Namaste

Aug. 11, 2014



YogaJournal.com has a definition of "Namaste" that I really like:

The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us that is located in the heart chakra. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another. "Nama" means bow, "as" means I, and "te" means you. Therefore, namaste literally means "bow me you" or "I bow to you." To perform Namaste, we place the hands together at the heart chakra, close the eyes, and bow the head. It can also be done by placing the hands together in front of the third eye, bowing the head, and then bringing the hands down to the heart. We bring the hands together at the heart chakra to increase the flow of Divine love. Bowing the head and closing the eyes helps the mind surrender to the Divine in the heart. For a teacher and student, Namaste allows two individuals to come together energetically to a place of connection and timelessness, free from the bonds of ego-connection. If it is done with deep feeling in the heart and with the mind surrendered, a deep union of spirits can blossom.

~ Aadil Palkhivala

I love what Namaste means! The surrendering of ego to the Divine and connecting with another person in a practice such as yoga or Tai Chi must surely be healing.

Husby and I attended our third Tai Chi class tonight, the only two in the class. It was a superb opportunity for the Sifu to work with us individually, to do steps and postures that would benefit our specific needs - and to go over them again and again with imagery that helped us see and feel how they should be done. Having him show us how to do the horse stance and telling us how it should feel, for example, made such a difference. When I did it on my own this week, I didn't realize that it's meant to be a powerful quad strengthener that also tones the glutes, the hips, and if done regularly with other stances, it will improve the ability to walk, climb and move side-to-side.   

I had a particularly hard time getting the Brush Knee posture; my movements were spastic-looking, and if I did get it once, I couldn't repeat it. The idea is for the movement to flow in a relaxed, fluid manner but I can't even get the mechanics down to get beyond mechanical! We spent a lot of time talking about energy and how each stance, step and posture aligns the body so energy can flow properly. Sifu D explained that Tai Chi moves are very difficult for me because in fibromyalgia, the central nervous system is firing all over the place and the brain has a hard time making sense of all the stimuli. With regular Tai Chi practice, the brain will learn to take control and the manic firing will calm down - when it does, fibro symptoms will begin to disappear. 

We talked a lot about energy and how each step, stance and movement is done a certain way to achieve proper body alignment. Sifu did strength demonstrations that showed how simply moving a hand breaks alignment and makes it easy for him to push us back or over. This moving of energy is so powerful, he says, that at first we shouldn't do too much Tai Chi on a daily basis. He instructed us to do just one stance a day and not to carve out an hour a day, but to do about 20 minutes and incorporate steps, stances, acupressure points and stretches in daily activities throughout the day. 

Smile of the day:

Perhaps when we're mindful of blessings we are offered more opportunities to serve or we're in a better frame of mind to see opportunities and view them as blessings. Last Tuesday another friend asked me to help her, and today I got to help a friend whose 17-year-old daughter fell Saturday while practicing for an ice-skating competition and broke her hip. My friend was with her daughter through surgery and stayed with her all night and most of the next day. I've never known my friend to get frazzled or be less than positive and cheery, but when I called her yesterday, she started crying. She was perfectly exhausted, and I knew that figuring out what and how to feed eight people today was more than she needed to deal with and was something I could do. I'm grateful that Husby and I have the means to provide a meal for another family and that today I had the energy to do it. (The full moon is waning, thank goodness!)