Tag: philosophy

Anahata, the heart chakra, lies at the centre of the chakra system and unites the three base chakras with the three upper chakras.   It is the first chakra to take us into interaction with the rest of the world, our energy moving out and impacting our environment rather than being directed into our identity.

The heart center is also the place where our ideals and higher mind (buddhi) begin to integrate into the manifest physical plane.  In other words, it’s the place where we draw down our higher self and actually put it out there into the world. Obviously, this is not always easy to do!  When our external environment is peaceful, it is easier for us to hear our higher mind and act accordingly.  However, when our environment is threatening or challenging (and when we really need our yoga!), it is much more difficult to be authentic to our higher ideals.

We are frequently caught between a “body reaction” of fear, aggression, or pain and the intellectual thought that we’d like to find compassion and greater perspective.  The instinctive defensive reaction in our body can make our higher instincts seem like pretty thoughts rather than an accessible course of action.  And if we do impose these higher ideals into our behavior, it can feel false to ourselves.  In other words, “taking the high road” can feel like a betrayal of ourselves.  We sacrifice the integration of our whole self into a polite veneer of kindness.  We may be listening to our higher values, but the cost chips away at our self-worth and we “swallow” our sense of worthiness and self-expression.

In this difficult space of internal conflict between the body and the higher mind, the heart center holds the doorway to transformation.  Using the power of the breath (air and the lungs are the element and organs associated with the heart), we can soothe the frustration in the body and create space to integrate the higher mind.  We literally create room in our bodies to authentically respond rather than react.  We do not overcome our body’s reactions or shove them away; we integrate our bodily sensations with our higher instincts.  Embracing our whole experience, we can then allow for transformation and integration to happen.

Just as we recognize the great value of our higher mind, we must also honor the body’s somatic experience.  Both must be embraced for authentic transformation and compassion to occur.  Through the breath and spaciousness of the heart, we create room for the integration of our higher self in the physical world.

Sometimes it’s hard not to be Angelina Jolie.

Last week’s cover of Vanity Fair depicts one of our cultural heros in full throttled pout: a decadent and ripe movie star oozing sex appeal and inhuman beauty.  Carousing in the upper echelons of the Hollywood elite, she travels the world, is partnered with an equally godlike mate, and – oh yes – is brilliantly talented and is an ambassador for global issues.  It’s the last part that sticks in the craw; it would be easy to cattily dismiss her were it not for her ability to combine her rebel sex goddess image with a life of servitude and good works.

When I caught a glimpse of our Angelina last week, I was immediately disheartened.  And not just because I lack the fullness of such lips.  I’d had a bad morning, you see. I woke up feeling uninspired by the contribution of my own life.  I was oppressed by all the things I should be doing and should have accomplished.  The mysterious other universe in which I made more of a difference and zoomed around making things better (to the thunderous applause of vast public approval) had somehow not materialized.  My life felt small, insignificant.   Catching a glance of the mega super star of our era (and immediately turning her facedown on the counter) reminded me how far my life was away from a reality that I’d imagined for myself.  I should be better.  Should be doing more.  Should, should, should.

Then, a pause.  As I looked up from my whimpering, fetal position on the floor, I realized I was being literally oppressed by shoulds.  By ideas.  By the difference between here (where I really am) and there (my idea of where I should be).  And all this mental flailing and self-flagellation was preventing me from actually engaging – and even making that difference – in the world.   We all have moments when we are caught between where we actually are and where we want to be.  And that difference can actually drive us to a positive end, but not at the expense of the present moment.  The present moment is the only vehicle to action, and it holds within it vast potential.  Potential that we miss if we are too busy lamenting our lack of the Angelina factor.

In this moment, I was reminded of one our the Yoga Sutra’s niyamas: santosha, or contentment.  Contentment is not the rejection of effort, but rather the acceptance of the outcome of our efforts.  It is self-acceptance for where we are in our process.  It is letting go of the “right result” and instead being with what actually is.  In our yoga practice, we practice santosha when we honor our bodies’ limitations, accept what is not yet possible to change, and work with where we can grow.  In a culture that encourages the stress of keeping up with the Joneses, santosha is an antidote to unthinking consumerism and competition.  It connects to several other philosophical golden threads, such as the Dalai Lama’s edict to practice gratitude and Don Miguel Ruiz’s Agreement to Do Your Best…and Be Satisfied.

So sure, sometimes it’s hard to not be Angelina Jolie.  The real challenge – and greater potential – is in being exactly who we really are.

We first connect to the earth through our feet.

Our balance, sense of self, and our “groundedness” with the big ol’ Earth is usually first transmitted through our feet’s dainty arches.  The more connected and rooted we are to the earth, the more stability and power we can access in our asana practice.  Through activating and energizing three three arches of the feet (medial, lateral, and transverse), we begin to engage up through our legs into our core, which helps us find our center.

This week in class, we are taking this work in the feet up and into the hips.  Ah, the hips.  The energetic centers of chakra one and two (muladhara and svadisthana) are governed by primal, and mostly unconscious needs.  Fear, survival, sex, creativity, emotion…..all these energies are housed in the first two chakras and dysfunction in these areas can manifest as physical resistance and blockages in the pelvis and legs.   And when we start to open into the unexplored areas, we can often meet with sensitivity, claustrophobia, resistance, and unexpected emotion.

So we use the strength of the first chakra and its connection to great ol’ mama earth to give us the stability to root into these unexplored terrain.  With sensitivity – but without hedging – we use the power of our feet and legs in our standing poses to open the hips in warrior II and parsvakonasana.  We’ll use the strength our our quads and hamstrings to work the legs and make them more receptive to stretching in parsvotanasana and king arthur’s pose.  We’ll complete our circuit by opening the hamstrings in paschimottanasana, the groin in baddha konasana, and the outer hips in double pigeon.

By using the feet to connect to the earth and draw this strength into our asana, we will create the stability that will let us open these areas safely.   And so we clean out the first floor of energetic house, while getting some really awesome physical opening through our hips.