We get to choose our tribe
Today’s header is not an Ana quote for the first time this week. It’s an epiphany I had during ceremony.
But I’ll get to that in a minute. Woke up this morning early, was buzzing energy & endorphins & barely able to drive in. Already it was like being totally stoned but not — hyperawareness yet my eyes wouldn’t track right and my focus was both acute & diffuse & completely inappropriate for being on the road.
Ana asked us at the start of ceremony to connect to our hearts with our breath — very literally breathing into back ribs, side ribs, front of the chest, upper collarbones, seeing which areas were easy to access & which were shut down — and feel for whether our hearts were depleted & needed nourishment or if there was extra to spare.
Two descriptive phrases that are really one concept stand out: she asked to explore whether we had “shit shields” over our hearts that kept our breath out & prevented us from nourishing our own hearts, making us “hungry ghosts” that can never meet our own needs. Well, today I felt basically like a Duracell battery (Coppertop! : ) or a power generator. Running huge amounts of energy, just vibrating with it. Amazing, spooky, transcendental but literal, corporeal experience of energy.
Ana talked through the ceremony of the directions and asked for the healing of “our people” from the damage done to us & the ravages we do to ourselves & the earth. We chanted & danced together, and I realized that this was my tribe, my chosen people. People who get up at 4 am to meet in ceremony & song & think its important to speak the truth even if it makes ourselves or someone else uncomfortable… and we all get to choose our tribes, find our people. It may or may not be the family you’re born into but your people are out there. I’m pretty psyched that my Forrest tribe likes to wear funky clothes & stand on their hands, heads, own two feet – and you’re welcome to come & see if it’s your tribe also. : )
We went from there into some insane backbending places — not pose-insane, because I’ve done all the poses before, but insane from the amount of aliveness and stoniness and sweatiness involved. : ) We talked ourselves through many abs, then turned the focus to breathing into ribcage & lifting up out of low back (really, I just need Ana next to me saying that all effing day!! : ) through B series suns into standing poses with arm balances including scissors and one-leg crow, then into some looooooooooong held lunge variations to open up front of the thigh and deep front of the pelvis… apex poses were Dancer, Bow with a strap over a roll, and wheel variations (folks were partnered for spotting here).
I actually got so lost in doing Dancer with a strap that I spent all the alotted time on one side with Ana coaching & adjusting & then spent most of the designated wheel time doing the other side of Dancer! Which was a-okay because it was a very good pose for me to work on. Gotta learn to stand up for myself & open my heart AT THE SAME TIME. : )
We warmed down with cobra push ups with a mat (really, those need to be done to be believed) & a short standing pose series.
In savasana, the guidance was to feel for how our access was to our heart now, using our breath & hands also, and to ask our hearts what they needed to be fed. If we got an answer, the task for the day is to give ourselves that. If not, the task is to just keep breathing into the heart.
I am still too wired/stoned/yoga high to safely drive the hour back & forth to my family. Fortunately, they understand this. Instead, will be spending the day experiencing this new level of weirdness or unwinding or just seeing what happens. Remember, kids, driving while yoga-intoxicated is NOT recommended. : )
Tags: Daily Yoga Practice, Forrest Yoga, Teacher Training, The Forrest Yoga Project
August 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Oh man! I so totally want to find out if it’s my tribe too!!!
August 8th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
You gotta jump in again sometime! : ) April 2010, baby!!