Did I tell you I went on a bicycling trip in Puglia? I lied. It was a gastronomic tour! The first full day of biking was fueled by cherries that our group picked along the narrow roads and huge panini served by the smiling couple above.

Puglian chefs pride themselves on their fresh fish and vegetables which they intersperse with fresh mozzarella and pasta dishes to create feasts for the eyes and the tongue.

Even I tried my hands at pasta kneading on a rainy day when we cooked rather than biked….

It wasn’t all about food. We biked past ancient olive groves where farmers still plant their vegetables and carpets of poppies, up the hills to gain scenic views of the Adriatic,  and through the historic town of Alberobello, filled with stone Trulli houses.

But most of all, our visit to Puglia reminded us of the Dolce Vita. Living in and enjoying the present moment is actually practiced in the heel of Italy!

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;…

Excerpt from Saint Francis and the Sow, by Galway Kinnell

As the shrubs bloom outside, it is the perfect time of year to recall that we all blossom. We all need water and sunlight, or encouragement and recognition. Taking the time to attend to ourselves and others actually helps us grow emotionally and physically. Recent brain science demonstrates that we can build new neural connections through yoga asana and meditation as these activities demand focus, attention, and compassion. According to studies published in the June 2010 Yoga Journal, areas of our brain exhibit more involvement in skills we practice, so try practicing a little self blessing:

Self Blessing Lesson Plan – Click to read or download the complete lesson.

I caught a spring cold and found the energy shower and face massage very soothing and draining for my sinuses. It was a challenge to motivate myself to practice, but reviewing restorative postures and meditations allowed me to be creative and self-nurturing. I begin each practice by reminding myself that I always feel better after I’ve reconnected with my breath, and my physical and emotional bodies. – And it’s true! I almost didn’t teach today, but I’m so glad I showed up.

Next week I’ll be biking in Italy, volcanoes willing. Look for photos and commentary in about ten days….

Instead of a physical practice as I allowed my bruises to subside and my arm to re-knit, the study of  The Radiance Sutras and Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf guided my musings. Lorin Roche’s new translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra seems to sum up many of my own meditation experiences – and probably yours too. I am intrigued by the play of experience and study. One of my students at the veterans center asked why I hadn’t taught about this concept sooner as it made him more interested in our meditations. But how can one comprehend witness consciousness if one hasn’t noticed one’s Self watching one’s self? In my own practice the experience was recognizable before I was given a label for it, but then the concept enriched my observation. So often in yoga I am not teaching, I am reminding people of what they already know and am offering confirmation for a practice that already feels natural.

We all have moments when we are absorbed completely: appreciating the scent of a lilac,  in awe of the stars, or mesmerized by sea gulls and the splash of waves. Who is noticing our absorption? Our Self? When I want to overwhelm my senses with beauty I stroll through Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island, NY, where I took the picture above. The ancient radiance sutras, framed as a conversation of the god and goddess within us, begin by turning our attention to this very breath we are breathing right now and then add teachings referring to the energy moving up our spines and throughout all our senses, expanding and awakening us to luminous reality.  The tantra meditation practices are direct and practical. Just as Patanjali wrote that our postures should be steady and held with ease, so I sense in these tantric lessons that our meditation should be focused yet relaxed and pleasurable. It is not the duration of meditation that is critical, in fact Roche recommends no more than twenty minutes twice daily as a formal practice, but the recognition of the possibility of awakening in any moment.

The classic novel, Mrs. Dalloway, seems to be written as a stream of consciousness (although it is brilliantly crafted). From the opening pages I feel swept away by the flood of sights, sounds, emotions, and memories that inhabit Clarissa Dalloway’s mind during the course of a single day. It is as though I am the non-judgmental witness, observing her meditation, which of course she never labels as such. I can identify with the whole jumble – from flowers to first loves to mental associations with airplanes. I don’t know what Woolf knew about meditation, but she didn’t need to have formally studied the practice to have experienced many facets of the mind. These two classic works, one from the Indian oral tradition and one from twentieth century England, invite me to play with descriptions of experiential practices and a flow of experience as I read a bit of one and then some of the other. Both enriched my own interactions with my surroundings and my thoughts throughout the week.

