MAGICTOBER - DAY 1: Moving into Trust and Inner Strength
THIS is MAGICTOBER***, my friends!!! In October I am challenging YOU: I am sharing my personal practice here to inspire you to join and discover the bliss of your own practice at home. Just take 5 minutes TODAY (!) to either repeat after me or MOVE LIKE YOU. Please, let me know in the comments below how this is working out for you.
*** more info in my first blog post on MAGICTOBER
DAY 1 - MOVING INTO TRUST AND POWER
MAJOR CASE OF MISSING MY COMFORT ZONE: TAPPING RIGHT IN THE MIDST OF THE UNKNOWN
I just arrived in Berlin yesterday. After one exciting and challenging year in New York City a new chapter is opening up. What is waiting for me? I have absolutely NO IDEA. Tapping in the midst of the unknown. I am feeling anxious and so so tired. On top of it all it's FALL. Grey and rainy in Berlin. It's not always easy to be a happy yogi, I have to say. :-) Yet, surprisingly enough I dont feel like lying down, but rather like stretching myself (my Self) out, extending into Downward Facing Dog. Adho Mukha Svanasana. I need contact to the ground. I need energy. I need the earth, the feeling of holding onto something and something holding me. Mother Earth is always there for us, this huuuuge, steady yet dynamic and powerful entity underneath our feet, carrying us, nourishing us, catching us if we fall.
EARTH: SOOTHING. HOLDING. GROUNDING. The Down Dog is opening up the backs of my legs, stretching out my whole upper body. Feels refreshing and energizing to stretch it all out, expanding into space. Inhaling, I find the power to move the earth underneath me backwards and myself forward - through a rounded back as in catpose - into a strong and high plank, connecting to the center of my body. The exhale moves me back - through a cowpose-back - with soft ellbows and knees into Downdog. Now repeating the moving forward and backward, like the circle of life, moving through the beginning, the middle and the end which then turns into a new beginning, a new middle and the new end, which turns into yet another new beginning...
Variation: If this circle on hands and feet is asking too much from you today, you can always lower your knees down to the ground and roll your spine through a delicious cat-and-cow: Inhaling, drop your belly, lift your heart to look up to the sky. Exhaling, reverse: Drop your chin to the chest and round your spine. REPETITIVE MOVEMENT to COME TO MY SENSES
The simple, repetitive, fluid movement allows me to get out of my head, into my body. Into my senses and through them into the present moment. Soft, yet powerful: God, I love this dance from Down Dog to plank and back, moving right out of my center, activating the THIRD CHAKRA. With its element of FIRE the manipura chakra at the solar plexus stands for INNER STRENGTH, WILLPOWER and at the same time for burning up the ego, the parts of us, that cause suffering by, for example, not wanting to let go of the past. I (!) dont wanna let go of the past, I liked where I was! Okay, keeeeeep moving, baby, just keep it moving. Here the fluid and transformative power of the SECOND CHAKRA comes into play: The swadhistana chakra seated in the hips is associated to WATER, the symbol of transformation. Constant renewal by constant letting go. Attachement to what was, keeps us from living in the present. My breath and I are singing: Let it go, girl. Let it go. Let it go...
The balls of my feet are actively pressing down into the ground, down and away, as if they really wanted to move the earth backwards. Thus keeping the legs strong and activ and connecting to the first chakra, Muladhara, the center of coming to peace with who we are. And trusting the path: We are SO taken care of!
After a few minutes of fiery practice into physical exhaustion, I lower all the way down onto the belly, back into mama Earth's bossom and into Full Pranam pose: With arms stretched out long forward, the forehead resting softly on the ground. Now, for a delicious and precious moment, the mind is quiet - the ego in state of surrender. HONEY, RELAX. YOU ARE SO TAKEN CARE OF.
The more we fight what is, the less power we have to deal with it. Surrendering to the present moment, staying in our softeness, with an open mind and warm heart, is the pathway to TRUST is the pathway to INNER STRENGTH.
Ishvara Pranidhana (Yoga Sutras II.32) TRUST THE HIGHER POWER. TRUST THE COURSE OF LIFE. TRUST YOUR PATH.