Fashion vs. Body

by Bianca Raffety
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

Pulling together our ‘look’ doesn’t need to drain the bank account, require a lot of effort, or even demand a great deal of thought. Ultimately though, we want to feel good in what we’re wearing and feel good about how we put ourselves together, regardless what we’re willing to financially dedicate to this end. So what happens when some of these things to complete our look start having hidden costs we didn’t anticipate? And how do we know if we’re paying that hidden price?

You may already be thinking about those shoes that are a little too tight (but oh so cool) or those heels you bought with the guilty knowledge they are probably terrible for your feet (let alone your calves, your hips, your low back, heck the whole body). But most of us don’t realize that what we wear, how we adorn ourselves, what we use to haul our belongings around, and even how we style our hair can begin to wear down on us. We just know that we’re experiencing creeping discomforts in our bodies.

For a long time, I was working with a student that had chronic discomfort in her back and neck. We did work to develop postural support and appropriate stretches for her chest and shoulders, but our progress was very slow. This was primarily because every time she came in her head was cocked to one side because her hair style made it difficult for her to see. I pointed this out on several occasions, but this was a well-entrenched ‘look’ for her and there was just no way she would give it up. So the pain continued.

Another fellow I was working with was a young man with severe back pain. This wasn’t surprising. He had a serious sports injury the year before and he spent most of his days on his feet on a concrete floor. He couldn’t figure out why things weren’t improving. He was young, athletic, and had done some physical therapy to remedy the situation. There was no indication from thorough medical examinations that there was any lasting injury to his spine. As I looked at him, his bright face and sincerity in wanting to remedy this situation, I pointed out the most obvious contribution to his problem. His posture was terrible. Why? Because in order to keep his pants up, he had to tuck his tailbone under, turn his knees out and walk with a slouch! Not only that, his ample trainers were loosely tied so they were loose on his feet. I strongly believe we have a back pain crisis of epic proportions heading our way due to low slung jeans. Luckily he took my observation to heart and at the end of our session, his shoes were tied and his belt was holding up his pants. His posture looked great.

I can offer numerous anecdotes and observations about the phenomenon of physical pain due to fashion, e.g. heavy shoulder bags, headwear, oddly fitting clothing of all types, etc. Look around, you’ll be surprised what you’ll see; and then look to your own investments in your ‘look’ and decide what price you are willing to pay. Then get yourself to yoga, a physical therapist, massage therapist, etc. and get to work avoiding those hidden costs!

Visit Bianca's website or Facebook page.

Into the Listening

by Angi Donovan
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

Be a receiver, like an open drum ready for the sound of life to make its way into your willing heart.

Here we will find our steadiness, a ground built for light, an open space for being.

Our intuition waits patiently, hungry for us to be still and calling us to live in the silence that leans in to hear the presence of the moment speak.

This February 2013, let the listening grow within you as we move to the beat of the breath and the heart, and then melt into the deep stillness of healing restoratives. You will also find a little bit of partner yoga play (listening to others) sprinkled in.

Check out my February class schedule.

Much Love and Light,
Angi

No Place Like Ohm

by Rebecca Denk
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

We open and close each yoga practice by chanting the sound Ohm and following with an invocation in sanscrit. When I began teaching, I could always gauge how nervous I was by the shakiness in leading the Ohm - the vibrato in my voice a dead give-away to the butterflies in my chest.

Now that I’m a more confident teacher, singing the opening Ohm and invocation is less shaky but still daunting. I’m a much less confident singer than yogini. With Seattle Yoga Arts’ new Santi Mantra, I’ve been a late adopter. What if my sound is flat?  How do I get all those sanscrit syllables out clearly? If I can’t easily pronounce the invocation, how can I possibly lead it? Just like a challenging asana pose, the keys are dedication and practice.

Whenever I teach, the opening and closing Ohm are important in creating sacred space for all and for setting the tone, both environmentally and vibration-ally. Have you tried just jumping into a class without first centering and chanting? Perhaps you were late for class or took yoga at the gym? For me, it feels off somehow. I’m dedicated to setting apart my yoga practice from the rest of my day, and chanting helps create this shift.

I’ve been attending classes at SYA and singing the Santi Mantra with fellow teachers, just to practice. Other teachers have loaded the recording onto their iPod to help with memorizing (you can find it on the home page of the website). I find myself humming the invocation as I’m waiting in line or driving. That 4th line continues to present a challenge – but I’m working on it! 
 
Recently I asked a class of enthusiastic chanters why they enjoy Ohm. One student shared that it was her connection to the more spiritual side of yoga. Another agreed that it’s just not yoga without Ohm-ing. A third appreciated the chance to synch with the full group of yoga practitioners as class begins.  I often think of an orchestra warming up when I listen to a full class chanting. (And have you noticed in the closing Ohm often all are in tune?) 

Whether you are a confident mantra singer or quietly humming to yourself, you are actively contributing to the energy and tone of our yoga practice. I’m always so grateful to have strong voices sing out in class, especially when I’ve gone flat. And I promise to begin introducing the Santi Mantra to my classes on February 1. If all else fails, set a deadline….

Radical Self-Love

A Path of Radical Self-Love
by Angi Donovan
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

Ever since I can remember I have felt a subtle weight of self doubt on my heart pulling and tethering back the richness of my soul. Along the way and indirectly I was told that there was a wrong and a right way to be and that the inherent me needed a filter. There were parts of me that I should love and parts of me that I shouldn’t. Sometimes this filter has been thick and sometimes thin yet for the most part it has always been there, a net just between my face’s surface and the deep everything of who I am.

