I'm going to ask you to go slightly beyond what you think you can do. But this pose can be a powerful teacher, if you use it to learn how to cool yourself down and remain focused on the bigger picture when the limiting and destructive fires of defensiveness begin to arise.
Stand at the front of your mat, feet together. Bend your knees and touch the floor with your fingertips. Send your sitting bones back and wide, root your tailbone long, and, lifting through your lower belly, roll up with bent legs until your chest and arms reach for the sky. If this becomes hard on your neck, open your arms to the sides or press the palms together at your chest.
Look down at your feet--if you can't see your toes, shift the pelvis back until you can. Lift all 10 toes to activate your inner arches, and as you ground the ball and heel down, draw energy up from the Earth to help sustain you. Breathe slowly and deeply.
Stay in this pose until you think you need to come out. Then, stay for another 3-5 breaths. Afterward, take a few moments each in Standing Forward Bend and Child's Pose to stretch your legs and low back, neutralize the spine, and take the time you need to process.
When Ava, my manager, suggested that instead of flying in and out for my Los Angeles teaching gigs last week, we rent a car from Lake Tahoe and take a 16-day road trip through California, I thought she was crazy. That is, until she explained a) all the fun we could have, and b) all the people we'd be able to meet in person. As a yoga teacher with students all over the world, I know the precious value of creating real relationships with those with whom we share a like-minded practice.
If I had just flown in for my weekend of workshops, and not explored for the week before and after, I would not have sat down with editors and publishers, helped a woman figure out what kind of poses she could do with her cranky knees, or witnessed a stockbroker come to an epiphany about his life over dinner. I would not have visited with my friend Ariel, danced in front of a fireplace, seen Shiva Rea's video shoot, bonded with Ava, or so much more.
Ariel is a feng shui master. He has said for years that it's not enough to make space to be who you are right now; you need to create the space for who you want to become. For example, if you want a love relationship to come into your life, you'll want not only to get yourself ready for it, you also want to pull your bed away from the wall, put a nightstand there, and pour a fresh glass of water each night in anticipation of your new partner.
Energy loves a void, and when you make one in the shape of your ultimate goals, such as abundance, partnership, prosperity, love, or career success, it can start to pour in. If you're still engaged in the same habits that got you where you are now, and are keeping you there, either resisting your greatness or maintaining the status quo, then new possibilities will have a harder time taking hold.
In this way, when Ava proposed a more intensive trip, but also one that left a lot of room to create new relationships and deepen ones I've already begun, I knew it was the right move. Things happened that neither one of us planned, like an incredible meeting that could skyrocket my teaching career and help millions of people be exposed to the healing benefits of yoga and mindful wellness. Sometimes, we want one thing to come into our lives, but the way we think, see the world, and act are not aligning with that which we say we would like to attract.
In yoga, we can easily practice working with this concept. When you breathe, you don't actually pull air into your lungs. Your muscles pull the ribs apart, the diaphragm drops, the lungs open wide, and then the atmospheric pressure of the Earth pushes air in to fill the space you've created.
T.K.V. Desikachar, the son of Krishnamacharya, one of the founding fathers of yoga asana, says that prana, life force, cannot be controlled. We can only make the space it requires to infuse us, and remove obstacles to its flow.
This is why in yoga class, we begin by bringing attention to the breath. If it's short, restricted, or choppy, we can be pretty certain that we are experiencing the same, on all other levels. The practice of yoga, therefore, is not to force openness, happiness, or health, but to seek out the places where we're blocked from wholeness, and do the work required to remove those blockages. In their place, we construct new riverbeds and banks, samskaras or habits, that serve us and take our prana in the directions we want it to go. Then, just like tearing down a dam, the streams and tributaries of circulation, central nervous system communication, lymph fluid, self-understanding, peace, and vitality will organically begin to irrigate your entire system, nourishing you for a lifetime from the inside out.
