February Practice

Archetype: Advocate
How:  Nightjar - master fear
What: Creative Recovery
Mudra: Anushasana Mudra, gesture of direction
Toes: Earth, Air, Fire

Development

I wasn't sure if my practices would follow the calendar months and I didn't want to force them to. However, the transition between my January and February practices was so seamless I'm not even going to worry about the transitions for the rest of the year.

On January 31st, two of my classmates in Advanced Sequencing tackled the theme of Joy with the peak pose Wild Thing. On February 1st I reviewed the preliminary notes I had made for the February cards and postures and realized there was a lot of overlap between my notes and their practice. And as I considered that synergy, my mind was blown.

​At another point in the development of this practice, I was overwhelmed by the amount of work I had set for myself. I needed to write my personal practice, a short partner teaching practice, a long group teaching practice, and an individual passion-project practice- all for the above-mentioned course. I had ideas for all four and yet couldn't decide where to put my energy first. Then I remembered to "keep it simple," and something my instructor had said. He suggested that we use parts of our individual practice toward the group projects. That seemed like good advice and yet also impractical because they would have different themes. Then I realized... The individual assignment is due last. Why not use the group projects to create the individual assignment and have that be the same as my personal practice?  Same advice, just comprehended in reverse and it worked for me.  

Fear

The first time I was asked to do Wild Thing in a studio yoga class, my reaction was, "You have got to be $h#!#@* me!?!?" There was no way I was going to do that. I was so scared. During this January 31st experience, I didn't feel like I could do Wild Thing... yet.  I wasn't anxious though. The other pose that scares me is lowering into the chaturanga, the bottom half of a push-up. So, yes, it's time to push the edge of my upper body strength and work on my plank and wild thing. The pose that I'll be cueing for our group project is dancer and one of the suggested poses for preparing for dancer is wheel. I have yet to attempt wheel. I could do it in my limber youth. So, I will also start working toward my wheel. There are a lot of fears here to master and I may not master them all this month. However, I will have recognized them and begun the work of reframing them into an expression of trust.

Joy

I had already chosen the Breath of Joy for my February practice as it can be used for cultivating compassion. And while Joy wasn't originally one of my themes, the synergy once again had my thinking. Someone told me once that they were looking forward to attending my yoga class because they assumed it would be joyful as I'm a generally joyful person. I had been working on giving myself permission to not smile if I'm not feeling it, so the assumption did not align with my personal work at the time. Perhaps this February practice, though, can be an experiment in teaching with authentic joy while maintaining a moving meditation experience.  

Compassion

My idea for the passion project assignment was to incorporate the elements and toe reading into the asana practice. I'll write more about toe reading, I'm sure, soon. The important thing to mention here is that yoga is the practical, physical, method for effecting change in the toes. So integrating a yoga practice with the intention of affecting the toes is meta-powerful. There is no particular compassion toe. However, compassion is the purview of the heart chakra. And the heart chakra can be read in the air and fire toes. These toes are associated with communication, expression, and action.

Reflection

I am really in awe at the power of this practice. The end of the month was fast approaching and I had completed and taught the assigned yoga sequences for my course, yet I hadn't recorded or practiced my February sequence.  And then I realized that my February practice was off-the-mat yoga. I faced and released several fears this month. I spoke my intuition in several ways that developed into opportunities for me to put my compassion into action. Even the group yoga teaching projects helped me release some fears. I could record our group sequence or my individual sequence, however, this month I am allowing myself the grace of not recording my practice. I am standing up to the social media pressure of "pics or it didn't happen." Yes, it did happen. And no, there is no video.