Wow, it's hard to believe that we are already in March! So sorry I haven't posted a blog in a while. Here I am though! I hope you're all enjoying the slightly warmer and definitely longer days. FInally, the short, dark, and seriously cold days seem to be behind us. Having said that, I'm glad for those days when the temperature struggled to get above 0 degree because suddenly 6 degrees seem warm! It also brings home to me the idea of unity within duality. What is unity within duality? You might think that yoga is all about unity, and you'd be right but unity cannot exist without duality. Oneness would mean nothing if there was no duality. In our physical practice, we always talk about rooting down and rising up, drawing in and reaching out, surrender and effort, and so many other seemingly opposing actions or concepts. It's these opposite actions that bring us back to our centre, to the stillness within. When we practice a pose and focus our attention on the opposite actions taking place within the body, we are also creating unity in another kind of duality - unity of the mind and the body - which leads us right back to our calm centre. Let's look at a simple pose like a low lunge. In Low Lunge, the feet, the back knee and the tailbone are rooting down into the earth while the crown of the head and the arms reach up. The 2 halves of our pelvis also move in opposite directions: the front half in a posterior tilt or at least squared, and the back half in an anterior tilt (nodding forward). In fact, even when we walk, the 2 halves of our pelvis move in opposite directions! Our spine meets our pelvis at the SI joints so you can imagine that as the 2 halves do their thing, the lower back spine can be affected. If we can engage our core muscles, we can keep the spine from being pulled and torqued along with the hips. So the two movements of our hips lead us back to our centre, our core. In life off the mat, duality bring us back to our centre too. When our reality is different from our goal, we need to come back to our centre, our core belief, in order to live and express ourselves in a way that serves us best. If we live only in our dreams of the future, we aren't grounded in reality. If we focus only on our much we hate where we are, we can't move forward to our desired goal. Yes, have a dream but live in the now. Yes, accept your reality but never stop dreaming. Join me this month on the 24th, 10-1:00 at Escape Yoga Studio, Matlock, for our Unity in Duality workshop where we will learn to move our body in opposite directions in order to move into stillness, and learn how you can take that off the mat into your life. Please see Unity in Duality Workshop for more details and for information on early bird discount. Please contact me to book your place. There are always the sun and the moon, the day and the night, the light and the dark. Embrace them and you will find peace right at the centre. Be well, yogis, be wildly grateful for all that you are and are not, and be the best and kindest you always. Om Shanti, Wendy
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AuthorWild Yogi Wendy - I'm a full-time mum and wife. I teach different styles of yoga. I'm learning Karate. I love chocolate and champagne! Archives
March 2013
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