“How I linger to admire, admire, admire the things of this world that are kind, and maybe also troubled…”
—MARY OLIVER
Today we round out our theme of embrace for the month. Using blocks for support, we experience familiar poses in new ways while trying to soften the harder edges of the places we tend to hold our lives so tightly. Take the recorded class for free at morningdharma.com
“You can learn more in an hour of silence than you can in a year from books.”—MATTHEW KELLY
As an avid reader and lover of learning new things, this quote gave definitely gave me pause — it’s a perfect reminder to come back to ourselves in a place of stillness and quiet to listen for whatever wisdom may emerge. Today’s practice includes a leg-focused flow using blocks to explore basic poses in a new way and two opportunities to sit in stillness.
It is often described that our sympathetic nerve responses of fight, flight, or freeze can be attributed to our ancestors needs to quickly determine whether or not there is a threa – to save themselves from being eaten by a tiger. Today, most of us are not worried about tigers but our sympathetic nervous system still responds to daily stresses as though the threat is real. Our brains can not tell the difference between perceived threat and a real threat. Using the mantra “there is no tiger” can often be helpful to remind our body that a stressful work or family situation may be uncomfortable but it is not as dire as having to flee or fight a tiger. In today’s practice, we embrace BEING the tiger with a tiger series of poses and a contemplative meditation.
“Embrace the wisdom of uncertainty.”—DEEPAK CHOPRA
The overall energy today seems to be a little drowsy so we start out with some slow, floor based stretches and then move into a more invigorating flow. We focus on core, hips, and side bends. We also contemplate what it means to embrace the wisdom of uncertainty and to open up to new ways of thinking that may differ from our previous perceptions.