Born Yogis

    "I wish I had a photograph of this classroom." It is Tuesday at 9 a.m. and Evalena has just taught her therapeutic yoga class at YogaSole. "The great thing about this class, is that there are so many different people who come for so many different reasons." It's true. Looking around the studio on any Tuesday or Thursday morning there are a rainbow of students. Some students are seniors and are just starting to move their bodies again. Other students are young athletes who have suffered injuries. Some are students who don't feel comfortable in a fast-paced or even a beginner level yoga class and the therapeutic yoga class works at a more comfortable slower pace.
     Therapeutic comes from the Greek word "therapeutikos" which is derived from "therapeuein" meaning "to attend" or "to treat". In 1893, Swami Vivekananda spoke in Chicago about therapeutic yoga and it as introduced through the parliament of religions to the United States. In the early 1980's it started to gain popularity again. Books began to be published about how yoga therapy could be an intervention on heart disease. By the 1990's most insurance companies were approving coverage and making yoga therapy part of medical procedures.
     What does this all mean?It means that yoga is a way for us to do what is usually difficult for most of us: care for ourselves. How can we attend to ourselves? How can we be our own caretakers? Yoga teaches us to treat ourselves with kindness. Kindness is a strange word, because we usually use this word while speaking about other people. "Treat people with kindness" "be kind" "Kill 'em with kindness" are just a few sayings our society uses frequently. True kindness must first come from inside.
     At YogaSole during the therapeutic yoga classes an interesting thing happens. People who haven't moved their bodies in years, or people who are learning different ways to use their bodies, become kind. They turn their kindness inwards and focus on first being kind to themselves. This takes breath and patience. We were born yogis, we just need to attend to ourselves as if we were attending to a small child who needs us. Often we don't realize that we are the small child as well as the caretaker.

Reaching Towards Your Warrior

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I shall assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
-Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"

Warrior one, warrior two...what does it mean to be a warrior? A peaceful warrior? What do these poses represent? I've started asking myself questions every morning. It's a good way to find answers, or to sit with confusion and be o.k. with that.
This morning at YogaSole the Thursday morning meditation group met at 8 a.m. On my way into the studio I saw the students leaving with a halo of peace around them ready to begin their day. As I did my own short meditation I too felt the calmness of the morning in my bones. This is when I start to write.
The warrior. When we think of warriors we often don't think of ourselves. Maybe we picture large armies with heavy swords and knights in armor. A warrior might also be thought of as someone heroic. Warrior one and two are a couple of my favorite yoga poses. So much strength must be used throughout the whole body. There has to be a serious grounding in the legs. An acupuncturist once told me when I had a leg problem that it was because I was stuck in the past. I'm not sure how true that is, but Warrior two always forces me to be in the present moment. By gazing forward and grounding the legs I feel like an old oak tree that has been around for thousands of years, a piece of nature which refuses to be knocked over by the wind, but instead, agrees to bend with it.
There is a story behind these poses. The story doesn't matter as much as your own story but it ends with a daughter who gets so angry she goes up in flames and her father is so upset he pulls a tuft of hair from his head, beats it and his most powerful warrior appears.
When does your powerful warrior appear? Here is what I know: we are all courageous, and we are all heroic. We do not need so much armor to understand this, but we have a habit of building walls.  I know this because when I breathe into these poses I feel a strength that I wasn't sure I had. The peaceful warrior cools the fire, eases the flames and becomes notorious. Sing a song of yourself today. You are a warrior.

"I have said that the soul is not more than the body
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is"
-Walt Whitman "Song of Myself"