Connecting My Feet to the Floor

        I stumble to get my mat and roll it out on the floor. I'm hungry this morning but yoga first. I settle on my seat and start to breathe.I tell my body to relax, to open to my breath. My breath is like the sea, it comes in and out. Wait, is that a pile of cobwebs in the doorway. Close your eyes, Gabriele, you are listening to your breathing. Let your shoulders go. Inhale. Clenching your jaw will not control your mind. Exhale. Then I lengthen my whole body out on the mat. Oh, it feels so good to stretch. My knees crackle.I pull one knee up and extend with the other. I remember what it felt like at Jen's house on Monday. I love her yoga room.

    Almost two years ago I listened to Jen talk about her struggle to have a baby. My heart went out to her. It was a righteous desire but yet it was not what was happening, She was tireless in her efforts, and medical intervention, to assist her body to conceive. I wondered if suggesting that she connect her mind more to her body might help. I appeared at her door with an extra yoga mat. I am not a teacher but I had a been doing  yoga for a long time and I had a  desire to share. Do you know what is so great about Jen? She is so open to try new things. Yoga did not bring her Cameron, nor Tyler, but I believe it has brought her more awareness of her body.

       The word yoga is related to the word yoke and the act of bringing the mind, spirit, and body together is yoga. It is not just for earth people, super models, or atheletes, but for everyone. I don't lose weight doing it, that is another issue,  but I feel my weight and that helps me remember that I want to treat my body better; to feed it when it gets hungry not when my mind is tense.I was taught that my body is a temple when I was a child but my mind has been driving this ship without checking in with the vessel. It wasn't so long ago that I was clueless about what my body was saying. My yoga teacher would tell me to scan my body for places of unease. I had only two kinds of feedback; it hurts or it's fine. Now I can sense that my body wants to lengthen, extend, be more fluid, tighten, curve over, open up, well, you get that my connection is deepening. So, how does that help my mind and spirit? My mind and spirit tell my body what it should feel. When I lose track of sanity in my crazy thoughts, I feel my body and tell it to release. As my body relaxes, the tight wall around my mind lets in some light and soon my thoughts are easier. I see windows instead of obstacles and I can move forward again. Babies know how to connect. When they are learning to get up off the floor, they practice extending their spine, they reach their torso up and open to the sky. Their body is telling them they can do it, they can walk this earth and be a good Mensch.

     Here is my yoga buddy, on the bolster ready to down dog. He knows the floor well, and he shows me the way.