Yoga is filled with openers – heart openers, shoulder openers, hip openers– it also teaches us to approach things with an open mind, an open heart (there’s that heart thing again) and an open perspective. In that same spirit, we are heading into 2022 focused on another type of opening – keeping our eyes and ears wide open – observing and listening to everything around and within us – waking up to the world, shaking off days blending into one another, taking the opportunity to be amazed, awed and inspired by everything around us. We say this without an ounce of Polyanna sentiment – if we are truly walking the world with eyes wide open we will see all that is beautiful and all that is ugly and will be the better for seeing both.

When you walk the world with your eyes and ears wide open you’ll find that the world opens up to you. The most valuable lessons aren’t necessarily the ones you pick up from the places you go looking for them – the mat, class, workshops, lectures, webinars – they are the ones that are right in front of your eyes, sometimes hidden in plain sight. It’s with that in mind that we’re re-committing to putting on our “seeing eyes” and “listening ears,” to intently and intensely seeing and listening to all the world offers us – what inspires us, what frightens us, what motivates us, what disgusts us and what awes us – to remaining open to it all and in that way, opening from the inside out.

Music can be a great accompaniment to your practice. Just as we link one pose to another, linking songs together in a playlist can energize, focus and inspire us. Sharing one of our more recent playlists, epiphany, with two tracks having that same name – Trent Reznor’s and Atticus Ross’ Epiphany appears in the Disney/Pixar movie Soul, which was an epiphany all its own, as was Taylor Swift dropping two indie albums this year – epiphany appears on Folklore, the first of those two albums, which was on repeat for a good part of our back half of 2020. This playlist is a bit of a celebration of other epiphanies – when you realize yoga, just as life, is rooted in the breath, Julianna Barwick’s The Harbinger begins the same way, full complete breaths, her song both starts and ends this playlist. Eddie Vedder’s “acoustic at home” version of Just Breathe was actually the first track we dropped into this playlist, everything else built around it. While an epiphany is often associated with lightness and the divine, we have Miya Folick covering Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” (check out her song Thingamajig which is where we first heard her) immediately followed by Death Cab for Cutie covering TLC’s “Waterfalls” – alas we could not work TLC into this playlist, maybe an acoustic No Scrubs has a home on a future playlist… Other choices reinforce the times invoked by Vedder’s “acoustic at home” version of his song – Feels Like Home by Caamp, Lost by Local Natives and in Blue Skies Noah And The Whale write a song for anyone with a broken heart, for anyone who can’t get out of bed. A great need, wanting for, loss and holding onto others fill Superposition by Young the Giant and Wiseblood by Zola Jesus. We seek Redemption with Nathaniel Rateliff – just set me free – and we find ourselves Here Now with Wild Child before the aforementioned epiphanies. Harbinger has been a savasana mainstay for us for years and with a harbinger being the sign of something to come, we remain hopeful that this song foreshadows all things positive. Namaste.

 

While we’ve shared the wildly inspiring, ecstatic and love filled words of Sufi poet Hafiz for years, who would have thought how incredibly relevant and fitting the words from this 14th century master’s poem With That Moon Language would be in the face mask wearing world we live in today. First, Hafiz taps into a universal human truth, at least for us, the desire to be loved – Everyone you see, you say to them, “Love me.” – which for many of us has only been intensified by a zoom filled world with less human contact and opportunity to seek out and/or satisfy our need to be loved. And while Hafiz accurately states we don’t say “Love Me” out loud – whether it’s for fear of someone calling the cops or perhaps the greater fear that our love won’t be returned back – we often say “Love me” without words, we say it with a smile. We put on our “love me” smile when we pass people on the street, go to our local coffee shop, restaurant, gas station, store, getting rung up at the supermarket – and if you’re like us, you love getting that “I do love you” smile back in return. And then last year and the emergence of the facemask changed everything – don’t get us wrong, we see the merits of wearing a facemask on a cold winter day and while we’ve developed a profound/puzzling appreciation for facemask fashion, it has completely robbed us of that smile we have become so reliant on to tell folks “love me”, to satisfy that great pull in us to connect.

