In-Spir-Ed

Since I've been home, I've noticed that I am not nearly as good here about watching and maximizing my breath. Okay, let me back up. Every yoga teacher I've ever had, and ever class I ever teach, emphasizes almost ad nauseum the importance of full, conscious, unfettered breath in class. The breath is three, no fifty times more important than how "deep" you can take any or all of the prescribed postures. And hopefully, you carry that breath into the rest of your life. Really, what's so hard about that- you inhale, you exhale?

For me, what's so hard about that is that when I really breathe, there's no room for anything else. The breath, and maybe the task at hand, and that's it. (He says as three pop-ups come to his screen) No clutter, no distractions, just inhale, and exhale. And that's become frightening. I took a class with the incredible Seane Corn, and of all the things she said, the one that resonated most with me- "We are a culture addicted to our tension." Our tension, our clutter, our distractions. Because then we don't have to DEAL with anything. But the flipside is there's no room to HEAL anything either, or any real possiblity of change.

I love distractions- I've actually gotten a lot better about leaving the TV off, but the web for one is still such a great way to break my brain into a million little pieces. And I'm often caught in the doing mentality- if I'm not in some task, no matter how trivial, or silly, somehow I'm not useful. The ship taught me the great wisdom in doing nothing, now let's see if I can carry it over. And, in case you can't tell, I highly recommended it. Just stop.... and breathe.

On another yoga note- a great, short post from Rodney Yee about our national posture, and an easy way to start dealing with it.

(I warned you, dear readers- all 10 of you- about the yoga. I'm taking class with his eminence Baron Baptiste this week, and will try to report in, and also blog a little about the Yoga Journal conference next month. Humor me.)