Dancing Dogs Yoga

As I was preparing for a workshop on the chakras, or the subtle energy centers of the body, I was struck by the meaning behind the Anahata Chakra, or the Heart Chakra.  Perhaps it was the proximity to Valentine’s Day, or maybe just the feeling in my heart that this chakra is the most important of all, but I found myself dwelling here.

The word chakra literally means wheel, and the chakras represent the places in the body where many nerves and energy centers meet.  They consist of the root chakra, the naval chakra, the solar plexus chakra, the heart chakra, the throat chakra, the third eye chakra and the crown chakra.  The fourth chakra and center chakra is the Anahata Chakra, and it is located in the area of the heart, or the cardiac plexus.  The word “anahata” literally means, “Un-struck” or “un-beaten.”

When we unfold our heart, we transcend our limited ego and over-indulgent sense of self so that we may find a less selfish and more natural love of ourselves, others and the world at large around us.  The sound of our pure heart is thus “un-struck,” so that we may live our lives as if our heart has never been struck by another.

Generally, the Anahata Chakra is associated with love (true, abiding love and something much more than the Hallmark holiday), devotion and self-confidence.  In yogic tradition, the Anahata Chakra is thought to govern our ability to love, and to control the quality and depth of our love.  It’s location in the center of our core and in the center of the chakras is not coincidental.  Our heart truly does govern our very existence.  Without it, we cease to exist.

Yogis believe that the chakras are responsible for different feelings and emotions, and that balanced and harmonized chakras produce balanced and harmonized individuals.  A heart in balance allows us to love openly and deeply, to feel compassion, peace and a deep connection to others.  An under-active Anahata Chakra leaves one feeling cold, isolated and detached, while an over-active chakra leaves one possessive, overly demonstrative, and operating from a place of fear of loss.

We keep our chakras in balance and harmony through a regular yoga practice, meditation, and by being true to ourselves.  By learning to forgive and to let go, we can learn to mend our hearts even when they are struck by some misdeed or tragedy in our lives.  Through forgiveness, compassion towards others, understanding and kindness, even a wounded heart can become un-struck again.

Open your heart fully to all of life, so that you may give and receive love, freely and fully.  May you live long, and may your heart bells ring un-struck.

For more information on the chakras, visit www.dancingdogsyoga.com/aboutus/resources/

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The New Year is symbolic of new beginnings, and as we shake off the holiday hangover, many of us are looking for a new perspective.  The practice of yoga can offer that fresh perspective to those who are searching for it.

Over the last week, I have told my students that if we set an intention to approach things in our lives from a different perspective, we can achieve subtle, though often powerful, transformation in our lives.  By looking at things from a different angle, be it upside down or sideways, we can find a fresh approach.  Sometimes the same old linear model of pushing from Point A to Point B simply does not work, and the creative solution may lie on your yoga mat.

Most yogis subscribe to the “off the mat into the world” theory, which is a belief that if we pay attention to the lessons we learn on our mats, we can apply them in the world off our mats.

On our mats, we learn patience with ourselves, with the practice, and with the pose.  When we are patient with ourselves, patience with others is easier.  It takes patience to learn how to do a headstand.  Most of us don’t walk into the studio for the first time and accomplish this pose.  But patience and hard work can turn things upside down, and a once impossible task becomes an achievable goal.  These lessons easily translate into our interactions with others.

Through asana we practice humility, as we learn not only our physical limits, but often times our mental and emotional limits as well. Sometimes the mat teaches us more humility than we would like.  The same feeling of finding out that the backbends we did as children are not so easy anymore can be translated into everyday situations in our lives.

In a challenging asana practice, we also become grateful for our physical strength, for the glorious things that our bodies can do, for the elation of accomplishment, and the rest that comes after hard work.  We become grateful for all that we can do and accomplish.  Yoga teaches a strong work ethic– if you work hard, and play your edges, you will find sweet reward in savasana.

Yoga also teaches loving kindness for all living things.  Compassion.  First, we must learn compassion for ourselves so that we may be compassionate with others, or our compassion is incomplete.  Our practice teaches us to forgive ourselves when we do not reach our own expectations, and that too can be applied to others.

All of these asana lessons can be life lessons.  The yoga mat is a vehicle for transformation.  If you close your eyes and open your heart, you can take a deep breath and dive, flowing into a new perspective this new year.

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Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.  – Henry Ward Beecher

Of the many lessons that I have learned on the mat, gratitude is perhaps among the most empowering.  Through a mindful yoga practice, we go through a gamut of emotions, including humility, acceptance, and the cultivation of gratitude. Gratitude is the sweetest way to live your yoga; when you are struggling or becoming self-defeating in your practice, gratitude can pull you through. It is the realization that each of us has been given an amazing gift; our bodies, minds, and hearts are unique and amazing, and we can instigate change, as Gandhi hoped, first within ourselves, then in the world.

But how do we light the fire of change, of tapas, in order to make a difference in the world?  How can we cultivate selfless gratitude within the garden of our hearts?

One of the chief tenants of yoga is mindfulness.  When we take a moment to be mindful of our thoughts, words and actions, when we savor each moment for the moment, when we accept our shortcomings along with our victories, when we consider the feelings of others, we tend the garden of our hearts and souls.  Mindfulness fertilizes and feeds gratitude.  It is often the smallest seed of gratitude that will grow and blossom in your heart.

When you truly cultivate the garden of gratitude, you will find joy even amongst life’s challenges and sufferings.  It is easy to be grateful for the magnificent things in life.  Growth and change happen when we can remain grateful through challenges and strife.  When we practice gratitude, we learn to be thankful for the tools we have to cope with a difficult situation.  If we are cultivating gratitude, then attitude is the hoe.  A positive and non-defeating attitude goes a long way.

