perfect aim vs. perfect shots

more archery practice today.
less arrows, more focus.

first shot of the day, mantra: "it's all heart"
[note: my bullseye is painted as a heart]

arrow hits the bullseye, and in one of those freak physics moments, hits so hard that it bounces right off, flying 8+ feet back towards me!
perfect aim, wrong mantra?

shocked, i adjust my mantra: "i want everything"

arrow penetrates deeply, right on edge of bullseye.
a mild smile of satisfaction comes across my face.

final arrow of the day, mantra: "show me some power"

arrow flies, perfect feather spiral, hits straight into center of bullseye, with such force that it goes clean out the back of the target and 30' into the grass. YES.
Perfect Shot.

Forward.

savasana rising

the past two days, my private practice sessions have ended in savasanas of pure bliss, and those savasanas themselves, have ended in blissful visions of nature. My savasana normally consists of gentle music, feeling my body sinking lovingly into the mat (the floor is your reliable partner :), random thoughts and visions fleeting through my mind, slipping into a gentle trance of emptiness... seconds, minutes, or hours later, something happens, and my body's response is to draw in a deeeeeeeeeeep breath, followed by a loooooooooooong exhale, open my eyes, and see what the world has brought me for a present.

Yesterdays present was the sound of a thousand bird laughing. I rose slowly, and was amaze to see that my entire front yard was completely covered with sparrows. Excitedly and without thought, I ran out the door and into the yard, where suddenly all at once every bird there lifted off and squaked loudly. For a moment the entire sky was black with the silouhettes of birds in flight and the sounds of natural alarm. It was exquisite! I thanked the Goddess and smiled as I entered the rest of the day.

Today was a slightly shorter practice (45 minutes or so), yet my savasana was so perfect, right in a large pool of sun coming in the tall dining room window. Again slipped into a deep trance of void / emptiness / black... this time is was not sound, but rather touch, that awakened me. Still in deep relaxation, eyes closed, I gradually came aware of a moist, cool, rough surface on the tips of my fingers. Seconds later, I realised I was being licked. As I opened my eyes, the puppy licks moved up my forearm, to my inner elbow, then bicep. A little basset hound puppy was there! I had to laugh, and at that, she went for my ears.

These are the presents of savasana. Practice makes perfect!

Believe in Yourself & Radical Self Reliance

What a shock it was today, as I was deep in aerial meditation, wildly flying through the multiverses, when I felt a familiar sensation, that of my nose smashing into my face, HARD.

Opening my eyes, I saw not the face of my base, but rather the wood of the floorboards. Shivering and stunned, indeed. It took a second or two to realise what had transpired, and then I tasted the blood. And then I simply laughed. And simultaneously flashed back to that day of skydiving...

When I first got into the Contact Improv community, I found that each and every participant was considered responsible for their own weight and safety, ready to fall at any time.

In AcroYoga, there is a much more pronounced dynamic; instead of constant yin/yang ebb and flow between masculine and feminine, lead and follow, base and flyer, it is quite concrete: a base connects to the ground firmly; a flyer's only contact with the ground is via the base. The flyer can really only perform to the limit of their ability, and the limit of their trust in the base.

As a flyer, I leapt heart forward into this equation, and gave myself up to the flow and the intention of the base. I closed my eyes often flying, enabling me to imagine vast cloudscapes and constellations that I was flying through.... leading me to, my bloody nose today. :)

The point here is, while much theory may speak to who is responsible for your safety, practice points to the cold hard fact of life:

you and only you are responsible for your actions, for your safety, and for the consequences of your own life. Be aware at all times. Even when you fly, keep at least half an eye open... even if its your third eye :)

This has been a public safety announcement.

And now, well primed and awaken, I head to San Francisco for my 5 day, 6-hour-a-day, AcroYoga Immersion.

