All Humanity Newsletter | September 2021
Greetings...
The Shapes of Underlying Unity
The world presents us with angles, curves, and edges in almost everything that we perceive. So do yoga poses. Yoga poses ask the body to stand up, sit down, turn sideways, bend forward, bend backward, go upside-down, and on and on. They ask the yogi to imitate and reflect the variations in the surrounding environment.

The paradoxical aim of these physical variations is to reveal an underlying unity and wholeness in all things. At Mind Body Solutions, the minds and bodies of our students living with trauma, loss, and disability present an even wider range of variations. And yet, the aim of their poses remains the same – the realization of unity and connection with the world around them. Variation does not imply imperfection.

This paradox bakes my noodle – the practice of physical particulars, coupled with breathing, can reveal a unified oneness in all things. Every once in a while, my noodle doesn’t feel baked, like this morning. I looked out my window into a forest of maple trees. I saw a wide range of angles, curves, and edges swaying in the breeze: thick trees, narrow trees, leaning ones, misshapen ones. I saw branches reaching in every direction to absorb sunlight at all angles. I saw edges and curves in clumps of leaves, fallen sticks, and strewn rocks. I saw discordant patterns somehow transform into a unity of a forest.

If you learn anything from our community at Mind Body Solutions, let it be this: stop being so judgmental about the imperfections of your particular mind and body. It is the variations that reveal the underlying unity. Instead of judging so harshly and striving for straight lines, explore how your imperfect patterns reveal the whole of the forest. In the words of the poet/philosopher David Whyte, “Everything is waiting for you.”
Matthew Sanford
Founder, Mind Body Solutions
Pose of the month...
Upavistha Marjaryasana-Bitilasana ( Seated Cat Cow) 
Just as musical notation is composed of angles, curves, and edges that denote pitch and duration of sound, yoga asanas use such features to direct alignment, attain precision, and allow prana to flow. Practicing Upavistha Marjaryasana-Bitilasana is a creative way to explore this concept. 
Sit in a sturdy chair, your feet positioned flat on the floor beneath the knees. Ground down through the sit bones and feet, giving awareness to the inner edges of the heels. Place your hands on your thighs, lengthening through the wrists. On an inhale, lift and broaden the chest, slightly raise the chin, and arch backwards. As your shoulders roll back, the edges of the shoulder blades will come towards one another. Continue lifting and extending through the back, chest, and neck while keeping the shoulders relaxed. Slowly uncoil to neutral and begin exhaling. Round forward with your chin slightly tucked. Stabilize on the curves of the sit bones, arching the back like a cat as the shoulders roll forward and the shoulder blades broaden. 

Keep awareness in the feet as you repeat the sequence at your own pace. Notice how repetition and rhythm encourage ease of breath and soften the organs of perception. As the body serpentines and synchronizes, an exchange between emptiness and fullness occurs. The emptiness allows for possibilities. Quincy Jones’ secret for recording music is to always leave at least twenty or thirty percent empty. He says that leaves room for the magic. Music and asana are universal languages. Both allow space for magic to materialize. 
Options:

  • Remove the reference of the hands on the thighs, and notice any differences
 
  • Allow the elbows to angle out while rounding forward and to hug in towards the side body while arching backward 

  • Have a partner line up spine to spine/both spines aligned with each other, and then squat down to ground the ankles with their hands 
  • When arching back, have partner support the head, or place a hand between the shoulder blades encouraging an open heart 

  • Practice the pose in a group setting, notice how the practitioners transfer energy and momentum to one another 

  • Practice the pose in a box position, on all fours (hands and knees) on the floor, or while standing with the hands supported on the seat of a chair or stable object 
Benefits:

  • Juices up/lubricates the intervertebral disks, and relieves lower back pain 

  • Body teaches the mind through movement 

  • Stress is reduced, equanimity occurs 

  • Stimulates the abdominal organs and creates space in the lower back and abdomen 

  • The lifted chest helps spread awareness through the whole body, aids breathing, and opens us up to others and the world 

  • Loosens up the muscles along the spine offering physical and emotional flexibility 
From the Bookshelf...
For your reading pleasure
This summer, we thought it would be fun to share a few of our beloved bibliophile Kathy Dahl's favorite picks.
Fates and Furies ~ Lauren Groff

This well-crafted novel covers the course of a couple over 24 years. With multiple threads of
perception and page-turning prose, Lauren Groff takes you on a journey through the complicated
world of relationships and highlights how even the people closest to us do not always know-how
each person truly sees the world and how we align ourselves with it.
The Overstory ~ Richard Powers

This monumental story explores activism and resistance against the background of preserving
and protecting our natural world of old forest growth. The novel tells the story through the
perspective of 5 individuals – their backgrounds and beliefs and the events that ultimately drew
them into the world of active resistance.
MBS in the World...
Collective Trauma Summit 2021 - Collective Healing in Action
with THOMAS HÜBL AND 45+ EXPERT SPEAKERS, POETS, & MUSICIANS
"The world is waking up to the massive impact that collective trauma has had on individuals and our society." Thomas Hübl.

Join over 100,000+ souls for an all NEW online event with expert presentations, talks, poetry readings, movement sessions, guided meditations, and panel discussions where we will delve into the theme of Collective Healing in Action.

The Collective Trauma Summit 2021 presenter list includes, Krista Tippett, Dr.Gabor Maté, Jack Cornfield, PhD., Stephen Porges, PhD., David Whyte, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and many more. Matthew Sanford is honored to offer a 45-minute experiential practice as part of this summit.
Join us...
Yoga, Disability, & Transformation #4 / Finding Your Voice / Sept 22
“Say a little, but not too much.” This is a practical lesson that people living with disabilities have learned through experience. Even when curious and asking a question, “able-bodied” people can only take in the truth of our lives in fleeting moments. By about the third sentence, subtle head nods and frozen smiles begin to say, “I stopped hearing you two sentences ago.” In response, it is tempting to yell louder or be more confrontive. 

But that, too, is exhausting. In this fourth installment of Yoga, Disability, and Transformation, Matthew explores finding your voice initially as a mind-body sensation, not as something for which you must fight outwardly.  The first step is claiming your own inward ‘space’ without relationship to anything or anyone else. As people living with disabilities, if we do not learn to share our everyday truths better, our lives will continue to be glossed over with sympathy, pity, and ignorance. 

Come join us live on September 22 at 2 PM Central Time and share your voice.

No need to register in advance, but you can RSVP below to get a Zoom link and other updates via email. Sessions will be recorded made available on The Hub.
Yoga, Disability, & Transformation / Sept 22 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CT
LOCATION
Online via Zoom

DATE AND TIME
09/22/21 2:00pm - 09/22/21 3:30pm

Finding Your Voice
Send me the link!