All Humanity Newsletter | March 2022
Greetings...
Homer and Paradox
What is the sound of one hand clapping?

“Huh?” says Homer Simpson.

Homer is not the only one who says that to such questions. We all do. That is the function of paradox. Paradoxes are intended to stop the mind and to open doors beyond our understanding. They help us step into a bigger world.

Our adaptive students, including myself, are constantly confronted with paradoxes. How can I move awareness through the body without muscular action? How can I feel whole when I am so injured or in so much pain? How can I feel welcome within a culture when I am perpetually and usually unintentionally marginalized? Paradox.

The body can move through paradox and remain intact. The mind cannot. The mind is too limited by such things as opposites and contradictions. In a yoga pose, a yogi is often confronted with seemingly contradictory instructions. For example, press down through your feet and lift out of your ankles simultaneously. Homer Simpson says “Huh” until he starts practicing. After a period of time, he can hardly remember not knowing how to do it. Sometimes the body teaches and the mind needs to follow. The doors open more widely through our practice, not our understanding. 

When the world stops making sense, let it. Just continue living and the path becomes clearer.

Are you sure you can't hear the sound of one hand clapping? God help me, I think I can. I suspect you can, too. Dang, what just happened?



Matthew Sanford
Founder, Mind Body Solutions
Pose of the month...
Viparita Karani
The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.
~ Verse 26, Tao Te Ching
The above verse suggests the paradox that remaining grounded in our roots, steady and
aligned, allows energy and movement to flow through us and through all things. Such contradictions are true of all asana, perhaps most distinctly in the practice of adaptive yoga students.

Without the same accesses as traditional students, adaptive students become especially insightful in their practice. They learn that anchoring a pose creates space, offering relief and the free flow of energy through the body. This heightened awareness allows them to recognize the subtleties of the outer and especially the inner grounding and activation of asana.

Set up near a wall/stacked pillows/blankets/other support. Carefully roll onto the back and extend the legs upward in a supported position. Extend the arms slightly away from the side body with palms up; or bent at the elbows with hands resting on the abdomen with palms down. Relax neck, arms, shoulders, and low back. Continue relaxing the legs on the support. Stay in the pose for as long as it is comfortable (approximately five to fifteen minutes).

Allow the simultaneous vertical and horizontal extension of the asana to direct inner body
awareness through the body, just as the hub of a wheel allows for movement from stability.
Carefully come out of the pose by bending the knees and rolling to one side. Stay and settle for several breaths, then using the arms slowly push up to a seated position.
Benefits:

  • Calms the nervous system. Is the foundation for subtle body activation.
  • Groundedness allows for space, which is the conduit of the inner body.
  • Support relaxes the back body, legs, and feet. Improves circulation.
  • Changes relationship to gravity and broadens one’s perspective.
  • Base variation sets the stage for inner awareness and activation.
  • Creates space in abdominal cavity and boosts digestion.
Options:

  • Rest calves on seat of a chair or on stacked pillows/blankets.
  • Place thin blanket under pelvis or under head. Have partner place sandbags on soles of feet and/or front of shoulders.
  • For ease and support, cinch yoga strap/similar around thighs and/or calves.
  • Lie flat/face-up, recognize the heaviness of the back body, lightness of the front body.
  • Activate by pushing upward through the feet, and/or extending arms overhead and back towards floor.
  • Lie flat and ask a partner to carefully lift up the ankles. Allow the legs to be completely heavy. As the weight of legs is supported, feel the buoyancy and expansion of the body and awareness down through the feet/sitting bones and up through the top of the head.
Going further...
Understanding the Paradoxes of the Vedas, Upanishads, & Bhagavad Gita
In her book, Sovereign Self, author Acharya Shunya draws from the rich ancient texts the collective wisdom to explore not only the essence of the texts but also how that wisdom can help us to look past restrictive belief systems and help us find our true nature that is always whole, joyful and free.

Although in many ways, this book could be viewed as a “self-help” book, it can also be enjoyed simply as a tool to gaining insight into how we have come to our current beliefs, how our thought patterns can assist us or hold us back, and perhaps to open our minds into a different way of thinking. 


Within these pages are paradoxes from ideas that we hold such as:

“You use your mind, but you are not your mind, ego, or intellect.”
“You inhabit your body, but you are not your body.”
“The turbulent senses do violently carry away the mind of a wise person, though one may be striving to control them.” ~ Bhagavad Gita, 2.60

Hopefully, statements like the above invite you to explore further.
Upcoming Offerings...
Events and workshops for people living with disability, caregivers, and yoga teachers
It's our FAVORITE time of year and we want YOU to join us! Donate today and/or dedicate your week of yoga or meditation practice APRIL 23-29 to help us raise $50K. All money raised will help keep our adaptive yoga programming FREE and accessible to all those living with disability.

Join the yogathon and you'll receive daily insights from Matthew Sanford, and be part of a global effort - creating community and practicing with purpose.

All participants receive this sweet new 2022 Practice with Purpose TShirt! Please join the yogathon and order your shirt by MARCH 28th in order to receive your shirt by the yogathon kickoff date (April 23). You'll receive a confirmation email after you register with a link to order your tee.
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May 10, 2022 / 2PM CT

People living with disabilities are forced to become masters of time. The pace of their clock is not the same as the world’s clock. Whether stressing about how to manage the next minute or how to age fearlessly with a specific condition, living with a disability is a study in time.


Join this interactive, community conversation about the relationship between disability and the experience of time. This session also includes a yoga practice that emphasizes the uses of time in your yoga poses. Time is a teacher, not an obstacle. REGISTER for this free event and please share with anyone you think might be interested. We'd love to welcome them into the fold. View previous sessions on our YouTube Channel.
May 16-20, 2022 / In Studio!

We're baaaack! With our first in-person training since 2019. If you've trained with us online - come see the work up close. If you've never trained with us, now's the time. If you've been here before and are craving to touch the magic again, join us in MN for Foundations of Adaptive Yoga. This workshop combines the full course content of our Online Intro to Adaptive Yoga I/II, in a week-long intensive with Matthew Sanford, MBS faculty, and adaptive students! Limited space and partial scholarships are available.