Yoga Teacher Trainingat the Yoga and Movement Center, Walnut Creek, CA
starts Sept. 6th (Connie teaches Sanskrit module in November)
space still available - for more information: http://www.yoga-movement.com/advancedstudies.asp
Yoga for Autumn Yoga for Autumn will be incorporated into Connie's YiY classes sometime during the month of October.
Time to head home. I walked out of my Palo Alto office, down the long hall that leads to the parking garage behind the building. I clicked my remote, unlocked the door, and was just about to open it when I saw it -- a parking ticket. How unfair! I had been parking in this structure for over a year, often for a few hours at a time, with no problems. Yes, the sign says 3 hour parking, but it was never an issue until today. I was frustrated. Oh well...another $25 down the drain. Better be more careful next time.
I noticed that the car next to me -- a BMW -- also had received a ticket, but the driver had (intentionally or unintentionally) dropped the ticket on the ground. It was just what I felt like doing -- this is bullshit! Screw it -- and throw it away. But I knew reality would prevail and eventually it would come back to haunt me -- in the form of a more expensive violation.
. Parking tickets are interesting wake-up calls. This one was only a minor annoyance, fortunately. OK, pay more attention. And follow the rules, even if they're inconvenient, you don't like them, or they don't seem fair.
But I had a period of time a couple months ago in which I received 3 parking tickets within a two week period. Two times a meter ran out, and one time I was ticketed for a space I was accustomed to parking in that recently had been made into a "permit-only" area, unbeknownst to me. This was completely frustrating! The two meters were solely my fault -- I just wasn't paying attention. Wake up!!! Remember to put those quarters in. Stay in the present moment. Often, when I arrive somewhere I'm already focused on where I'm headed and what needs to be done. The problem is that I miss the present, when I need to remember where I am -- parked in front of an empty meter. And I end up paying pretty heavily for simply not being present.
The ticket in the section recently re-zoned for local residents with permits seemed unjust. It had not been that way for long -- or had it? I called the number on the ticket for information, and the city informed me that it had changed six months ago. My goodness! I never noticed the signs they had posted. Had I been that careless or inattentive?
Truthfully, I would not have looked for something different in the familiar place that I park every single week. Yet, isn't that true of our lives? Anything that becomes familiar or routine becomes unconscious. We no longer look at the signs along the street we drive down every day. We don't pay attention to the other foods along the aisle at the grocery store -- we just beeline to our favorite products.
This reminds me of my 3 year old daughter. We're often driving down a familiar road when she yells out "American Flag!" I'm perplexed. There's no flag around here. I pause and gaze around to my right, my left -- oh, over there! I never noticed that building had a flagpole out front with a large Stars and Stripes flying overhead. My daughter doesn't miss anything, because everything is new and exciting, in every moment. As adults, we have lost this ability to be in the "now", and really see what we are looking at. How many flags do we miss, everyday?
In yoga class, once Triangle pose becomes known to us, we tend to stop paying attention. Our mind wanders. We continue to do the pose the same way we always do, and don't look for new sensations, information, or awareness. Parking tickets in the asanas sometimes show up as losing our balance, pulled muscles, or other minor injuries.
I remember one time I was in downward dog, getting ready to jump forward into Uttanasana. I was well warmed up and had very smooth jumpings until that point. I don't recall exactly what had distracted me -- perhaps I was wondering if my neck was OK to do an inversion, or whether the teacher would help me with dropbacks. But it succeeded in drawing my attention away, just as I made my leap. I smashed my toes into the mat and winced in pain. Moving violation, says the yoga master!
My higher self exclaims, "Wake up!! Pay attention!!" What can I discover in this moment that I didn't know before? What important information is out there waiting for me to see? What do I need to learn in order to take better care of myself, find stability, or better alignment in this pose?
Sometimes, we get the "parking ticket" -- maybe new feedback from a teacher, a suggestion to do the pose differently, a little twinge in our back, or whatever -- and we do what the driver of the BMW did: we toss it away. I don't want to change. I already know this pose. I like how I've been doing this for all these years. It's uncomfortable to change the position of my feet. I really notice how weak my legs are, and I don't like that. It's much harder to breathe into my belly or my upper chest, and I'd rather not make the extra effort.
Sure, we can toss the parking ticket aside, but sooner or later it catches up to us again -- in injuries, a static practice that doesn't evolve, or repeatedly running into the limits that we create in our minds. Unconsciousness and ignorance keep us in little, defined boxes. We believe we're really free, but we're just asleep, imagining that we're awake, out of touch with our body, breath, and sensations. The same thoughts run over and over in our heads. The mind takes off on an unconscious trip, like my daughter's toy dog, being pulled by a string.
Freedom, on the mat and in the world, comes not from getting more flexible or getting away with breaking the rules. Sure, it feels better when we're more flexible, and it's fun to get away with stuff. But real freedom arises when we have complete self-awareness and are not run by unconscious habits and perceptions. Rather than just settling for the same old pose, explore it anew, and be open to a different way of practicing it. Rather than being run by the same old worries or irritations, recognize when they arise and focus instead on the sun shining in the window or the wood floor beneath your feet. Your new attention may save you from an accident, or inspire you to connect to a new friend -- well worth a small citation.
Rather than being angry about the parking ticket, fender bender, stubbed toe, or bounced check, pause and reflect. Maybe this is a sacred parking ticket. What is it calling to my attention? How can I wake up? What needs to change? Pay the fine and give thanks for the renewed awareness.