Core Pose: Making Space Breath
This is a simple breathing technique that will bring you back into harmony with the way the body actually breathes. Come into a comfortable seat. Close your eyes and direct your awareness to the tip of your nose. Without using the more yang Ujjayi breath (no Darth Vader here!), let the breath quietly but fully slide in as you flare your ribs wide in all directions. Note that as you inhale, the lungs fill from top to bottom. As you exhale, they empty out from everywhere at once as the ribs compress.
Listen to your body and notice the places in the side ribs, the front abdominals or around the mid and upper back where you find a jerkiness or stubbornness residing. Hold your breath in for a moment, and move in ways that help to release and resolve your resistance there. If you notice emotions or thoughts arising that cause the body or energy to contract, maintain the rhythm of your in- and out-breaths until they dissipate.
After two minutes of the making space breathing technique, you should feel a difference in the freedom and quality of your breathing, and in your body, mind, and heart.
I spent some time in Los Angeles this week, and one day visited the set of the new Shiva Rea video. While there, I had a powerful conversation with the director, James Wvinner. We discussed the importance of media, both social and store-bought. Specifically, we talked about how it's really helping the world gain access to yoga and to the teachings of great instructors like Shiva, who can't possibly get to all the students who want to study with her.
James related a funny story told to him by another teacher who was recently leading a training in Bulgaria. A student came up afterward and said, "Do you know Sadie Nardini? I study with her!" Now, I've never been to Bulgaria, but I bet my YouTube videos have. Wherever I go, I meet students who have studied with me for years, without my even knowing it!
This is just one example of what I'm now calling Conscious Media. Anyone with a video camera and a YouTube account can employ these channels to spread the word about how simple and effective it can be to get happy, be healthy, and to rock your awesomeness from the inside out.
Before I made DVDs, wrote a book, or did anything else that now comprises my income, I was using social media to create virtual kulas, or communities of the heart and spirit. There are so many ways for each of us to speak our core values, and to a wider audience than just our partners, friends, and students. By reading this blog, you are directly benefiting from my choice to step outside my comfort zone and share my views in a public forum.
It's a vulnerable place to be, letting others see you and, at times, judge or disagree with your offerings. But I endure this aspect of the job in order to do what I consider to be much more important: Speaking my piece in a way I feel is constructive to both our humanity and divinity.
In this day and age, when we're being bombarded with negative imagery and fluff, the media-sphere is crying out for substance and soul. And it's crucial that conscious people go first to light the way for those who may not even know they want to watch this mind/body stuff, or understand how much they need it.
Who will do this if we don't? In fact, I feel that as we awaken to our possibilities and become aware of the tools available to transform ourselves toward balance and passionate living, we have a responsibility to really put ourselves out there and lead by example.
Now, you may not be a yoga teacher or committed to raising awareness of the joy of cultivating wellness on all levels, as I am. But I'd wager that you have some skill, some creative voice you'd like to add to the mix. You can do this for yourself, so that you live each day as the rockstar you really are, and also because you just might inspire one person to dig deeper and step forward with more confidence to be their best. The amazing thing is, with conscious media, your one voice turns into thousands, and your single moment of sharing becomes a constant message.
When it comes to changing the world in a positive way, I say let's each do what it takes to turn our quiet, inner voices into a beautiful chorus that can be heard all the way in Bulgaria, and beyond.
Core Pose: Lion's Lunge
To help you access and then amplify your voice, you've got to make some noise. I use Lion's Pose with a lot of my core poses, to open the channel between my foundation, my core, and the courage it takes to express myself so that people can hear.
The muscle meridian closest to our skeleton, called the Deep Core Line, moves from the arches of the feet; up through the legs, hips and spine; and ends at the tongue. Doing Lion's Pose draws energy and tension up and out through this line, which is why it's considered an immensely detoxifying pose on a very profound, pranic level. Life force and your ability to speak from your inner knowing will increase as you dissolve obstacles to your inherent freedom and flow.
Come into a High Lunge with the front knee over the heel and the back leg long behind you, supported on the ball of your foot. If you want more stability, step your feet sitting-bone-distance apart.
