Terrific

Salutations

TerrificCharlotte’s Web is a celebration of the quiet virtues. It reminds us to keep a soft tender heart, accept our true nature, and value the unique gifts of our friends. The two main characters of Charlotte’s Web, Charlotte and Wilbur, highlight the awareness of our own unique inner story.

Charlotte, the spider, represents our highest self who provides wisdom and help from above. She reminds us that we are never alone. She provides a higher, bigger perspective from her vantage point high up in the rafters. She brings a calm wisdom into an anxious situation, bolstering Wilbur’s self image by spelling out his best aspects. She represents our INHALE.

Become sensitive and aware of your breath.

Wilbur, the pig, represents our vulnerable self that is at the center of our awareness. Wilbur is consistently caring and engaging. He forms a bond with Charlotte because he sees her beauty. He is accepting and compassionate and joyfully celebrates life. He represents our EXHALE.

“Salutations” is Charlotte’s fancy way of saying Hello. In Yoga, we practice Sun Salutations , not so much to be fancy, but to gracefully pay homage to the brightness within and to mindfully connect our breath to our movements. This is how we brighten what can at times seem ordinary and mundane. Like Hello is to Salutations, Standing is to Mountain.

Curious how to greet each moment with more elegance? Try this. Connect with your breath while moving through a sequence of poses we call the SOLID GROUND FLOW.

Symbolic of the circular aspect of time, twelve poses are arranged in a clockwork fashion to say Hello ….or Salutations as Charlotte would say…to the Sun.

Starting at the 12 O’Clock position in Mountain pose. Introduce yourself to your breath. Invite your breath to BE IN CHARGE! Allow your breath to lead your movement in this Salutation to the Sun. Exhale and soften into your back body with humility and remembrance of your wise supporters.

Make each inhale full and each exhale complete as you move to each subsequent pose in a clockwise fashion With each breath in, move your side ribs back, inflate your middle back and with trust move into your back body until you feel the strength of that support.

The back body represents our colorful cast of teachers whose caring attention beneath the surface was magical and supportive. It’s your Universal Self.

With each breath out, soften your skin, your eyes, your jaw. Get longer, smoother, deeper until you feel an opening in the front of your heart to offer the world. Completely release what stands in your way. Your front body represents how you offer your unique giftts. It’s your Indivdual Self.

When you allow your breath to lead your movements you will become more attentive to “miracles when they happen in the midst of our ordinary days”. You’ll feel more elegant and fancy and radiant. That’s how you want to greet each moment.

Charlotte’s Web is about the deep friendship of a rescued pig and an articulate spider. On the surface Wilbur is a runt. Charlotte is a spider. Dig deeper into their friendship and see how their mutual appreciation is absolutely genuine.

This story shows that each of us can be RADIANT and TERRIFIC when we breathe deeper, love deeper, and live deeper. Charlotte did not create Wilbur’s fine qualities. She just noticed them. He even protested that he did not feel particularly terrific, but she knows better. It reminds us in moments of smallness to ask for support from the Highest, and in moments of glory to remain HUMBLE. It reminds us to celebrate our true qualities and express them more fully.

The magic is in that caring attention allows a glimpse beneath the surface.

May you find your fine qualities deep within your heart and offer your compassion to your valuable friends.

More to Explore

  • Inspired by the Velveteen Rabbit…How Teachers Become Real.

    horse

    The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

    “What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

    “Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

    “Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

    “Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

    “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

    “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

    “I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

    But the Skin Horse only smiled

    –  From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams  –

  • Harry Potter Magic Yoga Sequence

    Feeling like a troubled, tuckered out muggle? Want to enter the wizard- like state of clarity, and focus? Choose to ground your outer body to create the conditions for a vast inner freedom. You need space inside for the magic to do its work. Albus Dumbledore teaches us… “It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

    Each pose has a corresponding spell for you to breathe into your structure. The more you breathe with awareness, the more potent the spell becomes. With each inhale; drop the spell into the space between your eyebrows. With each exhale; drop the meaning of the spell into the same space above your nose. Say the word to yourself as you drop it into the window to your heart.

    The charm Duro is used to keep objects still. Seen in Deathly Hallows, cast by Hermione while escaping from Death Eaters in Hogwarts.
    Stay balanced in each pose by softly gazing at an immobile object. Inhale DURO, EXHALE FREEZE to keep the object still.

    “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” — Albus Dumbledore.

    Spell: Rennervate Pose: Wake Up Mountain

    Rennervate is a charm that awakens and energizes whomever the caster’s wand is pointed at. It is accompanied by a flash of brilliantly colored red light. Harry uses it to attempt to revive Professor Dumbledore after Dumbledore has succumbed to the potion guarding the locket in the lake.

    Stand with your feet parallel and evenly rooted to prepare for WAKE UP MOUNTAIN. Exhale as you reach up high with outstretched hands and take hold of the universal energy. Inhale and pull the power into your core. Each time you exhale stretch out higher. Each time you inhale, bend your elbows and pull in deeper. Visualize the movement of energy around and inside your body. Accelerate your breath to accelerate your movement.. Then decelerate your breath to slow your movement. When your movement follows your breath, you feel more alive. Inhale RENNERVATE, Exhale WAKE UP!

