It's said that yoga can open up a person. It did that for me, and out came 270 pages! My book is up on Amazon (available here)! It's a collection of my essays, edited into sections of 15 Healing Truths. I am very grateful to my teachers and my fellow yogis and my readers for helping to make this happen.
Read MorePut a little love in your heart. And the world will be a better place. ~ Put A Little Love In Your Heart, Dolly Parton
How long does it take to strengthen a heart?
I think that depends on what kind of shape it’s in and whether it is a strong one in the first place.
The heart is a powerful muscular organ that never rests. It beats continuously throughout a lifetime, and so it’s important to provide it with the necessary nourishment, especially if it’s a big one.
I’ve been trying to strengthen my heart.
It’s a long overdue effort, but apparently my strategy to date hasn’t been the most effective. I’ve basically preserved mine rather than fortified it, and it can’t get stronger without the proper nutrients.
Read MoreRock me on the water. Sister, will you soothe my fevered brow? Yeah, rock me on the water, then maybe I'll remember, maybe I'll remember how. ~ Rock Me On The Water, Jackson Browne
Tonight, I was in a yoga class that took place in what I can only describe as The Twilight Zone.
I call it The Twilight Zone because I literally had no sense of time during the practice. I was so incredibly immersed in the movements that the end snuck up on me, and I only knew it was that time because the instructor dimmed the lights.
We start the practice at the top of our mats, the usual place to start.
We press our feet down and lift our toes up, and we’re instructed to extend our arms up and around and back into place, alternating first one and then the other, until the room is like a pool of backstroking yogis.
And even though we are swimming, the instructor asks us, again, to root down into the earth, to press our feet as if we are instead on dry land, and to lift our toes and glide slowly as if we have many more miles to go.
Read MoreI just take one step closer to you. And even when I've fallen down, my heart says follow through. ~ One Step Closer, Michael Franti
Step to the top of your mats.
This is what the instructor says at the beginning of most every yoga class.
I hear this so much that it’s automatic to simply step to the top when I’m told. I can be finishing a conversation, coming up from a seat or coming down from a stretch. It doesn’t matter. Everything stops, my mind clears, and I step to the top.
But last week, I heard something else.
Step to the top of your mats, the instructor announced.
And when I did so, my mind, on its own accord, suddenly responded in silence, Reporting for duty!
I’ve never really had a thought surprise me. I usually know what I’m thinking about. But, that day, this response was as automatic as my step to the top. And even though no one could hear my mind speak out, everyone else reported for duty, too.
Read MoreHow can I possibly be inconspicuous when my flow is so ridiculous? ~ I’ll Be Around, Cee-lo Green
I was at an evening yoga class with a guest instructor who arrived with a great big welcome, his greeting warming the room, and his smile inviting many in return.
This is a Level Two class, he announced. So, what would you like to work on?
With each answer, he jokingly upped the ante, saying, Oh, hips? That’s a 3.23 class!. Inversions? That’s a 5.67 class! Backbends? That’s a 10.789 class!
He asked us what we wanted and got us laughing when we answered, promising us a high energy class and lifting us with that of his own before landing the room in a quiet meditation with a poem and a chant.
I was happy to be there, sitting next to a friend who was leaving town and among others I knew as well. I felt cozy as evening fell outside the windows, darkening the room in a stillness filled with the rhythmic voice of the instructor.
Read More“Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten. ~ Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield
My son was home for a holiday, and we had the rare occasion to tool around town, having lunch and the chance to walk and shop in the sunshine of the first warm day of the season.
I have no place I have to be, he exclaimed, grateful for such unusual circumstances. There’s nothing I have to be doing right now.
We stopped in a refurbished firehouse that was home to a cool, new shoe store. The interior was designed like an old library, and as we sat down on a plush, oversized couch, I pointed out several shelves of blank books, none of which had covers, words or titles.
Look, I said. None of the books are written. They’re all blank.
Read MoreMay you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift ~ Forever Young, Bob Dylan
I’ve been taking Rocket yoga for more than a year now.