Killer Instinct

They jumped from the bushes, demanding my wallet and valuables. I began to laugh, a deep, maniacal laugh. Unbeknownst to these would-be predators, they had picked the wrong kid, on the wrong night. That night, as I ran through the pitch dark, I ran mad, I ran angry, and I ran, ran, ran, frustrated and wanted to hit something and throw a tantrum. So what better way to diffuse that energy than to run run run fight win run!?

Backing up a bit... there is a huge radio field near my childhood home, and I slipped deep into thought as I ran the edge path, winding along the circumference, dissapearing into dark thickets of tree and bush at several places. The night was dark, and there are no lights on the field. The thickets are pure inky blackness.

Initially I worried. I thought, those thickets would be the perfect place to jump somebody. Both my brother and I have been beaten up by gangs during our explorations, so it was not an entirely irrational fear. My reaction has always been simply to absorb the blows, give the robbers what they want, and wait for them to peacably depart. However, the last time I was beaten, in the long healing aftermath (going to work with a black eye and answering the inevitable: "how'd you get that" with "i got in a fight" is a fast way to get a rep, but that's a whole 'nother story), I vividly remember coming to the realisation: the next time I'm in a fight, I'm gonna be the one doing the beating.

And so I plunged into the midnight darkness of the thicket, determined to confront my fears and demons. And I visualized what happened next. Two men jumped out, and demanded my money and iPod. Where old Greg would have put his hands up and forked over the goods, wild Greg goes visciously and immediately on the attack, channeling all his anger and energy into punches, screaming at the top of his lungs and pummeling the largest like a bezerker. He falls, and I then topple the accomplice. They are on the ground, and I lay into them with full on soccer kicks, cracking their ribs as they crumple in terror, the roles reversed: attacker has become defender, predator has become prey.

Just visualizing this shot massive amounts of adrenalin through my system; my pace quickened and my awareness heightened.

The sea change has begun.

Greg's Modified Surya Namaskar

Good Morning Sunshine!

That's how my momma always used to wake me up. She's dead now, but her aphorisms still inspire me to this day. I've been getting back to my yogic basics as my wrist is in rehab right now, and its been a really good journey into alignment, energy, and form. Sun Salutation is the archetypal vinyasa flow for practice, and it has really begun to speak to me, opening up into a new sequence. So here it is, in its primordial form:

1. Mountain
- feet together strongly, toes forward
- reach skyward as far as possible with index fingers
- keep arms active
- bring biceps into ears tightly for maximum extension
2. very slight back arch
3. forward bend, exhale
4. fists to ground
5. hop back to plank
- rigid body
- arms perpendicular to floor
- active shoulders
6. reverse push-up to 4 legged staff, exhale
7. flip toes, pushing chest forward into
8. cobra
- straight arms
- active shoulders
- arch back as far as possible
- breath!
9. downward dog
- elevate hips as high as possible
- let head hang loosely with gravity
- step walk legs for stretch
10. raise right leg skyward
- as high as possible
- for extra stretch, try stagging it (bending at knee)
11. swing right leg under and through, plant between hands
12. lift up hands, wings out, then clasp over head
13. arch back
14. come back to spine vertical
15. straighten right leg
16. warrior 1
17. half moon
18. face forward
19. with slight bounce, levitate left leg forward, return to mountain
20. backbend, as deep as you can go
21. raise up, wings out, come in to closing prayer position

and repeat, substituting left leg for right.
do this is pair sets of 2, 4, 6, 8.

finally, what has really worked for me: the "10 minute a day rule". I was slipping in my private practice, until I read this. Just commit to doing 10 minutes of yoga a day. More often than not, that 10 will naturally extend into a full on practice. And when its just 10, thats cool too! :)

Early Rise & Ecstatic Dance

Yesterday was certainly the highlight of my time in the City so far.