This Thanksgiving, take a moment to express gratitude for all of the beauty and wonder in your life.  Count your blessings, seen and unseen.  Be thankful for the small wonders and the huge miracles that surround you.  Be grateful for those who love you, and who you love, but also be thankful for the people who serve you invisibly every day.  There is a Chinese proverb: When eating bamboo shoots, remember the man who planted the bamboo. Be grateful even for the hard lessons you have learned this year, and use those unpleasant moments to fertilize the soil of your garden of gratitude.

I am full of gratitude for my loving, supportive and patient family, my generous and thoughtful friends, and my diligent, dedicated, and amazing students.  I am grateful for the way that this community has received Dancing Dogs Yoga, for the amazing people that have come into my life this year and for the opportunity to roll out my mat, and experience the miracle of the human body as I move through my practice. I am thankful for the hurdles that I have overcome, for the mistakes that I have learned from (and for those that I am still learning from).  I am thankful for the miracle of the world that lies outside of my door, for the beauty that surrounds me, and the life that awaits.

Namaste.  Happy Thanksgiving.

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Earlier this month, I read an article in the Associated Press about Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler,who is calling for Christians to abandon the practice of yoga.  Mohler poses (no pun intended) that yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus, and that those who practice yoga are either denying what yoga is about, or they are ignoring the tenants of Christianity itself.

I was shocked.  I suppose that intolerance, hatred and outright ignorance shouldn’t shock me, but the source of it threw me for the proverbial loop.  In speaking out against yoga, Mohler joins another bastion of tolerance, Pat Robertson, who referred to the practice of yoga, particularly chanting, as “spooky.”   It is clear that Mohler, Robertson, and people like them, do not understand what yoga is.

Yoga is not a religion in itself.  It is not exclusive of any religion, rather, it is inclusive of all religions. Yoga is for everyone – young and old, black and white, Christian or Jew, Hindu or Arab.  Yoga is, indeed, a spiritual practice, but I am still lost as to where spirituality is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. I am also fairly certain that Jesus would welcome a practice that works to create overall wellness among its practitioners.  A strong mind and body are not anti-Christian themes.  If our body is our temple, taking care of that vessel and keeping it strong and healthy is a testament to God. Perhaps Mohler is more against the idea of healing and calming the mind through meditation for fear that a healthy mind would shun his very own intolerance and ignorance.

Meditation is, itself, a kind of prayer.  By quieting the mind, we can often bring ourselves closer to God – be that Yahweh, Jesus, Allah, or Buddha.  This is not, to this writer, in conflict with Christianity or any other religion.  I often tell my students that when we come to the mat, we bring our hearts to the practice.  We put forth our best efforts, and the yoga mat becomes a metaphor for the goals that we set for ourselves.  It becomes our vehicle to our higher selves, and as we become stronger in mind and body, we become better people.  Striving to become a better person, to do unto others, is the very basis of the human condition.  It is not in conflict with Christianity, or any religion, but rather the very heart of it.

There are many paths of yoga.  We each walk on our own yogic path just as we each walk on our own path to God.  A born-and-raised Catholic, I was always taught that the path to God is through the heart.  If the practice of yoga opens your heart, and helps you find inner peace, why would God not want that for you?  Why should taking care of yourself, relieving stress, and finding some calm in this hectic world be labeled by an ignorant and intolerant man as “anti-Christian?” Should we abandon yoga for Prozac??  Maybe Mohler’s sermons can melt all of our stress away?

The irony, of course, is that while Mohler denounces yoga as being “of the devil,” he himself sits in judgment of people and a practice that he does not understand.   Ignorance may be bliss, but this is most certainly a case of the blind leading the blind.  Albert Mohler should be ashamed of himself.

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It is perhaps the most common question a new yoga student has, but may never ask:  “What does Namaste mean and why do people say it in yoga class?”

“Nama” means “bow,” “as” means “I,” and “te” means “you,” so, literally, Namaste means “I bow to you.”  I have heard many expounded translations, but one of the most beautiful and complete is from Ram Dass, the Western Buddhist and 1960’s activist:

I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace.

When you are in that place in you,

And I am in that place in me,

We are one.

While the word Namaste is often used in India as a greeting, an everyday salutation, it has, as illustrated by Dass, a much deeper meaning to yogis. It signifies the deep respect that yogis have for themselves and those around them.  It represents the Divine spark in all of us, the miracle that is human life.

The word Namaste is often spoken along with the gesture. We close our eyes, bow our head and press the palms together at the heart, the Heart Chakra, or energy center. This gesture is also known as Anjali Mudr, which literally means Heart Gesture.  It represents the yogic belief that there is a Divine spark in each of us, located deep within the heart chakra.

The heart chakra represents love.  In Namaste, we bring our hands to our Heart Chakra to signify the presence of the Divine love in all of us and to increase the flow of that energy.  By closing our eyes and bowing our heads, we are decreasing the distractions around us and tuning in to that Divine energy.

Namaste has a special significance between teacher and student.  At the end of a yoga class, the teacher will often bow her head, bring her hands to heart center and offer the gesture of Namaste to indicate the mutual respect between teacher and students.  Likewise, students respond in the same manner to indicate their gratitude for the class and for the energy offered by the other students.

The gesture is symbolic of the harnessing of vital energy, of a collaboration between spirits for a common goal.  Yoga has been described as a deeply personal practice that is best practiced in a room full of people, allowing practitioners to create energy and feel the cosmic vibration that comes from letting go of ego, of competition and of just being in the moment. The energy and synergy created in a yoga class is embodied in Namaste.

To paraphrase John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga, on the meaning of Namaste: I see you; I see the Divine in you; I see your resplendent essence, and all I can do is bow.

Namaste.

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