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All Humanity Newsletter | August 2021 |
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Greetings...
A Summer Yoga Practice: Adding Perspectives
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Adding to your perspectives is worth it. Have you ever looked at a piece of art, stared at it, then turned your head slightly and seen something different? When unable to sleep, have you ever flipped over your pillow or reversed direction in your bed and put your head where your feet usually go? Such simple changes can transform your experience. It’s still the same piece of art, the same pillow or bed, but more potential has been revealed. Experiencing this ‘more’ is a form of freedom.
Yoga poses do the same thing. Arm in, arm out, head up, head down, leg straight, leg bent, breath in, breath out. Yoga poses create changes in the flow of awareness and movement. Such simple practices reveal. They help you connect to different aspects of your potential experience while keeping the core of it the same – the other side of the pillow.
This is a fundamental insight we are working to share at Mind Body Solutions. I become ‘more’ by feeling more of what I already am, not by always striving for something else. This is a transformative insight for anyone living with a disability, for anyone really. For example, I do not do yoga to walk again. I do yoga so I can experience a richness of sensation within my paralyzed legs that I didn’t know existed. Freedom within my constraint.
This feeling of ‘more’ is easy to put into practice. As our summer winds down, do something just a little different. Lie spread-eagled on a patch of grass. Drink water straight from a garden hose. Take off your shoes in unexpected places. Call it your summer yoga practice. Your life is infinitely rich within the limits of what already is. Explore it and freedom comes.
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Matthew Sanford | Founder, Mind Body Solutions |
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Pose of the month...
Supine Adho Mukha Vrksanana (Handstand)
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When we become fixed in our perceptions, we lose our ability to fly ~ Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche |
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Even slight shifts in our mental or physical position open new means to appreciate ourselves, others, and the world. Subtle or profound possibilities emerge by altering one’s perspective. We see this time and again with the yoga students at Mind Body Solutions. Adho Mukha Vrksasana is a dynamic pose that lengthens and strengthens energetic movement through the core. By eliminating the challenge of balancing on one’s hands in the asana, one is free to explore the energy and continuity that travels from the hands through the core and to the feet, welcoming new ways to experience oneself and the world.
Set yourself in a comfortable, face-up, reclined position with a wall, headboard, or reference approximately an arms-length away from where your head will be. Lie down in supine Tadasana (Mountain Pose). To your ability, flex the feet and find length in the hands and limbs. Slightly internally rotate the thighs. On an inhale, bring the extended arms overhead, moving in the direction of the ears. Press the palms and spread fingers into your reference. Follow the sensations from the pushing hands through the lower and upper arms, side body, and through the lower back and abdomen. Continue following these sensations through the legs and inner heels. Feel the abdominal length created by the extension and change in gravity. Take in the asana’s energy and attitude. Get bigger in space and take flight.
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Options:
- Push palms into yoga blocks/partner’s hands or ankles/any stable object
- Place a thin rolled sticky mat/blanket under the bottom edge of the shoulder blades
- Arrange bolsters/pillows along outer legs for support
Benefits of the pose:
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- Gently rotate outer upper arms towards the ceiling and inner forearms towards the floor
- Have partner directly press their feet into your feet (release and repeat)
- Ask assistant/partner to give a light touch to diaphragm/inner ankles or heels
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- Shifts the vision, gives a new experience/perspective of the asana and the world
- Shows how to lengthen/strengthen energetic movement through the body
- Physical and mental freedom appear
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- The mind experiences the body in an unaccustomed manner and enhances proprioception
- Experience a different relationship to gravity
- Moves awareness from raised hands and head through the feet
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From the Bookshelf...
For your reading pleasure
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This summer, we thought it would be fun to share a few of our beloved bibliophile Kathy Dahl's favorite picks. This month it's all about perspective...
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Greenlights ~ Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey’s memoir is filled with stories, one-line quotes, and his thoughts on life. Using the idea of greenlights he says, “People set themselves for ease and prosperity in the future. Sometimes greenlights come through decisions we make, sometimes they’re bestowed upon us.” Contemplating a wide range of personal experiences, he offers a unique perspective on how to take charge of one’s life.
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Nomadland ~ Jessica Bruder
Through Nomadland, Bruder has brought to light the perspective and experiences of a whole subculture of low-income Americans attempting to make a living while crossing the country in search of work. Their powerful stories portray the resiliency and strength they chose while living a nomadic lifestyle they did not. The book has also been made into a motion picture.
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Join us...
Yoga, Disability, & Transformation #4 / Finding Your Voice / Sept 22
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“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.
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Yoga, Disability, & Transformation / Sept 22 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CT
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LOCATION
Online via Zoom
DATE AND TIME
09/22/21 2:00pm
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09/22/21 3:30pm
Finding Your Voice
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