It began with an early morning rise, 6am at the foot of Grace Cathedral. I motivated, called Albert, arranged to meet him for coffee at 6:30am, and rapidly packed my gear and headed down the street. The early rise and hot coffee kickstarted it perfectly. He gave me the key to his place so I could store my stuff and take a shower. I walked on over to Yerba Buena Park and did a 30 minute intensive calesthenic / yoga workout. Headed back to Albert's place, shaved and showered. Combined with the haircut yesterday and the shower last night, I was really beginning to feel like a civilised human. I put on my rave pants, a clean shirt, my new sunglasses, and went out to make love to the world. All that and it was still only 8:30 in the morning!

By 9:00am I was at the library, getting my list done of topics to research and photos to post. At 11:30am I left the library to meet Albert for lunch, and for the first time since I arrived, I was opened by two ravishing girls sitting on the steps of the Asian Art Museum. We had a pleasant little banter and I continued walking. Note to self: clean shaven, freshly washed, well costumed, with sunglasses is a good look for meeting people.

At noon I met up with Albert and got treated to a delicious spicy and mightily filling Thai lunch. Back to the library to wrap up some things, then walk/jog a brisk 2 miles to meet Rosie at Cafe Gratitude...

This place lived up to expectations, and then some. The Cafe itself is simply a genesis point of positive energy and intention in the universe. There are signs everywhere expressing happiness and positivity, there is good art, glowing people, and don't even get me started on the food. Rosie showed up a little after I'd gotten settled in and introduced me to Treasure, who I'd seen practicing handstands on the outside wall. Yes, free balance handstands are a big deal in our little community of yogis, acrobats, and circus performers. Even better is getting up into them in style, kick-free. But more of that later.

Rosie and I sat down and caught up on eachothers happenings, threw some thoughts around regarding a Burning Man art project shes involved with (a wonderful piece called The Heartbeat Amplifier, and found out we were both to be participating in the same dance celebration that same evening. We talked about what plans I had to live and work in the city, and shared intel about yoga / movement play and an upcoming yoga teacher training in Brazil. She ordered the Aloha juice and I the I'm Cool Milkshake.... which merits its own descriptor:

The I'm Cool Milkshake is comprised of all organic ingredients, fresh mint, ice cream, spirulina superfood for the green color, and crushed cacao nuts for the chocolate... making it just the perfectly sublime mint chocolate chip delight ever. I tasted it, Rosie asked me what I thought, and then she said "wait for it... wait for it..." and the delicate bitter of the cacao nuts hit me, a full 5 seconds after the sweet coolness of the initial sip. Galactic Yumminess!

Rosie introduced me to the manager of the Cafe for a potential job opportunity, with decent pay for the work [...and just as I was writing this, I met someone with a room to rent just 4 blocks away!] We parted ways and I enjoyed a nice breezy walk to the BART train. I bought a ticket and literally as my foot came off the escalator, my train arrived. I smiled and did a little jig as I headed East to Ecstatic Dance.

Historic Sweets Ballroom was literally a 2 block walk from the BART station, wondrously convenient. I walked in, where I was greeted by a gentle man who checked me off the guest list. Deep shamanic sounds and chanting could be heard from upstairs as I ascended to the ballroom. The energy felt good.

The ballroom was ginormous, and perfect. Massive hardwood dance floor, over two hundred and fifty feet to a side, with a stage. A few couples doing some nice flow contact improv. A girl in a purple dress setting up an altar by the huge two story windows. A cellist improvisationally playing, who I find out later is in fact Mystic Pete.

I flowed through the space a bit, then moved into some basic yoga and warm-up stretches. Soon, Alicia circled everyone up, and we began a series of loosening up exercises, alternating between silliness and vocalizations, animal behaviors and roleplay. And then it began time for the "formal" contact improv to begin. We started with about 15 of us in circle. Everyone was asked to emanate a tone of their choice with their breathing. A sublime harmony and strong vibration filled the room. I entered the contact theatre.