And then Hafiz drops this on us—

Why not become the one who lives with full moon in each eye, that is always saying, with that sweet moon language, what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

Whether Hafiz meant it literally or not, his words are just the right ones for these times— at the most basic level by making eye contact we acknowledge and recognize another person, by holding their gaze we can convey so much more— understanding, gratitude, empathy and of course, love. Even with a facemask on, our eyes show when we’re smiling.

So next time you’re rockin’ your favorite facemask and have the good fortune to be in the presence of other humans, what’s it going to be, will you be the one to to live with a full moon in each eye, to say what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

Savasana, corpse/final resting pose, is a reminder that our practice, all the “work” we bring onto the mat, is rounded out with rest. Savasana is all about surrender – letting your body become, well, corpse-like, melting into and fully supported by the earth beneath you. And while it is also a time to surrender thoughts and activity in our mind, rather than checking out, it’s an invitation to check in. Savasana is not a pose that comes after our practice, it is an essential part of our practice – more than just a time to rest and restore, it’s a time where we fully absorb and integrate everything that came before it – in the asana (posture) practice we often use the phrase “muscle memory” – savasana is where those memories become deeply embedded, where things “sink in”. With winter on the way, you can think of our practice as making a hearty soup– we start with water or broth and uncooked vegetables (step onto our mat, sit and center), apply heat to bring things to a boil and then let things simmer and continue to soften (the entirety of our asanas with ujjayi breath) – when everything has sufficiently softened we remove the pot from heat and let it sit covered for a period of time. This has the dual effect of letting things cool down and for flavors to more fully develop – which is exactly what we welcome with the practice of Savasana.

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

While Savasana isn’t an invitation to go to sleep – though if that does happen it may just be telling you that you are in need of more sleep – in the spirit of it being “corpse pose” it is an invitation to “die” – to let go of everything that came before it, for closure – and in the same way, we emerge from Savasana “reborn” – refreshed, open, ready to experience and explore the world. Savasana is a constant reminder to balance out everything we do, our get up and go, with some lie down and let go – who would think we could get so much something from doing nothing? Namaste.

The pose:

Start by lying on your back. If you are in the second or third trimester of pregnancy lie on your left side to avoid putting pressure on the vena cava vein.

Take the time to set yourself for surrender – note any discomfort and make adjustments – for example, take the pose with bent knees or use a bolster or blocks under your legs for lower back pain, a blanket under your head, widen your arms away from your body so the backs of your hands can lay flat. Discomfort can also take the form of being cold – a second layer or blanket may be something you consider if this proves a distraction.

Even after you are comfortable, it’s always helpful to take a scan of the body from feet to top crown of head to see where you may have physical resistance or aren’t letting go.

In a similar vein, if you find yourself restless at the start you can let your head roll from side to side, decreasing the amount of roll until it eventually finds center. If you find yourself distracted and wandering, you can bring yourself back to the moment by focusing on your now “natural” inhales and exhales or even a mantra. You can do that same to bring yourself back if you are nodding off.

Give yourself all the time you need in Savasana – it’s recommended you give yourself at least 5 minutes and feel free to take 5, 10 or more based on how long you practiced prior and what you need.

To come out of Savasana, you can start by letting your breath become more full, wiggle your fingers and toes to reawaken your body, bend your knees and bring your feet flat onto the earth, extend your arms overhead and roll off to your right side, making a pillow out of your right biceps. You can find several explanations for rolling to the right, it’s often said that it has a calming effect, which is desired if you plan to sit in meditation, or that the heart sits on the left side and therefore lying on the right keeps it free of pressure.

Once you have adjusted on your right side, bring yourself up to sit. You can press your left hand into the earth to do this, letting your head be the last thing to come up.

Find a comfortable cross legged seat in whatever variation you please. Whether you choose to continue with meditation or are bringing your practice to a close, give yourself a few breaths to take in the moment and seal in your practice.