    Root Tree Rise
    Mobiliarbus lifts a tree a few inches off the ground and levitates it to where the caster points his or her wand. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione uses the spell to move a Christmas tree beside her table to hide Harry.

    Ground your left foot to prepare for ROOT TREE RISE. Place the sole of your right foot inside of your left thigh or shin. Reach your right hand behind your waist between your shoulder blades. Lift your left arm overhead, lowering your hand to interlock with your right hand. Rise up inside with each breath as you open your shoulders and stretch your branches. Exhale, expand and explore. Root into the earth and into your own center. Experiment with gazing both outward as a tree rising up toward the sky and inward as the same tree roots down into the earth. Inhale MOBILIARBUS. Exhale RISE. Ground your right foot and repeat on the other side.

    “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”~ Albus Dumbledore

    Flap Eagle Fly
    Avis. This charm creates a flock of birds from the caster’s wand and is shown in Goblet of Fire, cast by Mr. Ollivander to test Viktor Krum’s wand.

    Ground your feet to prepare for FLAP EAGE FLY. Inhale; lift your arms. Exhale your right elbow under your left one-twisting to bring your palms together. Steady your breath for balance. Lift the right leg up, over and around your left leg. Center your wrists, elbows, knees and ankles in one line. Slowly untangle your right leg and extend it behind as you hinge forward. Stretch your crown, fingers and elbows forward. Inhale AVIS. Exhale FLY. Flap for stability and fly with freedom. Ground your feet and repeat on the other side. Let your brilliance soar.

    Playing With Fire
    Incendio produces fire. It is first seen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when Hagrid (nonverbally) produces fire out of his umbrella in the little house the Dursleys took refuge in (from the Hogwarts letters). In Half-Blood Prince, this spell is used several times in battle, for instance when Hagrid’s hut is set ablaze.

    Ground your sitting bones to prepare for PLAYING WITH FIRE. Lift your legs and rub the soles of your feet together. Balance and rub your palms together. Create friction. Generate heat by scooping your tailbone until your lower belly fires up. Draw into you internal fire to provide energy and fuel your focus. Inhale INCENDIO. Exhale FIRE.

    I Am What I Am
    Revelio will reveal to the caster whether any other (presumably living) humans are within its area of influence.
    In Deathly Hallows, when they first arrive at Number 12, Grimmauld Place after leaving Bill and Fleur’s wedding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are concerned that there may be Death Eaters lurking. Hermione casts Homenum Revelio to determine that the house is, in fact, empty.

    Sit in Easy Pose. To prepare for I AM WHAT I AM. Press thumbs into each of your fingers in the following order. Say “FOCUS” and press thumb and first second together. Say “CLEAR” and press your thumb and third finger. Say “CERTAIN” and press your thumb and ring finger. Say “BRIGHT” and press your thumb and little finger together. Repeat out loud for a minute. Whisper for a minute. Hear it inside while you silently keep moving your fingers for one minute. Do another minute of silence, then one minute of whispering, then one minute of saying it out loud. Close your eyes. Inhale REVELIO. Exhale REVEAL.

    Lighten Up
    Lumos creates a beam of light. First seen in Chamber of Secrets and then constantly throughout the series.

    Lie on your back and press the back of your head into the ground to prepare for LIGHTEN UP, keeping your chin level. Exhale as you lift your legs to a 90-degree angle, making an L shape with your body. Inhale; root your upper arm bones down and back by your sides. Exhale, spread your toes and extend your flame. Soften your back body into the earth. Inhale LUMOS. Exhale LIGHT.

    “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. ” – Albus Dumbledore

    Just Breathe
    Quietus makes a magically magnified voice return to normal.
    Sonorus magnifies the spell caster’s voice, functioning as a magical megaphone.
    These charms counter each other and were used by Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge in Goblet of Fire to commentate at the Quidditch World Cup and during the Triwizard Tournament. Also used by Dumbledore to silence everyone in the Great Hall in Goblet of Fire. Used by Voldemort several times during the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows.

    Roll up into Easy Pose to JUST BREATHE. Close your eyes and tune in to your own internal magic elevator. Visualize a silvery white light beginning at the base of your spine and flowing upwards, reaching your head and spilling out from the top of your head like sparkling stars soaring upwards into the universe. Through your nose inhale a spacious breath into your basement, up into your atrium and toward the roof of your mouth. Exhale the breath from your roof all the way down into your basement. Establish a steady rhythm of your breath. Inhale QUIETUS. Exhale Quiet.
    The quieter you become, the more you can hear the quiet whisper of your heart. Listen. Magnify your heart’s voice so it functions as a magical megaphone. Inhale SONORUS into your heart. Exhale Magnify. Listen. That’s the magic.

    “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” – Albus Dumbledore

  • Grounded In Fluffiness

    Three years ago…a five year old Grounded Kid said her favorite pose was “Flat Like a Pancake” it was actually not an official pose, but rather a transition from Gratitude and Snake.  To honor the wisdom and innocence of this child, we decided to make “Flat Like a Pancake” a pose that’s part of the Grounded Elevator Series.  Read on to see how to griddle some pancakes the Grounded way.