The rest of the night just got wilder and wilder. I had spent the day reading the "Art of Courtly Love" and the related "Code of Chivalry." That was good. It caused me some minor amount of restraint and allowed me to breath slowly and naturally through some very intimate contact movement.

By the time contact improv was wrapping up, there were about 25 people in the ballroom, and Alicia wisely encouraged us to welcome the newcomers. Someone had told me earlier "no talking on the dancefloor", which was awesome, because as a fairly well understood guideline of the community, it meant we could use only our bodies to communicate intention, or to invite another to dance with you. I had learned the magic of contact improv invitation a month earlier in Atlanta, which was basically to saddle up next to someone, and to either gently or vigorously (as the spirit moves you) come into skin to skin contact with them. That moves to eye contact, and with subtle pressure and a deep sensitivity to how hard the pressure is returned, a couple moves into contact improv play/dance.

The music transitioned as smoothly as I'd ever witnessed between the natural acoustic cello and a chill intro by Haj of Sub Swara, one of my absolute favorite dubstep/electronica bands who I first encountered during my tenure in NYC. The sun begins to set, more and more beautiful people come in, organic food and a big water cooler is set up, and the dance starts to move in full swing. Before I knew it there were well over a hundred people moving and gyrating and hooping and yoga-ing and acrobatting and contacting in fluid, graceful, ecstatic time to the seriously deep bass beats. It reminded me of the Hooper's Ball, without the hoops, and with far deeper pair contacting. I shared both deeply intimate and ridiculously fun movements with a series of rapturous partners.

Playing with different partners energies was a really wild exercise in humanity. Some had the strength of goddesses, some were hyper, some wanted strong lead, some were dramatic, some felt like equals, and there was every different style present. I was both fascinated and enthralled by the interplay between gentle, mutual touches, and strong, firm lead... it all depended on the partner. I learned through the course of the night how to deliver a firm, confident leading touch / handhold -- and how to emply a grip of steel when your wild partner decides to do a full backbend supported solely by one clasped hand and my counterweight.

The flow continued for hours as we danced and danced and danced till midnight, when the music finally came to a raucous close and everyone gathered in small groups for conversation and cool-down.

I chatted with some newfound friends, shared some hugs, and headed back to the streets of the City for a delicious slice of Italian Pizza.

Antigravity Perfect Balance

Twice in the past month I have gotten, playing base, to this magical place of perfect balance with my flyer... once with Saki and once with Sally, once in shoulderstand and once in pashi. So, both have been with my partners full weight on my arms, and my arms stacked perfectly through the shoulders, all the way to the solid ground. And when that perfect moment of lateral balance is found, literally, the asana takes absolutely zero effort to maintain. In fact, it freaked me out so much both times that I thought something was wrong, and I intentionally pushed each of them back off balance so that I could exert some muscular control over the situation. I mean, its very strange when you are using strong muscles to bring something into manifestation, and then all of a sudden, poof! its like God just came in and lifted the whole weight of the flyer right off of you, like they are really *free flying*.

*next time* it happens, I will recognize it better, and just begin to blissfully laugh at the perfect balance. Soon, soon...

AcroFlow 2.0

Just got through my second private AcroYoga jam today, and it was as blissful as I dared to imagine.

We had all the time in the world, so we started real slow with partner stretches, and some of the stuff I had warmed up with in NY at the Om Factory. That was nice, since my practice had been getting more and more acrobatically, and simultaneously, macho oriented. Which only means, acro / circus has a tendency to jump straight into the advanced / highly physical stuff, and I've begun to really miss some of the really basic stuff which is the real foundation of the practice: like, two people coming into trusting physical contact.

What really brought this home to me was class on Sunday, where there was a 60/40 mix of complete newbies and experienced acroyogis. The experienced group was really pushing into some new ground which, with some of the heavier partners, was really beginning to strain my shoulder, so I went back and played with some of the new kids. To see, feel, and spot the instability of some of their basics (folded leaf even), really brought me back to foundations... and then to see the look on their eyes after completing... pure bliss and joy!

