August 3, 2009

Eldership

Filed under: Shamanism — TeriLeigh @ 11:33 am

TeriLeigh & Ted as newly initiated elders
with Malidoma Some of the Dagara Tribe of Burkina Faso
Ted, Malidoma, & TeriLeigh

Initiation Our teacher, Malidoma Some, explained to us that the word “initiation” translates into his native language most accurately as “wisdom” or “knowledge”.  What I have come to understand over the last several weeks is that this intiatory wisdom is not information processed through our brains, but rather a knowing that has been downloaded into our DNA, accessed through our bones.  On July 10th (my 36th birthday), thirteen initiates, nine bokaras (previously initiated elders), and countless village supporters gathered on the East Coast Village land in Cherry Plain, NY with our teacher and elder, Malidoma Some.  We initiates surrendered our modern comforts to live in nature, commune with the Spirit World, and be supported in ritual in order to download “knowing” into our bones.

Mother Earth For the duration of the intiation, whenever we weren’t standing or walking, we sat on the ground, root chakra to Mother Earth.  As the root chakra is the earth chakra, in essence, we spent sixteen days in direct connection of the muladara to its source. As the Divine Mother is the ultimate expression of abundance, we were literally plugging our energetic root into the source of all spiritual abundance.

Meals During the first half of the initiation process, we were served African stew infused with spiritual medicine, cooked lovingly by village chef Mother Donna Borden in a big pot over an open fire. We ate with our fingers from clay bowls and drank spirit beer from calabashes.  At the halfway mark, we were given African bows and arrows, and after a short archery lesson, instructed to hunt for our food.  While the bokaras and the village supporters engaged in the hunt with modern weapons, we hiked the mountains in search of an animal willing to offer life to us for our sustenance.  As a group we had a common goal of feeding the village.  Individually, we each found a new piece of ourselves in the mountain woods.  We were blessed with a rabbit and a porcupine, and our vegan fast was broken with a ritual feast.  (fyi - porcupine tastes like beef)

Life & Death Early in the initiation we explored the value of life.  We took long slow morning walks in the woods, careful not to kill or destroy any life along our path.  The bokaras swept our featherheadspath of ants, snakes, tadpoles, and spiders as we mindfully held the sacredness of life.  Then, a week later, we hunted for our food, asking the same creatures that we had carefully spared to offer their lives for ours.  At the same time, we explored our own mortality, on a spiritual level.  The bokara cared for us.  They fed us, they tended to our needs, they kept vigil for us each night, feeding our spiritual fire.  Then, halfway through the initiation, we began the death process.  Through a shaming ritual provided by the village community, we learned to let go of our egos, to put the past behind us, to allow resentments, pains, traumas and abuses of our human lives to die so that we may be spiritually reborn.  Each day we bathed in ash to bring us closer to spirit, until eventually, we experienced our own funerals.

Homecoming In the end we relinquished all that we had (everything that had touched our bodies throughout the initiation), shaved our heads of all that we were so as to step into our new roles as elders.  Then, and only then, baldieswe were allowed to bathe in clean water, given fresh clothing (our ceremonial African gowns “boubous” - which many of you helped decorate), provided with a stool (as symbolic of the elevation to elder status) and a staff (as symbolic of the wisdom we now hold in our bones).  We ran into the laps of the ancestors, reborn as elders, as witnessed by our community, and danced in celebration at our Homecoming.  Over 150 people came to dance, drum, and feast with us.  They thanked us for our willingness to step into these roles.  Then, a week later, Ted and I returned home to Minnesota where many of you gathered at our home for a second Homecoming.

What’s Next?
While my brain can utilize symbolism and metaphor to attempt to explain what I experienced, the truth is that my bones can only communicate through an energetic frequency, a transference I am sure many of you will sense and feel in the coming months.  Many of you have asked me what this eldership is providing for me, how I have changed from this experience.  The best answer I can offer you is to simply request that you watch me over the coming months and witness the effects for yourself.  I don’t know what this experience has done; the changes are subtle, yet profound.

