Cultivating My Inner Tree

I take my yoga seriously, but not that seriously. A friend in yoga mentioned “The Inappropriate Yoga Guy” video on Saturday. I just watched it with Bob. It doesn’t get much funnier than this.

 Along the same lines is Buddha Berry. Not as funny (to me) as Inappropriate but still funny.

Sorry…you’ll have to follow links to get there. I’m too tired to figure out how to embed the video for you.

My regular Thursday night teacher, who also teaches me on Monday, Weds & Sat.,  has been gone for a few days, so I’ve gotten to work with a few different teachers. I like to mix it up, but sometimes I like a little predictability. Today I went in knowing I would have a sub & being a little sad about it. I wanted a challenging flow class, and I knew on a regular Thursday that would happen. With all the overwhelming heat in Seattle lately, I’ve been really sluggish. I have gone to yoga each evening, but the classes have been slower. This has been good. However, with it a little cooler today, I wanted to really work, focus & sweat from a class focused on a lot of flow.

Our sub came through! As it turns out, she usually attends the Thurs. 5:45 class as it falls between two classes that she teaches. So, she knew the regulars & what we usually practice. At the beginning of class,  she asked if anyone wanted anything in particular. I asked for some pace, some movement, something to kick me out of my sleepwalking state. For me, our class was a perfect build up & mix of poses. The class was great. She’s awesome. YAY!

I came home after & made a huge dinner. I felt hungry for the first time in days. (Heat makes me uninterested in eating.)

Also, I had promised to set an healing intention for Bo, a sick doggie. I did this at the beginning of class, setting an intention to build strength and dedicate that strength toward his healing. I maintained my focus on this blessing and believe I built a strong, meditative, focused practice, building strength for him as well as for my body. Woof-woof, Bo. Be well & Namaste.

Workout:

• Type: Flexibility
• Date: 07/12/2007
• Time: 17:45:00
• Total Time: 1:30:00.00

I was drawn to the prayer wheels again this morning, so I took Shiloh for her walk before the day heated up for her. Its nice to have a destination on our walk. Plus, by walking here, I add a little more distance to our daily walk than we’d get in on our other “regular” routes.

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 07/05/2007
• Time: 10:25:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 15:00/mile

Today I decided to mix it up a bit & take Shiloh on a walk to the Sakya Monastery, which is about a mile from where we live. I’ve been having some negative thoughts today & wanted to try to turn those around and send out some prayers of peace. The Sakya Monastery hosts 32 Tibetan prayer wheels each containing 10,000 prayers for peace. By spinning them, the idea is that you are blessed and sending out many more thousands of “good vibes” than you could through chanting on your own. The prayer contained within these wheels is Om mani padme Hum. I visited the monastery & spun the wheels. I felt inspired to continue walking, which I did for a bit, returning to the monastery on my way home to spin them again. Several people were outside reading about the wheels & waiting turns to spin them themselves. It was great to see so many prayers for peace flying out into the world!

I’m curious…apparently the Dali Lama has decided that the spinning of a computer hard drive can be used as a prayer wheel. That said, with this prayer written down, posted & soon to be read by others, is it spinning out prayers? Too, could you cyclers attach prayers to your various wheels and be sending out messages of peace with each wheel rotation? I don’t know, but its interesting to me!

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 07/03/2007
• Time: 12:00:00
• Total Time: 00:45:00.00
• Distance: 2.25 miles
• Average Pace: 20:00/mile