.......an onion

Yogis,

I love onions!  Most dishes done on my stovetop have their beginning with me sautéing the onions.  My summer salad combinations made with cucumbers from my garden, tomatoes, beans, peppers and feta almost always include some finely sliced vidalias or red onions. Onions in soups and onions in sandwiches.  Therefore I slice and chop a lot of onions!

And the first thing you notice about an onion is how many layers it has……………………

Right now in class we are noticing and awakening the energy of our third eye center.  Ajna chakra.  Our ability to ‘see’ without the use of the physical eyes.  Shining the light within and seeing truth.  Shining the light outward to connect with all that is.  So I have chosen to lead Yin type classes as an aide.  The more widely known yoga styles are Yan – active movement with breath, opening, lengthening and strengthening our muscles.  Building internal heat to create change.  Yin yoga, on the other hand, is receptive.  Coming into a position and letting go to stay there for several minutes.  Letting go of the muscles to tend to the layers beneath – the ligaments, fascia and tendons.  Letting go of trying.  Opening new channels for energy to flow. 

Going in.  Because we, like the onion, have many layers.  Physical layers of course, but more importantly emotional and mental layers.  All that is held within.

As I have been doing the Yin practice myself I am recognizing some of the layers that have to be attended to before the journey deeper can even begin. Like the skin. The skin is that outer layer that everyone sees and believes is you!  What you wear, how you move, what you say.  But in truth that is simply the role you have chosen to play in this theater we call life. And it is easy to toughen that skin up where no one…. not even you…..can glimpse what lies beneath.  Have you ever cut into a perfect looking onion, only to find the inside not so perfect?  So as I sink into a pose and begin to settle I release ‘Sarah’ to instead feel my body and the mat beneath it.  Feeling my humanness.  Ever so gently peeling back the skin. 

The next layer is my thoughts. Oh boy are they racing.  “I like this pose…..I hate this pose….I don’t think I am doing this right…….my hip is uncomfortable……I should move……..has it only been one minute…..my nose itches……I’m thirsty…….what should I make for dinner tonight……I’m not getting a workout………when is this practice going to be over.”   This thick layer also contains the ‘what others think of me’ which is omnipresent.  That is a tough one to relax.  I stay.  Oh, there is my breath.  That steady teacher that guides the way in whenever, wherever I choose to watch. Whenever I am willing to surrender the reins to a force larger than me. 

As I begin to soften my jaw and let the muscles take a much needed break there is an unmistakable melting feeling.  A traveling inward. The thoughts, while still there, seem further away.  Softer.  With a little distance I can now see them and realize they aren’t me.  I haven’t stopped my thoughts I have moved beyond them so they are now a layer above me. 

And so it goes.  Layer by layer.  Each one challenging in its own way.  Some shouting for us to put back on that skin so we don’t have to feel.  Coming to the layer we all have that is tinged with sadness.  Not an easy one to sit with.  But sit we must.  The layers of self-worth, longing and trust.  Staying in each one even with the discomfort…. and the uncomfortable hip. Letting them be what they are.  Each layer drawing us closer to the center. Our core. Whole, safe, fulfilled and at absolute peace. The inner stillness.  Me. 

And it’s Me that wants to meet You.

Let’s shed our skin sometime,
SARAH