Five foundations of the whole life in health and whole being —
1. Breath
2. Movement
3. Sleep
4. Nutrition & Hydration
5. Prayer & Meditation
As I lie in bed waking from dream without an alarm clock, I practice to turn dream mind into prayer mind and gratitude. I place feet on the floor, I go to the bathroom, turn on the coffee maker, make notes here for you, unfold my mat and turn on the livestream. Living in a household of family and a dog, of vehicles and materials, of daily work and neighbors, they sometimes require intervening attention. So I’m always grateful to get started.
Let’s make three planes of functional spinal movement guided by breath. Let’s activate our lymphatic system and our joints.
Let’s go steady and smooth . . . .
What is needed for hand balances? How do they build? How do we enter and exit? Where is shtira?
Beginning again means asking familiar questions and looking for the answers in the posture, observing what doesn’t work, and what does. Learning twice, and twice again in Beginners Mind.
I recorded this last night because I must be on the road during our usual time. Here we observe three planes of functional spinal movement with breath. I invite you to recall warm-ups of this past week and to practice from whatever you can recall. If you cannot recall, then reboot yr favorite livestream recording and use that.
This week marks the start of a new endeavor at the SAMURAI INTI Martial Arts Studio in Frisco. I’ll be teaching i a group class there at Sendai Sebastian Mejias ‘ dojo on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
Although not a true morning wake up, the song remains the same.
Today’s practice is my first intentional movements with breath. Three planes, lymphatics, joints. That’s the way we address the experience written in our bodies like physical graffiti. Through our intentional breath and movement we recognize our state of being dazed and confused. We can move with grace through good times bad times. We awaken our bodies like houses of the holy. Not to say that our practice is a stairway to heaven, but we cannot hope to get clear and strong if we try to sneak in through the out door.
You don’t need to go down to the seaside, or over the hills and far away, or even to california. Practice wherever you are in the light.
And after practice? It’s a celebration day. Eat a Tangerine, I will listen LOUD to a British rock n roll band who made their fortune in the U.S. of A. I will boogie with Stu and my black dog. These are dancing days. Led Zep is dead, long live Led Zep....