Don’t Go Back to Sleep

OFF THE MAT

Weekly Thought Offering:
The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.
- Rumi

Weekly Journal Prompt
I am throwing myself into….
It feels….
I could allow lightness by…
Lightness in this transition would feel like…

Weekly Mantra
I am stronger when I am awake
I am light
I see so I can heal
I see so I can free
I can do hard things (😉Untamed anyone)

Hello Sadhakas!
I first met Rumi at a very romantic and tortured time in my 20s. They spoke to me then, but their magic continues to unfold to me the deeper my spirit goes. This one line from one of my favorite poems from all those years ago is one of those magical lines. And it speaks to me of our work together both ON AND OFF THE MAT

ON THE MAT this week we are in week 3 of crow pose and this week we explore how to “get up”. Getting into the balance of this pose is one of those places in the physical practice, like most I guess, where we see someone else do something and it can look so easeful. When we try to do it, it just feels like we are a ton of bricks that thuds back down to the earth with every attempt.

Here is what I can tell you from practicing this pose for two decades and from teaching it for over a decade. People have a hard time “getting up” in this pose mainly because they are throwing themselves into it. I don’t know about you but the idea of throwing anything into a balance, as a technique, has inherent problems. Am I right? But we do it anyway. Why? I think it’s because we are scared. We are doing something new and we’re not sure how to do it or if it will work out. So, we throw ourselves in and wait for someone to wake us when it’s over.

Imagine it’s your child’s first day of school. nervous for them you don’t hold their hand and walk them in, instead you shove them into the door and run. Does that sound crazy and even abusive? And yet that’s what we do to ourselves. So, here is an alternative. ON AND OFF THE MAT this week, when you are faced with an unknown, SLOW DOWN, stay present, stay with your Self, hold your hand, speak words of courage and love.
Stay awake, eyes open and fixed on a drishti (focal point) on the floor or in your mind’s eye. Stay with your breath and feel each moment. Staying present like that will allow you to make choices in each moment. Appropriate for the moment and effortlessly helping you find and stay in the balance, in the flow.

There is nothing to be feared only secrets from the breezes at dawn that we have been missing that it’s time to finally hear!

With Great Respect and Love,

Nicole