The Fluid Body
This Georgia O'Keeffe sculpture, Abstraction, is outside, in downtown Santa Fe. I love the spiral nature of it—to me, anything that spirals embodies and expresses life force. The Psoas, ilia, and even temporal bone are all structures in the body that spiral or have spiralic motion. In asana, twisting poses revitalize the body and are an energetic expression of the spiral sheath. The "spiral sheath" of the body is made of bands of fascia that helix up the legs and criss-cross up the body and they help create stability and mobility. Once you recognize the spiral shape, you see it everywhere! (See description for Deb's next Forrest Yoga class, another image of a spiral).
Last week we finished the second session of the month: "The Fluid Body." The idea of exploring the element of water and our own fluid nature struck me as ironic as this area is experiencing a drought of profound severity. The air sucks all the moisture out of one's body and my skin and nasal passages feel husk-like. Beautiful here for sure, but I will be happy to be back in the land of humidity (feel free to remind me I said that, should you ever hear me complaining about the humidity!) We have a few days of nuts and bolts teaching techniques before diving into our last (and to me most anticipated) third session: Yoga and the Subtle Body. The training days are quite long, and at times I feel overwhelmed, but then I relax into the familiar surroundings of this practice and all that I know already, and I feel excited to expand and augment what I teach. If I feel at times a lack of confidence here (I'm at least 20 years older than most of the students), I remember that I do have something to offer students at UVY. I don't have a lot of time to really review and soak in what I am learning, though I transcribe notes each evening and that helps me revisit the material. I know too that I need some time for myself to just be outside, in the evening, when it finally cools down, time to read something each evening, usually something wholly unrelated to yoga, and time to communicate with my husband, my family, my friends. I am glad I know these small things about myself, because I remain, for the most part, grounded in myself.
Yesterday we had our second and last full day off, and I hiked, explored ruins, took an incredible drive up to the ski mountain, and went to the Georgia O'keefe Museum. At the museum, just as I was preparing to leave, I glanced into a room where they were showing a short film, and sitting there was...Pam, from POST, downstairs in our building! We both just stared, and then started laughing, and had a hard time stopping. It was remarkable and yet, I have had this feeling all along that I would bump into someone I know from the real world. I've been kind of expecting it. So, surprised, not surprised.
If there is a resounding theme that keeps floating to the top, it is one of compassion, kindness, love and the essential grounded awareness, or Shamatha, that helps us better feel—and act from— those feelings. Not terribly new or groundbreaking but terribly, vitally important, especially in today's bewildering world of division and marginalzation, politically cultivated hatred, and the confounding cruelty of imprisoning and separating families who are just trying to survive. The deeper teachings of yoga and buddhism reinforce the foundation of kindness and of love as the ground floor for self-realization; yoga the training ground for the awareness that lets us abide in that love.So, sending much love to all who are reading this, from my beautiful but very toasty perch up in the high desert of New Mexico.Namaste,Leslie