How do we relax? In New York City, after a day of trains and stress and break-ups. After a day of laughter, lunches and running for the bus, how do we find the poetry within ourselves? Restorative yoga is a "relax and renew" yoga. On Sunday evenings Ariel asks us to focus on our breath entering and exiting the body. She asks us to put ourselves first for an hour and a half and put our attention on the fact that we are alive. Each one of us has a precious human life. When do we manufacture anxiety? Why do we manufacture pain? There is a quote by the Dalai Lama in my room at home that says: Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, i am alive, i have a precious human life, i am not going to waste it, i am going to use all of my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can." In order to do this we must sit. We must practice. We must practice loving ourselves. But, most of all, we must do something we have never learned to do. Something that seems to come so naturally yet we don't do it often enough. We must open our mouths and our hearts, we must open our minds, we must breathe.
