.....adding in the spice

Yogis,

This week we shifted awareness upward to the belly…..our gut, our center, our second brain.  The energy of fire.  The fire energy is our movement forward.  Action.  Inner strength.

The eyes are the organ of action here as we turn the desire we uncovered in the hips, into a vision.  Bringing what we want into focus and creating a clear, full color picture of what it will look like once it has manifested in our lives.  “Seeing” what we want and projecting that image out into the Universe.  Over and over.  Starting the conversation.

With a fire based practice we do lots of planks, chaturangas, arm balances, long holds…….all creating that inner fire.  We push into the uncomfortable to work with relaxing and becoming comfortable there.   As humans we like comfort and often struggle against that which puts us in the uncomfortable – physically, mentally and emotionally.    So I tend to associate fire with a more serious inner determination that I can, and I WILL. 

But a student sent me a note after a class this week saying how she noticed how “fun” fire was.  That it made her feel free.  Hhmmmmmm……. That caused me to pause.

She was right!! 

  

I am a fire by nature – a Pitta in the Ayurvedic doshas.    What slowly began to bubble up from that note was that what I have always described as my wild streak is my fire burning. 

When a party is good, I can’t understand why everyone begins to leave at midnight while I am just getting my second wind.   At a wedding I am often one of the last ones on the dance floor (typically with my father) wondering where the after gathering is going to be.  And when I stumbled upon Susun Weed’s web site 2 years ago and saw her offering a Green Goddess Intensive which would entail sleeping in a tent, long hard days, being yelled at and walking barefoot all week, I jumped at it. 

I am by no means one who enjoys or goes toward danger or likes to stay up late, but there is something about coming to an edge of feeling that makes me crave more.  That joy of “throwing caution to the wind”.   Feeling free.  Having pure unfiltered fun.  Things I don’t believe most of us have enough of in our daily adult lives.

I find it when I dance with abandon, or crest the peak of the first hill on a roller coaster.   When I have worked in the garden carrying rocks, spreading mulch and digging holes for several hours and my hair is loose, my skin wet with perspiration, my clothes covered with dirt  and my heart pumping.  I find it when I kick up to handstand and find that perfect alignment, even if only for a brief instant. 

Being comfortable is nice.  I like it.  I easily settle in there.  But too much of it and life begins to taste vanilla.  After a while I want cinnamon and ginger and curry. 

Outside of our comfort zone is where we find the spice of life.  The heat is what transforms our lives and takes us toward that which we see in our vision.  It makes us want more.  Our passion.  Our inner light.

What is it for you?  What makes your body flush with heat and your eyes sparkle  And have you stepped into it lately?

Fire…..Free…..Fun  Stepping out of the confines of my personal box of rules. 

Universe……please push me.  I am a little too comfortable.

I’m hot,
SARAH