As Well As My Surrender

As well as my surrender: 

through the course of winter and now entering late spring, my yoga asana practice has come full circle to almost the same sequence as before I suffered an injury to my back. There's still a few poses that my body isn't quite ready for, and my approach is different, geared more towards a vinyasa flow, yet slower and with a mindfulness of towards the spontaneous energy found through the approach, hold, and release of every posture. It's done wonders for my back, healing, and feels to be exactly what I need right now, perfect in its timing. 

this has been greatly inspired by Kripalu yoga as presented by its founder Amit Desai who taught a version of hatha yoga that was bases on firm foundation from the ground up, mindfulness of alignment with an easy concentration on the breath. This is an inward flow of yoga, mentally relaxed and with a focus on the prana that's ever present through the body. Established in this commitment, there arrives a natural surrender of the mind to body and then further to complete absorption into the pranic energy. It all becomes a beautiful, spontaneous, natural expression of yoga. 

I'm not a student of Kripalu yoga, just inspired by it, the awe inspiring beauty of its surrender. I aspire to let my practice go and then be consumed by the subtle energy that even now I feel present within me. It feels as if every single asana is an entire sequence, from firm establishment of base, focused alignment, and then the breath itself takes over, prana, guiding me through the entirety of the pose. 

this finally feels like my yoga.

and all it took was an injured back...

as well as my surrender. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: My Own Unique Expression

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Thank you. 

Easing

Easing; 

it seems I'm easing into spring with less pain and a more fluid sense of body, my back injury noticeably improving each morning as I approach my once again comprehensive yoga asana routine. There's a growing sense of joy as I leave this painful aspect of winter behind and regain my mobility just in time for warmer days of spring's activities. My earlier walks are longer and I find myself running more in my afternoon excursions. 

each day I'm easing more into a joyful body. 

leaving a pain filled winter behind.

or at least I hope that's so, at a certain age an injury's recovery is never fully guaranteed and this is an old and reoccurring one for me. Yet I am optimistic by nature and attempting to be smarter in my approach to healing, not rushing into the things I used to do, but viewing things through a wiser body, more patient now, and willing to ease into a sense of comfort. 

oddly though, it was only when I expanded my asana sessions to include the postures that brought be the most challenge that I began to see my greatest improvements. Almost instantly it seemed that pain subsided by a large degree and with its return each morning was lesser by degrees. Through at first this felt like an impatient rush into a more comprehensive practice, it turns out that it was an intuitive call for my body to return to what it most truly needed, access to a healing prana that was made available by opening myself to these harder asanas that I returned to. 

and with that I began to feel better.

not healed.

but healing. 

and so I'm easing into spring, leaving no small amount of pain behind, happy to be expanding once more in the joy of motion. There's a paradox here, and it's one I'm careful to explore. That it seems I'm easing into a new season with a leap, being careful with my healing by just the right amount of physical as well as emotional challenge. I need to do things just right, listening to that intuitive wisdom of my body and allowing my self to be guided through my practice. 

and this seems to be the art of healing...

easing into it with a leap,

sometimes.

yet always being mindful. 

and most importantly,

being grateful for every small degree of motion.

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Visual Haiku 

Also, please visit to buy: The Power of Now 

Thank you.