-=-namaste-=-

wednesday, march 6

I went to a yoga class today after a loooooong break from The Mindful Body. I have been doing my own practice, which has been interesting and informative, but I find that I don't ever spend an entire hour and a half when I make up my own practice or use every single area of the body as evenly as a class from an excellent teacher does. My practice has been a lot about sitting and meditation lately and less about body movement and specific poses.

Anyway, I went to my teacher Rachel's class this morning. When I think of who would be my official teacher it is Rachel. She will always be my teacher even when I, God forbid, move away from this glorious city. She is my teacher. She knows my body and what it is capable of doing and knows when I need a little encouragement to open further or when I need to back off. I missed her while I was not going to official classes. She hugged me when she saw me this morning, and she does this intersting thing when she hugs you that makes you feel as though she is hugging you just as much for her as to make you feel welcome... Do you know anyone who does this? She inhales deeply as she hugs you tightly almost as if to experience the person being hugged as closely as she can.

My body quivered through the whole hour and half class. As open as I feel from all of my vacation time and being outside, there was energy shaking to get moving through my body that i wasn't aware of before the class. muscles shaking...

anyway, it was a great return back to my old routine and I fell right into step with it with new wisdom about myself and my practice only aquired from taking a break from classes. It is so amazing when you step back and look at yoga as something that you will be doing for life and not just this class that you have to go to three times a week. Looking at it in the big picture, I know that this little hiatus from the yoga studio will be one of many and that the ebbs and flows of my practice will be a constant in my life forever.
1:46 PM 0 comments

monday, march 4

You know you're moving slow when you are exasperating the checkout clerk at Real Foods...

Mat and I went to hippy hill yesterday and spent the whole day in the sun. The day before i had spent the whole day in the sun in the yard. day before that Baker beach. day before that Ocean Beach. Needless to say, I am not getting in a real big hurry about anything these days.

Anyway, we had spent the whole day relaxin... I played my recorder with the drum circle which was so amazing. I have never really placed my body right in the middle of that circle, and I tell you what. For however long i was in there, I felt transported... as though I were somewhere else. As though the whole universe was moving in rhythym with that drum circle and I was part of it... I felt belonging as one of the many older gentlemen in the center of the circle smiled at me and nodded in approval of my recorder playing. That was just the first of my many explorations of percussion, i think. Playing music outside really does it for me... it has the power to make me transcend above the physical realities of my existence to a place where the beginner's music that I am making gets a message across... the song that I am plunking is expressive and emotions flow out of me uninhibited as I play. I have to be outside though to get that.... lately.

My mom called from St. Martin where they are on vacation and told me that she had gotten me a big thing with beads on the outside that you shake... percussion!! This before I said anything to her about me liking it lately. She really knows me...

Anyway, we were high on the park and the afternoon and the sun and the comraderie of the drum circle. Drunk on days in a row worth of melting muscles into bones and breeze and the smell that your skin makes when it is warmed by the sun. And the checkout girl at Real Foods breathed a heavy sigh and an "oh, god..." as I realized that I didn't have my wallet out ready with my card THE SECOND that she finished ringing up our stuff... the people in the line groaned (well, only one man did). Man! Real Foods is usually such a chilled-out grocery store with their smooth Latin jazz or other such good shopping music and the produce guys with their dreads and all the samples out...

It just goes to show you how easily you can get wrapped up in time constraints and the old familiar rush rush rush that we have adapted as our societal mantra... all together now, "Forget Om! Forget Thank you God! Those don't get anything done, and time's a wastin!!!" our society's mantra is hurry up, slow is bad, we must do everything quickly, tense your muscles up to get it done without a punishing sigh from everyone around you, we are RUNNING OUT OF TIME!!! Stop and ask yourself, what are we racing towards?

My vacation time is really teaching me a lot every day. God, may I keep this slow pulse despite my external situations. Slow is good. I choose to be slow. I love slow. Slow is when you have time between each thought to truly absorb what it is that you thought. Slow is when you have the luxury of having no thoughts at all.

chill out everybody... what are we racing towards?
1:56 PM 0 comments