Inhale through your nose and reach your arms either back behind you or up into the air, fingers wide. Exhale through your mouth as you stick out your tongue and say "Aaaaaaaaahhh," as loudly as you can. Really get into it, letting the sound be another way to say what you really need and want to express from your deeper creative center.
Repeat 3-5 times or more. Then take Dog Pose or Child's Pose for a few moments, and move to the other side.
Last week, my friend and manager, Ava, and I left Wanderlust and took a road trip from
Lake Tahoe through Napa Valley and into San Francisco,
where I was scheduled to teach a workshop.
Taking a trip like this was fun and freeing--something I hadn't done since
college. I've traveled, sure, but mostly on airplanes and highways. It's been a
long time since I've stopped to smell the roses, literally, or walked through
vineyards, wandered without an agenda, and taken my time getting where I needed to
go.
When I left more space around the journey itself, rather
than seeing it as useless time between my starting place and my
destination, a whole new world opened up. We turned off the highway and into
local communities and had adventures I never would have had otherwise, like
singing impromptu karaoke into a straw at a local pub or eating an incredible
meal at Bouchon in Yountville.A
few times we turned off the GPS and just tuned into where our hearts told us to
go next. We were led unerringly toward something life-affirming and just
right.
It was an experience similar to the one I aim to offer my
students during yoga class. I've often asked them to pause and even play during
the transitions between poses, those moments we often rush through on our way to the "goal" pose. The word "tapas" means "heat," but it also symbolizes the space
we make with the energy and awareness we bring to the present moment. When we
release our grasp on achieving the goal and wake up to what's going on every
step of the way, we begin to see how fully we're surrounded by exactly what we
need to evolve, to be happy and fulfilled, and to love our lives.
What you do before you get into a pose dictates its
quality once you arrive. It's the same in your life: The millions of
smaller actions you take will determine the strength--or shakiness--of the foundation underneath the more
showy milestones of your life.
In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that if you're not
bringing a consistency of mindfulness, spaciousness, and quality action into
your transitional periods, you may not reach your goals after all.If you want to be a financial advisor,
but you're irresponsible with your own money, it's unlikely that any clients
will trust you with theirs. If you do reach your goal on a shaky foundation,
it's far more likely that your dreams will crumble around you, undermined from
the very roots (hello, Bernie Madoff!).
Instead, what we yogis practice both on and away from the
mat, is making sure that we pay attention to the entirety our lives, not just
the parts; and doing so most of the time instead of just sporadically. It's as simple as
taking a deep breath and reminding ourselves that we're here now. We stop
time-traveling to the past or future when we learn that the only thing that will
determine our future movement is what we do right now.
This inner road trip is the key to living out loud and
enjoying your life holistically today. Not when you have the man, the cash,
or have lost that last 10 pounds. Why wait? The power you have to self-generate
satisfaction is waiting for you to see it, claim it, and act from it. When you
stop, look around, and listen to your deepest wisdom in the space you've
created, you will suddenly, sweetly realize:You are everything you need.
Here's a transition that I've made into its own pose, to exemplify
that every moment is pivotal, not just the flashy, more obvious ones. There's a
whole universe of strengthening and freedom to be found right here, on the journey within.
Core Pose: Parsvakonasana
(Extended Side Angle Pose) with Core Circles Variation
When you go straight into Side Angle Pose from Warrior 2, the
tendency can be to enter the asana with a over-curved lower back, front ribs
jutting forward, and the back body constricted. To re-enter the pose with a more
centered alignment and free the habitual hip, low back, upper back, and
shoulder tension it can create, we need to exit it, or as I often say in class,
back off to move forward.
First, come into the pose from Warrior 2 with your forearm
on the front thigh and your other arm over your ear. Notice how your lower back
and shoulders feel. Are you core-connected or are your shoulder blades, back
muscles, and legs doing most of the work?
Begin to circle your top arm back behind you. Take it down
toward the floor and, as you do, turn your torso toward the floor and draw your
low belly away from your front thigh and upward, into your sternum. This will
activate your core strength, bring length to the tailbone, support to the
lower back, and also open the gateway of your front hip joint.You're not pressing out the low
back curve at all with this move, but supporting it from the front of the spine
as well as from the back.
