I have had the very great honour of being trusted with my children’s learning these last few weeks, it has given me chance to share with them a mutual love of myth and legend. Whilst reading alongside them I came across this truth “Crucially, myths are also the foundation of religions; they define cultures and codify their values”. Our culture’s myths define our belief system - so the question becomes how are you allowing stories to frame your beliefs around yourself and your practice?


Practice restorative poses this week, create a sequence as a whole or chose just one pose, take your time to be in it but also see if you can catch your feelings in and around these poses, your belief system. Know that you are not “doing it wrong” when these feelings arise - it is all part of the process and the chances are you are right on schedule.

Do you believe you aren’t doing enough, that this isn’t practice? That you should be working harder? Can you reframe what is hard? Stillness is hard, letting go is hard - can you release the grip in the jaw, the belly? For many that is hard. 


Do you see it as time for collapse for a nap? Mr Iyengar always said if sleep comes take it as a sign that your system needed it so don’t berate yourself if it happens instead could you find a way to bring more rest to your life?  What if you could practice falling awake rather than falling asleep in these poses, what would that feel like? 


Are you becoming agitated because you believe you should be emptying your mind and the quiet won’t come? Could you let yourself trust that, for now, the the thoughts will keep coming and that is ok, if you haven’t given yourself space to feel for quite some time, the mind may have some churning to do - let it churn, neither become attached to the churning nor try to fight or hold back the churning, simply step back and allow - trust that over time (minutes, days, weeks, years…) it will settle, it will slow - the thoughts will still wander in from time to time but they will not ruffle the consciousness the way they once did.


How do you feel about taking the appropriate support to find ease within the pose? Do you lay your props out with care the way you would lay the table for a beloved guest, or do you throw them down and hope for the best? Are you not the beloved guest within your pose? 


The essence of these poses is to be with yourself, to hear your stories and over time, with practice, find comfort and ease in the pose and in your own skin, to come home to yourself. This is not an easy practice, but it is ultimately a deeply rewarding and restorative one, as Glennon Doyle says “We can do hard things”. Don’t force, just be. Opening the chest can be overwhelming especially if there is underlying grief so if you find yourself there just sit, or lay with your spine supported, find your ground, take in the sensation of support and let that be enough for today.


Finally another poem to accompany the week:


"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees 
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.                         
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Sat outside the Shak, in 'lockdown' it strikes me that the gate is still metaphorically wide open. That now, more than ever is the time to cultivate the sensation of freedom - inner freedom. Now is the time for all of us to step into our own practice and cultivate the skills we have been learning; the ability to sit with our sensations of fear, of uncertainty or whatever else we are experiencing and to trust that this too shall pass.

Those of you who have practiced with me for a long time do not need my instruction in asana, you know the poses and if you don't invest in a copy of B.K.S's Light on Yoga it will give you all you need to find the pose. Here we will work inwardly, we will explore deeply, we will let the asana create something within us to connect us through these curious times. This is new for all of us, but I want to share some of the processes I go through to share Yoga with you each week in the hope that we can keep adding to your toolbox as Yoga practitioners. Let's share this time deepening a home practice which will make us all so much richer when we find each other again on the other side.

Who knows where this journey will take us but I look forward to some company on the way.

​There is no need to do more than you feel able, if you only want to pick one or two poses from a sequence that is fine. Focus more on allowing yourself to be in the pose for sometime and see where you might find the space to cultivate the sensation of freedom whilst you are there. Please remember to take whatever props you need to support you - bricks, blocks, chairs, straps or whatever you can find at home that would be a good substitute. I am not there to keep my eye on you so now more than ever heed the words I always say to new starters "listen to your body before you listen to me"

Notice what arises for you before, during or after practicing - do you struggle to get on the mat? Do you rush through the poses? Do you struggle to trust that you know what you are doing? Do you fight against taking support? All of this is normal, noticing is part of the practice, if you feel moved to do so start a practice journal so you can remember where you have been, I would love for some of you to share your stories along the way.

Finally I leave you with the words of David Whyte:

Start Close Inby David Whyte 
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

​

A David Whyte poem from
River Flow: New & Selected Poems
Many Rivers Press
​