New is Life

Reading from Tuesday, June 11, 2013 yoga class

"Yoga practice, in and of itself, promotes structural stability, physiological immunity, and emotional health.  If we have the good fortune to begin yoga practice when we are young, it will help our bodies develop in a balanced way; or if we come to it as adults, it will help us restore and maintain balance as we grow older.  Structurally, proper practice will promote stability, strength, flexibility, skeletal alignment, and mechinal freedom.  Physiologically, proper practice will balance neurological and hormonal activity, strenthen cardiovascular and respiratory functioning, improve absorption of nutrients and elimination of wastes, and strenthen the body's ability to resist and even overcome chronic disease.  Emotionally, proper practice will increase our self-confidence, our tolerance for those different than us, our compassion for the suffering of ourselves and others, our capacity to withstand change, and our appreciation for the gift of life.

It is through the breath that we can truly link the mind to the body.  The true value of these yoga poses lies in their functional benefit to our own body, not in the objective character of their classical form.  In this way, yoga practice becomes an experimental ground in which we experience, learn, and grow.  With this kind of an open attitude of investigation and discovery, our practice will stay alive and fresh.  In a gradual and progressive way our body will be transformed toward greater balance, strength, and flexibility; and the result will be a deep and effective yoga practice, regardless of the mechanical possibilities of our body."    from the book "Yoga for Wellness" by Gary Kraftsow.

So... in this Tuesday evening class we are going to be experimenting with our perceived limits and to find in a yoga pose, the best place to be on that particular day; not trying to look like everyone else in any given yoga pose. 

I think the following by Anne Lamott says it SO well about yoga AND life:

"If, we stay where we are, where we're stuck--where we're comfortable and safe, we die there--We become like mushrooms--If you want to know only what you already know, you're dying.  You're saying--leave me alone--It's warm and dry--really, it's fine.  When nothing new can get in, that's death.  When oxygen can't find a way in you die--NEW is life!!!"