Continue to sweep your arm forward now and back up over your
ear. Press your feet down strongly; maintain the stability, shoulder fluidity,
and core awareness you cultivated during the transition; and enjoy new
strength, freedom and areas of stretch releasing in your new, more intentional goal
of a pose.
On Monday, in the space left behind by the thousands of yogis who attended Wanderlust, my friend and I decided to climb a mountain. (You can see it in the background in the picture below.) OK, it was more a civilized trail than something I'd need a rope and rock shoes to tackle. But let me tell you, it was pretty darn challenging.
The high altitude makes it harder to do even simple things, like breathe, much less hike. I was a little daunted thinking about scaling a steep path for an hour, especially since I haven't done any other exercise besides yoga for a decade, unless you count climbing the stairs to the 9th floor walkup I lived in for a year in Manhattan.
Yoga prepared us both for the adventure of doing something new with our bodies, and though the air was thin, and my heart rate was about as high as the hill itself, I felt strong, capable, and, finally, grateful for all those long-held Warrior poses. When we reached the pinnacle, a pyramid-shaped outcropping of flaking shale, my friend had the idea to pick up a large piece and heave it over the side. It bounced and skipped until coming to rest among another pile of rocks farther down. I felt so inspired by this that I got up from my serene perch overlooking a mountain waterfall and stream and start throwing rocks too. It felt like every rock I tossed was a heaviness I was deciding to release, lightening my mental, physical, and emotional load.
There is a parable I love, about a monk and his master stopping at the bank of a wide stream. There they encountered a man dressed in fine clothes. This man looked at the master and asked, "Will you carry me across? I don't want to get my nice clothes wet."
The monk volunteered to take the man across, as his master was older, and, well, the master. But the master said, "No, no. He asked me. I'll take him." So the master put this perfectly strong, healthy guy on his back and struggled across the stream with him, getting his own clothing all wet so the man could stay dry.
Once across, the man went his own way, without any word of thanks. The monk and master continued on, with the monk indignant. He mumbled under his breath and cycled back into a dark and stormy state every few minutes. Finally, after about two hours, the master said, "Brother, what's bothering you?"
The monk exploded: "I can't believe he didn't even thank you! I mean, you're a master, and he was capable of getting himself across. The nerve of this guy! What a complete jerk!"
The master looked at the monk, undisturbed, and said, "I put that man down on the other side of the river--and two hours later, you're still carrying him."
We all tend to carry unnecessary baggage around with us. Whether it's regret for what could have been, anger at a past experience, or even tension from a stressful job that builds in the shoulders or low back, it ends up as extra weight that prevents us from engaging with and enjoying the present moment.
Sometimes we might feel that punishing ourselves for past actions or keeping them alive by dwelling on them over and over again will keep us from repeating the behavior. But this is a toxic attitude that will slow you down as surely as carrying someone across a stream. Instead, just as you enter a challenging practice with the intention to shake up and dissolve areas of restriction in your body, use your yogic tools to shake up and dissolve those stories or habitual "truths" you tell yourself that diminish you instead of lighting you up. Through mindful practice, we realize that we can remember the lessons we've learned from our experiences, but drop the weight of living them over and over again in ways that erode our happiness.
When, with arms overhead and with all my might, I threw the last rock, I did the following pose. This is a wonderful, instant way to release any negativity that's following you around. Do it regularly, to ensure that you're not gathering tension or destructive energies on any level, and watch your body, mind, and heart lighten and move with more freedom.
Lion's Pose
Take a deep breath. Imagine it traveling from your lungs to your belly, and all the way down to your toes. Really gather up any inner negativity you can find. On the exhalation, release the breath up and out through your mouth as you stick your tongue way out and roar like a lion: "HAAAAAAH!"
Repeat this 1-3 times, or until you start laughing. That's a good sign: As you lift the energetic stone of whatever has been weighing you down, you'll uncover the joy that is your right--and birthright--that's within you at all times.
