Mind Flux

I've not blogged once this month! Allowing for certain excuses such as busy, traveling, dog ate my blog (some of which are actually true); an actual reason I've not posted recently is due to my yoga teacher training (TT). On September 4th, I embarked upon a four month journey to become a 200 hour registered yoga instructor. 5 days a week, every other week we attend classes to learn about anatomy, history, philosophy, nadis, mudras, pranayama, asana...and that's just some of the content I knew would be included in the program.

I was unprepared for the depths we would mine, both in class and on our own time. I'm la la loving it; learning so much. Meanwhile, there is a flip side to every coin. We are a quarter through our TT classes now. I've started to assess how much I've changed and where this program is taking me. The past few days I'm woe to report that my mind is expanding with wonderful new insights, yet I'm applying it poorly. And I have the same excuses.

Am I using the centering and breathing techniques to calm my senses? Sometimes. Am I using them often? Not exactly. I'm usually one to pray and bring my troubles to the Lord. I'm still doing this. Yoga, whose very definition is to calm the fluctuations of the mind, helps me with my prayer life. In addition to family health concerns and general petitions, I've added my yoga practice into the prayer mix. It's a beautifully, holistic system that allows me to pray while I practice and practice while I pray. That core spiritual aspect of yoga, that I can be practicing my yoga while not even 'striking a pose,' was a main draw for me to enter a TT.

This whole process is a step by step, pose by pose, breath by breath endeavor. Thank the LORD the breath by breath part is truly an autopilot action. One less thing the "me" needs to contend with. "me" being the ego-driven self that is misidentifying with all this external circumstance and not focusing on the I AM of God. There is no question I am meant to be in this program. My type-A, high stress, goal-setting self would like to project that I'll soon be further along in quieting-the-mind, ridding it of all its chatter, and focusing more on the meaningful. Each day is a new opportunity to learn, give back and listen. There's been a lot of mind chatter to hear lately, but I'm working on it. And that is me practicing yoga daily.

On a another yoga note, purple is the color associated with the 7th chakra (which for Western anatomy, is associated with the pineal gland). This weekend I was all about the purple. Bought purple beans from the Friday farmer's market, which unbeknownest to me promptly turn green with heat!

Saturday, we went to a 70's themed bday party where I decked out the purple maxi dress with purple eyeshadow and sequined headband. I was dedicated. By eve's end, my teeth were purple to match courtesy of Gnarled Head vino. If I haven't yet opened my energy flows to my purple chakra, I can just act as-if until I do ;) Pic to prove as-if acting: