Hi All, I meant to post this blog pre-Mother's Day, but I didn't get around to it! I do feel like this last mini-workshop (tripod to side crows) and today's 55 minutes class, which did a lot of focus on the core, twisting, and obliques, as well as stability, is very fitting for Mother's Day. I hope that you have fun playing around with these poses! I like the short mini-workshop flow, because I like twisting to one side, feeling off kilter and then balancing on that side and finding stability. To then go from one side crow and recenter yourself to a tripod and then go off kilter and twist to side crow to the other side and then regain stability and balance is challenging! This challenge of twisting from side to side and regaining stability, engaging the core in order to change directions and recenter, balance in a neutral inverted position, and then engage the core to adapt and find stability twisting into side crow on the other side is metaphoric for our ability and power in ourselves to be thrown off (we all have been this past year plus!), but to regain balance and stability, only to be thrown off again, forced to reset, and move in the opposite direction. Our physical ability to twist and turn to both sides, to always make sure what we do on one side we do on the other is true of our emotional and mental abilities as well (even though we may not always see this as the case). AND...nothing is more true than finding yourself thrown off and having to steady and adapt RIGHT AWAY than being a mother!
Yoga and it's poses, challenging, neutral, passive, restorative, whatever they may be, puts our body in unique and different positions. It enhances our flexibility while also strengthening our muscles. This flexibility and strength is intrinsic in ourselves, it is at the core of our existence whether physically or metaphorically. DON'T think that if you can't twist and turn and rise up into tripod and side crow that you are not empowered. This is why I ask in any of these mini-workshops that we work through several exercises that lead up to this final peak pose. All of the exercises challenge our flexibility, strength, and balance and all are done on both sides. The training of your body to do ANY of these exercises and the act of recentering in order to turn to the opposite direction is what is important, NOT how you look or what you can do. (This is the same for being a mother - the lunches just have to be made, the laundry just has to be done, the kids just need to be kept alive and healthy - it's the journey and process of parenting, not the "look."). In anything that we do (and, yes, I'm really bad at this) we need to find compassion for ourselves and just embrace what we ARE doing, not what we could do, should do, and are not doing.
For those mothers out there, I hope that this day has been special, take a deep breath and ready yourself for 364 days of "mommy, mommy, mommy" exhale and enjoy the rest of this special day.
What a weekend it has been for the Sosne family and Sosne dependents :)