Attitude of Gratitude

It's such a simple shift, from worry, anger, or sadness, into gratitude. Attention shifts from the past which is beyond changing, or the future which hasn't arrived, to consciousness of the only time we ever have, this one moment. This year I feel grateful for so many blessings: my home and family, satisfying work.

Breathing Out and In

Even though it's right under my nose, I rarely notice my breath. My breath has the intelligence to flow into my lungs, passing life-giving oxygen into my blood stream so that every cell of my body can receive life, energy, and vitality. My breath also carries used-up air and other waste products out of my body, creating space for the new, fresh breath to come in.

I think of my breath as beginning with an inhalation, but of course, my breath began only once, at the beginning of my life, and since then has been a constant cycle of energy out of and into my body. I find it refreshing to think of the breath as flowing out and in. If I begin my breath cycle with a mindful deep exhalation, I clear the way for a fuller intake of breath to complete it. I can even engage my abdominal muscles to push more used-up air out of my lungs and get an abdominal workout with each breath. Breathe out, and in. If you make your exhalation twice as long as the in-breath, you are doing 2 to 1 breathing, a technique recommended by psychologists for stage fright and other forms of anxiety.

Slow, deepful, mindful, regular breaths enlist the powers of my parasympathetic nervous system to calm my body and promote the work of digestion, elimination, reproduction, and other sacred tasks my body is responsible for. I can warm my body, soothe my frazzled mind, ease myself into restful sleep, and clear my thinking, just by bringing my attention to my breath.

Kids on paper

I taught a family yoga class this morning for four moms and their five children, ages 1.5 to 5.
Everyone participated part of the time. At the end, I provided chart paper for each family group to make a family picture. That's when I sat back and watched the magic happen. I was amazed at how the children were able to express themselves. The moms were delighted with the results and carried home the rolls of paper.

On and off the floor

Dancing on and with the floor has become a more important part of the Nia classes I teach. Although our floor play is usually at the end of class, there are some opportunities at the beginning and middle of class to use the floor. The floor is one of the most useful pieces of workout equipment I have. I notice that whenever I get to the floor, it's a creative path to getting up again that leads to more strength, focus, grace, and balance.

I remember in one of my belt classes, Debbie invited us to rise from the floor and return to it 13 times, each time devising a different movement from the horizontal to the vertical and back again. Here are some:

• rolling back and forth along the spine with enough momentum to roll all the way to my feet, then squatting deeply enough to drop the hips to the floor and roll again
• from belly, piking my hips up into down dog, then walking to forward fold, then lifting the spine to vertical, swan diving back to forward fold, down dog, and belly on the floor
• same as above, with more agile jumping moves
• same as above, rounding the spine to curl up one vertebra at a time, and back down
• moving in a spiral from lying on floor to standing and back to floor
• rising from a seated cross-legged posture to standing, then sitting again -- Can I do it with no hands?
• from all-fours, rocking back to balance on toes, then lowering heels and straightening legs to stand, descending slowly back to all fours
• belly to child's pose, kneeling, lunging, standing, back to lunging, kneeling, child's pose, and extending onto belly

I'm going to invent 5 more for my next workout. Today we had fun in class with Carlos's free dance on the floor from Clarity, moving rhythmically with the hands, elbows, shoulders, chest pelvis, legs, and shoulder blades, a whole body dance with the floor as a dancing partner.

One of my students today commented that moving on the floor was one way to get a massage, a way to use the floor for pleasure and comfort.