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Chasing Rainbows...

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
~George Santayana

I left Kona on Thursday and met my friend Annie, in San Francisco. After an overnight stay, we got up early for a flight to Chicago. We patiently wound our way through the security lines, quickly chewed our breakfast and rushed to the gate only to find our flight delayed by bad weather at Ohare.

After waiting a couple of hours, we finally took flight only to land in Chicago to rain, lightning, hail,and wind. Our connecting flight had left us behind, and the next available flight was cancelled.

The rainbow at this juncture was an overnight stay at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago and dinner at Spiaggio's Cafe. Before you think that it was an airline provided consolation, the news in the morning showed other stranded travelers in cots set up at the terminal!

Although we had no luggage, we had an awesome Northern Italian cuisine dinner and a comfortable night's sleep. Shortly after 1:30pm on Saturday, we were successfully in the raining skies headed for Pittsburgh. Once landed, we drove south to Morgantown, West Virginia, where I'll be for a few more days. We are staying at a beautiful lakeside home brimming with happy people and gregarious dogs!

Thunderstorms and lightning bring blue skies and rainbows! I know this to be true.

Days 11,12 & 13

I've erased the word hectic from my vocabulary because it's not a condition I want to create, anymore. So let's just say that the past few days were full of action. That's a good setting.

Day 11. Tuesday, September 12. My yoga sequence was done at home at 7:40pm. I was tired and hungry, so I did the abridged version. It made me happy and complete, knowing that I was able to fit all of the poses into my life.

Day 12. Wednesday, September 13. At the studio, again the abridged version at 3pm because I had a 3:30 massage to give and there was no time between that and an appointment in the evening. It's very interesting how a 15-20 minute practice can reset my pace. I wonder if it's in the particular poses themselves?

Day 13. Thursday, September 14. I began at 5:50pm, at home with candlelight and music. A rather long and physical day followed by a strong and focused practice.  I might have allowed myself to be talked out of it, absent the commitment.

Day 10

Day 10. Monday, September 11. At 5:50 pm, I rolled my mat out. The air was nice and cool, with the sun set below the horizon. The ambiance ("amby-ants", as my friend Allison from Texas, would say) was the only variation. I lit a few candles for my own 9/11 tribute and played "Speed of Balance", music by Doc Lew Childre of the HeartMath Institute, meant for emotional and mental regeneration.

This was a first. I usually prefer silence but since I've been experiencing such amazing results with HeartMath's emWave device, I gave it a try. It's not my preferred style or sound: electronic on most of the cuts and reminiscent of the disco beat. After a few minutes though, it blended into the background and I found myself just focused on the yoga sequence. My mind felt comfortable keeping quiet and just watching. In fact, there were a couple of instances where I felt as though I was sitting on the side, watching.

I have two other CD's from HeartMath to try...I'm curious.

Practice, the Mother Sequence

Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised.
-Babe Didrikson Zaharias

Krista and I have been practicing the Mother Sequence, everyday, for the past 9 days. It's a combination of 12 sun salutes, the 5 Tibetan Rites (21 times each), 2 standing poses, 3 seated postures, 4 inversions, and 5 finishing poses.

When I first learned the sequence from Jehangir Palkhivala, memorizing the sequence and coordinating my breath and the movements, proved most difficult. As the movements became more graceful, my breath flowed in and out with more freedom. Recently, with body and breath moving synchronistically, it's become easier to affect my emotions while doing the sequence.

My body is responding, not only to the repetitious muscular movements, but to the positive emotions that I've come to associate with the sequence. Could it be that my muscles and joints don't resist the movements, because my mind looks forward to the once-a-day-sequence? The association is one of acceptance and joy. The gift of a single, repetitive practice.

As I was writing this, I was also watching a lecture by Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist, entitled Conscious Parenting. He basically answered my question in this statement:

This new perspective of human biology does not view the body as just a mechanical device, but rather incorporates the role of a mind and spirit. This breakthrough in biology is fundamental in all healing for it recognizes that when we change our perception or beliefs we send totally different messages to our cells and reprogram their expression. The new-biology reveals why people can have spontaneous remissions or recover from injuries deemed to be permanent disabilities.

