Dandelion seeds can disperse miles and
miles away when they catch the right breeze.
Bioengineers now know the flowers use
innate intelligence to craft the timing of
release by ingeniously sensing the weather.
I'm marveling at this wisdom and how
I might take a cue from a dandelion.
There have been plenty of times in my life
when getting still, taking my temperature,
intuiting if it was time to move on or to
stay put would have served me so well.
Notice yourself.
Is your innate wisdom nudging you
to let go of something or someone?
To take flight?
To stay put?
You are just as ingeniously designed
as the flowers of the field
if only you can get quiet enough.
Stay attuned, yogi.
This is why we practice after all.
See you on the yoga mat this week.
Ah, the pleasures of the flesh
.... of the glorious tomato.
Robust, sweet, all sorts of
shapes and sizes.
Get thee to the garden or
a farmer's market and savor.
The taste of summer is just
one of the reasons
we are lucky to be alive.
Moving about on a yoga mat
is another.
See you this week?
Oh, boy. I underlined this years ago
in my paperback. It convicted me.
I am so willing to be played in the
incessant subterfuge of consumption.
And as I agree to play along, I'm
always looking to fill myself up
by buying something. It's a bit
radical to step out of this
never ending mindset and
realize I probably have all I need.
Honestly, what I need is a lot less
than what I already have.
It can be revealing to think about
all the ways we are being sold
this feeling of want. The sneaky
ways our unmet desires are stoked.
A yogic mindset might be to
notice this, create a little remove
simply by the noticing, and get
curious as to how we react..
Why do we consume the way
we do? What compels us?
Conversely, meditate on
feeling thankful for something
or someone and notice
how your body feels.
Take a little time with it.
Fuller, sated - no?
Food for thought, awake ones!
To the yoga mat!
Be like the moon.
Show up in the world regardless
of what phase you're in.
I read this somewhere recently
in regard to Pride month.
For me, it's a reminder that I
can always show up in the world
regardless of my imperfect
state. I remember that when
we allow others to see our
messiness and vulnerability,
it only works to draw people
closer, resulting in greater
connection.
It's a relief to know you're not
the only one who doesn't have
it all together all the time.
We need you in the world
no matter what state you're in.
And you know that sacred
rectangle of the yoga mat
is your safe place -
ready to hold you
when you fall apart,
when you're figuring
yourself out, and
when you stand tall.
I'll meet you there this week.
of what phase you're in.
Great Sphinx of Tanis in the Louvre
You can become a sphinx
in salamba bhujangasana.
Who wouldn't want to take
the form of a mythical creature
for a moment or two or three?
Start on your belly.
If your breath feels constricted,
try to send it laterally and even
wide into your back body.
It can be revelatory to
realize you can do this.
Slide your elbows in until
they're beneath your shoulders.
Forearms parallel.
Collarbones broad.
Belly to spine for protection.
Ground the tops of your feet.
Inner thighs spiral inwards.
Outer thighs spiral outwards.
So your back feels free and
the pose well stabilized.
Neck stays long, not compressed.
Soften between your eyebrows.
Gaze downwards or forward.
Why do sphinx pose?
Strengthens the spine.
Stimulates abdominal organs.
Opens the chest.
Relieves stress.
Perhaps the safest & easiest
of all backbends!
Little effort required, just
a good deal of intention.
We'll make like
sphinxes this week.
Paul Gauguin (1894)
The older I get,
the more things I study
or try to learn, the more
familiar patterns I detect.
Philosophers, bodyworkers,
religions, artists, and thinkers
weave meaning from their
own lens yet themes replicate.
I love this. It helps me feel
less worried about all
I don't know
and more trusting of my
instinctual understanding.
This past week I've intoned
to myself again and again
this idea attributed to Rumi:
What you are seeking
is sleeping somewhere
inside of you.
__________
See what your body
has to reveal this week
on the yoga mat.
Understand that your time
has a limit set to it.
Use it then to advance
your enlightenment,
or it will be gone, and
never in your power again.
-Marcus Aurelius
The Stoics attract and repel me at turns.
This notice to guard one's time rings true.
I remembered a fact I read recently
on cell phone usage statistics:
The average American spent two months
time on their phones in 2023.
With daily average use at
four and a half hours, you've lost
2 months of your life in a single year.
This is astonishing.
[Find more confounding stats below
in a tidy and disturbing graphic
pulled from the statistics link above.]
As yogis, we aim to live with intention.
Rather than mindlessly gratifying
habitual desire, we seek to notice,
sense, and hone our inner wisdom.
I'm starting to realize my time
in this life is limited, and I want to
pay close attention to how I spend it.
Yogi wisdom!
More time on the yoga mat
and with people you love.
Less time on our phones.
"A garden is always a place of worship,
even if it is a really crappy one."
-Mark Hamer
Amen, brother.
No one ever sees my backyard
where all the digging & dreaming
happens. Just as well, things
rarely turn out as planned.
Most the time, I have no idea
what I'm doing. I'm elated when
something thrives or I learn that
what I thought was a weed can
cure what ails me. Funny how
my yard often offers me just
what I need well before I can
figure out what it even is.
Consider lying about in your
own backyard. You might
discover something beautiful
you never noticed before.
I can almost guarantee
this will happen.
You can throw your arms
akimbo and call it yoga.
I could learn a lot from a bar of soap
it seems.
Patiently allowing myself time to be,
to shift, to accommodate the atmosphere
that surrounds me.
Therein ends today's lesson.
Maybe we'll find each other
just as we are, where we are, when
it's time to come to the yoga mat.
I could not resist this book on the shelf
of my neighborhood library. It did not
disappoint. Riddled with highly original
visual representations of data as to how
we are affected by films individually and
communally - politically, socially,
economically, and even physically.
I'm not exactly a pop culture dynamo,
so lots of the references evaded me.
But his dives into science, history, and
the international economy of tv and film
are profoundly illuminating and
explain a lot about where we are
culturally in 2024.
If you're at all like the average
American, you spend a fifth of
your life watching tv and movies.
Gulp! Doing so consciously seems
like an excellent idea.
Scientific studies of moviegoers
documented shifts in more than 100
trace gases from patrons' exhales
depending upon which type of
movie they were watching.
Measurements of brain activity,
internal chemical processes,
galvanic skin response, even blood
coagulants are altered. Your conscious
mind knows it's just a film, but your
involuntary nervous system doesn't.
Something to keep in mind, yogi.
Fascinating stuff. Some of us
love the adrenaline rush of a
roller coaster; others not so much.
What you take in with any of your
senses has effects.
What you may take for
passive consumption
is anything but.
Come to yoga for
a predictable steadying
of your nervous system.