Cat-Scratch-Fever

You Have the Right to Purr. You Have the Right to Hiss.

Cat-Scratch-FeverEver feel like a scaredy cat trying to hang out with the big dogs? Do you tend to talk too much or feel a hairball is stuck in your throat when you are around certain people or situations? Then take the lead from what cats really do when the presence of fear urges them to humbly move into the strength of Universal Support. They make themselves bigger by puffing up their back and their neck!

By opening the back body, we open to the unknown, to that which is greater than ourselves, to untapped sources of power.  Opening in this way, draws in and strengthens the front body and helps us find our own inner power. The back body represents trust and support which is what we need to get stronger and to balance the opening of our heart. Breathing into the back of our hearts  and lengthening our necks gives us the freedom to speak.

You have the right to purr.  You have the right to hiss.  Deliver whatever your expression is in our pose aptly named “Cat Scratch Fever”.

Begin on all fours.  Line up your wrists under your shoulders and place your knees hip-width apart.  Inhale as you spread your fingers wide and press your finger pads, knuckles and the four corners of your palms down evenly so the center of your palms will lift up toward your armpits.  Lengthen from your hips up to your armpits. Exhale and soften into your back body. Soften your throat and the back of your eyes.

Inhale and slide your side ribs back, puff up your back body until you feel strong and supported. Try to even puff up the back of your neck!

Exhale and lift your tail and both sides of your throat up to move your spine in the opposite direction.  With your breath leading theIMG_1662 way, move your spine slowly and deliberately back and forth with catlike agility.

For more power, purr,  “trust” with your inhale and “strength” with your exhale.

This will awaken your back body in a way that is not hardening or constricting and will bring you to a place of recognition and empowerment so that depending on your needs you can either speak easy or be silent. Breathe into the back of your heart to connect to those big dogs in your life. It will take you to a higher place, and that’s where you want to land.

 

More to Explore

  • A Sutra a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

    What are these sutras
    You speak so about?
    Are they stitches like sutures
    With some sort of clout?

    Good question, my friend~
    Why, yes, yes indeed,
    These sutras are potent
    In times of great need.

    In times of great need,
    And in times of great bliss,
    These highly condensed words
    Should not be dismissed.

    The most essential core thread,
    Of deep subtle meaning,
    That runs through the fabric~
    It supports out of gleanings.

    Gleanings of insights,
    And wisdom fused pearls~
    From the direct experience
    Of wise boys and girls.

    Sutras express so much
    In so very few words.
    With vast significance,
    It’s not for the birds.

    Sutras are formulas
    To be memorized and studied.
    To solve the perplexities~
    Of minds getting muddied.

    So chose your text wisely~
    Yoga, Shiva or Seuss,
    Buddhist, Tao, Platform,
    Tripitaka or Mother Goose.

    Then write them in BOLD~
    Where you’ll see them each day!
    Melt their magnificence
    In every which way.

  • Kale Me Crazy

    NutritionTWOsmall
    Yesterday, I was with my friend Autumn, and she wanted to go to Taco Bell, which is her favorite restaurant. The only way my mom was willing to take us is if we went to a place called “Kale Me Crazy”. Basically, we were bribed. I’m not a huge kale person, so I never even though about going there.

    A couple months ago, my mom had gone in there and gave the owner her recipe for almond milk. He turned it into a smoothie, naming it Grounded after my mom’s company. Of course, my mom ordered that one for us. It resembled the concoctions that my mom normally would make. It was a brown, grainy, mixture that literally looked like it came from the ground. I guess it lived up to its name.

    Unenthusiastically, Autumn and I tried it. And we were surprised. It tasted like a healthy version of a chocolate milkshake. We couldn’t stop drinking it. Being the nice person that I am, I let Autumn have it so I could “enjoy” my kale smoothie, which was really disappointing compared to Grounded. I guess you never know what to expect.

    To try this smoothie, I would recommend going to Kale Me Crazy or, you can even make the smoothie at home by blending these ingredients.

    Menu Grounded
    Recipe:

    Handful of raw almonds (soaked)
    3 tablespoons of raw cacao
    1 banana
    1 tablespoon of hemp seeds
    1 teaspoon of hemp protein
    Handful of raw Brazil nuts (soaked)
    3 dates
    11/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
    2 tablespoons of raw honey
    2 scoops of ice
    2 cups of water

     

    Drinkin

  • 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  –

  • Intention Tower

    Gratefully, I wake up every morning, breathing, heart beating and mind wide open. As I breathe into my heart I pray, “God, thank you for this day, thank you for this breath and thank you for this life.” I am passionate about living life through peace and love rather than through fear and hate. My…

  • How to Bliss Bomb the World

    PIC-2So you finish your practice~
    You feel loving and calm.
    There is nothing you dismiss~
    You are full of BLISS bombs.

    You rejoin your family~’
    And what do you hear?
    Shouts of anxieties~
    Blames, Shames, doubts and fears!

    Does loving-kindness deflate
    As you join the contention?
    Or will your blissed state
    Transmit without tension?

    Each time you experience
    The delight of {I AM}
    Your bliss will flow forth~
    Like a hydraulic ram.

    Embody the KNOWING~
    Of your inner LOVE state.
    So you can keep it safe~
    And INTERRELATE.

    YOGA says your relationship
    between you and your SELF~
    can not be diminished,
    or put upon a shelf.

    You take your SELF
    everywhere you GO!
    Then everything is spiritual
    from Grumps to Sloppy Joes!

    Lokanandah Samadhi-Sukham
    Shiva Sutra One.Eighteen~
    PIC-1Your inner bliss continues
    Like you won the slot machines.

    So how do we GROW
    In our capacity for such LOVE?
    Without mermaids and unicorns~
    Blue moons and white doves?

    We create an INNER space
    Direct love toward KNOWERSHIP~
    Call forth our virtues,
    Our patience, our grit.

    We bridge the gap of difference
    SERVE in a profound way~
    Not cold duty or bargain~
    LOVE is the order of each day.

    Become capable with powers
    Of WILL, KNOWING, and ACTING
    By practicing {I AM}
    Without useless distracting.

    Place your hand over your HEART~
    Feel right beneath your palm~
    Towards your back body~
    Where this is endless peace and calm.

    Allow your attention
    To be with your BREATH~
    To flow in and flow out
    Softly in your chest.

    Welcome the BREATH~
    Right into your HEART.
    Feel a soft golden sun
    That is bright, warm and smart.

    With each breath IN~
    make that SUN glow.
    With Each breath OUT~
    Expand the warmth to and fro.

    As you welcome the breath in
    To the vast INNER world~
    Invite the HEART to reveal
    It’s largeness, depth, and swirl.

    Flow in with the thought {I AM}
    The mantra of the inner self~
    (Not I am Sam~
    Or I am a silly elf)

    The heart receives the breath
    With the recognition {I AM}
    The exhalation feels space,
    The experience of BLISS BAM.

    Practice with eyes open
    Practice with eyes closed
    Practice often
    And LOVE will be exposed.

    As you greet those outside~
    Amongst the chaotic and mundane~
    Stay tuned into your heart
    And send LOVE to their pain.

    You’ll get glimpses of KNOWING
    Your yoga is working~
    When outer frustrations
    Are shirking, not lurking.