So H and I went through the foundation and got really relaxed and comfortable prior to a deep therapeutics session. My stated intent was to really start working on our flow... as in, really intuitive, natural transitioning through poses and full sequences, so we could get to that magic place of being.

We went through three or four sessions of intense practice, and worked verbally and bodily through some intriguing places and body spaces. One of the synchronistic highlights of the afternoon was when I had her up in throne, working through some nice one leg poses and arm movements, and she placed her hands above her head and said "wow, this feels like a halo..." literally at that precise moment the chandelier flickered and leapt to like 300% brighter than it had been. I looked up and saw all the arms of the chandelier (which she was perfectly positioned below) extending from her head, and it was a moment. :)

Since it was just me and H, my body/legs needed to recover between sessions, so we often returned to the mat and just did gentle partner mirroring work while having a natural conversation. Being able to have conversation while in physical flow was something completely new to me, and it was refreshing and fun. Normally I am so caught up in the blissful physical intensity that I am speechless.

So tonight I'm up now, after crashing early, and I received some intense dream intelligence about acro flow.. yes, finally I'm getting to the real reason for this post :)

Working through acro-flow with a partner is like a microcosmic mirror of working through a relationship with a person. The way your bodies feel, touch, balance, move, and flow together, how it feels for each of you, where the sticking points are in the pattern, how you choose to work through them together, the dance of flyer and base... these can all be seen (and in my dream, they were literal manifest) of the story of flow of the relationship... THIS MIRRORING IS THE CORE TRUTH OF THIS DREAM.

the real kicker was towards the end of the dream, where we started to add mechinical externals to the core acroyogic play. I visualized this as actual metal knobs bolted onto our hip bones for external attachment. H is an aerialist as well (trapeze, silks), so soon this will probably integrate into the practice. And the trapeze is a form of technical gear, a step away from purity but also an augmentation... and then I woke :)

AcroFlow

Today we rocked out a serious sequence. Here goes. At the start I thought, this is *long*... by the end, I think I got it.

* Throne
* wild dance on throne
* legs wide, no hands throne
* unhook legs
* hop / throw to forward flying
* flyer grasps ankles, full bow
* flier bends forward, base arms on shoulders
* flier grabs base ankles, powers up to
* shoulderstand
* stag
* legs wide, grab bases feet and bring them to hips to
* folded leaf
* the twisty thing to turn them over into reverse leaf
* they go pike and grab their ankles
* pashi
* base releases and relaxes feet (yum), all weight on hands
* flier up to headstand
* base toes to fliers back
* flier backbends over into whale / upside down flying
* flier grabs ankles
* rock flier back, forth
* ???
* reverse shoulderstand (fliers arms behind back, grasping base ankles)
* i have no recollection of where this went next or how it ended. like i said, its *long* :)

I <3 Acro!

epiphany / mantra

Yesterday I was feeling suicidal again at work, so I left at 1pm and headed home to hug the children. When I'm with the kids (especially one on one), I can always just revert to my inner child and experience the pure joy of simple being in the Now, a smile, complete spontaneity without consequences, play, natural existence.

To my surprise, the house was completely empty.

To my relief, the house was completely clean.

I went about a little personal cleaning. Since my possessions can now all safely fit in the back of my truck, this is fairly simple. A little laundry here, a few pieces of old mail and file folders there. And then, I rediscovered my costumes and my Miata.

It was about this time my inner voice said "I can do art." It was that simple. And I heard it over and over and over again. And it brought a smile to my face. As I hummed, I remembered my dear old friend Belle, who used to pass out business cards that said in big stenciled letters on the back "ART SAVES LIVES". And then my hum broke into a chant, and soon the chant became a song, and I was singing! It was a wonderful beautiful harmony melody dance of notes, and it brought pure joy to my heart and lungs.

