Practical Magic
Subbed the Beginning Forrest class today & had a BLAST. Teaching is so fun because it’s all about the students; there’s this complete lack of self-consciousness & blossoming of enthusiasm that makes time disappear.
We talked a little bit about directing the breath into the body & the pose & again, for me, while it may sound all New Agey 
, it’s really very literal & concrete. E.g, in the torso, the breath is easily directed by expanding the lungs to stretch out the intercostals (muscles between the ribs) or into the chest by focusing on the upper lobes of the lungs; or it can be sent into the pelvis by ballooning the belly or, conversely, by holding in the belly we can reach into the back. It’s quite direct.
In other areas of the body, sending the breath to the legs or toes or nose or whatever, it’s an application of focus & attention that has been shown to light up specific areas of the brain & channel increased blood flow.
Getting breath into an area can feel like a stretch, an opening, a heat rush, tingling… all sorts of yummy nummy sensations.
And, see, the movement of energy, of prana, is intimately connected with the movement of the physical, the visceral, the things that can be shown within Western science… science & philosophy aren’t in conflict; they are different languages to express the same thing.
The breath & blood are intrinsically filled with prana — these are our life force.
Think of it like this: the llama is a bizarre & wonderful & magical creature; who needs to weep over the unicorn? Or cry for mermaids when we have dolphins? How freakin’ cool & amazing are dolphins?!?!?
We just need to open our eyes to the extraordinary nature of the ordinary, the mystical in what we mistake for commonplace. The magic of every inhale, every heartbeat.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Gosh I’d love to take class from you!