I do not believe I am alone in this. It seems that most of humanity itself, culture to culture, has been living in agreement that we should limit what we show to the world, an unsaid yet abided by list of acceptable and unacceptable human expressions. Yet is it possible that it is the covered-up ways of being that bring us closest together and the most feared that teach us the deepest ways of love and compassion?

I have seen this discussion opening up more and more and our hidden selves, now heart-clinchingly bare, living right alongside the unquestionable beauty of our soul’s veracity. There has never been a better time to stand for and live into our truth. We have nothing to lose from freeing our souls and everything to gain. I feel clearly now all the way into my bones that it is EVERY piece of the whole that creates the brilliance and vitality of life!

This January 2013 I invite you into a wildly honest conversation about opening to the truth of our hearts without reservation so that we may begin to know the power of being exactly who we are. Let us dive deep into the courageous act of radical ALL-inclusive self-love and with each moment, may we come to know more and more the gifts of the raw and unspoken!

From the belly of my untethering soul I offer you these classes:
Source Yoga North Tacoma: Tues./Thurs. 9:30am Basic Flow & Wed. 9:30am Refine & Align; Source Yoga UP: Wednesdays 7pm Relax & Restore; and Seattle Yoga Arts: Sundays 8:30am Essentials and 10:15am Deepening.

See you there!!!
Love and Light,
Angi

Poetry

by Elizabeth 'Rainey'
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

I am thrilled to return to my regular teaching schedule as of Jan 3rd. While on sabbatical my love of poetry was re-ignited. As I read these words of passion and potency each day I was inclined to see our yoga practices as poetry of the body and mind.

What is poetry? An elegant, efficient and creative way to express what is, in someways, inexpressible. A way of dancing with language on the page and across the heart. In the space between the words and the silence afterwards we come alive to the reverberations of this holy movement. This is what we do on the mat; dance with the language of our bodies to express the infinite capacity of our hearts. And then we sit and listen to the pulse of our breath and being in the silence of meditation. We are the poetry of aliveness and yoga is a way to ever refine this language of our hearts.

I bow to the poets who daily urge me to see beyond the surface of the thing, the moment, the person and speak to the throbbing potency of my heart that rests there. I invite you to find the ones who speak your language and let them call you into your own divine expression of all you are.

See you soon at the writing desk of the heart and on the dance floor of the yoga mat!

For more about Rainey, visit her website or Facebook page.

Light Contemplation

by Bobbi Ewing

Seattle Yoga Arts student

As we inhabit the depths of the dark season, moving closer toward the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, we are in the perfect space to contemplate light. As we lose light in our outer landscape, we might also feel darkness creep into our inner landscape, as I experienced during the seasonal shift, falling away from summer into fall and now winter.

 

As I remained present with the darkness I felt inside, I was moved to contemplate light. I began a new ritual: I light a candle every night. After I light each candle I study the flame, I become curious. I look into the flame and marvel at its color – the gold, the blue, the purple “hallow” at the tip of the thread. I notice the shape of the flame – its soft edges, its crest. I watch the steady flame or if there is movement in the air that disturbs the flame, I watch the flame flicker and dance, swaying side to side, bouncing in all directions.

I stay with the dancing flame until it becomes steady and still again. I note to myself that the light always seeks to steady itself, to come back to the center, to find a place of tranquility. I think to myself, “what a great metaphor!” The light models a state of being I can cultivate in my life: tranquility, inner stillness.

I put my hands over the flame and feel its warmth and its heat. With my heart sense, I feel gratitude for this glowing and radiating light. I am grateful that because of this light I can see in the dark, both literally and figuratively. I am grateful for all that this light is teaching me. I am grateful that the light is shining on my path of discovery.

Sometimes my practice and ritual of lighting a candle is a symbolic gesture. I place an intention on the light, an intention I want to manifest in my life, such as tranquility. The light represents that intention, it radiates the intention, it sends out the light of that intention.

Sometimes lighting a candle is a hopeful gesture. The light becomes the flame of a hope, wish, or desire I have in my life. The intent behind this action is to keep the fire burning around this hope, wish, or desire instead of letting the fire, the light, die out.

Other times my practice of lighting a candle serves as a reminder of my inner light. The light I hold in my hands, my light, is precious and sacred. In these reverent moments I recite Pantajali’s Yoga Sutra I.36 “visoka va jyotishmati,” which translates into English as “the light within is free from all sorrow and suffering.”

I leave you with these rays of light to carry you from darkness into the light:

“When it gets really dark, you can see the stars.”

"Be a light unto yourself." – The Buddha's final words

For more of Bobbi's writings, visit her blog My Inner Mystic.

Let Go, The Time is Now

by Angi Donovan
Seattle Yoga Arts Teacher

If we knew the taste of true freedom, do you think we would continue to hang on to the things that entrap us? I often wonder this when my not so life-giving habits repeatedly fool my freedom yearning heart. I know what my heart wants and yet I have watched my ego continually put energy into that which has never once brought me true fulfillment. Sound familiar?

I believe this is something that all of us come up against, whether it’s negative thinking, substance abuse, hiding out, compulsive eating, gossiping, not taking time for ourselves to move, stretch and breathe, etc., we are all subject to these clinching human habits.

I ask myself and you: what would it be like to let go of these things? Who would you be without them? What would you do if nothing was holding you back? What are you waiting for?

Together this December 2012 we will explore the power of letting go. Let us set down and release what no longer serves us and see what happens. I do believe the time is now!

From my heart to yours, I offer you these classes:
Source Yoga North Tacoma:
Tues./Thurs. 9:30am Basic Flow
Wed. 9:30am Refine & Align

Source Yoga UP:
Wednesdays 7pm Relax & Restore

Seattle Yoga Arts:
Sundays 8:30am Essentials
Sundays 10:15am Deepening
(For the month of December: Mondays 10am Deepening and noon Essentials)

See you there!