Mysteries of Relationship

Last week the Breath was about karmic relationships, today- it’s physical relationships… of the body-type, and how we perceive those relationships among this/that/these & those. Body parts reverberate to one another in much the same way we vibrate personally to one another. Not only is the body in constant re-balancing left to right, but it correlates and adjusts diagonally across, as well as up and down. How we stand affects how we think. How we twist correlates to how we digest. How we backbend affects not only spine, therefore nervous system, but point of view, lung capacity, and the courageous configuration of the heart.

Movement affects the shape of who we are, and particularly Asana re-works not only physical form, but emotional and mental shapes as well. “When we are stuck in our shapes, we are stuck in our energetic matrix.”* The breath is another body, subtle but powerful, and when the breathing/Pranayama body can’t change, it affects the many subtle layers of mind, emotion, and physical. The more consciously we are able to connect and strengthen these multiplicity of relationships, within and without, the more profound life becomes.

What holds a body together? What makes these millions of relationships possible? Prana/energy. In the body, fascia is the pranic force, for it holds the form of individual muscles and bones; 72,000 silken threads connect tissue to subtle body matter such as nadis, nerves, and energy lines. When life becomes too overwhelming, when we are drowning fears from loss of control, changing just one thing offers solutions. It is the crack that lets in the light. Starting with the body is do-able. It’s like putting on a great outfit, it gives gumption to move into the overwhelm, not run from it.

How are you sitting right now? Is the head forward of the neck? Are shoulders and spine slumped over? Is the neck tense, your butt bottomed out? Are your feelings the same ‘shape’ as your body; slumpy, dis-connected, over-worked, & burdened? Lift an inch into the light, let the head roll back, take a long buttery breath, allow everything you are carrying to slide off the back. Call upon the body’s magnificent relationships, the true shape of who you are, then let the bones move you onward. (*Doug Keller)

POSE WITH SEASONAL NOTES:

ASANA: ‘Sit-At-Your-Desk-Pose. Find a new vibrancy to inhabit this same old, tired shape. Fill every inch with pranic delight. Re-new this new pose every hour. Watch your old life re-shape itself.

HEALTH NOTES: Re-charging daily patterns, doing the un-dramatic, tiny step by step consciousness dance cracks open big doors/big light/big drama…of the best sort.

ASTROLOGY NOTES: Venus rules both Taurus and Libra. In Taurus she is earthy and stubborn, in Libra she is cultured and seeks relationship in order to know herself. We have all been working on every kind of relationship lately. Have you noticed? One of the reasons for this is Saturn moving through Libra. Saturn asks we build a better mouse trap, setting to right any un-balanced Libra polarities. Venus, as Libra’s ruler, asks us to do these relationships with grace, beauty, and strategy.

AYURVEDIC NOTES: Fall’s changeable weather makes it difficult to remain balanced. This is the territory of Vata Dosha. In order to bring the erratic, airy, windy, light, changeable energies of Vata into correct relationship, do the opposite dance: Have a tempered Practice, eat root vegetables that ground the body, massage dry skin with sweet smelling oils, keep regular hours, especially bedtime, take as much personal ‘I’ out of your dealing with others…make it ‘us.’ What do we need to be in balanced relationship?