I spent the past few days at Wanderlust, the music-and-yoga festival in the mountains of Squaw Valley, California. As you can imagine, it was stunning.
I was honored to teach a few workshops for practitioners of all backgrounds, levels, and yoga interests. Yoga teachers including Nikki Myers (Yoga of Recovery), Dina Amsterdam (Yin Yoga), and Maya Fiennes (Kundalini Yoga) attended, and another presenter, Giselle Mari (Jivamukti Yoga), graciously offered to assist me during a particularly large class.
I also got to be a student, opening my heart with Annie Carpenter and going down to the Delta in Shiva Rea's Sunday yoga revival. I talked yoga with Duncan Wong and was adjusted by Simon Park. As I watched people trying out styles and teachers that were outside their main discipline, my heart was filled with pride in our community for branching out in the spirit of curiosity.
To me, the definition of "student" is someone who wants to experience a variety of what the world has to offer, even as they may focus more on one aspect of study that interests them the most. There are many roads to center, but it's easy to let a single-pointed focus turn into tunnel vision. Sure, we yogis all have styles and teachers we resonate with strongly. Yet it's my belief that no one aspect of yoga or instructor holds all the answers.
Yoga teaches us that when it comes to discovering the truth about our nature, both human and Divine, we already exist in a state of full and complete awareness, although this is often obscured by veils of illusion and misaligned ways of perceiving the world. Our mentors can help us remove our blinders and remind us of this radiant truth. However, at times, all of us grow so attached to something or someone that we close ourselves off to other possibilities, or sometimes even to the awareness of our own potential for independent thinking or self-inquiry.
I'm happy to report that what I saw happening this weekend was the complete opposite. The yoga kula, or community of the heart, met here under the big sky, combined and recombined like a beautiful kaleidoscope under many masters, and people infused their spirits with inspiration and knowledge they may not have even known they were seeking. Personally, I was turned on to a breadth of fresh opinions and perspectives, all of which I'll use to inform my own practice and teaching.
When approaching the area outside the box, it's helpful to remember that our willingness to hear other voices and try new ideas will always, 100 percent of the time, teach us more about who we are. Whether you love the experience, discover it's not for you, or have a reaction somewhere in between, you've received valuable information about what harmonizes with you and what doesn't. Either way, you've strengthened your core connection with who you really are.
Being open-minded means that we don't become style snobs, turning our noses up at other forms of yoga. In John Friend's Anusara community, perhaps one of the most tightly knit yoga kulas out there, he asks his teachers to always honor other disciplines, and to speak respectfully of them. This is the conversation we can all enter into, as we look around our yoga family and open our hearts to the possibility that, like any circle of nourishing relationships in one's life, there may be room for more.
This week, consider taking a class in a style you haven't yet tried, or with a teacher you've never studied with. Off the mat, let your open mind lead you into opportunities for growth and adventure.
Core Pose: Tree Pose (Vrksasana)
This posture is nearly universal across many yoga styles. When you do it, you link up with so many others in your tribe, and yet everyone sees and experiences it differently. Listen to your inner teacher while standing in Tree Pose--ask yourself "What else is here than what I already know?" From the widening potential within, allow the roots of your presence and the conversation with the center of your physical and spiritual gravity grow clearer and stronger.
Come to standing. Place your weight on the right foot and slowly bring your left foot to your ankle, inner shin, or inner thigh. Press your standing leg and left foot together as you bring your arms out to the sides or overhead, or your palms to your heart. Deepen your hip creases toward the sitting bones and lift your low belly in and up as the tailbone lengthens. Draw your shoulders back to reveal the heart as you reach the crown of your head away from your grounding feet.
As you bring your attention into a state of curiosity, allow your balance to interplay between the three points of contact on your standing foot: big toe mound, pinky toe mound, and center of the heel. With the same dance between stability and fluidity, work your way up the body, noticing new aspects of the pose, even how the mind and heart are responding within this profoundly simple asana. Then, do the pose on the other side.
Sadie Nardini
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