“Every block of stone has a sculpture inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

- Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo had the ability to see the form inside the sculpture.  He carved away that which was not necessary from the marble in order to reveal the beauty of the form already underneath.

We are like Michelangelo’s marble.

When we think of aspiring to be our best selves, we often think about slathering on more duties and obligations.  We feel that we have to do more – exert more – in order to reach some sort of far off potential.   But we’ve got it backwards.  Our best self is already innately inside of us.  The form is there.  Our highest creative calling is to discard that stuff that is getting in the way so that our best selves can be fully revealed.

What do you need to carve away?

For many of us there is the literal stuff.  Here’s some of what’s on my list:

• Mom’s old pots
• dress that hasn’t been worn in five years (because you never know)
• crazy, high uncomfortable heels that I will wear….when, exactly?
• cosmetics from the 90′s (seriously, this stuff is practically dangerous)
• notebooks from college (makes me feel smart)

How is holding onto your stuff serving you?  Is is protecting you or holding you back?  What would spring cleaning look like?  After the initial pang, how would it feel to let all that go?

We  perform a similar kind of plaster job in our yoga classes by overlaying tension on our asana.  Rather than trusting ourselves to find ease and work less, we over-engage as some sort of admission price for advancement.  Not realizing that if we actually stopped working so darn hard, the yoga would have more space to emerge.  Now, I’m not saying we don’t work in asana.  We do.  Just like chiseling a rock is sweaty and deep.  But we want to do the real work and find where we actually need to be stronger, rather than simply engaging everything and hoping for the best.

A bit more tricky to identify our emotional baggage. The relationship that is no longer working.  The job that doesn’t allow us to express our best selves.  The habits we casually fall into that keep us from doing what we ACTUALLY want to do.

The Road Home

Rather than adding on more obligations to your day, get out your chisels, and start carving away what is not working from your life.  Start with the externals.  Do a spring cleaning.  Get rid of Mom’s old pots – she loves you even if you give them to Goodwill.  In your asana practice, start finding more ease so that the parts of your body that need to be stronger will actually have the chance to work.  And the parts that love to over-effort can finally find some space.  When we let go of what no longer serves us, the opportunity appears for the luminous parts of ourselves to emerge.  Sunshine appears through the chinks of the armor.

As we blow away the dust in our physical world, the emotional and mental baggage starts to become clearer.  The quiet whispered messages from your deepest self will begin to get louder.  You already know what you need to do.  Can you let go of what is getting in the way?

So maybe today you make a tiny tap into the marble, then tomorrow more of the rock falls away.  Eventually, if you keep chiseling, more of you will be revealed.

A Warning

Despite the fact that he is widely regarded as one of humanity’s greatest artists, Michelangelo’s works weren’t all that proportional or even always pretty.  Powerful, yes.  “Pretty?”  No.  David’s hands are too big and Jesus would never actually fit on Mary’s lap.   And it is exactly this unreasonableness that makes his works so genius.   Michelangelo wasn’t interested in “reasonable” art; he created from his soul.   Similarly, as we carve down into our most essential selves, what we unearth may not be “pretty” or “reasonable.”  We may not fit neatly into the social box anymore.  We may find that the old habits feel confining rather than comfortable.   Others may not understand.   Like Michelangelo’s works, you will be more than “pretty.”  You will be powerfully and uniquely yourself.

Pull out your chisels.  Make a small nick.

And remember: “I am still learning.” – Michelangelo

Second Hand Rose

“Kitchen Music:”  Music recorded literally in the kitchen.  No auto-tune.  No fancy mixin’.  Just me and my Garage Band and the sink.  (Caveat: This particular tune recorded in my Dad’s garage at a farm in Texas.)  Thanks for listening.

You have a right to feel good in your skin.  It is, in fact, a divinely given right bequeathed to you via your senses, who, like tiny angelic messengers, are constantly bringing you a bounty of sensations upon which to feast.

Your breath |  Your skin |Your sight | Your taste |Your hearing | Your smell.

We live in a culture that is terrified of pleasure.  “It’s…sexual,” we’ve been told in furtive tones, “It’s just indecent!  If we let it take over, who knows what will happen next!” Our pleasurable responses have been strapped down and brow-beaten until they are anemic and sickly.

Because pleasure is power.
Wars are fought over the restraint of pleasure.  Women enshrouded head to foot, both sexes circumcised, emotions shoved down, sexuality twisted into dysfunction.  So when we do have the occasional pleasurable moment, we almost immediately revert to shame (“You shouldn’t have eaten that cake/ slept with that man/ bought that velvet couch”) or start dreading its imminent demise (“This can’t last/ I don’t deserve to feel like this”).  We don’t dare trust that we could actually feel good and not be somehow punished for our impertinence.

