Discomfort

Discomfort: 

it's very often my least favorite pose that garners my attention and commitment, perhaps with an innate awareness that through this discomfort there is something valuable for me to experience. Sometimes the very asana that holds the most challenge soon becomes a favorite of mine. This isn't limited to a physical challenge, in fact, I'd much rather push through the limits of my body then deal with some of the emotional blocks that can keep me from experiencing a sense of comfort within a pose - with child's pose being one of the most recent examples. Of course these aren't two separate issues, it's the body, as I'm holding a certain posture, that triggers an emotional response,

and it's through the same asana that allows for me to heal. 

utkatasana, chair pose, is an asana that offers both a physical challenge as well as working through some deep emotions that have surfaced as I hold this posture. It's important to me here to not rush the breath, a careful mindfulness that allows my breathing to settle on it's own, relaxing into the posture with a sure and steady commit to explore what ever the moment now offers - even if it's physical discomfort, a rising sense of fear, or as most often in utkatasana, both confronting me at once for the length of five to ten breaths as I hold the pose. 

I should mention that this isn't the physical pain of injury, no, it's the discomfort of a physical challenge that takes me to the edge of what the body wishes to perform and holding that point for just a bit longer than Id like to. It's here that I surrender, and it's also the exact moment that those fearful emotions sharpen and urge me to abandon the pose early. This is the place for me to explore, using breath as a vehicle of surrender, simply relaxing through the waves of anxiety as often as I'm able. 

sometimes it's only for a single breath. 

most often 

more. 

allowing breath and body dictate how long I hold the pose 

at whatever point of my surrender,

and then ease back into a more relaxing posture.

just a moment of discomfort...

utkatasana.

and then on to the rest of my practice. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: As Well As My Surrender

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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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My Own Unique Expression

My own unique expression:

I'm not the most creative person on YouTube, having just a small channel and producing mostly nature shorts, sharing my workouts, and doing a live stream session several times a day where I talk about the things I'm most passionate about - meditation, yoga, breathwork, writing and all things related to these topics. It's fun, and I don't give much thought into being a content creator, there's no editing involved, not a lot of forethought into the process. 

I simply show up each day and share aspects of my life. 

that's the creative process, the true content, 

being alive, everything happening spontaneously, 

including my wish to share. 

and so I do.

in this way it's been really freeing, my life handles the details and I give myself freely to the process, easily so, and with little concern as to how others might view the content I share. YouTube is a means for me to communicate my passion for the things I love, a social media venue that allows a creative platform to whoever wishes to offer their own unique expression to the world. And this really appeals to me, that in my attempt to live a quiet, creative, and contemplative life - I can simply share it, maybe even creatively so, my own unique expression too...

offered to the world.

~

Peace, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Earliest

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Earliest

Earliest: 

sunrise is earliest of the year now, growing earlier still for another few weeks before the trend reverses in its order. So I have just a little time to bask within this morning light, capturing moments of its subtle beauty with a photograph or two, but mostly, simply appreciative for the warmer reach of sun and the opportunity to be witness to the dawn. 

of course this happens all through the year, sunrise is never absent.

but seeking solitude, a more quiet time in nature, my morning walks are usually cloaked in the dark, with only the briefest stretch through a certain time of year do I actually find myself in early light. So this is a cherished time of year for me, and I greet the sunrise as a participant, feeling as if the months of walking in the dark have prepared for this show of morning colors and a brighter world. 

and then slowly,

 the curve of time again begins to offer darkness. 

and it feels like the morning light has readied for this as well, that fully charged by the display of dawn it's now time to retreat to the trend of nature and continue walking through the coming seasons, whatever it is they might hold for me each morning.

yet, from the briefest stretch of earliest dawn...

