UNTITLED: COCOON (draft 001 rough)

coffee stop. grand
rapids, minnesota. the barista
tells my daughter
that when caterpillars go inside,
when they
spin shut their cocoon
they do not grow wings.
they do not turn into butterflies.
instead
they soften
melt
into a substance
reminiscent of honey.
it’s from this sticky magic,
this absolute
wet
of possibility
that something new is formed.

untitled: duluth (10-feb-15)

We spent the weekend in Duluth (from Friday Feb 6-Mon Feb 9).  Left Friday morning, came back Monday morning.

It was for my make-up hours at Yoga North and wow was it timely.  It reminded me that my training focused very much on somatics and SomaYoga and that’s actually a really special thing.  I decided to switch my “Beginner Yoga” class to a SomaYoga class.  In the public clinic the TT group was doing, I got to be a student and I learned that I do not move my shoulder blades enough, that I overuse my humeral heads and arms.  And I’d gotten into the habit of sitting with a “green light” or Landau posture, which is when you tighten the extensor muscles of the spine like you’re preparing to move forward.  Kind of over arching the spine. Similar to propping.  And I got caught locking/hyperextending my elbows.  Which was interesting, because, as a teacher, I am very careful about those things, which I have a tendancy towards.  So, when I’m teaching a class and demonstrating I’m very careful not to do those things.  But as a student, I was way sloppier about it.  In my own personal practice.  So that’s awesome to have that area of growth and focus for my own personal practice.  And to get kind of “re-excited” about teaching somatics again, since all my classes had begun to get very heavy on classical hatha yoga and vinyasa, without many somatic exercises.  Somatic cueing of many postures, but not a lot of actual somatic exercises.  I’m very excited to bring the Somatic Cat Stretch back into my life as a teacher and a student.

I’m actually going to go get on my mat and finish this later.

 

———————————

 

Good deal.  Ok.

Reading and writing about yoga always makes me want to get into my body.

So, my make-up hours took place Friday 12noon-9pm, Saturday 8am-9pm (although I did get a 3 hour mid-day break on that day), and Sunday 8am-5pm.

On Friday night, one of our teachers, Molly McManus (who is really incredible) taught a workshop on Dinacharya.  Dinacharya is an Ayurvedic daily routine to help cleanse and nourish the body, senses, and mind.  it includes waking up before sunrise (saying a prayer before rising), cleaning your mouth (tongue scraping, rinsing mouth with water or oil, brush teeth, gum massage), cleaning and conditioning your nose (neti pot and nasya oil), drinking warm water with lemon and raw homey, evacuating the bowels, dry brushing the skin, abhyanga (self-massage with oil), bathing, and then yoga/pranayama/meditation.

I observe a slightly abbreviated Dinacharya.  I do not get up before sunrise (I’m working on it – it’s a goal), and I have not been saying a prayer before leaving bed, but I think that’s a good habit to start.  I do almost always tongue scrape, oil pull/rinse mouth, brush teeth, neti pot (I just got some nasya oil, I plan to do that on a more regular basis).  Most days I remember to dry brush my skin.  Some days I perform abhyanga and shower.  I almost always spend 20-60+ monutes in yoga asana/pranayama/meditation.  I fell out of the hot water with lemon and honey habit but am getting back into it.  And any day I poop first thing in the morning is an awesome day, in my book.

Anyways, so, after I left Yoga North on Sunday evening and went back to Jake’s brother’s house (it was a family trip), I told Jake that I felt a very strong and powerful urge to perform a ritualistic cleansing like that.

Instead I drank a little beer, at Chinese takeout, and watched Stephen King’s A Good Marriage.  Because hey, no one’s perfect.

However, on Monday evening, back at home, my 6 year old daughter Claire and I did a sort of Dinacharya together.  We cleaned our teeth, dry brushed our skin, and performed abhyanga (I performed it on myself and her).  I neti potted (which Claire has not wanted to try yet), and we both used nasya oil.  Then we took a shower using some ayurvedic Himalayan Rose soap (which smells awesome) and I washed her hair.  It was a very cool way to share some of my knowledge with my daughter, give her love and affection, while also showing her how to show herself that same love.

I did a Kundalini routine this morning wearing the traditional white with my hair pulled back (but not wrapped).  I really did notice a difference.  It was a detoxing routine and I actually felt kind of nauseated when I was done.  I think a lot of it was detox from traveling, but I also noticed an energetic difference wearing the white.  I don’t usually ever wear white.  I always say it’s because I have children, but really it’s because I personally am a huge mess pot.  The children are scapegoats.

Later when I started this post, writing about my weekend of training and somatics I was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to get on my mat.  So I did.  I did the somatic cat stretch, then did some shoulder work on the black strip.  I worked on elevation, depression, protraction, and retraction.  4 of the 6 motions of the shoulders.  I’m taking it slow, because even though somatics are tiny movements they have big results and can male you feel a little banged up.  So great though.  Just what my body needed.

Misc 2/4/15

My bio is up on the NorthWoods Yoga Collective blog I set up for us: https://northwoodsyogacollective.wordpress.com/teacher-bio-gabby/ so that’s done.  For the moment.

Our home was once again struck by a semi-nasty stomach virus, though nothing compared to the slaughter in December.

My family and I head to Duluth this Friday.  I have to do some make-up hours to finally, finally cap off my RYT-200 (since I gave birth a day before the retreat weekend last year and obviously did not attend).  Next Friday my Kundalini apprenticeship begins.

I intended to write a little more for this post but I think it’s time to hop on the mat and get some of the good stuff in to start my day.