Brightest Spring Round 2--Finding Flow

MYOGA SEASONS for Subscribers

Years ago in Aotearoa New Zealand, my soul sistah recommended a session with a psychic of sorts and the main vision she saw for me is all about our next Season (First Summer) so I’ll relay it when we get there, but she gave me a mini ritual that is so relevant to this Brightest Spring Season.

She said, “Every time you go to the bathroom, make it a ritual of letting go. As what you no longer needs flows out of you, be conscious of what may have gathered in you since the last time you were on the toilet, and let what you can, go.” Such a simple ritual and part of what I call guerrilla yoga because you can do it anywhere and no one needs to know. Try it!

This past week a student from Wellington days contacted me with a request that I have really enjoyed fulfilling. Her son has been having trouble ‘going poos in the toilet’. Seems there’s some trauma there that feels very last Season (First Spring) based in Muladhara chakra, around issues of security. We take for granted the things we’ve learned to do automatically and when it’s something as, ideally, regular, as your daily poo, it can be agonizing when it’s not flowing easily. They’ve tried so many amazing things to support him and the most recent was working with a hypnotist who wrote and recorded a story, but her voice just didn’t seem to be working. Then she recalled my voice:

“I think I’ve said it before that when I started yoga on Marion St, I found your voice so comforting. Especially when old wounds came to the surface, I always felt supported by your voice while you spoke to us. And even now, when I see a Mary Oliver poem I hear it in your voice. We’d like someone that sounds more loving and inspirational – which you seem to do naturally!”

So, partly I’m late in sharing the sadhana with you this week because I had a bike accident in the rain and have been recovering, and partly because, in my recovery, I’ve been working on editing and recording the story to support her son. Who knew talking about poo could be so rewarding!

And, as for the bike accident, I am so grateful. It’s Thanksgiving time in the US (and here’s a good astro post specific to the US) , so I’m even more aware of gratitudes than usual. I’m grateful for my angels who had been warning me to slow down, as I have a tendency to blem it through the streets, especially on the downhills. So, thanks to them, I wasn’t going very fast when I had to brake for a roundabout and my bike slid on the leaf-littered slick street. I was on my way to teach an early morning kids yoga class so all the yoga mats were on my back rack and perhaps made the weight wonky. My bike went to the ground to my left while my lower right leg, below the knee, went to the ground to my right.

It’s not something I’ve thought about before, but I realized through this incident that my flexibility is protective - a prophylactic. Because I’m flexible, my knee didn’t break. I’m super grateful for these life-saving and life-shaping practices.

Saying that, let’s crack on into Round 2 of Brightest Spring--Finding Flow. Be in touch if you have any concerns or questions. Also, feel very free to comment directly below this post, or on the YouTube page. If you haven’t already, begin with Round 1.

Svadisthana chakra's element is water and in this longer practice we'll slow down to find the flow in the hips by stretching the thighs all the way around--front, back, inner, and outer. We're building towards deeper hip opening postures to come in Round 3 by establishing reliable foundations in the legs and core with strong yang support systems so that the softer yin area of the hips feels safe to open. Learning how to let go is a skill worth honing and is much more challenging than it might look from the outside. You'll need about 45 minutes to make the most of this practice, and if you can devote even more time to resting at the end, all the more fantastic!

We start out in a Wide Child, which is such a lovely, relaxed way to open the hips, rest the brain, and receive the brilliance of Martha Graham’s words to Agnes De Mille:

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and since there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

(No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.)”

To find flow, we must let go. We must keep the channels open, release what is no longer nutritive, and allow in what is. Sounds simple, but as the story of the young boy reminds us, whether it’s on the base physical level or the less visible (or smelly!) etheric levels, letting go is learned. And we cannot learn to let go of muscles or thoughts or feelings or poos by trying, because that is a doing while letting go is about un-doing.

Svadisthan translates to mean one’s own sweetness, or abode. We allow ourselves to be. We come home to ourselves. There is likely baggage—rubbish we’ve collected along the way that we’re still holding onto, whether in our cells or our synapses—which is perhaps why this energy centre has been called the junk drawer of the self.

As you’ve likely heard me say already, “You can’t let go of what you don’t know you’re holding onto in the first place.” Start with cultivating awareness, which we tuned into in Ajna/First Winter, and then apply the acceptance we learned in Sahasrara/Deepest Winter and Muladhara/First Spring. It’s only once we accept how and where we are right now that we can then soften, lengthen, and re-lease, the qualities we’re coming-to-know through this Svadisthan/Brightest Spring Season.

After tuning in, we revisit our Kundalini Frogs and, again, I find myself grateful to be alive. These Spring weeks of rain I’ve been happy to hear the frogs singing, but equally saddened to see them squashed on the road. Grief arises, and I am reminded of the precariousness of existence. The sweetness of being at all. To manage my grief, I mentally recite the Ho’oponopono prayer for the frogs, over and over as I ride my bike past their mangled, miraculous bodies:

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.

I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.

Those of you who’ve done yoga with me for any length of time know that I challenge you with some reverse ageism in the Kundalini Frogs practice. Once you’re confident and strong with them, move towards doing your age + 1 for good luck. That way, as you get older, you grow more able and strong (not less so).

Quad Stretch is another one I made up. Here, and throughout this Season, your long, deep Ujjayi Pranayam is essential for your safety as well as your honest release. Pretty much anything can be done on the surface, but to go deep the conscious breath builds a bridge between mind and body.

The hips are all about intimate relating, and relating is all about coming-to-meet. Not avoiding, skimming over, or pretending, but actually making the time (thus this practice is much longer than most) to get to know who you are, where you hold, and just how much you’re willing and able to let go of in each moment. This is brave business and you are capable of it!

We’re talking truth-telling in the body and Tree/Vrksasana is perfect for this, as the words tree and true share the same etymological root. Again, don’t dismiss the simple as less-than. Simple is rarely as easy as it looks. As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote:

“If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.”

Such lovely words, but what do they mean?

Surrender?

Earth’s intelligence?

What do these things mean to you?

How can you come-to-know them in your body?

Hip Circles! Again, simplicity, yet coupled with sexiness. In live classes I used to play this song by Christina Aguilera. Perhaps not so racy now, but back in the day I was stirring the (sex) pot a little by incorporating it into a yoga class :)

Here’s the freely-available Basics Level 5 that includes a good bit of what we cover in the warm up to this Season, including Hip Circles.