Follow me on Facebook for more:  photos, stories, and events as the transformation unfolds.

My Fellow Elders
Malidoma Some - initiated 1999

2003 Elders

Laura Bowman
Yves Nazon
Cindy Parrish
Carol Schoeneberger
Jeremy Seeger
David Sprague
Theresa Thomas
Deborah Torrance
Robert Walker
Peggy Zamierowski

2009 Elders

Holly Brown
James Durvasa Clark
Sheila Evans
Glenn Leisching
Jonathan Post-Brewer
Ukumbwa Sauti
Ted Schmidt
TeriLeigh Schmidt
Ann Sousa
Floyd Striegel
Theresa Sykes-Brittany
Alwyn Thomas
Hank Walcott
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June 12, 2009

Pineapple Sweet Potatoes

Filed under: recipes — TeriLeigh @ 4:54 pm

sweet potatoesAs spring turns into summer, we tend to feel lighter, and thus our cravings for grounding foods (potatoes, carrots, and beets) dissipate.  But, our world is in turmoil, and grounding now is more important than ever. The ever popular potato salad of summer picnics can get boring, so I offer this option, mixing tropical summer fruit with grounding sweet potatoes or yams to lighten what seems like a heavy food.  Plus, it’s super easy.

  • 5-6 medium to large sweet potatoes, baked, peeled, and mashed
  • 1 medium fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced into small tidbits
  • salt and pepper to taste

After mashing the baked sweet potatoes, mix in the pineapple tidbits and bake for another 10-15 minutes.  Serve hot, or chill and serve as a dip for crisp veggies or chips.
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Pose of the Month Locust - Salabasana

Filed under: Yoga Poses — TeriLeigh @ 4:53 pm
locust pose
In the Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga practice, after a sweaty and intense standing series, the first pose on the floor is more often than not, salabasana, locust pose.  It is a welcome respite to lay belly down on the floor two thirds of the way through class.  But, class is not over.  In fact, many instructors say that when you get to the floor poses, the “real yoga” is just beginning, that the whole standing series is just warm-up.

photo by Sheryl Braun www.soulshinephoto.net
If you look at your yoga mat as a mirror, or a window to your soul, locust pose is the perfect place to set the intention to open your heart to yourself.  Backbends are heart openers, poses designed to build compassion, foster forgiveness, and express love.  However, we can only love, forgive, and feel compassion for others to the same degree that we offer it to ourselves.  So as we begin locust pose, we are face to face with ourselves in the mirror of our mats.  Then as you lift, imagine your mat as the mirror and see how your heart distorts slightly larger and larger as you lift higher and higher, just as an object distorts longer in a mirror when the mirror is tilted at an angle.  This is symbolic of the energy cultivated in locust pose, our heart energy grows from the center of our chest out into the vast space before our eyes.

The beauty of locust pose is that it is almost impossible to injure yourself while performing this pose (how can we harm ourselves in an expression of self-love).  For those with back injuries, tightness, or pain, locust is an excellent alternative to some of the more intense spine strengthening poses such as bow, camel, bridge, or wheel.  Using only the muscles of your spine to lift your limbs (be sure not to use your hands or arms while lifting) builds the muscles that surround each vertebra from the neck to the coccyx.  Repeated practice of locust pose creates two rope like formations of muscles running up and down the spine, pulling the backbone deeper into the body, and protecting each tender joint of the vertebra with solid strong muscular tissue.  This pose and variations (like superman) is prescribed to many physical therapy clients suffering from back pain.

Alignment

  • lay on your belly with your chin slightly tucked and lift your chest, arms and legs while keeping your neck soft.
  • activate the belly muscles and the thigh muscles to find more strength to lift higher
  • pull your shoulders away from your ears
  • look first down at your mat, as if gazing into your own eyes, then as you lift, watch for the glow of your heart as it extends forward
  • keep the natural curve in your spine both at the neck and the lumbar spine.  overextension of the neck is symbolic of “sticking out your chin” or overextending yourself to fulfill the desires and needs of others before yourself, or can be symbolic of “putting your nose where it doesn’t belong” by letting your nose or face guide the pose instead of your heart
  • remember to alternate which way you look between sets to stretch both sides of the neck.  This energetically teaches your body to look at situations from all different perspectives and viewpoints and helps with forgiveness and understanding.


