Cozying Up to Pain

OFF THE MAT

Weekly Thought Offering:
Maybe instead of slamming the door on pain,
I need to throw open the door wide and say, Come in.
Sit down with me. And don't leave until you have taught me what I need to know.
~Glennon Doyle~

Weekly Journal Prompts:
Something that brings me pain is…
I want to run away from it because…
If I sit with this for a moment I can see…
If I learned what I needed to learn to feel and then free this I would be…

Weekly Mantra:
I love ALL of me I can do hard things*

Hello Sadhakas!
This week we are exploring week 3 of Prasarita Padottanasana and this week we are looking at the forward fold aspect of the shape. Most of us are so used to flexing the spine as part of our everyday life hunched over desks, and phones, and little people, that we plop into this portion of the pose. But, like most things in life, some of the most profound lessons come from paying attention to the tiniest of things. It’s a BIG week!

To be honest, I don’t love teaching forward folds. I know too much about the likelihood of compression in our back, low backs especially, and how that compression is often waiting for the last straw to send us into some low back pain. And so, to save you (and your low backs), I focus mainly on creating length and strength in the spine to help counter pose the compression life brings our way. But here’s the thing, the poses are much, much, older and much, much, much, wiser than I am and the fact that there are a decent number of spinal flexion poses begs the question; what do they have to teach us? When I was first learning about anatomy and struggling with this idea, I had a teacher say to me: “The spine can flex, so the spine should flex.” In this I realized that my intention was to create an offering where our back is safe, and strong, and resilient so that it can experience its full range and be pain free.

ON AND OFF THE MAT, we can sometimes think we need to stay away from our pain or that the things we are afraid of might bring us pain. But that instinct is just the ego trying to keep us stuck. The truth is we must go to the spaces where there is darkness. We must go there and get to know it and know it so well that we can free the darkness, make different choices, make space, and bring light. In the doing of that we free our Selves to experience ALL of us and all of our power and bliss.

ON THE MAT this week that manifests in learning how to forward fold mindfully by first creating length then taking that length with us into an evenly distributed fold.

OFF THE MAT this week the offering is not to run away but to run into a space where there is darkness and even if just for a moment, sit and ask what secrets she has to tell you.

With Great Respect and Love,

Nicole

*It just doesn’t get old Glennon Doyle ;)