When the Smoke Clears....

A yoga practice is a living, body prayer. After the grounding and creative forces of Earth and Water have facilitated the fire-space, the flames take over and purify the practitioner's whole being, burning through fears, anxieties, and other barriers to Living in the Flow.

 

But then what?

 

After the fire, the air is cleaner and freer. The energy still moves but to a subtler rhythm; the rhythm of the heart.

 

Air in yoga practice feeds the closed heart, creating and maintaining a force that will break through a walled heart and restore the balance. Heart-work paves the way for transcendence and liberation, forging two, key connections- that between the body and mind of the practitioner and that between the practitioner and the rest of the universe. Metta meditation, vinyasas involving extended arms with gently squeezed shoulder-blades, and meaningful pranayama all flourish soooo much better when the body-mind-spirit-space has been cleared by the flame first, making room for the heart to open.

 

When the smoke clears, the heart-light shines.

 

 

(em)Power Yoga and the Elements

I sing the body electric....

~Whitman

A yoga practice, at its best, fuels positive self-transformation. The yoga mat is your own, personal 72" X 24" change-space, in which a journey through the elements catalyzes healing, growth, and empowerment. ALL five elements are necessary in order to create this change.

In ayurvedic philosophy, every meal should contain varying degrees of the six tastes in order to create a sense of fullness and facilitate well-being. Similarly, a yoga practice should contain all five elements in order to afford you, the practitioner, a space for personal evolution. If you miss the grounding aspect of Earth, you start a practice without a baseline. Absence of water is an absence of creativity, usually caused by a need to over-control and dominate a practice. If you miss the purification of fire, you are not letting go of the little fears, anxieties, and stresses that act as barriers to growth-in-practice. Finally, lack of air and ether is a lack of liberation, a total ignorance of the role of the spirit generated by an overemphasis on the body and mind.

The energy wave you ride during a yoga practice is an elemental one, beginning with the grounding force of Earth and ending with the Ethereal mind-space of savasana. The elements do not all have to be balanced in order for transformation to take place, but they DO all have to be present on some level. If any one of the five is not a part of your journey on the mat, the result is a disempowered body, mind, or spirit.

Yoga should not be a weakening, energy-depleting practice; it is the ultimate path to transcending the ego, becoming responsive rather than resistant to change, and liberating the higher self, the atman, from the confines of an inflexible body, a closed mind, and a disconnected spirit. Earth empowers through stability and grounding, giving you a foundation from which to work. Water empowers through fluidity and freedom, releasing rigidity in the joints and forging a connection between breath and movement. Fire empowers through destruction of old habits and purification of the whole being. Air empowers through compassion, lightness, and a sense of the internal, pranic force. Finally, ether empowers by highlighting the spiritual connection between the practitioner and the Source, the universal energy.

A sense that something is missing from your yoga practice likely comes from a rejection, either self-imposed or because of your teacher's choices, of one or more of the elements. Think about embedding all five into your on-the-mat experience, and sing the body electric.