Training Weekend #2

It's been a full day since I returned from our second weekend of teacher training and I still feel like I'm walking on the clouds.

It was incredible. My mind and heart are full of yoga and it's connections to the gospel and my body is wonderfully tired from doing so much yoga. I couldn't imagine a better weekend. 

Why do we have such a hard time doing the things that make us happy? Whenever I do yoga I am reminded of how simple it is to find joy in an ordinary day or to give myself a little boost on a hard day. I just need to remember that and take time to do. Because yoga matters a lot to me. It is growing more dear to my heart. 

www.gobodhiyoga.com

Nature

The winter is hard for me. I struggle to find myself and to find God when the sky is always grey and it's too cold to be outside. I need the sounds and smells and sights of nature. I struggle every moment I have to be indoors.

Today was my breath of fresh air. And it's not because it got up to 40 degrees. Woopdeedoo. That was only a small part of it. The real reason I felt I was able to breath was because I went outside and did yoga. And I have to admit, it was my first time doing yoga outside. It was magical. It was beyond description. 

Have you ever felt that something is so beautiful that you just want to find someone to put it inside of you? To eat it or something? I feel that way with nature. I just want to press it into my skin and drown in it. Well today I found a way to do that. A not quite so fatal way. I did yoga. And my practice was suddenly something so much more than just little me. It suddenly encompassed the entire expanse of the universe around me and I felt like I was doing the dance of nature. Like I was moving with the wind and singing with the rocks. Like I was becoming part of nature and it was becoming part of me. 

Today I did yoga on a rock in the middle of a river. And I will never be the same again.    

www.gobodhiyoga.com

Breath

"The breath moves the body, the body doesn't move the breath" Syl Carson says. Yoga began as a practice intentioned wholly for the control of breath. Yoga is all about the breathing. That's hard.

We breath all of the time. So it should be something we're all pretty good at, right? Wrong. Breath work is hard work and something that takes a long time to get a grasp of. Lots of practice. 

In my recent practice, I've found my body taking over the movements and doing them out of habit. As a result, I often lose control of my breath and go back to the shallow inhalations I live with during the day. This basically ruins my practice. But with the slightest adjustment, just a refocusing really, it's like I go from black and white to full spectrum color. 

There is something to be said about breathing life into your practice. It's not easy. But it's worth. 

www.gobodhiyoga.com