Three times a week, I go to the same class with the same teacher. She mixes it up, and we fly and invert and lock and lift.
I rarely miss a class, so I figure I’ve practiced Rocket more than 100 times. How is it, then, that I’ve only recently realized that at every practice, we move through a foundational sequence before we take off?
Am I the only one who didn’t know we were putting on the undergarments of our practice before getting dressed for the rest?
Like most young girls, I was taught my first foundation lesson at an early age: to always wear nice underwear in case I’m in an accident and wind up in the hospital.
Foundations can last a lifetime, and that’s why every day, I’ve got on pretty underwear under there. And I think that’s also why we are working on a foundation at Rocket. It’s not just for that day’s practice, but for the rest of our practicing days.
Read MoreFrom the time I was little, I was taught to stand up straight and sit up straight.
Even in my little-girl ballet classes, when we folded forward, we had to hold the fold so straight that even the teacher’s lipstick case would not roll off our backs.
Summers would find me at camp, seated with my bunk mates on benches instead of on chairs at each meal. I remember part way through one summer, the counselor looking at all of us hunched there and exclaiming, You all started out sitting up so straight, and now look at you!
We rose to better attention and, for the rest of the summer, made a conscious effort to sit up straight.
And, yes, a la Marcia and Jan Brady, I even spent several months with my sister going to what was called Charm School, where we walked around balancing a book on our heads.
Today, there are studies about the positive effects of a positive posture. Posture can be what it takes to fake it ‘til you make it on any given day because how we carry ourselves is how we care for ourselves.
Read More"Upside down. Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found?" ~ Jack Johnson
I was in a very hot yoga practice, and we were more than halfway through. The day had only half begun, I was only half-caffeinated, and we were in Eagle Pose.
For some reason, I’ve been having trouble keeping my balance in Eagle. I try to find a point in front of me to clear my mind, so I don’t even have to think about balancing, but that only makes me think about it all the more, and over I go.
This day in Eagle, my mind is already moving quickly ahead. Usually, we do Eagle on both sides, right and then left, and then right and left again. Sometimes, after the second time around, we move into bound Warrior III and then into Standing Split.
And then I know what’s coming next. In fact, my mind is already there while I am wrapping myself up in Eagle. At that point, for those of us who want to, we get to pop into handstand or, at least, to try.
Read More“So come out of your cave walking on your hands and see the world from upside down.” ~ The Cave, Mumford and Sons
The other night, I was at yoga, laying out my mat, unwinding it from its bag and doing the same from my day.
I prefer a spot against the wall, where I can try a few handstands without going overboard. I walk along my mat and talk with those nearby, enjoying the switch from my work day to my yoga night, chatting and pacing and popping into handstands.
And I wonder, where else, really, would this seem normal?
Read More“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy …” ~ John Lennon
I’ve learned that we never stop growing up, but I have a son who I keep thinking is all grown up.
Or, so it seems to me.
I guess I think he is all grown up because it’s hard for me to find anything that I can still do for him or that he needs me still to do. As a young adult, he lives on his own in another city and has a job and supports himself.
When he was little, I’d pack his lunch, hold his hand, buy his clothes, play endless catch, sit on the sporting sidelines, keep him dry in the rain, and tuck him in at night.
Now, he does all that and more on his own, and I’m certainly not the one tucking him in at night.
Read MoreIt's impossible to be alone at yoga, even if you walk in feeling that way.
It was a weekend morning, and I was getting myself together for yoga.
On Saturdays and Sundays, I actually shower, wash my hair and put on a little make up before going to yoga. Sounds strange to do so before working out, but this morning routine is what wakes me up.
I was like this in college, too, even when just studying. I would wake up, shower, dress and sit among my friends who would all be in their sweats.
My son calls me the Cal Ripken of getting ready for the day.
I arrive at the studio and wait for the class to start. I lay out my mat in my favorite spot, and slowly the others start to trickle in.
I love seeing everyone, and a few people come over to chat and catch up. Some are young adults, the ages of my children, some are closer to my age and many are in between. Yoga has introduced me to so many new people. I did not know that practicing would make me part of any kind of community.