If any of you have a daily practice, yoga or not, and would be interested in adding a breath/emotion component to it, e-mail me. I'm very interested to see how it would affect you.

If you're interested in learning the Mother Sequence, I'll be teaching a 6 week course beginning October 3 at 6:00pm.

Post, as it appeared in the Kona Yoga Newsletter, September 11, 2006.

Day 9

Day 9. Sunday, September 10. Home, among familiar objects but short on time. I opted to do the abridged sequence: 2 sun salutations, 3 repetitions of the Five Tibetans, and all poses done within 3 breaths, except for shoulderstands which are held for 6. The essence of this practice is focus; to make every breath count. If it takes a full breath to get into a headstand, then you hold it for 2 more.

The entire abridged sequence today, lasted from 3:33 to 4:44 pm. I'm always amazed at the brevity, and succumb to the intensity. What an ingenious practice.

Days 6,7, & 8

Day 6. Thursday, September 7. I started my practice a little after 5pm, at home. It was sooooo hot! The weather, not my moves. Day by day, the parts of my body that beg for attention (and squeal "come down, come down") in Urdhva Dhanurasana (full backbend) have begun to lower their volume. I see so much daily improvement and I haven't really been able to figure it out.

Day 7. Friday, September 8. My last massage appointment ended at 6:30pm so I decided to practice at the studio. A solid, wood floor. A/C. "When I get home, I'll have nothing to do but shower and eat and relax, " was my motivation. The practice went much faster,just under 60 minutes. What do I do when it takes me and hour and 20 minutes?

Day 8. Saturday, September 9. After a class and 2 massages, I got to practice at 4pm at the studio. So here I am doing the same poses in the same sequence, but it's different every day. My challenges are different, as are my delights. I used to get up and go to the gym by 5am, 5 days a week. Now it seems as though I'm more of a night energy person. I wonder how I'd feel if I change my hours next week?

Days 4 & 5

This is my view when I practice at home. There's enough room for my mat and I have only one wall to kick-up into a handstand, but the view is natural and serene. When I practice at the studio, I have room to spin all over the place and many walls to choose from, but I am indoors, traffic zooms by.

Day 4 (September 5): I practiced at home from 8:00-9:20pm. Day 5 (September 6): 7:00-7:20pm, the Abridged Sequence. My day was not over, I still had work to do before dinner. The key to including the sequence in my life is the focus of commitment. Rather than being a task that I feel "must be done no matter what", I see it as a piece of the puzzle that I'm challenged to fit into my existing practice, teaching, massage clients, studio management and life. I revel in making it fit.

Day 3

I did the Abridged Mother Sequence last night, holding the poses for 3 breaths rather than the requisite 12. So the sequence took me about 15 minutes in its entirety. It's as much of a mental practice when each breath and movement has to be accounted for. Today, I started around 4:40pm and finished the full sequence at 6:00pm.

Although the commitment may sound rigid and prescribed, "the mind should not be avaricious", cautions Jehangir. Therein lies the balance. Once the sequence is memorized, asanas, breath and emotions blend as do the dancer and the dance. I love it!

On the Mat

"If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn't continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. In continually moving from one approach to another, we are never forced to face our own boredom, impatience, and fears. We are never brought face to face with ourselves. So we need to choose a way of practice that is deep and ancient and connected with our hearts, and then make a commitment to follow it as long as it takes to transform ourselves." --Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heart

That excerpt underscores the beauty of a prescribed practice.  I have decided to commit to a daily practice of the Mother Sequence, taught by Jehangir Palkhivala. Daily, until I leave for my trip on the 21st. I'll describe the sequence and tell you of others who are joining, in another post because it's now 11:30pm on Sunday and I've allowed the writing of my newsletter and dinner out, to supercede. I'm heading to the mat.