Weekly Letter: The Obstacles are part of the Journey

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

I read something recently that said something along the lines of, ‘the obstacles are part of the journey. There will always be obstacles in the path. The practice is navigating around them.”

Everything wants to get in your way-no matter the goal. But the exercise of knowing there will be obstacles, and then getting around whatever obstacles present themselves open a whole new piece of your practice.

What if the goal wasn’t ‘getting on the mat’ but ‘getting around the thing in the way of the mat?’

Take one step back to see what you can see,

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: Wisdom from George Carlin

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

As we go through the practice, alone on the mat. Sometimes finding our minds quiet, sometimes not. The practice asks us to observe, but it doesn’t tell us what to examine exactly. Your teacher offers you things to consider and its up to you to assign what that idea might belong to. It makes me think about this quote from the legendary George Carlin:

If you’re looking for self-help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That’s not self-help, that’s help. There’s no such thing as self-help. If you did it yourself you didn’t need help. Try to pay attention to the language we’ve all agreed on. -George Carlin.

Note: the section of the bookstore is now called, Personal Growth.

Why do I bring this up? Because our practice is asking us to go inside of ourselves and find the wisdom there. But at some point we leave the studio and go about our days interacting with the world. And there will be times when you as a yoga practioner are in a situation where all the things you know from your mat escape you. And you’re not your finest self. Maybe you realize it in the moment, maybe it comes to you later, maybe you’re thinking about something that happened now.

So let me help you to remember; apart of ahimsa (non-violence) isn’t just preventing inflicting harm to yourself and others, but to find the gentleness too. It’s not as simple as pain and no pain. It’s watching yourself go towards the harsher reaction and taking pause. Its ALSO letting yourself off the hook sometimes.

We all could easily take a dive into our less flattering selves, so make some of your practice be holding space for yourself (both the light and dark parts) in a kinder way.

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: are we stifling yoga?

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

In late Middle English the word create was derived from the idea that something was ‘born out of nothing.’ And idea, a story, art. Even our postures came from spontaneous movement from deep meditation. The build of prana (energy) in the body caused it to begin to move in fantastic ways. Thus, beginning our asanas. But these movements were free and open, and they might contort through the inspiration. The movement wasn’t directed or criticized. The practioners just allowed the prana to flow and would allow this manifestation of movement to come over them. As though it was being done to them.

Modern yoga holds much rigidity now. Boxing us in with names and labels-all in the name of fitness or safety.

It begs the question: have we stifled yoga with too many rules and expectations?

What if we took yoga back to the spontaneous movement? To places where we were allowed to be free moving and curious. Would you find that to be freeing or would it cultivate fear? In time, with practice, do you think you could allow yourself to move freely and without expectation of what the movement is called or what it means?

Think about it,

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: Letting Go

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

The right combinations of words unlock awareness inside of ourselves. We find places we’ve never had access to or maybe learn something new we didn’t fully understand before. By using words and language we get to create all these new associations to better grow into the human we will be tomorrow.

So why is it only language that grants us this access? (Hint: its not)

Without language we would be forced to move and understand in a different way. So is language creating nuance or is it holding us to its frame?

Movement has less rules, less restrictions. Movement doesn’t need punctuation to be alive, but can punctuate. Movement can create associations for the mind, allowing for neurotransmitters to fire and connect. Waves of silken chiffon blowing through the color changing wind without any cares or concerns as to where it will go. It just goes.

There is not beginning or end to this, we take a short time to connect to it and spend that short time with the words trying to tackle the chiffon to the ground. Why do we do that?

What if we allowed the words to be lighter than the chiffon so they may lift into the either and be carried. Maybe then they will fade into something new, finding their own dance and removing the sharp edges of their letters.

Let go,

~Carmen