I Can Do Art, ICANDOAT, ICanDoArt, EyeKanDooArt, I CAN DO ART

I wrote on my door of madness, and instead of the robotic entheo-runes, out flowed natural, zen like calligraphic script! The big word said:

ARTIST

Throughout this I ran into little doubt machines, and I summoned my strength and banished them.

My first project, somewhat questionably (doubt machine again? BAH!), will be the manufacture of an art car.

1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata >>> Transforma! >>> The Mach 5

I got out the BEASTdrill (an old 1950s direct drive 1/2" drill that puts any modern machine to shame), throwing blue sparks everywhere, and drilled out the last stubborn stuck bolt holding the passenger seat to the chassis. I now have a pristine Miata, new roof, no seats, ready for mod.

My awesome grounded Georgia neighbor Hugh came over later that night and we surveyed the car for like 30 minutes, comparing it against my c. 1988 Fujimako MX-5 model car kit, mapping out the mods. Playa ready by 2009. Let the art begin! :)

How to Fly

Just had the most incredible yoga / flying dream ever. It was a deep profound vision. In it, Deven and I and some of the AcroNYC crew were in central park meditating in lotus position. Strong strong strong winds whipped up. Tornado force winds. We extended our arms and our bodies became like sails. The wind lifted us up and into the air. With ever so subtle (and some not so subtle) gestures, we were able to "reap the wild wind" and navigate through the storm, using nature's power as our flying power.

It took genuine courage to do this. In fact, we time / space shifted a bit between central park and the playa, as significant dust storms kicked up with the force of the wind. I found we could both breathe and see in the dust without irritation; it simply took willpower and faith.

This dream was such a powerful vision and yet I find I have no more words for it. I awoke excited and aware and awake, my heart beating fast in a purely passionate and pleasureable way.

In 10 hours I will be in Central Park (in real life) playing Acro with my new flying friends. May all our dreams come true!

Surya Namaskar

best wake up stretch evah :)

Namaste

Weave, Corkscrew, Headspins!

My weave had, over the course of the past month or so, been naturally migrating into a corkscrew. This was pretty neat and I liked it. I made sure to practice both directions :).

Now just the other day I got to do the weave to a corkscrew with high cielings and a high mirror. And lo and behold, as I raised my arms high into the corkscrew, I began doing the "behind / front / high" weave, or vertical corkscrew, or whatever you want to call it. The visual effect is a fast moving vertical circle clear around the head, as left and right poi alternate what is frontside and what is backside. Yay! Finally, breaking out of the weave wormhole, into new tricks!

Weave Revelations

Well, I've been both meditating, and just started to begin feeling, what, a little "stuck" in the weave coccoon. So I thought I would expand the repetroire a bit and watch some Pele instructional video.

The first four lessons were all stuff I already knew, but it was still nice to see it executed with perfect form, and I learned a few things about planes. I also found a "hole" in my practice which I didn't know about. Strangely, I could with ease do the backwards left over right crossover, the forwards right over left crossover, the fowards left over right crossover. But when it came to the backwards right over left crossover, I hit myself in the face, every time. Wow! So, I practiced that until I "healed" the hole. I'm sure it will open up new areas in my freestyle play, since now we are back to "balance" with that move.

Now, the next thing was something that C had taught me, the corkscrew. But Pele gave me an entiirely new revelation with a single comment:

The Corkscrew is simply the Weave on a Horizontal Plane

BAM!

First, I could now do one weave at least, the split time counterclock, with ease. I practiced that a bit. It felt good. I practiced spinning my body in circles while corkscrewing. It felt good. I really tried to keep my spine completely upright, because one of the things that bothered me about Pele's corkscrew was that she was constantly bent forward over it, hunched. I wanted to do it standing erect. This meant that the poi came *really* close to my chest, almost buzz-saw style, but as long as I could deal with that and remain calm, it worked.