Read MoreSometimes you just know what you know.
I’ve always had a bit of a sixth sense, but that doesn’t mean I can see the future or always pave what I think might be a good path.
This heightened intuition is a knowing that is difficult to describe. The best I can do is to say that if a truth could be touched, it would feel like this. This might sound vague, but the feeling is anything but.
When I am practicing yoga, I can experience a sensation similar to this sixth sense. In a pose or after a practice, a calmness comes at me, and I feel centered and light and surprised.
It is like the feeling I get when an old favorite song comes on the radio: Oh, I know this!
Read MoreI’m supposed to find my swag in yoga.
Really, I never knew what it was or where it was or even that I was supposed to be looking for it.
What I was looking for was how to drop into a backbend from standing, and the instructor was doing his best to help.
Read MoreI used to practice in front of mirrors.
I liked it. It reminded me of my long ago dance classes. And it gave me a larger sense of the room because I could look forward and see behind me.
But for awhile now, I’ve been practicing without the mirrors. At first, it was a little unsettling. At one studio, I found myself looking into the eyes of those facing me. In another, I found myself staring at a wall. In still another, I found myself looking out a window onto the busy city streets.
After a while, though, the weirdness went away. Now, it’s not so freaky to look someone in the eye across the room. And the cracks and the slats in the walls and windows serve as my stare points and help me find my balance. The city streets outside the windows are no longer a distraction, and I’ve even watched the rain fly sideways across the floor-to-ceiling windows as I flowed inside while it thundered outside.
Read MoreI’m a pretty careful person.
I’m a planner and a thinker and an organizer.
I like things in their place, stacked and folded.
I’m not speaking necessarily of the parts of my life that can be seen, like my clothes and papers and such around the house. I’m more talking about the parts that can’t be seen.
The parts that are naturally kept under wraps, like most of us have.
I have friends that can talk about anything. And they do, often to me. I think that’s because they know I will make a neatly folded pile for them, too, set it aside and leave it undisturbed for safekeeping.
This is what I’ve done for myself over the past many years.
It’s just that I didn’t really realize how tall my piles were getting and how many had sprouted. I didn’t know they were taking up so much space and resting at their teeter points.
Read MoreIt’s been almost three years. Three years of handstands.
When I first started yoga, I would not go upside down. I knew I could do it, but it just felt so silly. I’d often goof around with my kids and only a couple years earlier, before even finding yoga, I had done a headstand on Skype for my daughter and her college roommates.
So, it’s not that I was never silly. It’s just that I was never so in public. And the yoga studio counted as being in public.
Then, one day, it was just my daughter and me in a private lesson. In my mind, this was not public, so upside down I went.
And then, almost every day thereafter, I only wanted to be upside down.
Headstands led to forearm stands. Forearm stands led to handstands. I could not get enough and still can’t.
And now I can’t remember what there was to ever feel so silly about.
Read MoreSomething's going on in my head!
I have to admit that what I like best about yoga is the workout. Each and every time, though, I am surprised by the after effects.
There is something spiritual about each practice. No matter the studio, no matter the instructor, no matter the style.
I’m not always conscious of how the practice touches my spirit; instead, I just know that I feel different afterwards.
Read MoreI need a back up plan for yoga.
I’ve hurt my wrist, and the doctor has ordered a month’s break from yoga.
I’ve been practicing almost three years, and this is the first time I will go without yoga for more than a few days in a row.
The anxiety is starting to build. I had myself on a full speed ahead yoga schedule, combining two types of practices at three different locations for a total of six times a week.
Coming to a hard stop seems unimaginable.
Read MoreIt's not always easy to tell the truth.
You can’t find the truth anywhere but in yourself.
These were the instructor’s words as we lay in pigeon pose the other night in yoga.
You can’t find it in a book, you can’t find it in your teacher, you can’t find it in anybody else.
I must admit his words brought me up short. If the truth is inside of me, then I want to know where exactly!
Read MoreAnne Samit is an author and a yogi, moving every day and writing it all down along the way.