THE POSES THAT SCARE YOU: Working Through Fear in Yoga Practice on Saturday, Sept. 27th, has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. Apologies for any disappointment! If you are interested in this workshop in the future, please email me. connie@awakeningself.com
ADVANCED STUDIES & YOGA TEACHER TRAINING in Walnut Creek, CA, at the Yoga and Movement Center still has space for participants. Connie teaches the Sanskrit module in November. Begins Sept 6th - for information, see their website: http://www.yoga-movement.com/advancedstudies.asp
HAVEN HOUSE THANKS YOU! Many thanks to all of you who so generously brought your donated items to class last month to support the homeless families that are cared for by Haven House in Menlo Park. The kids especially appreciated all the school items! They are always open to receive donations, and they are always in need of volunteers! For info on Haven House, click here: http://www.shelternetwork.org/
haven.html
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Yoga
of the Seasons:
A Season of Gratitude
The end of summer and early autumn begins the flurry of reaping the earth's bounty before the cold season arrives. From August on, the grain harvests begin. These were highly celebrated for millennia, particularly by the Europeans whose very survival through the bitter winter depended on a successful stock of the late summer-autumn grains.
Back in the days when life revolved around the availability of food (unlike today, where modern farming techniques and world-wide shipping enable us to get just about any food we want at any time), this was an exciting and critical time of the year. There are several festivals celebrated throughout the harvest time. The first is early August, honoring the beginning of the harvest (called Lammas or Lughnasad); the second around the Autumnal equinox (known as Mabon); and the third at the end of October, Samhain, expressing gratitude for the last of the crops before settling in for colder weather. In America, we have added our traditional celebration of Thanksgiving, but many don't realize that the season of thankfulness started long before November for our ancestors.
Lammas, in early August, honors the grains that sustain many through long, cold winters. In Europe, the first grains to ripen were usually wheat, barley, and oats, although they were all often lumped in the category considered "corn" - not referring to the yellow corn we are accustomed to in North America, but a general term referring to grain.
Everyone in the community participated in the harvest, as their survival depended on its success. The word Lammas comes from the words "loaf mass", celebrating the bread made from this first grain. The baking of the bread was considered a sacred event, from the reaping and grinding of the grain, to removing it hot from the oven and serving it.
The Europeans weren't the only ones to have an early harvest celebration. In many areas of Africa, especially in Ghana and Nigeria, the popular Yam festival is still held in August, following the end of the rainy season. Yams are the first crop to be harvested, and the most common food in many African countries.
For the early Native Americans, by late summer and early Fall the stalks of corn ripened, and it was a time to rejoice. Creek, Seminole, Iroquis, Yuchi, and Cherokee nations held the Green Corn festival. This typically happened during the full moon when the first ripe ears were ready for harvest, and the tradition continues today. The ceremony lasts for several days, and includes the tasting of the initial crop through various corn-based foods, singing, dancing, and playing.
In some of the European country-folk traditions, the second harvest festival (called Mabon after a Welsh god) occurred around the autumnal equinox, and it often celebrated the grape harvest, as well as the continued bounty of grain. Seeds were gathered for planting future crops. Certainly the Greeks found this an important time of the year, as they honored Dionysus, their god of wine and resurrection.
Then in late October, at the last harvest holiday known as Samhain, was the celebration of the apple harvest, and pomegranates, too. Samhain also honors the coming darkness of winter and the spirit world. The final crops of grains and vegetables were reaped, celebrated, and the people settled in for the dark and cold time of the year. We see bits of this last harvest festival in our secular holiday of Halloween -- for example, the tradition of bobbing for apples!
Around the world, similar rites honor the blessed grains throughout early fall. In Britain, the first sheaf of corn was traditionally offered to the Gods in order to ensure a good harvest next year, and for fertility. The Chinese celebrate Chung Ch'ui with the Full moon that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month (typically in early Sept.). This is considered the birthday of the moon, and special "moon cakes" are baked in a round shape to honor that celestial sphere. Jewish, Greek, and Roman traditions have held their own harvest festivals, usually later in September or October.
What all these celebrations have in common is gratitude. It is a season of feeling grateful for the bounty that the earth has provided us. From now through our American holiday of Thanksgiving in November, remember that the meals on your table have, for ages, been sown, grown, and harvested by the blessing of Mother Nature. We have distanced ourselves so much from this process that we may not notice the harvest from season to season or month to month at our grocery stores.
Get back in touch with the cycle of seasons and the gifts of the earth that we take for granted. Starting your own garden palpably connects you to the experience of sowing, growing, and reaping. You'll never experience what you eat the same as when you've grown it yourself, and you can't help but feel grateful with each fresh and vibrant bite. If that's not feasible, buy your fresh fruits and vegetables from a farmer's market and you'll experience the change of crops from month to month.
Then, see if you can take it a step further. Visit a farm: especially an organic farm that rotates its crops depending upon the season, and marvel at the stalks of wheat, the swelling pumpkins and squashes, the glistening grapes heavy on the vine, or the rosy apples ready to be pressed into cider. Of course, the perfect celebration of this first harvest is baking bread from your favorite grain. As you inhale the delicious aroma and place the first bite in your mouth, feel it as an expression of gratefulness for all that you receive. May you carry this gratitude in your heart through the end of the summer and deep into the autumn season.
