Infinite Bliss Yoga

it's on the tip of your tongue.
you know the experience you're having.
you just don't have the words to describe it yet.
this space between experience and speech is
soft.
like ghee.
not yet hardened by pronunciation.
it is an opportunity for clarity.

November 2007

to be optimal
isn't just trying to balance by bringing more of the opposite
or reducing excess.
it is to take the situation we're receiving to a whole new level.
the flickering of fire becomes the steady illumination of tejas.
hyper-mobility is efficiently directed along the pranic winds.
a tendency toward staying in the same state holds the promise of
contentment.

when the head moves back, the heart is unveiled.
just by virtue of not pushing forward, clutching forward, or contriving our way forward.
the love of your life walks in the room,
and everything else just recedes.

things of value invite us to two challenges.
they stabilize what is volatile.
think of the place you have chosen to live, sweethearts, children, friends.
think specifically about your personal volatility before these valuables were gifted to you.
but, they also shake us up.
think of something so important that you would move for it. that you would leave for it.
that you would pull yourself from the trenches and go running towards it.
what matters enough that you would engage it?
what matters enough that you would embrace it?
this month, make a sweet choice to hug in so that the moving is gentle.

months of practice have been spent moving more towards the core,
and now we radiate out.
our countenance becomes more vibrant, more awake.
we are more mentally dexterous, more creative, more mobile.
we become the offering from our hearts to each other and to
ourselves.

the next focus in the pulsebeat of the practice
is the ever-contracting spiral
this is the one that fires us up, creates a lift, and fuels another kind of expansive fireworks.
we keep the freedom (of our legs, pelvis, hamstrings, and more)
even as we move forward into the shape of our
choice.

it’s time to splash around, play around, get serious about lila, the divine game of hide-and-seek.
The rules we’ve learned so far are
1. place yourself well and open to Grace.
2. Draw on your inherent, sufficient power.
Which leads us to #3.
it is this contained power that fuels the ever-expanding spiral of the legs and pelvis.
What does this mean for our practice?
We become more fluid and are more receptive, more like water.
And, like water, we can become shape-shifters, making our forms fit perfectly to where we are and who we need to become.

last month we set our foundation and got brighter from the inside.
this month we hug on to that brightness.
we pull to the middle,
pull ourselves together,
and gather the diverse parts into a meaningful whole.
our kula, the community of the heart, becomes more than just the sum of its parts.

when you come to your mat this month, put your attention on your
foundation.
the manner in which you set the foundation reflects your intention.
your intention is your heart’s desire.
it is the iccha, the urge, the longing that brings you to the practice.
the practice is what helps us get better and better at taking our seat with confidence and feel supported enough to
open to grace.

the only way to figure out the universe is to endeavor to figure out the universe.
The more we endeavor, the more we try, the more we can figure out.
The figuring out allows us to be more confident and comfortable in our
endeavors.

once more, with feeling.

as Infinite Bliss celebrates its FIFTH anniversary, we move towards a deeper exploration of how
we can continue to be in love with a practice.
we start out madly, passionately pursuing the practice, new poses, new friends, and are rewarded in kind.
then, we start to know the story before it’s even told. we anticipate the next move. we’ve made this connection before.
it is both comforting and definitively less exciting.
yoga invites us to a reinterpretation of the story, a retelling in our own words in our own bodies.
we are not mandated to not change it. we are called to make it more meaningful.

one year turns into another
we turn over a new leaf, turn the page, take a turn for the better
turn towards that which matters.
(what’s interesting? what’s important?)
you can’t do just anything,
but everything you do is what you choose to do.
instead of life happening to you,
make a turn in
some certain direction,
make a choice that comes from the steadiness of drawing to the middle.
then the heart is free to lead.