Bullshit.

You have a right to pleasure.

And not just sexual pleasure; you have the right to claim the subtle pleasures that are embedded in the fabric of every moment.  The pleasure of breathing and feeling your lungs stretch, the smell of your coffee, the feeling of your favorite sweater, the taste of your food, the sound of your children’s voices.  Most of the time, we rush past these delicacies and move on to “doing something important.”  I, for one, have eaten far too many un-tasted meals.

But we have to be brave. When we allow ourselves to feel, we get present to NOW and WHO we ARE, which is utterly exposing.  And feeling pleasure may open us to feeling other emotions that may not initially seem quite so appealing.  Fear, anxiety, sadness, longing.

But here’s the wild paradox: you can feel pain and  pleasure at the same time.   You can be uncomfortable, sad, even devastated -  and still marinate in the deliciousness of your life.  In fact, those emotional colors will actually heighten your ability to feel pleasure more thoroughly, more completely, and in every moment.

Imagine a world where we dared to claim our right to pleasure. Where we didn’t have to wait to be perfect, or pretty enough, or successful enough to embrace the sensations of our lives.    Where we are already beautiful, delicious, and fully sexy.  Feeling pleasure makes the preciousness of our life unavoidable.  Having a greater connection to our feelings leads to empathy, joy, truth, and deep relationship.  Ultimately, feeling pleasure will lead us to joy and peace.

We must actively cultivate our capacity for pleasure. 
We must practice opening ourselves afresh to the exquisite sensations of being alive.

The Pleasure Manifesto:

• I am a delicious and miraculous child of the Universe.
• I claim pleasure as my birthright and accept full-heartedly the gifts of my senses.
• I relish my body’s aliveness, sensations, and vibrancy.
• I discard shame as an antiquated social imposition, and I feel the pleasure of each and every moment.
• I am brave and choose to live more fully, freely, and passionately NOW.

But your body has a fire
Your heartbeat a steadfast companion
Each breath more intimate than the deepest kiss
How can you be lonely when the world
Ravishes you?

Fever

“Kitchen Music:”  Music recorded literally in the kitchen.  No auto-tune.  No fancy mixin’.  Just me and my Garage Band and the sink.  Thanks for listening. (Although a caveat to this one.  This one was actually recorded in my Dad’s tool shed while visiting Texas.  But the idea is still the same )

Spring into Spring!

Flowers are blooming, sprouts are sprouting, the sun is out in Vancouver, which means that it’s time to do handstand!

Inversions are asana of marvelous integration, asking us to stabilize our mobile shoulder joints and connect all of our moving pieces together – no small task while we’re all topsy turvy.  The opportunity to explore ourselves in an unfamiliar orientation lets us experience our cells, our blood, our organs and muscles in a new way.   We literally get to turn our world upside down.

Physically, inverting give the blood and lymph in our legs the opportunity to race back heartwards via the force of gravity.  Our organs move and settle in a different orientation.  Blood moves into our brain and offers these vital tissues an oxygen bath.  The upper body gets a fantastic work out.  And psychologically, we practice courage and a sense of play by moving into the unknown.

There are many different kinds of inversions.  Downward Facing Dog and Forward Fold are great “light” inversions that we practice all the time.   (In a “light inversion,” the head is below the heart, but the rest of the body and the blood column in the legs isn’t adding any additional pressure.)   To do a “full” inversion, the entire weight of the body is transmitted and supported through the shoulder girdle rather than the pelvis and we bring our legs over our head.

Before inverting, there are a couple of sensible precautions to keep in mind.  As we will be increasing the amount of the fluid in the brain, active inversions should not be practiced if you’re experiencing high blood pressure or have a history of stroke.  If you’ve had recent eye surgery or have glaucoma, raising the pressure in the eye is also not recommended. A more passive inversion – like legs up the wall – is a great alternative that imparts lots of juicy inversion benefits while keeping the head and heart at the same level.

Are you ready to invert?

Our shoulder girdle is a marvelous, mobile joint that allows us to reach out through our arms and experience the world.  However, it’s only attached to our skeleton in one little place: right between your collarbone and your sternum!  This lack of bony attachment means that the support of the shoulder girdle comes from the muscular stability around the joint and from the muscles of the chest and back.   If we’re going to fully invert, then we need to ensure that we have enough integrity here to support our body.  Additionally, we have to get our arms all the way overhead by our ears without losing the connection to our core, which requires a good bit of shoulder flexibility.