Modifications

  • arm variations:  bind hands behind your back, gently place hands palms down by the hips to lightly drag mat back and heart forward, interlace hands behind the head, reach arms forward overhead “superman” style, extend arms long by your sides,
  • leg variations:  big toes touch, heels and toes touch, feet six inches apart, legs stay flat on the ground while upper chest lifts
  • leave your forehead on the floor until the strength of your spine lifts it off the floor, this softens tension in the neck
  • place palms and elbows flat together under the body (Bikram style), mouth or chin on the floor, and lift only the legs, strengthening the lower back muscles
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May 1, 2009

Eagle Pose

Filed under: Yoga Poses — TeriLeigh @ 12:12 pm
Pose of the Month - May
Eagle - Garudasana
eagle poseEagle pose is named for Garuda, a mighty bird whose story is told in the first book of the Mahabharata.  Garuda is said to have brought nectar to earth from heaven. When Garuda first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age.  He was “too big” so to speak, so the gods begged him for mercy, and he agreed to reduce himself in size and energy.

In essence, each of us holds a little bit of Garuda energy inside us.  We are spiritual beings, larger than life, and once we are born into this human world, we reduce ourselves in size and energy.  Our physical bodies are limiting to our spiritual capabilities.  In performing eagle pose, we start large, with arms and legs open and expanded, and reduce our size to pull into ourselves, hold the pose, and then release back into the vastness.  As spiritual beings living a human experience, we are constantly challenged to bring the nectar of heaven to earth, which is what Garuda is known to have done.

photo from www.givingyoga.org

Physically, when we perform eagle pose, we constrict the blood flow of the body at every major joint (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, and wrists).  This constriction of the blood flow produces a tourniquet effect, squeezing the blood out of the joint.  While holding the pose and breathing deeply, the heart is able to oxygenate the blood that is not affected by the tourniquet.  When the pose is released, that freshly oxygenated blood from the heart rushes to the dammed points at the joints, like a pressure washer, it cleans out the joints of toxins and poisons.  Energetically, each breath is like a download of Spirit to the physical system, so when the tourniquet effect is released, we are flushing our bodies with the essence of Spirit, that “larger than lifeness”.  By making ourselves small, reducing our size and energy in eagle pose, we are pulling into ourselves to reconnect with the spiritual largeness of our being, to drink of the nectar from heaven and bring it to earth.

On another level, eagle pose is extremely self-nurturing and centering.  On one side, we are wrapping the feminine energies of surrender, nurturing, and support around the masculine energies of action and power and strength.  Our feminine is loving and holding our masculine.  On the other side, we are wrapping the masculine energies of giving and strength and power around the feminine energies of support and surrender.  Our masculine is providing for our feminine.  Thus, this pose is the physical representation of merging our left and right sides of our bodies (see Body Wisdom) or balancing our yin and yang, or equalizing sthira and sukha.  Physical balance of eagle pose on one leg will not occur until you balance effort and grace.  Try too hard and you will fall, relax too much and you will fall.  Find center, and you can hold.

Alignment

  • root the bottom foot deep into the earth and bend the bottom knee as if in chair pose.  The grounding of this pose is important to maintain the connection to our humanity as we tap into the energy of greatness that we learn from Garuda.
  • wrap the top leg over and around the bottom leg, constricting at the inner thighs, knees, and eventually ankles.  Squeeze all light and air from between the legs as you sit deeper into the heel of commitment of the bottom leg.
  • wrap the same arm of the upper leg (if right leg is on top, the right arm is underneath) under and around the other arm, constricting at the inner elbows, forearms, and eventually the wrists.
  • lift the elbows and push the wrists away from the face to access the heart chakra, opening both at the breastbone and the space between the shoulder blades.  This teaches that even when our wings are clipped or restrained, we can access the energy of the heart that extends the wings to full expression.
  • pull the chin in and tuck the tailbone down to elongate the spine, balancing the twisted joints around the length, strength, and stability of the center, the spine.

