Denise's Weblog
.H1 Winter Solstice Yoga Class 12/18/2003
In honor of the upcoming winter solstice, we work with the concept of darkness. Darkness can be bad and scary, true, but equating darkness with badness can be problematic in many ways. Author Donna Wilshire calls darkness "close and holy". What makes darkness mean what it means to us at any given time? Judgement? We may judge a situation based on what's going on inside of us at the moment, or based on our internal representation of a given external experience. While judgement can sometimes be helpful, it can also cause pain.
I invited the class to notice any thoughts of judgement that came up in their practice, then to notice whether they were making any decisions about their experience or themselves based on these judging thoughts. For example, do you notice that your hamstrings are a little tight and hear yourself saying, "I'm not flexible..?"
Where do self-judging thoughts come from? In Taming Your Gremlin, author Rick Carson postulates that the little voices in our heads that criticize us are other people's agendas for us that we have internalized.
I recommended that the students create a spaciousness within themselves, notice what judgements come up, notice any decisions they felt like making, to let it all just be what it is, and witness all of it with open attention. Be with what is. Just be.
Think about the sun; stay warm. Enjoy your hearth and home time. Have a cool Yule!
Water and Words Class 11/18/2003
The incredible photographs in Dr. Masaru Emoto's groundbreaking book, Messages from Water: Worlds first pictures of frozen water crystals, show the way words influence things.
Dr.Emoto writes a word on a bottle of water and uses a special microscope and camera to take picture of the crystalline structures formed in the water. The photos illustrate that there is a magnetic resonance between water and words. When ugly, hateful words are written, the mollecules look scary and bad. When loving words are written, the snowflake and flower-like crystals are beautiful.
The enormous implications of this delight me, so my lesson plan for tomorrow's class is based on it. I'll invite the students to hold one positive word in their minds for 5 ujayii breaths as they practice each asana and observe the results.
In my research for this, I found out there's a blessing project for the River Jordan at http://www.thank-youwater.net. At the end of the class I'll hold a meditation for the River Jordan or their own personal River Jordan, whatever that means to them.
Pele energy at the lava flows 10/13/2002
Take a look at my pretty picture
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