The Toolbox & The Tree

This moment in some ways feels like the end of the semester and we're headed into the summer break. I've taught my last class and cleaned the studio as we've just completed 17 weeks of live online Zoom classes and it's time for me to take a respite and recharge. Quarantining, social unrest, a challenging economy, and a bunch of uncertainty has offered up a plethora of topics on which to focus over these past four months. The time is ripe for "doing our work" and it feels like we've all undertaken an extended course of study.

Yet, I know that many students feel stranded when their teacher isn't in front of them. I've had experiences, thankfully not that many, where I was subbing a class for another instructor, and upon entering the room their regular students would roll their eyes at the "sub" with even a couple of people leaving before I even began. We get attached to our teachers and our routine. And I am here to reassure you that if you've been coming to the mat with some level of regularity, all of the times you've been live with your teacher, have been embedded in your being, and now is the time to trust all that you know. An embodied practice is your toolbox. Think of every time you've been in savasana, the final relaxation pose of a class, and know that it's during this refractory period that what you have just undertaken is now finding its home within you.

The complementary part of this week's thought is "the tree". Recently, on a call with one of my best friends in Australia, she said I have been like a tree over the past four months as people have come to lean on me. Then she asked, "How are you feeding your tree?" Oooooh! I thought that was a rich question! I feed my tree by taking a good chunk of time off every year and look for someplace to put my feet in the ocean.

All of us are trees in some way - others may come to rely on us for support, some come under our shady canopy for refuge and solace, others admire how our branches are always searching for light and providing a playground for kids, birds, and other critters.

As Friedrich Nietzsche said, "For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks." I thought this to be a most appropriate quote as these times have been hard, our soil being less than optimal and rockier than we could ever have anticipated. We need to know how to dig into our toolbox in order to nurture and nourish our own tree. 

Self-care and recognizing what supports strong roots, solid trunks, and expansion takes a consistency of coming to our mat and asking the question, "What do I need to nourish me in this moment?" Over time, often years, we fill up our toolbox with a variety of skills, becoming deft at adapting the many practices to the present moment.

A couple of tips to stay connected to your practice when you're on your own is to: Roll out your yoga mat and simply get on it. Trust that if you get quiet and listen, asking yourself what you need in the moment, an answer will arise. Second, stick with your routine. If you always practice 9 am on a Monday morning, continue to practice at 9 am on a Monday morning. Keep it as part of your weekly schedule and stick to it. Third, perhaps recruit a yoga buddy and practice online with them. You can support, socialize, and hold each other accountable for sticking with it.

Ultimately, my job is to teach you about yoga and how it fits into your life. It's to open the doors to a deeper understanding of your own needs, to sharpen your inner listening skills, to support you in trusting your intuition, and to let you fly on your own. One image I have when trainees in a yoga teacher course are about to graduate is they are sitting on the edge of the nest and I have one foot at their backside, ready to give them a loving and gentle shove off the edge. They always seem to fly, some even soaring higher than anticipated.

It's time for you to fly. Open your toolbox and love on your tree.

You are so worth it. You can do it. I believe in you.

Integration

Can you visualize a thousand-petal lotus at the top of your head? And, as it blossoms, a radiant white/violet light emanating from this portal shining out into infinite space? If so, you are seeing the energy of the crown chakra, called the Sahasrara Chakra. This week in classes, we have been exploring the seventh chakra and the word associated with it-integration. Not only is the crown chakra supported by and connected to the lower six chakras, but it is also the portal by which we integrate with the vast ocean of collective consciousness.

Imagine standing at the shore of an ocean of consciousness: infinite, eternal, unchanging. As we individuate into each lifetime, by taking on the form of a physical body, it's as though we are holding an empty cup. As we stand at the water's edge, we dip the cup into the vast expanse and carry it with us throughout our entire lifespan. When we die or "drop the body", as they sometimes say in yoga, the physical form dissolves and the internalized universal energy once again merges with the vast collective consciousness.

The tricky thing is we forget this consciousness is an inherent part of who we are, so one aspect of our yoga practice is the removing of obstacles so we can remember we are a micro-reflection of the whole. Our ability to "rise up" into the upper chakras is often set on the foundation of the lower ones. If we don't feel safe (base chakra), are numb to our emotions (sacral chakra), feel powerless in our lives (solar plexus chakra) then it's super challenging to connect to the highest essence of who we are. It is thought that dormant energy sits like a coiled snake at the base of the spine and once the energy centers become clear, the energy rises up through all of the chakras, blossoming at the crown of the head, also known as enlightenment.

The qualities of the crown chakra are experiences of peacefulness, deep joy or bliss. It deepens our spirituality and union with the divine, welcoming a state of thoughtless and doubtless awareness. Yet, it's difficult to have those experiences if not supported in the more earthly chakras, hence, we need to "do our work" through all of the energy centers in order to experience more bliss. In other words, no shortcut exists for a speedy awakening, no insta-enlightenment, or by-passing what we may find challenging along the way.

One practice that takes us to the crown is that of meditation and silence. So many of us have difficulty in what seems like simply being...sitting still, with no distractions including relaxing music or white background noise. Just silence. Unlike the other six chakras, the Sahasrara Chakra has no bija/seed mantra but is all about silence. By practicing silence, we can actually uncover that something else exists within it, and only through experiencing silence, do we discover what is there.

Realize that the path to a deeper inner awareness takes time. It takes repetition and consistency to peel away the multitude of layers that block us from remembering the vast pool of consciousness from which we came. The arduous journey is worth it as, in the end, we are thought to merge back into the collective consciousness. And when we know it's already within us, perhaps we can more easily get to the end of our time and release our physical boundaries and experience the deepest state of surrendering and bliss.

May you come to know and recognize your truest self, your highest vibration, and manifest it in the world through living your soul's purpose and calling. Getting connected to our crown will help reveal to us why we are here in this lifetime and remind us to walk firmly along our own path.