Modifications

  • if you have tender knees or knee injury, it is not recommended that you wrap the top ankle around the bottom calf muscle.  This can be a strain on the meniscus and the AC join in the knee. Allowing the foot to dangle next to the leg will save the strain on the knee.
  • if balance is an extreme challenge, or you are hindered by foot pain such as plantar fasciitis, using the top foot big toe as a little kickstand on the floor outside the eagle posebottom foot ankle is a nice alternative.  The benefits of this pose then can be focused on the compression at the joints rather than the balance.
  • If wrists are tight or inaccessible to wrap around, the backs of the hands can slap together rather than the palms of the hands.  This will be helpful for those dealing with tendinitis, wrist pain, or tennis elbow.
  • If shoulders are tight or the muscles of the arms are simply too big, wrapping the arms around each other might be simply impossible.  An alternative would be to place each hand on the opposing shoulder in a self-hug, gaining all the benefits of self-nurturing and working to open the heart by pulling the shoulders back.

photo by Sheryl Braun www.soulshinephoto.net
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Recipe for May - Peanut Butter Jalapenos

Filed under: recipes — TeriLeigh @ 12:11 pm

jalepenoOne of my favorite bar foods has always been jalapeno poppers.  The combination of crispy deep-fried breading, cream cheese stuffing and salsa dipping is the perfect flavoring for my tongue that craves a little hot, a little creamy, and crispy greasiness.

This recipe adds a nice twist to the bar favorite and makes it even somewhat healthy.  I discovered it in Denver a few weeks back when my friends made it for me after they enjoyed it at a popular restaurant in Vail.  Plus, it is super easy!  The hardest part is finding the mango chutney in the grocery store…beware, even the market stock boys had to think a moment before guiding me to the right shelf.  A hint, it’s kept with the Indian spices and sauces.

  • jalapeno peppers, cut lengthwise, de-seeded
  • mango chutney
  • peanut butter (the stickier, the better…Whole Foods Market P.B. in bulk works best)

1.  mix mango salsa with peanut butter to taste (I like 1/2 and 1/2)
2.  spread mango chutney/peanut butter mix onto jalapenos
3.  bake until soft
4.  ENJOY!
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Body Wisdom: Right & Left

Filed under: Body Wisdom — TeriLeigh @ 12:10 pm
right and left brain“There is no right or wrong, only right or left.”
-African Saying

We all know that the left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the body.  In addition, the left brain manages logic and reasoning whereas the right brain manages creativity and imagination.  We need both for our bodies to function, and we need both for our daily life tasks.  When starting any project, we need to access the imagination and creative side of our brains to visualize where we want to go and what we want to do, then the logical side of the brain makes it realistic.  All inventions, creations, projects, and manifestations begin in the right brain and become real by the mechanisms of the left brain.

masculineLeft Side - Masculine
Although we call the left side energy “masculine” that does not mean that it is entirely male.  Masculine holds the energy of strength, providing, power, effort, logic, reasoning, analysis, structure, calculation, producing, giving, doing, processing, manipulating, movement and doing.  In yoga, we call this energy sthira.  It is the yang.  As westerners, we tend to depend more heavily upon the masculine energy as we are a masculine or patriarchal society.  Corporate America is very masculine in its energy, always looking to the bottom line of production, seeking results based on data and analysis.

feminineRight Side - Feminine
The right side energy is feminine, but that does not mean weak.  The feminine holds the energy of receiving, holding, nurturing, compassion, creating, visualizing, relaxing, supporting, stillness, surrendering, and grace.  In yoga, we call this energy sukha, or the letting go and giving up to Spirit.  It is the yin.  As westerners, we tend to think of this energy as weak, but in reality it is exactly the opposite.  It takes a great deal of strength to step back and hold the space and let things unfold naturally through Spirit, to know when action is not to be taken.

