Gifts of my day...

Practiced yoga this morning at a neighborhood studio that I've recently started to attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it was w*o*n*d*e*r*f*u*l.

The instructor introduced me to a new variation of triangle that changed my pose and how I experienced it in the body.

I offered my service to seal my practice on the mat and then stepped off for the earth bound practice of my day.

I look forward to my T/TH class days--I rise at 5:00 AM for a shower and, having already packed my things the night before, I leave my house at 5:45. The studio is just across the river from me and I have just enough time to roll out my mat and breathe into a yin pose to ground.

Class ends at 7:15 and I'm at work by 7:30 to change into my clothes and begin a day with a fresh and open mind and energized body.

Life is good.

This morning, I was able to lift into wheel/back bend for the first time since my surgery, which, as you can probably imagine, left me with tightened abdominal muscles/tissue.

While I held the pose, I couldn't breathe as deeply as I would have liked to stir and stimulate the opening of my chakras but I was breathing and witnessing the body, the sensation of opening that which has been changed. When I came out, there was slight cramping and an abdominal tingling--I rested in child's pose to relieve the sensations and offer gratitude for my recovering body.

It is amazing and humbling to me, how placing myself in the role of student to another teacher reminds me how it feels to step on that mat and move under the guidance of another AND the importance of language, whether that be language as a guide or language as permission, permission to have an authentic experience.

My teacher, this teacher, is a gift to me and I'm glad I ventured the studio practice with her--it was a step outside of my box to practice at another studio other than my comfort zone of the studio where I teach but we need to breathe into those limits that we set and press them wider every chance we get.

This is the living, this is the daring, this is the force...this is the practice.

I see that grace in you that is me, I see the life in you that is me, the light that is me, the hopes and the fears and I honor the connection that binds us to each other...Namaste'