I carry this light within. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Rhizomatic Path of Yoga

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Rhizomatic Path of Yoga

Rhizomatic path of yoga: 

yoga asks for only a little faith, just enough to cause a stir of hope that we could live a more fulfilling life, an easier way to navigate through an often troubled world. What's amazing is that it's an rhizomatic path, that we may enter at any one point of its eight-fold structure and later emerge in the exact place we need to be in order to reach that fulfillment. It's a path of true connection, at least if we stick with it, perhaps believing that we're simply focusing on a healthy body, stretching and becoming limber, and yet the reality is that we're opening to a more subtle energy, life altering, and that this will lead us to the next step along the way - whatever that might be. 

yoga, at it's best, is spontaneous in its flow.

and that's how it was for me, circular really, entering the rhizomatic path of yoga as a curious child, teaching myself postures from a book and only glancing at the ethics and breathing methods that were offered. A few years later it was meditation and one-pointed focus that captured my attention. My life became centered on my inner-world, breathing techniques and asanas were employed to deepen my concentration, allowing me to sit for longer periods of time. 

eventually, rhizomatically, I eventually found myself at the very beginning of the path, discovering how the principles of an ethical life not only lead to a greater sense of fulfillment, but also increases my capacity to follow the entirety of yoga. 

this is just how the path of yoga has unfolded for me. 

a lifetime of practice.

there's no wrong way, rhizomatically, we'll all enter at a certain point that calls to us the most, perhaps with a focus on asanas and breathing, or we wish to gain the peace that's offered through the means of meditation. It doesn't matter, not really, as a rhizomatic pattern is one where every point is open-ended, connected to the very next we need to be - and that is where our faith places in, just a little, to know that right now, at whatever point we find ourselves...

it's connected to the entirety of yoga.

rhizomatically.

whole. 

~

Peace, Eric

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Softest of Awakenings

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Softest of Awakenings

Softest of awakenings;

it's enough for me that life has given cause for these softest of awakenings to occur, no grand enlightening experience, only a sense of brokenness, of having been on the keen edge of loss and sorrow, and that this has allowed insights to appear through my own spacious nature. That's it really, that life has broken me open and nothing of certainty was found within, no true and lasting self that had a permanent grasp on anything at all. 

just an openness for the entirety of life to flow through.

it's not enlightenment, but it's an enduring love that's been present to me all along, unconditional in its hold, compassionate, and it's through these softest of awakenings that I'm able to find myself here, having never strayed from this truest sense of home. 

the truth is, I don't need to be enlightened, it's enough for me to softly awakened to this love, knowing that it's always present, and that life has brought me to this awareness through my every greatest loss, through my sense of brokenness and sorrow. 

in this softest of awakenings...

I find myself at home. 

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Transitory Shade of Green

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Transitory Shade of Green

Transitory shade of Green:

as I was out with my camera yesterday, looking for a daylight spotting of an owl that I knew was nesting nearby, and I suddenly found myself awash in the greenness of the the world right now, being nearly overcome by the intensity of color and fragrance of the season. I love this time of year, above all other times I adore the richness of this shade of green that's soon to reach its peak. What immediately struck me was that this season of green is even now changing, that at this exact moment autumn is already present in these leaves -

so I find myself as witness to the transitory shade of green.

and recall the lesson on suffering offered from  the Buddha,

urging me not to cling to any season.

as everything is in motion.

always.

and my world is never settled.

at this moment, in the depth and thickness of greenness, it's an illusion - what I'm truly seeing is the wavelengths of red and blue, absorbed by the chlorophyll within leaves and then reflected to me as my favorite shade of green, a gift really, received by eyes and soul. In the fall, chlorophyll breaks down and exposes this illusion, showing the brilliance of autumn colors already present in the leaves. Change, motion, is the only reality of every season. 

it's the lesson from the Buddha.

and so as witness to this transitory shade of green, I embrace the moment, loving it's illusory nature through the very richness of its color,

 and knowing that even now reality is offering me its reflection.

 refusing to cling, 

my love only deepens.

~

Peace, Eric 

To read more from Headless Now, please visit: Tested

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