What are you reading now? Can you relate some aspect of it to your yoga practice? Please click on the heading of this post (if you are on the Home Page) to open to a page where you can comment and suggest future readings to me. When you read multiple books at the same time to you notice interesting ways in which they overlap?

The irony is not lost on me that after I spent a week encouraging myself and my students to slow down and pay attention, I let my attention and front wheel wander as I was bicycling. The mulch on the side of the road grabbed the tire and bike and I fell and spun on the blacktop. What a beautiful example of the shadow side’s presence! When we focus on courage we notice our insecurities, when we try to loosen our hamstrings we become even more aware of their tightness, and so on. When I’m trying to pay attention, I notice how often my thoughts wander! Needless to say all my lesson plans are first and foremost directed at myself. Three hours in the ER, of course I fell on on a Saturday, and at least three stitches later I limped my bruised body into my husband’s car and home. Fortunately I have no broken bones and I’ll be up and riding in time for a Backroads trip in Puglia, Italy  in May with  Terry and friends. Ice is wonderful!

A stranger saw my dramatic tumble and invited me into her house to clean me up. Her husband had recently had surgery and had lots of gauze and tape already in the kitchen so they wrapped me up neatly before racing off to a lacrosse game. What a lovely, spontaneous gesture of kindness! I sat in their driveway on a bench in the brilliant sunshine, listening to the birds and icing myself until Terry returned with the car. He was a charming caregiver all day, the one that determined that stitches were probably in order, and kept me lubed with ointment and protected with fresh gauze. We happened to have a sailing team from the College of Charleston staying at our house for the weekend while they raced in New London at the Coast Guard Academy, so Terry fairly single-handedly provided dinner last night and breakfast this morning for all of us. What a star!

I planned to take some photos of the Forward Bend Vinyasa to illustrate this week’s lesson plan, but my hip is too sore to pose. Are my written instructions helpful? In the plan I also introduce mulabandha, the root lock, a gentle lifting of the perineum that extends up through the diaphragm and the soft palate to stabilize the body and bring energy up the spine. Lying in Supine Child is a comfortable way to locate the lifting sensation while still breathing. As mulabandha becomes more familiar, the technique makes side bends, back bends, and twists from any position more stable and comfortable. Please let me know if you have questions or a better way to explain the root lock. Click on the title of the post above to open to a page where you can comment.

Slow Down PDF – Click away for a PDF with poetry and flow instructions that you can print out and try out on your own.

This is my son’s birthday and all the best to Angus! It is also Earth Day and an opportunity to be grateful for the beautiful place where I live. Before we can save the earth, we must be grateful for it, and to feel gratitude we must take the time to observe nature and become awed by its rhythms, diversity (surprises), and sheer beauty. Angus is going on a fishing trip with his dad in June, so last night my husband and I discussed the life cycle of bugs that are copied as flies to catch trout as we walked to the town docks. School children are always entertained by caterpillars , which seal themselves into cocoons or chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies or moths. But how about nymphs that wriggle in the water and then become flighted insects to mate and fall back, dead into the streams or lakes from which they flew?

Learn something new about the earth and it’s creatures today. Take a stroll on the beach,  in a park, or the woods. Visit a zoo or aquarium. They aren’t just for kids! Allow yourself to be amazed!

This past week I went to York with an acceptance lesson plan to honor the women’s resilience after a week of lock-down. These are women that listen to music, read novels, and write letters to feel connected with the freedoms and the people they miss. When I can speak of their resilience under stress I feel that they are not forgotten or invisible. I view myself as a bridge between the narrow confines of prison and the outside world.

In my lesson plan for this week I included a reading from Rachel Schaeffer’s Yoga for Your Spiritual Muscles which speaks of our body as a bridge that can lead us from struggle to forgiveness. Sometimes when we are still, we can sense the flow of activity around us more clearly without having to enter in to the drama. We can be like the steady bridge with the tides ebbing and flowing beneath us.

The bridge posture, when held until sensation builds, builds heat and energy in our bodies. Slight changes in pressure in the feet change the tilt of the knees and the tension in the buttocks. Pressing more or less into the shoulders or arms shift the curvature of the spine. Experimenting with deeper breathing and micro movements  keeps our attention on the sensations within our bodies. We notice where our bodies open to breath and where they feel more constricted in any given moment. We can choose to relax  and find our equilibrium as sensations eddy through us.