yin yangSthira/Sukha or Yin/Yang
As a yoga instructor, I teach that yoga means union or the yoke between the two polar opposites, the merging of the masculine/feminine, the uniting of the yin/yang, the balance of sthira/sukha.  Each yoga pose is to be practiced with equal energy of giving and receiving, and balance of effort and relaxation, and thus everything in life becomes a walk on the scale of humanity and spirituality.  We’ve all heard the phrase “we are spiritual beings living a human experience”, yoga teaches us how to bring our spirituality into our humanity and vice versa.
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April 29, 2009

Edgar’s Joy

Filed under: Life Lessons — TeriLeigh @ 3:32 pm

Last week, I met with a client at her home in Denver. The client was nervous about how I might receive her newly adopted dog who greeted me clumsily with a slobbery face and big paws on my shoulders. The mixed breed two-year-old pup was awkward, sloppy, and giddy. The spots on his back vibrated with his tail as an expression of exuberance for life. As I wiped the doggy kisses from my cheek, I felt the giggles inside me remind me of my own toddler days.

When my client told me her dog’s name, Edgar, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and the dog leapt onto his hind legs to lick me on the mouth. My grandfather (who was born on April Fool’s Day) was named Edgar, and was once described to me as the biggest prangster to ever roam the earth. I gave the pup a scratch behind the ears and said, “Hi Grandpa.”Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar CayceA week later, I recounted my encounter with Edgar the dog to my mother and shared a few memories about her father. She reminded me of two other significant Edgars from my life. Edgar Allen Poe,’s stories kept me awake under the covers with a flashlight in middle school. It was while reading The Tell-Tale Heart in seventh grade that I remember thinking I wanted to be a writer who could create physical reactions from words like he did. Edgar Cayce’s books inspired studies in metaphysics, psychic awareness, and spirituality. Reading Cayce’s descriptions of auras was the first time I realized I wasn’t alone in my strange ability to see colors.

Were Poe and Cayce prangster’s as well? I’m sure they had their share of fun in life. But somehow, in death, all of them have wriggled their way into my life and left a lasting impression, dog slobber, beating hearts, psychedelic aura colors and all.

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March 31, 2009

Pose of the Month - Crow Pose - Bakasana

Filed under: Yoga Poses — TeriLeigh @ 10:43 am


crow pose
The first time a teacher told me to try crow pose, I was practicing to a video at home.  Baron Baptiste’s students made it look so easy on the video, but even in studying photos of the pose, the physics of the posture didn’t seem feasible to me.  First there was the challenge of where to place my knees.  How was I supposed to get my knees up in my armpits, that just seemed weird.  Then, to balance on my hands seemed downright impossible.  But I tried it, and like a child, I fell on my nose, and I laughed and tried again, and again, and again.  It took a good three months of trying it everyday and thinking I’d never get beyond the baby crow of one toe on the ground before I had a split second of balance…just a split second because the excitement of it all overwhelmed me and I laughed myself into a fall again.

(photo from www.yogajournal.com)

But, that little taste of balance, that tiny smidgen of success made it even more fun to try again and again and again, day after day.  It quickly went from the most dreaded part of my practice (I’m never gonna be able to do this)to my favorite part of the practice (maybe today I’ll land it).  Then it happened, one day when I wasn’t even really paying attention, when my practice of teetering on and off my back toe got to be so routine that I could go over my grocery list while trying to balance.  That day, I landed it, and held it for five breaths, and could have held it longer.

That’s how crow pose happens.  It has to come from a place of play, a place of trying without attachment to success.  Crow doesn’t happen by trying; it happens magically when you stop caring if you ever get it.  The balance of crow only occurs when you give up control, perfectionism, and accept what is.

