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Yes To Higher Aim…No To Lame

Inspired by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1:30 Vyadhi-Styana-Samsaya-Pramada-Alasya-Avirati-Bhrantidarsana-Alabdhabhumikatva-Anavasthitatvani-Cittaviksepah-Te-Antarayah

 Teenagers balancing on one leg on yoga mats in a school gym

Say YES to Brightness,
To Certainty, To Health
Say NO to dullness,
To doubt, to filth.

Say YES to Careful,
To Enthusiasm, to Aim
Say NO to careless,
To backsliding, to lame.

Say YES to Activity,
To Attention, To Humility.
Say NO to heedless,
inertia, instability.

How to say NO
To such 9 Disturbances?
Create a “no” prop
To play interference.

A block will work wonders
To impede interruptions.
Place between your hands
To help with deductions.
Teens in a school gym raising yoga blocks overhead on purple mats
Press your hands in
To fire your inner shoulders.
Breathe your arms up
And become a beholder.

Keep pressing in
To activate what’s dull.
Reach the block up high
As well as your skull.
Teens in a school gym balancing on one leg in half moon pose
Hold a block in one hand
Lift up your opposite knee
Tilt to block side
Finding freedom is key.

Place the “no” block
Right between your thighs.
I know it is awkward
May your enthusiasm rise!
Teens lying on their stomachs on yoga mats in a school gym, a teacher standing in front
Press your thighs back
Keep your shins fixed.
Fold Forward, touch the floor
Breathe steady while betwixt.

Step back into Downward Dog,
Bend your knees a lot.
Press your block up and back
Notice your train of thought!

Shift forward into plank
Lower down flat like a pancake.
Keep shins pressing down
Lift thighs up with a mandate.
Teacher guiding a smiling teen in a seated stretch in a school gym
Stretch your belly and heart forward,
Hips back toward your toes
Open your shoulders
Like a polyphonic prose.

Press back to Down Dog
Come down to table.
Remove your block
Keep hands and shins stable.

Prepare to find freedom
With boundaries no less.
In this grounded pose
We call “No Table Yes”.

As you stretch right leg back
Exhale YES to Higher Aim.
As you bring knee to forehead
Inhale NO to Low Lame.

Your spine arches and curves
As you continue 5 times
Try it fast, Try it slow
Switch sides
Cause it’s prime.

Press toes together
Root hips to your heels
Stretch heart and hands forward
Notice what is revealed.

Sit in easy pose
Tune into your frame.
Each inhale in
Think YES to high aim.

Each exhale out
Think NO to Low Lame
May this help you
Up your game.

 

Sat Nam

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