Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Preparing for Passover with Yoga


Once again we are cleaning out cabinets and polishing tables and chairs and
wanting all of our effort to be meaningful and contribute to our inner growth and
spiritual development.When we clean our homes we are looking for leven or
"chometz", but it has become a custom amongst many to utilize the season and
the time for "Spring Cleaning" which is still a search for "chometz" but so much more.

With Pesach inspired Spring Cleaning, we are formally looking for chometz but in
fact we are doing so much more, we are letting go of all that no longer serves the
needs of our family or ourselves.... old clothes that no longer fit, old dishes we
no longer use and hopefully old beliefs and attitudes that no longer serve us.
"Chometz" is leaven,which is flour and water that has fermented or become
expanded in some way through a fermentation process...that fermentation process
corresponds to the inflation of the ego self, the self-centered, limited, animal
instinctual self... during our cleaning and during the holiday, we want to achieve a
surrendering of this self to our higher, G-d centered and more holy ultruistic and
"other-oriented" self, we want to let go of the small self, to allow space for the
bigger and surrendered to G-d self....


In Yoga, there are a series of Warrior poses, one of them is called
"The Surrendered Warrior" Pose. I usually offer the Surrendered Warrior in class after we have done Warrior 1 and/or Warrior 2. Warrior 1 pose offers a feeling of standing strong on the base of one's spread legs and an opportunity to feel one's strength and one's capacity to reach upwards either seeking or offering inspiration. In Warrior 2 pose as we look over one of our outstretched arms and as we gaze beyond the hand, we can form an intention or visualization of what we want/ hope to achieve and what we would like to manifest in the future.....Surrendered warrior offers us an opportunity to hand that intention over to Hashem as we turn our front palm heavenward and literally surrender that intension upwards. It's a wonderful embodied way to experience that forming of an intention and then the handling of it over to something higher and greater than ourselves. As we lean backward in this pose, we can feel and understand that our efforts can only take us so far, but at a certain point, not only do we stand back, but we can literally lean back in deference to our handing of power over to the G-d of all things and outcomes.



Monday, January 29, 2018

Doula Training!!!

So it seems in just a week I will be able to add "Dona Trained Doula " to my professional CV! (i'myH!) It is most exciting and opens the possibility for more work around birthing moms, both with pre-natal yoga and support and postpartum yoga and support! It feels like a really wonderful development and offers the awesome privilege of assisting women in a time that could be so wonderful, but for many unfortunately is often filled with anxiety, suffering, and fear.
I will add more to this in the coming weeks!