Virtually every time I teach crow pose to crow-virgins, someone falls flat on her face, and LAUGHS.  It may look scary, but the floor really isn’t that far away, and so landing on your face won’t hurt that bad.  It’s more fun to try and “fail” than to sit in self-pity and doubt yourself.  Crow brings us back to the child’s mind, the beginner’s attitude.  ‘If at first you fail, try, try again.’  When kids are learning something new, they fall, the fumble, the look and feel awkward, but they keep trying, they keep experimenting.  They enjoy the process of learning so much that once they master it, they want something more to reach for.  This is what crow pose gives us.  Access to the child’s mind and permission to be messy, sloppy, awkward, and fumbling.

Alignment

  • place hands like down dog.  This is your foundation, so establish a solid flat base at the palms of your hands.
  • at first, bend your elbows back like chatarunga, rotating elbows in towards each other. This pulls the strength into the core and protects the wrist and elbow joints.
  • bring your knees as high up on your triceps (by your armpits) as possible and LEAN into your hands.  Don’t kick up, just lean until one toe comes off the floor.
  • LOOK FORWARD - this is key.  Looking forward gives your body and energy the essential LEAN into the crow position, pulling the toes up off the ground naturally.  If you kick you are likely to go too far with momentum and not establish center balance.  When you depend upon momentum to move you in life, you lose your own sense of personal power.  Crow teaches you to trust your own personal power to lift off and soar.
  • Lift one toe, then lean forward, look forward, lean forward, look forward, lean until the second toe gradually lifts off the ground.  Activate the belly muscles to hold yourself in place.  Think of crow as taking baby steps, that we have to learn things by dipping in our toes, and eventually, letting go of the control.  When you let your last toe lift up, it is trusting of yourself.
  • Once up, drop your seat as close to your heels as possible.  Lift the heels, and drop your seat.  Activating the belly muscles and pulling in and up from the center will give you more lift.
  • Once balanced with the seat on the heels, fan your toes like tail feathers and begin to straighten your arms.
  • BREATHE!  It’s easy to forget to breathe as you are trying to balance, and then you lose the magic of the pose.

Modifications

  • for those with significant wrist pain and injuries, crow pose is contraindicated.  Avoid crow until your wrist is strong and stable again.
  • Baby Crow (one toe down) is a very humbling pose to take as you learn how to fly.  The name often holds the stigma of immaturity, but remember that Baby brings us back to the child mind, and this is where PLAY happens.  Allow yourself to play by switching which toe you use as your base.
  • Squatting Frog is a great option as your wrists ache or you are fatigued.
  • Once you have found flight and balance, begin to play with variations such as side crow and one legged crow.  Don’t let go of the playfulness that emerges with crow.
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Abundance & Prosperity

Filed under: Life Lessons — TeriLeigh @ 10:25 am

abundance

Everywhere I turn, the media is touting about these tough economic times.  The words stimulus, recession, economic crisis, bailout, and financial strain have become commonplace in our daily language.  Chances are, we all know someone, relatively close to us, who has recently been laid off, is struggling to avoid foreclosing on their home, or is looking into filing bankruptcy.  Just off the top of my head, I run out of fingers counting friends and loved ones who have been impacted significantly (job loss, business closing, housing struggle) by the “economic downturn.”

Festus Umeojiego, the minister at Unity South Church in Bloomington, MN said last week in his lesson, “I don’t believe we are in a recession; I believe we are in a re-organization of our approach to abundance.”  As the economy shifts and changes, so are our values surrounding money, and we are finding ourselves redefining prosperity and abundance.

