Hey, Lighten Up!
Have you ever been told to Lighten Up? We’ve all been stressed and most of the time we just don’t know how to relieve the pressure. It’s not as if we want to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders but being responsible, consciences and caring can translate into anxious, overwhelmed and burdened if there’s not enough space to disperse the load.
Our pose, Lighten Up, is on the Honor Roll floor of the Grounded Elevator Pose Series for a reason. We honor ourselves by cultivating the element SPACE that is present in all living things. This element represents all space, an unbounded energy field and a playground for unconditional love. By practicing yoga we clear out negativity and experience more freedom in our body, mind and life. Openness and humility become our virtues when this element is balanced within us. This pose will lift your spirits and lighten your heart so that you may be a source of illumination in the world.
Lie down and ground the back of your head, your shoulders, your arms and your basement into the earth. Maintain the natural curve of your spine. Use your core strength to lift your legs straight up toward the sky. Spread your toes and expand inside with breath through your nose. Voice the word SPACE for the entirety of your exhalation. Repeat until tension and contracted thoughts fade into infinity and beyond.
Bondage and ignorance and limitation!
For many of us, a new year represents a blank slate, a Tabula Rasa. Imagine being able to “refresh” any or all areas of your life. Now visualize this table with two columns, Yes and No. You create your truest life by thoughtfully choosing what goes in the No column and what is a Yes. Everything you say YES to and everything you say NO to matters. What if your yes’s and no’s were tabulated and at the end of a day, week, year, lifetime, you could see how the data, otherwise known as your life, balanced out?
As Earth Day approaches this year, I am struck by what it means to truly foster Peace on this planet. I remember as a child, learning about anti-nuclear protestors who chained themselves to fences and were forcibly removed and jailed. These brave souls became my heroines and heroes in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. I was moved to tears singing Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” and hearing stories of civil disobedience and the message of non-violent resistance. Later in the 1990’s, when I danced barefoot on my very first Earth Day, a lump would form in my throat when I celebrated each small victory (and the Gigantic Hearts) of environmental protestors who sacrificed so much to save a single tree and worked to preserve open space for our children’s children. Peace.