The Bridge Pose is a heart opening back bend which can often buoy are spirits. When we feel isolated or frustrated, a postural reminder to nurture our own  hearts can help us to open our compassion towards our neighbors as well. When we feel better emotionally, situations and people around us seem more accommodating. Have you noticed that when you are rested and relaxed, your days flow more easily? When you are exhausted and tense, do you find everything and everybody more difficult?

Here is the full class:

Acceptance & Sadhana Prayer PFD

Song birds and Spring Peepers chirping by my pond are among the earliest signs of Spring along the Connecticut shoreline. Our neighbors spotted this peeper as we were taking an evening stroll. The first clip of froggie sounds is just 19 seconds, so let me know if the sound is familiar and relaxing for you.

Spring Peeper Class Intro.

During Sivasana or anytime you want relaxing background music, tune in to this slightly longer clip:

Spring Peepers for Relaxation

Many of you know that I’ve been supporting a school for Zimbabwean refugees in Johannesburg through the Elias Fund . I to read an informal update on Zimbabwe in this morning’s NY Times and wanted to share the news.

Nicholas D. Kristof – Postcard From Zimbabwe

Sangha comes in many flavors. The avid women’s basketball fans in Connecticut are gathering around TVs in homes across the state to encourage their team. I remember attending a game after spending a few days at Kripalu and marveling at my spiritual experience in the Hartford Civic Center. The affection of the fans and the talent of the college girls brought the crowd and players together in community. Tonight I hope we can admire the tenacity of the finalists (and coaches, and cheer leaders, and my personal favorites, the pep bands) on both the Stanford and UConn teams and be proud for their families and friends!

Notice these tulips. Yesterday they were wide open to embrace the sunlight, while overnight they shut tight to conserve their energy. Does our yoga practice honor our personal energies of expansion and condensation?

This Spring I seem particularly aware of the shifts of temperature and humidity out doors and of the rising and falling of energies within my body. We observe the cycles of rest and activity in nature and feel them reflected in our own bodies. In my Easter Yoga Class I introduced the yoga concept of vayas, the five energies flowing in our bodies. We are accustomed to the term prana and although it is more precisely associated with respiration, our hearts, and our lungs, I use the term loosely to refer to all the energies I observe in my body or in my environment. I take in prana with my breath and feel it among all the changing sensations that intensify and release when I observe my body. I can feel the prana of my emotions as movement or stagnation, heat and chills, and sometimes even as colors. Music, speech, and the sounds of nature are all vibrational prana that flow through and around me.

Have you noticed my recent obsession with swans? The Ham sa meditation on the Sanskrit name for the swan or wild goose both grounds me with its full, heavy Ham exhalation and invites me to rebound upwards with the light, soaring, inward sa breath. Birds are a beautiful metaphor for spirit, for uplifting thoughts and emotions, but each wing must pulse downwards in order for the bird to fly. Bird sounds seem to elevate our thoughts and spirits.

Ganeshasana, a lunging twist with an awkward elephant hand seal or mudra, draws our attention to our weight. Hindus invoke the elephant deity Ganesha (a son of Shiva) at the beginning of any new venture and I find it significant that such a solid image is brought to mind. First we take stock of our physical and mental condition, our personal reality in the present moment with all it’s possible density, stiffness, and resistance. Then, as we breathe fresh prana into our system we can notice shifts in our muscles and our attitude. We are reminded that we can choose our response in this and every moment. For me, Spring Peepers are a resurrection sound as the wet, earthy mud explodes with the mating calls of small creatures each evening.

The upward-moving energy, udana vayu, is usually associated with the activity of our brain (meditation and sense perception) and our voice (mantras and chanting). The downward-moving energy, apana vayu, is traditionally associated with our organs of elimination. In my Easter Lesson Plan I played with the contrasts between rising up, spreading our wings, and expanding our lungs; and sinking into the force of earth and gravity. I also played with the notion of squeezing and relaxing our internal organs of digestion and elimination to re-energize our stagnate winter bellies, a common Ayurvedic spring practice. Samana vayu is the energy of assimilation, optimizing the energy from our food. I selected asanas that draw us in on ourselves to re-invigorate the outward spiraling energy of vyana vayu, associated with the circulation of our blood and of our nervous energy. Recall Garudasana, the eagle, with its tightly intertwined limbs and one-pointed gaze.