I can attest to this re-organization personally.  Almost two years ago, I began to come to the realization that my yoga studio business was failing and would not recover.  I investigated all possible options and determined that closing the business and filing personal bankruptcy was my only option.  Throughout the process, I did and learned what most Americans are doing today.  I took a good hard look at how I was spending my money and cut every corner possible. First, I quit shopping.  Plain and simple, I didn’t set foot inside a store unless it was my local grocery store.  Second, I took steps to reduce my bills such as dropping my landline telephone and reducing my cell phone minutes, turning down the heat in my house and turning off the air conditioner, consciously turning off lights and living by the sunlight more, cooking more and going out less, driving less and walking more.  These simple steps then filtered into lifestyle changes that happened almost naturally.  I found myself cleaning out my closets and giving away things I don’t use anymore, bringing my own cloth bags to the grocery store, habitually picking up litter on my daily morning walks, sitting and talking with my spouse more instead of turning to some external source of entertainment, and so many other things.

I have met a lot of resistance and challenge in my own re-organization of my approach to abundance. I found that when I used language like “I can’t afford” or “I don’t have the money” I would get looks of pity, or feel pangs of scarcity and lack, which didn’t sit so well in my system.  So, I change my approach and started saying things like “I don’t want” or “That’s not for me” or “I would prefer” thus claiming my situation as a choice rather than playing the victim of my failed business and bankruptcy.  But then, the world around me didn’t seem to comprehend the shift I was making because my choices were not of the mainstream.  Case in point, my internet service provider was confused by my choices.  When I would call for tech support or service, they didn’t seem to understand that my internet service is not tied to a landline telephone number, or would try incessantly to sell me an upgrade to a cable television bundle, insisting that it would be cheaper.  Sure, I could pay only $33/month for internet service if I added $66/month for cable television, but $45/month for just internet service was still less money out of my bank account each month.  Instead of arguing with the sales rep about how much I would be saving, I finally just started telling them that I don’t have a television set.  Somehow, that confused them more.  Seems not owning a t.v. is synonomous to being an e.t.  Another example is when I was at the checkout at my grocery store and I handed the bagger my reuseable bag, they insisted on wrapping my ice cream in a plastic bag inside my cloth bag.  When I’d ask them to only use my bags, I’d get any number of rolled eyes, funny looks, or smart remarks.

That was a year ago, but now that the rest of the world seems to be experiencing what I went through two years ago, I don’t get the resistance so much anymore.  My ISP finally decided to assign a dummy phone number to my account and stopped soliciting me for upgrades, and the checkout baggers ask me before reaching for the plastic bags.  My friends and family are asking me about how to clear the clutter in their own homes.  In the meantime, I’m still living life post-bankruptcy: sans credit cards and loans, but also debt-free.  What isn’t paid for via blips on a computer screen in the form of automatic transfers and internet bill-pay, I pay with cash, the old-fashioned greenbacks and coins.  Somehow, having a wallet full of actual money instead of plastic representations has manifested into abundance in my life.  And now, as I read words like stimulus package, bailout, economic downturn, financial crisis, and recession, I get just a little bit excited that someday soon, more of the world around me will realize the abundance that is created through simplifying life.

Perhaps the best definition of abundance I have read recently came from the mouth of one of our nation’s first daughters, Malia Obama. In a very small passage in The Audacity of Hope, Obama quotes Malia when she was seven years old.  She asked him, “Dad, are we rich?”  He explained that although they were better off financially than some, they were not excessively wealthy.  She replied, “Good, I don’t want to be rich.  I want a simple life.”  From the mouths of babes…abundance is found in simplicity, not wealth.  This is what our shifting economy is teaching us.
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Body Wisdom - Wrists - Control vs. Teamwork

Filed under: Body Wisdom — TeriLeigh @ 10:24 am

wristsI love this image of hands holding wrists because it shows our interconnectedness so beautifully.  We’ve all seen the images in movies of someone falling off a rooftop, and someone up above holding them by one hand.  As soon as they get a grasp on the wrist, the person is pulled back to safety.  Holding hands is an expression of endearment, but holding wrists is an expression of merging union, two hands becoming one arm, twice as long, twice as strong.

