3/14/24 Live Session Recording

Hello!  I watched the recording! I thought it was really interesting in the beginning to feel rotating my hands and how it affected my whole body.  

I also love learning more about Ayurveda.  I have a very pitta dominance.  Living in Phoenix, this can be challenging for me, as I often have a lot of fire in my constitution.  I am not drawn to hot yoga, though.  I just notice my tendency to push and strive.  I also have issues with acid reflux!

When I consider non attachment, I thought that was an interesting viewpoint of "wearing a coat" all of the time.  I notice my brain often wanting to attach to things and thoughts.  I often have a sense of "grasping" and striving.  I notice that this increases when I feel like I am in situations where I have no sense of control.  I also noticed when chatting with my parents where some of this has come from.  My father has seemed very uncomfortable as I have changed throughout the years.  The other day, someone said a judgmental comment to me and my father said "well if you were following the rules, you wouldn't have had that said to you!" It often makes an immediate sense of shame rise in me when I hear this.  Like I am a "bad person".  I definitely get a strange reaction from family members for the interest and work I have in yoga.  They say things like "oh yoga girl", which seem that they don't understand at all.

Letting go is such an interesting topic to me.  I have often been curious what causes people (including myself) to be attached to situations that could be harmful.  

Regarding the chakras, I have found in the past that I tend to lose my voice.  As a speech therapist, this greatly impacts my work when I lose my voice!  I have found it interesting to consider the throat chakra and my communication of my truth and my loss of voice.

I liked the balancing the block on the head activity!  The lifting opposite leg and arm seems great in schools too, as it is crossing the midline!

I briefly joined live for this session, however, could not stay long due to personal reasons and not being in the best head space so decided to watch the recording this week. When I did make the time to watch this recording, I really enjoyed (and needed!) the centering practice and was surprised how much I noticed my body move with the slightest movement of turning my palms. Here are my thoughts on the content this week:

• Balancing emotions – all of them, not just being happy all the time, space for anger, frustration, sadness, etc. This resonated with me as I have been practicing this myself, of allowing myself to feel the range of emotions and not be ashamed of the "harder" or "intense" emotions. I have been letting go of my attachment to feeling like I have to be happy and bubbly all the time, as this is unrealistic and further perpetuates the feelings of shame when I am not feeling that way. 
• Ayurveda – became aware of this when I did a yoga retreat to an Ashram in the fall and have been curious about it as I lean more towards holistic healing methods. I have been looking into it for my gut issues and find the connection is strong not only between how we nourish our body with good, but how our thoughts effect our body and bodily processes. I had not heard of the Constitutions before, but it reminds me that we are all so unique and the more we understand how we were designed to function, we can work with it instead of against it for better alignment.
• Aparigraha – non-attachment, this is something that has been coming a lot lately for me, attachment to both physical things and also how I attach to thoughts, beliefs, etc. I always remind myself that letting go just makes space for better things to come in, although hard in the moment, it is powerful in decreasing distress when I believe that letting go (however painful) will be worth it on the other side. This discussion reminds me of something I read in one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, he used an example of a glass (if I remember correctly) and when it falls and smashes into pieces, if we were attached to it, it would cause us sadness and distress when it breaks and we no longer have it, but if we weren’t so attached to the item in the first place, it wouldn’t hurt so bad when we no longer have it in our lives, and now we can replace the glass with one that we really love in this moment. It always gets me thinking about things I am gripping to when I know they are no longer serving me, it is often my fear and ego that keeps me in that which isn’t serving me (often the comfortable) but I can take comfort in knowing whatever comes from letting go is in my highest and greatest good, so it helps to welcome the next thing (whether it’s an item, person, belief, etc.). I totally agree with noticing the embodied experience to trust our self in making decisions in our best interest, I always feel in my gut and sometimes it is hard to trust that, but it is always in my best interest so continually working on tuning into and trusting my gut!
• Really resonated with what Nelda shared about when you grow and heal, people want you to stay in the place of who you were, but you have grown past that and it changes relationships drastically, I find this is really hard to let go of these relationships because they are a source of comfort but find they get to a place where they are not supporting your growth and so in doing what is best for yourself and your own growth, means letting go on those relationships.
• Chakra system – this is something I have been exploring and connecting more with in the last year or so. I connect colours with each chakra so when I feel out of balance in one place I add more of the corresponding colour in different ways (i.e., what I wear, wheat I eat, etc.). I haven’t learned about ACE’s in terms of chakra imbalances and found this super interesting and applicable! Also the graphic of our spine with the chakra system was new and super interesting to me! We are so connected on so many levels, I love seeing the visuals.
• I also resonated with Lisa L saying, “it is not selfish, it is self-care” and this is something I frequently discuss with the folks I serve at work, especially those who have for so long put others’ needs before their own.
• I enjoyed the movement practice and found the use of the block in tree very useful as I learn how to slow down and back off for trauma informed sequencing. I really liked what you said, Jen, about sitting in the discomfort when we are moving at a slower pace and exploring that. This is something that I’ve shared before, as my yoga history began as an exercise and fast paced and had to be the “best”. I am really enjoying the slowness and sweetness toward myself and my body as I practice in this new way. I also really enjoyed the simplicity (but also challenging!) balancing practice of balancing a block on my head, I will definitely add this to a sequence if I have props available where I am teaching. I also really liked using the chair for the whole sequence as this is new for me, and so welcoming to everyone!

I am responding to the recording for the missed session. I thought the session was good the part that stood out to me the most was the section on the Chakra system. This has long since been an interest of mine and I thought the handouts in the slide were very helpful to give me a better understanding of what each Chakra represents and when people are talking about he different Chakra's I think I get it now. 

Aparigraha was an interesting concept for me as I don't normally think about attachment in anything other then people, maybe just because of the line of work and working with people with attachment issues. Thinking about the ways people (myself) can be attached to so many different things kind of opened a whole line of new thinking for me. 

Ayurveda has always been an important part of my life, I believe in balance in all things mostly including my health. I recently finished a graduate study on herbal medicine and learned so much of and about so many different ways to help the body find balance in all the different systems that I love the way this practice adds to it so beautifully.