The Game is a-foot…

Today, practice was one of those interesting affairs. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m exploring the function etc of muladhara chakra, the root chakra.

The root chakra, for those of you who just asked “And what the hell is that?”, is an energy centre of the body, located at the base of the spine and it’s energies are related to issues of physical self-preservation, survival, security. When it’s working from a good space, we feel grounded and connected, to earth, to ourselves, and ultimately to others. As noted yesterday, I’m feeling a little ungrounded as of late. I think 9 months of yoga teacher’s training is supposed to ‘unground’ you and leave you feeling a little shaken, if not stirred.

So, in a spirit of exploration, I’m in the process of constructing a “Root Chakra” session. I’m possibly world’s clumsiest session constructor EVER, and I have figured out the worse thing I can do is sit down and try to put something on paper. When I do that, I get really attached to the little stick figures and can’t seem to let go of them, even when I know it’s all wrong. So, I’ve started with a new tactic called “Get your feet on the mat”.

Yesterday, I did a bit of reading and came up with a list of postures that I thought had first chakra potential. Mostly, standing postures. I decided that, in keeping with the notion of ‘balanced and grounded’, I’d stay clear of the asymmetrical postures, which incidentally, are my personal favourites, and concentrate on the symmetrical ones.

I did something a little different for me today. Instead of using Samasthiti (Equal Standing Posture) as a basic throwaway posture, I really spent some time in it. I started with the posture in the more relaxed manner of feet hip width apart, but moved to the “classic” version of feet together, knees together and I just observed myself in motion — the ripples of movement through the muscles of the feet as I tried to find balance. The reluctance of my body to allow the arches of the foot to soften into the floor. My habitual rolling of the feet outwards and walking on the outsides of the foot — classic excessive supination.

It was an exercise of observance. How my pelvis tips forward when I straighten my knees. How the tipping of the pelvis changes the curve of my lumbar spine and causes it to take on muscle tension.

I stood there for at least 5 minutes, just observing the subtle shifts inside my body, all the while visualizing energy streaming into my feet and legs. My intention was to just leave this as the practice but as I continued in this vein, I felt my lumbar spine tightening up and my ankles were tingly in a unpleasant manner as the blood pooled in my feet.

I just listened to my body to clues to the next needed asana. Parsarita Padottanasana, the wide legged forward fold was my next choice. I took it in ardha first (half — bent to torso parallel to the floor) and let my back muscles release for 4 or 5 breaths before continuing down to my full approximation of it.

I worked with a couple of other postures but they quickly go the heave for being “not right”. I ended with Janu Shirshasana (Head to Knee posture) with Catuspadapitham (Crab or Table) to release the neck and shoulders.

This session needs to be filled out and might even turn into two separate sessions before I’m done, but it’s a noble first foray.

Thanks for reading and Namaste,

Kate

Getting to the roots of the matter

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… that would be the peaceful sound of a yoga practitioner regaining her own practice.

I loved my teacher’s training. Honest. It was, however, intense. For nine months, I was in a constant state of pulled off balance, largely dancing to someone else’s tune. Practice was based on a lot of things but rarely on what I wanted. I was either learning the concepts of the previous classes or prepping myself for the next go around. I haven’t felt centred, or balanced, or grounded, in a long while.

Not that I’m complaining. I think being thrown off balance and working outside one’s comfort zone is the point of advanced studies and/or teacher’s training. If you already knew it, why would you make the effort and use the resources need to pursue advanced work?

That settled, it’s time to settle back into a comfortable place where I can marshal my resources and fingure out where I’m headed, now and into the future. It seems to me, the place to start settling all this push and pull stuff of the past year, is right there in the Root Chakra (Muladhara Chakra).

This is also a bit of an intellectual exploration because frankly, I haven’t figured out this chakra stuff. My inner skeptic has a strong inclination that it’s a truckload of hooey. So, for me, that means it’s science time. Time to explore, time to experiment and check things out.

It’s going to be hard to keep an open mind and open heart with this stuff because it’s so ripe with potential for fraud. About a month ago, I was watching a television show on Access Channel in which two ‘mediums” were hawking chakra therapy and ‘energy readings’ to a couple of marks. For someone who has worked in policing for nearly 20 years, their patter and their sell had all the hallmarks of the classic swindle. And let’s not be mistaken about it, these two con artists were good at it. Hats off to their pure professionalism. They had the language of manipulation down to a science and their set up was flawless.

My husband came in right about the time when Con Artist # 2 was explaining to her mark that she had located and removed some “elemental energy” but was relieved to find that the mark was not suffering from any form of ‘demonic attachments”. Apparently, demons, elementals and other otherworldly beings can get caught in our chakra net. Who knew?

I have developed a lot of respect for a lot of the teachings of yoga. Heaven knows, it’s had a lot of positive benefits for me but I confess, my mind trips just about every time I hear the word “chakra”. Why? Certainly not because I’m versed in what yoga has to say about it. No, what causes the eye-rolling is how the language of yoga has been co-opted by grifters for the purpose of separating people from their money.

So I think for the next month or so, I’m going to slowly venture into the realm of energy anatomy, starting with the chakras. I’m told that the Muladhara (root chakra) is about safety, security, survival needs and that imbalances in this chakra is associated with body weight issues.

I have a lifetime of experience in dealing with excessive body weight and I’m starting to get the hint that NOW is the time to start doing something about it. NO, I’m not going on yet another diet. That foolishness I’ve given up forever. I could write a book on what the psychology of deprivation does to the waistline.

I believe that I’ve cleared up enough of the peripheral stuff in my life and my head to start looking at some of the more salient issues: like my relationship with food, my use of food to self-medicate, what roles food plays in my life, why I consume more than I need, et cetera.

For me, it’s going to be some heavy lifting but I’m curious and interested in the exploration for it’s own sake. I’m looking forward to some ‘grounding’ in my life to counterbalance all the swirling changes of the past year.

Thanks for reading and Namaste,

Kate