Energetically, when someone is grabbed by the wrist, it is an assertion of power as one can be pulled and pushed in any direction at the whim of the grabber.  In my one experience with an Aikido class I discovered that a very quick way to subdue an opponent is to bring attacker to a place where their wrist is bent ‘the wrong way’. However, a simple antidote to this victimizing scenario is to return the energetic exchange by taking the grabber by the wrist as well.  This merges the two hands into one arm, and the union becomes a partnership rather than a domination.

The wrist is where we hold the power of  teamwork, and where we hold the stress of control.

I often say in yoga class that those students who struggle with wrist issues are often those who struggle with ‘control freakishness’.   People who identify themselves as perfectionists are more likely to suffer from physical issues with the wrists such as weakness, tendinitis, strains, and even breaks.  Thus, an energetic cure or prescription for wrist pain is to find ways to let go of control in life, to delegate, to work in partnership or as a team player, and to let go of the insistence of doing things yourself and your way.  In essence, to surrender to the wrist grabbing opponent with the attitude, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

For power vinyasa yogis, one of the most common points of strain is the wrist.  When you start to feel wrist pain, it can disrupt your entire practice as sun salutations, chatarungas, down dogs, arm balances and vinyasas all become challenged and painful, and in some cases, impossible.  When the pain gets to this point, where the poses are contraindicated and your doctors are telling you to lay off the yoga, that’s a sign that it’s time to give up control, to be a partner to the yoga instead of being the master to the yoga.

Questions to ask yourself when you struggle with wrist pain are:

  • where in my life do I insist on “my way or the highway” when I could be better served to compromise?
  • where in my life do I insist on doing thing by myself when I coudl be better served to delegate?
  • when does my commitment to quality become crippled by the impossibilities of perfection?
  • in my yoga practice, am I focused too much on doing things ‘right’?
  • on my mat, do I tend to push harder and go farther than my body may be ready because I’m trying to achieve the pose at it looks in the picture of the master?

Yoga Practice Prescriptions for wrist pain:

  • gorilla pose (padahastasana).  physically, the pressure on the wrists produces a tourniquet effect, stretching the ligaments and squeezing out the stagnancy.  Energetically, by pushing your toes (details) into your wrists (control) in a forward fold, you are energetically putting yourself in a position to remind your body that the details are best not controlled, but left to unfold for themselves.  When you grip your toes and your wrists in this pose, you will lose balance.  This energetically teaches you to give up the pursuit for perfection and to embrace the essence of quality as is.
  • full locust (salabasana) with your hands under your hips, palms flat to the earth.  Physically, with your hips on your wrists, you are anchoring your wrists in line with your hands and arms as foundation and also causing the same tourniquet effect of squeezing out the toxins.  Energetically, you are placing your wrists right at the connection to your root chakra, thus bringing the energy of structure, support, basic needs, and foundation to your wrists.  The wrists are working in tandem with the hands and arms as a foundation to the torso, as part of the team, to lift the legs.  This teaches you energetically to accept teamwork.
  • reverse namaste physically, this is the greatest stretch for the tender muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the wrist joint.  Energetically, placing your hands at prayer behind your back is symbolic of giving complete trust in your higher power.  With  your arms “tied” behind your back, you are allowing yourself to be guided by Spirit to take you into the right and perfect action.
  • partner yoga or acro yoga practicing with a partner will teach you to work as a team and to be able to give up control and learn compromise in the best interest of all parties involved.

Lifestyle Prescriptions for wrist pain:

  • delegate - allow yourself to give up some of the control of “it only gets done if I do it myself”.  You will not only have less on your ‘to do’ list, but you will develop more trust in those around you.
  • get messy - creativity and flow occurs best when things get a little messy and sloppy.  allow yourself to find that freedom place a little more and let go of perfectionistic ideals.
  • orgasm - one of the best experiences of giving up control occurs at the moment of climax.  The more you can experience and enjoy orgasm, the more you will be able to release perfectionism and control freakishness. (never thought your yoga teacher would tell you to have sex huh? well, enjoy it!)
  • compromise & surrender - especially when you feel like you are digging in your heels, try to give up a little more.  Release the control and see how much easier things are in life.
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