.....arms up

Yogis,

March ‘Moments that Matter’ begins on Tuesday!  Still time to jump in and learn a new life skill!  Email me to sign up.

I have been using the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams in class these last two weeks for our dancing/movement section.  There is something about that song that makes even the most self conscious dancer  break out their moves.  You can’t help but clap your hands and lift your knees high as the song’s rhythm begins to stir ‘happy’ sensations in the body.  And it doesn’t hurt that the line repeated over and over – the songs mantra - is……because I’m happy!

Our happiness energy – our joy – resides in the upper part of our body.  In the heart center.  These are emotions that are light filled, expansive and spacious.  And when we feel them we instinctively lift ourselves up, arms in the air, with an expanded chest. 

It reminds me of being at a concert.

You know that feeling after several songs have been played and the band suddenly begins to play your favorite song?  You can’t help yourself.  You feel so filled that you have to expand.  So the arms go up and wave about!

Happiness, joy, cause us to rise.  To lift and to reach. To be bigger than ourselves.  But what about reversing the process.  What if I lift my arms, spread my chest, expand and reach when I am not in the middle of a rock concert.  Perhaps when I am standing in the kitchen.  Will those actions awaken the feeling of happiness?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t make it to very many concerts any more.  So I don’t want to wait for them, or any other big event for that matter, to bring me happiness.  I want to find that same feeling of fullness and freedom and upward lift every day……..many times.  From within.

So, what if I shout Yaay!, and lift my arms skyward when I feel the sun rise over my shoulder during my morning meditation.   How about if I expand my chest and beam outward toward a cardinal that lands in my path.  Spread my arms as wide as they will go and lean in when the wind rushes toward me.  Or clap my hands as the hawk soars overhead.  Celebrating life’s simplicity.

This is choosing happiness.  Moving slowly enough to catch the wonder of our ever day world, that when viewed through a different lens has greater potential than even the very best concert, and costs a whole lot less. 

Try it.  Spot something, lift your chest skyward and waves your arms.   Notice the instant rise of the spirit.  Do it often.  And a little secret…….the more you do it, the more things begin to appear in your path that make you want to do it.

Yaaay!!!  The sky is so blue today!

Rock on,
SARAH

......tv

Yogis,

Watch for my March Meditation invitation this week!

I’m back from a fabulous week soaking in the warmth of the sun!  Sleeping in a large tent perched on a dune at the edge of the beach.  Eating all meals in beach bars and restaurants without walls, my toes in the sand floor.  Surrounded the entire time by only the sounds of surf, the wind, birds and the night bugs.  Nothing manmade.  No music, tv, computer or live entertainment.  No distractions.

Which all meant you had only two choices…….. sit in silence immersed in the sounds and sights of nature, or actually talk to others.  Both wonderful choices that have somehow become less and less frequent in our high tech age. 

Which brings me to the TV.

Since my return the subject of the role of television in our lives keeps crossing my path.  The tv has become a fixture in our homes.  Very rarely just one of them.  Sometimes one in almost every room.  Turned on more than turned off.   Even when no one is watching……. It has become a sort of white noise.  A replacement for the crashing waves and the crickets.  A welcome distraction from our busy lives.

One friend responded to my last post on Savasana sharing that she and her husband realized that each evening as they came home exhausted from their day, the tv would go on and they would find themselves sitting in front of it.  But it suddenly became clear that it was too much noise.  They are going to consciously leave it off for their first couple of hours home to provide the space for reading, puttering or even talking. 

I was also told a story shared by a local Irish bartender that in Ireland the new trend is putting televisions into the pubs.  I have not been to Ireland but from everything I have ever heard, my vision is that pubs are the thread that weave together the community.  Where you gather, share stories and connect with others over a pint at the end of your day.  Take a moment to imagine the shift that will take place with this new technology direction.

8 years ago I went cold turkey.  No tv.  It wasn’t so much a decision as an inner voice  that whispered to me to turn it off.  Most people can’t imagine doing this, and even though they know I don’t watch they still can’t help but ask if I have seen a particular commercial or follow the newest series that has everyone addicted.  What I found in the process is that suddenly I had so much new time!  And like anything you give up, after a few months you can’t imagine going back.  I truly don’t miss it at all.

I’m not suggesting you all go as far as I did, but just to notice how often you are sitting in front of it, or can hear it in the background.  Do you turn it on without even realizing you are doing it?  Can you go even one day a week without it?  What will happen if you don’t have a distraction from your thoughts?  Oh my…….

Watching television removes us from our lives.  But I often have to wonder why we all so often crave that. 

On our trip, each place we went I left knowing several new people, all with interesting stories…….since there was nothing to distract us from being right where we were.  All of our toes together in the sand and the sound of the surf our serenade.

Still hearing the winds in my dreams,
SARAH

.....savasana

Yogis,

Yesterday at the end of my lunch time practice, as I was lying down and pulling the blanket up over me, the song I use most often for Savasana began.  I turned to Phoebe and said, ‘My favorite song!’, with a big smile on my face.  But I realized it is also my favorite yoga pose.

It wasn’t always that way………………

Savasana, or corpse pose, is an essential part of a yoga practice.  It is done at the end, lying down, relaxing the body from head to toe and settling the mind so that all of the benefits of the practice can soak into the body and soul.  Its many benefits include calming the nervous system, relieving stress and shifting the mind into slower brain waves.  Our focus shifts inward.  Nothing to do.

But for many Savasana can be the most challenging part of a yoga class.  I have had students let me know they have an appointment and have to leave class a few minutes early….every week.  Or there is that need to fidget, adjust, take a sip of water or blow the nose.  Anything to delay lying perfectly still.  To some it appears to be a ‘waste of time’.  Not ‘doing’ anything. 

I know when I first began practicing, my biggest worries were that my stomach would begin to growl, I would suddenly start giggling, or worst of all…that I would fart.  The room during Savasana is so quiet that any movement or bodily noise seems like a broadcast over a PA system. 

But after about a year of spending my ‘final rest’ time coming up with all of the possible negative outcomes, I began to relax.  And relax some more. And relax some more.  Until – it became my favorite pose.  There is deep subtle magic in Savasana when you allow it to do its work.  Something I can’t describe.  It can only be experienced. 

So I am leaving tomorrow morning for a week on a tiny remote island where there is basically nothing to do.  A few restaurants.  One shop.  One ferry that gets you there.  No TV, computer, newspaper.  Nothing to visit or timetables to keep.   I realized that this is like an extended Savasana.  Once I arrive, the distractions of the outer world will fade so that I can let all I have done over these last few months settle in.  My mind and body can relax.  My breath will slow and will have more of my undivided attention.

We can all benefit from Savasana in classes, but perhaps even more so in life. 

In last night’s yoga class as we came into Savasana, the teacher asked us to drop our bones.  I pictured the relief of dropping my enormous suitcase (I am not a good packer)when I arrived at my destination.   I noticed that as I let my bones go, everything else followed.  I think I will let my bones drop many times this week in the warm sand.

No post next week as I will be beginning to bring awareness slowly back to my outer senses, wiggling my fingers and toes, and deepening the breath  as I make my way back to civilization.  I know my brain waves will certainly have slowed……………

Nothing to do,
SARAH