February 2022 Tidbits

ASANA (POSTURE)

Marichyasana A (Great Sage Pose)

-        Stamp your squatting foot down and anchor your left thigh.

-        Shift forward, lighten your seat and lift your right sitting bone.

-        Project the spine forward and reach back through the arms with the elbows bent

-        Firmly clasp your fingers or grip your left wrist with your right hand.

from Teaching Yoga With Verbal Cues by David Garrigues

(https://davidgarrigues.com/shop/teaching-yoga-with-verbal-cues)

BKS Iyengar's translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras states that "Perfection in asana is reached, when effort becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached". Ultimately, asana, pranayama and meditation are tools to help us reach the infinite being within. 

(iHanuman Yoga Media sara@ihanuman.com)

HEALTH

The Science of Savasana: How Rest Can Benefit Any Kind of Workout

Savasana relieves physical and mental stress that builds during a workout

Rewarding hard work with Savasana may help you build an exercise habit

Savasana may help you keep your post-workout high throughout the day

Savasana builds resilience we can use in our daily lives

Savasana keeps you present and more joyful

(for further details click on https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-savasana-after-any-workout) 

WISE ACTION

This is one of the most profound realizations on the path of awakening: that I don’t have to believe my thoughts. They’re just thoughts. I am not my thoughts. They’re real, but not true. That recognition opens the door to freedom.

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/trusting-the-gold/

QUOTE

The practice of yoga is beyond

postures and breathing.

These are only the tools we use to help us connect more deeply to our inner flow of consciousness that integrates harmoniously back into the vast matrix of nature and infinite existence.

~ Harmony Slater ~

(http://www.harmonyslater.com/)

STORY

Many years ago, when I worked as a transfusion volunteer at a Hospital, I got to know a little three-year-old girl who was suffering from a disease. The little girl needed blood from her five-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease. The boy had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness and was the only hope for his sister.

The doctor explained the situation to the little brother and asked if the boy would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate only for a moment before he took a deep breath and said “Yes, I will do it if it will save my sister.”

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale, and his smile faded. He looked up at the nurse beside him and asked with a trembling voice, “When will I start to die?”

The young boy had misunderstood the doctor and thought he had to die to save his sick sister.

 Author Unknown

(Story of the Week from https://philosophyworks.org/) 

POEM

Home by Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
I don’t know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here