Day 69 of 90 straight days of hot yoga at Modo Yoga and I found myself in a flow class with teacher Matt. I like Matt’s no BS style of teaching it cuts right to the core and to the point. Today in class we focused on the deepening of the pose and adding some twists, along with lots of flow. The practice was filled with flow and instruction. Matt has been speaking on the Ganesh holding a poker, a noose, and a ax. They are symbols for our practice. We poke at where we want to go, then we put a noose around it, and we use the ax to free ourselves from what we choose.
When I started this journey on the mat, I chose to experience holding on to the past, and it feels lately I took an ax to that idea, and now I am poking at my greatness, my heart, and liberation, all of which can only happen here.
In the practice today I found lots of strength breathing into my belly and when I looked into the mirror it looked like a Buddha belly hanging over my yoga pants. I noticed the belly pulling up naturally in poses, and also noticed my down dog finally found the ground. My heels had finally reached the ground and so for the first time in my practice my foundation was cemented in. I can tell you that this feeling of being grounded to the earth and then expressing in the pose makes a world of difference. Even my three legged pose was strong.
As I continue to unravel my heart and trust in it more, my practice is becoming stronger, grounded, and patient. The hard edges have fallen away, the part that lived in constant worry has burned up, and the song, “Don’t worry be happy”, actually makes perfect sense, “Don’t worry”, why create the worse outcomes? Why imagine the worst? “Be happy” why not just choose to be happy? Who cares if it all goes away? You can still be happy. You can be happy with nothing or a lot.
I told someone today who was in panic mode, “Remember this, one day you will breath, and the breath will not come back. So will this really matter then?” They stopped, and smiled, and acknowledged me with, “Point taken.” Some people are to busy dying, rather than living now. Does this mean not to care? Not at all. But when you are present, the action is simple. Worry makes things to complicated. Fear is complicated. The truth is simple. Things happen. The breath comes in and goes out, the rest is just a narrative and in the narrative we put a noose on ourselves, and forget we put it there. So acknowledge it and choose to free yourself.
On to day 70…Namaste
David Matthew Brown, Dad, speaker, yogi
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