To find out if you’re ready to do handstand, investigate the following poses as a warm up:

• Plank: focus on stabilizing the shoulder blades onto your back as you lift your lower ribs up and into your body.  Hold for one minute.  Repeat.
• Downward Facing Dog: bring your arms in line with your ears without collapsing the ribs towards the floor or letting the upper arm bones wing out.  Straighten your arms fully.  Continue to lift through your back ribs as you draw your shoulder blades slightly towards each other.   The shoulder blades and front ribs hug into the center line of the body, connecting the back and front body towards your center.
• Dolphin:  (Downward Facing Dog on your forearms, with your hands interlaced.)  Walk your feet towards your shoulders without collapsing the ribcage down or towards your hands.  Press the elbows forward and down to lengthen the back of the arms and draw the shoulder blades into the back body.  Stretch the hips up and back.
• Puppy Dog (Warrior III at the wall): Place your hands at your hip level on the wall, then walk your feet back until your hips are over your ankles and your body forms an inverted “L”.  Bring your feet together, hug your midline.  Keeping your hips level and your arms straight, lift one leg slowly up behind you.  Pause, check to see that the toes of your lifted leg are pointing straight down and draw your opposite hip back.  Then, continue to lift from your inner thigh until the leg is in line with your body.  Draw the bottom ribs and core into the body as you press into your hands and firm the outer arms in.  Hug the thighs and arms towards each other, and firm your outer hips in.  Keeping all the outer parts of your body connecting into the center, stretch from the core of your pelvis out through all four limbs.

If these poses are going well, then it’s time to move onto handstand.

How to do Handstand:

Stage I:

• Come into Downward Facing Dog, placing your hands about a foot away from the wall.  Place the hands outer shoulder distance apart, spread the fingers wide, and press through the four corners of each hand.
• Walk your feet up to your hands about halfway until your shoulders are over your wrists.
• Lift through your back ribs as you hug the shoulder blades closer to each other (here’s the muscular engagement to keep your shoulder girdle strong and stable)
• Lift one leg up – just like you did for Puppy Dog.
• Hug the inner thighs in and lift the leg higher as you press through your hands vigorously
• Stay here for 3-5 breaths, then change sides.
• Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

Stage 2:

• Continuing from Stage 1, keep the hips lifting up and back as you bend your standing leg.  Keeping the lifted leg strong, straight, and neutral, now begin to take small controlled hops.  Press strongly through your hands so that your arms remain straight.  The back, lifted leg is like a rudder: keep it straight and strong.
• Change sides.
• Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

Stage 3:

• Once both legs are up at the wall, immediately hug them strongly together
• Press through your hands vigorously as you stretch up through your heels.
• Roll the inner upper thighs to the wall as you lengthen your sitting bones up to your heels.
• Come down one leg at a time.
• Child’s pose or sit on your heels.

Most importantly, after doing handstand, take the time to absorb what you feel.

In child’s pose or seated on your heels, close your eyes and feel the rush of blood and life force that is coursing through your body.   Take several deep, smooth breaths.

Enjoy!

Beneath rises an animal of pleasure
Who shakes her hide and stretches
Turns belly up inside me and invites
Fingers to furrow and wind in her silky, white fur
Purring
In her great, cat self and reaching
Through my hands to touch
To feel
To vibrate
To stroke
To yearn for filling
To clutch wildly
To pull together
To pad across the earth to its edges and feel the ocean between my toes

We need
Against the gently dissolving forms of death
To stretch
Break
Release
Run, excite, kiss
To softly hold our children’s hands
To fill our mouths with loving words
To feel our flesh warm, delicious in the sun
To rise into passion
To wink at life and
Laugh
Full, rich, heady, exposed

Oh, to be alive in this great, wild world!
In my rising, packed, audacious body-

Hold hands
Speak softly
Laugh from our depths

Everything is a kiss
In this Universe of
Form and Light.

Written in response to attending a week long dissection immersion with the inimitable Gil Hedley.

You know the kind of day: Coffee.  Cigarettes. A man who won’t come home.

Oh yes.

Black Coffee

“Kitchen Music:”  Music recorded literally in the kitchen.  No auto-tune.  No fancy mixin’.  Just me and my Garage Band and the sink.  Thanks for listening.

Sultry.  Sexy.

Feel the southern heat settle across your skin as you sit on a lazy porch rocker with a cool glass of lemonade.   You gaze out at the fields, where the grass barely sways to move in the warm wind.  Condensation slips down the side of the glass…

Summertime

“Kitchen Music:”  Music recorded literally in the kitchen.  No auto-tune.  No fancy mixin’.  Just me and my Garage Band and the sink.  Thanks for listening.

God bless Garage Band.

This one is Joni’s Mitchell’s “Case of You.”  This song is very special to me.   Thanks for listening.

Case of You