Yoga Is..

Yoga practice isn't just exercise.. It is about open observation, that allows one to see (by feeling) what resonates with the inner rightness.. To learn to trust in what feels right and good and let go of all that feels tangled and wrong.. 

Yoga practice clears the slate so that we are free of our past.. 

Allows us to put the tangled knot of energetic, mental and emotional yarns down..

And when we pick it up as we leave the mat, we are more clear, the space has allowed it to loosen, and we are lighter. 

We are not our troubles, or the fearful grinding in our heads.. We are the loving-silent light that shines through the eyes and senses into this world, we are the soul that witnesses and delights and mourns in this brief merging of matter and spirit..

...dancing in and out of lifetimes...

Particles and consciousness knowing each other in arrangement after arrangement, and revering the beauty of each other's prism (body & life shape).. Like magnets playing in metal filings, arranging and rearranging intricate plays to stretch the limits of the infinite interface of metaphysical and physical. 

Dare you get stuck in just this current role and story, remember that you are an energy that is neither created nor destroyed, only changing in form. You are the actor, not the play. 

Yoga resets our clarity and connection to the part of us that is untarnishable and beyond this one trip in the world. Set your anchor in what is transient, you will suffer greatly, overwhelmed and confused.. Set your anchor in your consciousness, and you will know your truth without fear again.

Embarasment, Empowering Each Other, & Transcendence

It is not by disappointment in each other, disregard or force that we best catalyze each other's growth... 

When I am at my weakest, it is in seeing my reflection in the heart of those that love me and see nothing but the goodness of my heart, even when I fall far short of that mark, that uplifts and empowers me to face the sharp sting of messing up, to grow stronger and rise above it where I belong, shining brighter. Love ennobles us to transcend our shortcomings gracefully and without trauma.

We learn through our mistakes. It hurts like hell to truly mess up, and the burn serves as a reminder that we carry within, not to make the same mistake again. 

We often let the embarrassment of the revelation of our deficiency trap us in a cycle of shame.. But this is to debilitate ourselves and wallow in our own refuse, and does us not, nor any others, a bit of good. Self-pity is an ugly place to hang out, not very becoming on a human. Not productive in any positive way, it's just a lazy masochistic loop.

The pain of falling flat and messing up is like the wound of food poisoning. We lose all desire to repeat the same offense. We have no desire to eat the same food item for sometimes years or the rest of our days. So do our mistakes serve us, to grow us, if we allow them to be such.

"Love me most when I least deserve it for it is when I am most in need" ~Swedish Proverb 

Somewhere between letting go of unattainable ideals divorced from reality and genuine striving with everything you have within you and maybe just a little more, is a place. I'll meet you there.. Where we are very human, very authentic, and full of love. It is the place where the fullest potential is alive, and where honesty trumps pride. Truth and love, growing patience like a muscle, and total forgiveness are crucial qualities. Within those four pillars, we are everything we are meant to be. Messy, sloppy, sometimes tear-streaked, but full of honest love and reverence. Eyes shining, alive in our greatest potential...

Perfection and embarrassment have new meanings in the truly free spirit's vocabulary.

Perfection is complete honesty and giving all one has to embody their truth externally & internally, in the midst of all the quirks, roadblocks and of reality's detours. Integrity with one's own truth and with reality without resistance..

Embarrassment is the stinging slap of opening one's eyes to see a little clearer, like the clarifying slap to the cheek of one once hysterical. 

Shame has no place in our world, if we learn our lessons and forgive. No one needs an albatross around their neck anymore. We are all human afterall..The perfect wild stormy synthesis between physical and metaphysical energies. All-at-once sacred and just for fun, here we are in our perfect imperfection to love, laugh, cry, grow and revere. 

How We Need Structure to Be Free...

Dear Beautiful Universe;

Many of us have issues with constraints..

Limitations.. deadlines... relationships... parameters...

And many on the path believe so ardently in living in the present moment that they don't want to impose any structure in their life, make any plans, or dream too much..

But what I have learned is this:

Structure can be constraining and imprisoning, if it is contrived.. if it is imposed as a rule, and not as a reflection of the truth revealed in the stream of life itself, it chokes off and prevents freedom.

The biggest way we get caught in the trap of unhealthy limitation is in adhering to labels and a concept that comes along with them.. I'm vegan, I'm Catholic, I'm diabetic, I'm single.. what are we buying into when we let something that is meant to be helpful to our understanding of life experiences and who we are control us? This reminds me of when I see my students reaching out of alignment to use the yoga blocks where they are- who is serving who here??

On the mat I teach that there is a foundational structure, rooting into the earth from the third chakra downward, we tighten and tone those muscles for support.  By creating that matrix, that structure, we consciously guide the flow of life energy through the body, instead of letting it haphazardly fall where it may.

I am an advocate of remaining connected to the present always, in communion via the sensations of the body and emotions, but I do not believe that all structure constrains, nor does laying down energetic groundwork for your inspirations to manifest in the future deter one from this connection to here and now. I have found that intelligently and consciously utilized structure liberates, as long as it emanates from one's experience, and is allowed to evolve as the present truth indicates. Structure is meant to serve your freedom, to direct the flow of energy to liberate you, NOT to stifle you.

Daily rituals and routines should not limit you, but follow the natural flow of your energy and inspiration and make best use of it, even amplify it.

A big part of getting free to be authentic and thus stop suffering is to question everything, to look at everything in barest most open observation and see if it is serving the flow of your consciousness and creative expression into this world.

Dreams are necessary, or else we drift unfocused and waste our potential.  We have to balance inspired flowing and floating with just a touch of conscious direction so as to manifest the visions we see in our hearts.  However, the gap between points A & B are filled with so many unknowns, and the eventual outcome may look nothing like how we saw it.  Yet, its our vision that takes us there, one moment at a time.

We cannot be free is we let ourselves flow into eddies and get stuck in dead-end cycles.  Like a bonsai tree is shaped, we shape our lives by the choices we make and the actions we take.  This is a receptive activity that we must find, as it cannot be all passive.

Contemplate this.. where you can implement inspired structure to get you past your roadblocks and stagnant times, and when that slowed-down feeling arises again, change the structure.

DO NOT get so caught in the trip of structure that you forget that you are in control of your happiness in the moment. You are free.. you just let layer upon layer of "should" and "should not" stand in your way. If it isn't harmful to another and arises joyously out of your heart, it is good and right and nothing should stand in the way. You are your inspiration. You are your passion. You are everything that you truly admire in the world! You just need to get out of your own way. 

Much love. ;) ~Laura