Challenge/Goal/Posture

November 21 

I’m reading a book – Overcoming Trauma Through Yoga by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hooper (North Atlantic Books: 2011). I became interested in the book a few weeks ago, when I came across a workshop Emerson ran last summer for war photographers with PTSD.

There’s a grid on page 96: Challenge/Goal/Posture.

I’m so in love with this idea.

For the past few weeks I have been getting so much better and listening to my body tell me what it needs – hips and back are beginning to speak to me…

But employing the body to sooth the mind, respond to the mind…

I suppose that is why we say “I need a hug” or “I feel like dancing,” – but to choose a time to listen and respond in a physical way – and on purpose!

dissociation/grounding/mountain pose

conflicted feelings/centering/seated twist

I love this – somehow I guessed before I read twist what the pose would be – and in that instant I thought of tree… feeling off balance, find balance…

bring your awareness to the core

Of course. Counterbalance.

Some days I go into tree – which is mostly a resting pose for me. My balance is often pretty good. I feel settled – enjoy the roots to sky…

But the days when I can’t balance, there’s simply no point in trying, you know? It’s just not there and it has nothing to do with anything I can control…

If I listen today... there is a hint of sadness... a hint of tired. So the impulse is to cave inward...

But what if I stand up and open my heart to the sun -- what if I move through a vinyassa to try to move through the energy sitting in the center of myself...

How many things do I do like this? Try to force myself to be steady when I am not – try to branch when I should ground… what is there that I might look to instead…