Lot’s of teaching this September, I am loving it. The community at Modo Yoga Mpls is thriving. In fact this September 13th we are having our first ever “Family Dinner". It will continue to be the 2nd Sunday of every month. Vegan Food, a fun movie, good quality family time. All in our community are invited. If you’re in Minneapolis, join us on the 13th for some delicious Indian Food - just CLICK HERE.
This week I worked with a lot of intentions, but the one I will expand on I used for Sunday’s #ModoFlow class. The weekend crew always bring it legit styles, and we dropped some soulful house beats and sweat like mad. For real, it was real humid outside and inside. We made some soul puddles.
THE INTENTION
Because we can't escape the world,
we must embrace the world as part of our practice.
ON THE MAT
This is so true, there is no escape, but we certainly try at times don’t we? Some people even use their yoga practice as an escape. But yoga practice is about embrace, not escape. So in this class I encouraged the students to visualize their mat as a high-dive platform. Imagine that for a moment yourself.
Imagine every time we stepped on our mat we were stepping onto a high-dive platform. Our breath, our movement and the awareness we cultivate all become tools that give us confidence to dive off or jump off directly into the water that is our life. And when we hit the water, guess what? Ripples are created. The ripples are the embrace. Another great thing about practice is when we dive off, no one is judging us. No one is scoring our form.
In flow we are in down dog a lot, and we step or hop forward to our hands. Here is a chance to leap from that platform. As we come up, we return to heart center. Here we get ready to literally dive. Inhale sweep up, exhale swan dive into our life. We embrace the world as our practice.
OFF THE MAT
There is no escape, but we've all have tried at times I’m sure. I am guilty of almost daily. Some escape behind a screen name, some escape to retail therapy (guilty), some escape with drugs & alcohol. And some sadly use suicide to escape.
Yoga gives us tools to dive into our life and embrace the world as a part of our practice. The most basic and powerful tool we can cultivate is a deliberate breath. We can take one deep breath in a tough moment at work, at home, with our kids, and then choose our response. Before our reaction becomes our action.
A deliberate breath can
help us create a deliberate life.
A deliberate breath can help us create a deliberate life. A life that is not full of reaction. We can dive into our life with peaceful and compassionate responses that help us embrace where we are.