Savasana

My yoga teacher, Linda Grace, gave us an assignment Monday night at our restorative practice; challenge ourselves to do a 20 minute savasana (corpse pose) every day. Give yourself that time to relax and just breath. She said to think about when and where you would do this each day, what kind of music you would play, what props you would use. It's not as easy as you think to find 20 minutes a day to just lay still.

So here it is Friday and I have not found the time to do a 20 minute savasana a day. Well we did one last night at our Thursday class and someone asked how everyone was doing with the challenge. Only one person had tried it in the evening and they said it was hard. You keep hearing the household buzzing around you and then the rest of the family is wondering where you are and "What are you doing?" Linda Grace said when trying new things it's sometimes harder before it gets easier but to keep trying. I had even started this blog Tuesday morning about this subject and hadn't finished it, probably because I hadn't found the time to start the challenge myself.

Judith Lasatar says, "Everyone who is alive in the world has exactly the same amount of time each day." It's up to you how you use it. A 20 minute relaxation break seems like a nice thing to do for yourself. I always look forward to it in class, why shouldn't I look forward to it every day of my life?

Jai Uttal-Rama Bolo

My yoga teacher, Linda Grace Foster went to this Kirtan by Jai Uttal. I wanted to go, but had previous plans. If you click on the link you can hear it for free. I didn't know what a kirtan was. It's basically a whole group of people singing ancient chants together about the many names of God and the Goddess. I listened and it's quite uplifting. Jai Uttal's website explains it well here.

Here is translation of the chant Rama Bolo from Krishna Das:

Rama Bolo Rama Bolo, Bolo Bolo Ram
Sita Bolo Sita Bolo Bolo BoloRam
Hanuman Bolo Hanuman Bolo Bolo Bolo Ram

Oh my friends, sing the Name of God! When it gets too damn hard, just sing. Have no fear, don't give up. Sing! When it gets too good, sing. When it falls apart, sing. When it comes together, sing. Cry and sing. Sing and cry. Living sing. Dying sing. Listening sing. Singing sing.

I love this message. Don't you feel better when you can sing out loud? This is quite an education learning about yoga and all the different paths it is taking me down.

RAMA, SITA, and HANUMAN:

Rama, a prince, is also an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

Sita is Rama's wife.

Hanuman is a monkey who serves Rama and Sita, and rescues Sita from evil.

BOLO: "Bolo" is the imperative form of the verb "to sing."

Mitagating Anger

I received my new book today, "A Year of Living Your Yoga" by Judith Hansen Lasater, PHD, P.T. My yoga teacher, Linda Grace Foster is student of Lasater and often uses quotes from her.

I opened the box and took out the book. There was a ribbon bookmark in it, so I opened it to the page it was on. This book is set up to read each day by date. The book was marked to today's date! My yoga teacher had read us the quote the night before. It was about anger and letting your anger melt into being present. We chanted this mantra:

Shante Prashante
Sarva Krodha
Upasha mani Swaha

(SHAN-TEH PRA-SHAN-TEH SHAR-VAH KROH-DHA OO-PASH-AS MAH-NEE SWAH-HA)

This mantra helps to mitigate anger and instill peace of mind. Thomas Ashley-Farrand translates it as: "Invoking supreme peace I offer (surrender) the quality of anger to it's source in the higher and formless universal mind. Salutations."

Lasater says, "you cannot be angry unless you believe you are right...allow being right to melt into being present."