OK, now heres the second part of the revelation:

Like I said, I have a pretty decent feeling freestyle weave dance, where I can spin, change directions, and reverse directions at will anywhere in the beat. I've also been doing a lot of experimenting with moving the center of the weave up and down in space (high over head, low near groin). Finally, I've been experimenting with both "loose" and "tight" weave, which I define as how much the wrists move through space, and relative to eachother, as the weave moves. You can basically do a "tight" weave with handcuffs on. Seriously. You just psychicly "glue" your wrists together and movve those poi.

Sudenly, in a fairly tight weave while spinning my body, I realised that the poi had shifted to horizontal planes, and that I was doing an erect spinning corkscrew! Sweet! Then what Pele said about the corkscrew being a horizontal weave made total sense, and I also had an ultrasmooth transition between the two moves.

But best of all, its just more life into my freestyle flow improv, which is the only way I really like to dance :)

Weave Flow

Yay I'm celebrating for a new "trick"... not really a trick, more like a natural flow.

First I had to nail my front to back weave transitions, so I just kept doing them over and over until I could do them without thinking. This is where you rotate your body 180 mid-weave and simultaneously transition from front weave to back weave or vice versa. It was a lot harder smoothing out the clockwise rotations than it was the CC, go figure.

Once I got these rotations nailed, I realised that I could do a continuous circular body rotation instead of just moving 180. So I started doing FW-turn-BW-turn-FW-turn, etc. continuously.

A few days later, I realised that I could rotate my weave without rotating my body, so that if I could be running a forward weave with my torso torqued 90 degrees leftward, than I could simply rotate my torso 180 (to the right), keeping my feet firmly planted, and in doing so switch to the back weave, on the right side. Neat!

It was only natural at that point to realise that I could stop, start, or reverse both my body rotation, my torso rotation, and my weave direction at ANY TIME in the dance, and I didn't need to have set entry / exit points or "cardinal directions". That was where the fun began. For like 20 minutes I listened to a series of songs (a good mix of 180bpm techno and 45bpm folk FYI) and just freely explored the bodyspace inside the coccoon of the weave. I stopped thinking about where the poi actually were and my body naturally rotated, my wrists naturally reversed when needed, and I reveled in the dance.

In the Flow

Some say "dance like no ones watching"... I say, "Hoop in your underwear!" Greetings, Earthlings! I come from the Planet Hooplaughteron!



PS - beats by Bassnectar. Unless you are allergic to ass-shaking, BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!

PPS - black socks R kewl

essential viewing

you are now activated.

Yoga 101 - Flow Yoga

I did my first formal yoga class today.

It was great! A full two hours of "flow yoga", which is basically constant movement through the asanas (poses), even when the legs are in a stable base, generally we are moving our hands and torsos in rhytmuc motion syncced with breathing. It was so so so natural... it was also curious that I was one of only 3 men in the class. At times I was shaking with the exertion, and I knew it was good when I lost hearing in my left ear due to bloodflow / oxygen issues. Thats what happens when I get into extreme workout positions, but rarely happens in the gym because of the 1 minute set breaks. I really really enjoyed it and also was pleasantly surprised at how well both my book training and my two burn classes had prepared me for this. The corpse pose at the end rocked my world, i completely relaxed and went into lala land. It was so quiet. Of interest is that many of my free thoughts wandered around Disney and the future of Epcot. I came back into consciousness mere seconds before the soft voice of the instructor came through. Perfect.

Sandy, our teacher, had asked us to set intention with a mudra at the beginning of practice. We then came back to visit that intention again at the end of class and were asked to look at how it might have changed or been manifested. Mine +definitely+ changed. I felt so much more grounded and ready for compassion and green 4th chakra by the end, I felt stable.

She said about 2/3 way through practice that yoga isn't about twisting your body into pretzels, its about learning to stand strong on two feet. I LOVE that thought! That is why I practice.

PS - Tree pose ROCKS!