Homework

Homework:

Write a yoga class comprised of 3 Shakti flows (1 floor, 1 middle, 1 standing) connected by unmeshas (same as last week). Be sure to find a minimum of 1 nimesha moment to hold a pose in each Shakti flow and one nimesha moment to rest wherever it feels appropriate, For example between Left and Right sides of a Shakti Flow. Fuller description below of how to experience nimeshas on that mat and in your life :)

IX. Homework: Poses

We walk the same path to stillness in our postures as we do in our seats. Each posture has a primary movement, a spiraling or waving path of the asana. This path is important, and a vital part of our practice. In fact, we will spend more time on the path of creating movement, Unmesha, than we will in the path to dissolving movement, nimesha. Mostly because our day lacks movement and is full of distraction— we have to first learn how to move before we can learn how to stop moving. Each Shakti Flow has numerous postures, numerous opportunities to guide ourselves and student’s towards stillness. The key to doing this skillfully revolves around the teaching that we ‘let ourselves [move there] in slowing invisible circles.” There has to be a sense of releasing into it, as the “let ourselves” portion of the text teaches. We have to move there slowly, almost invisibly, little by little, in smaller and smaller circles. So to do this we find the movement that we are doing, and guide our students to allow themselves to perform it slower, as they invisibly arrive at stillness. We don’t need to do this with every posture, as this is a posture in itself, and adds quite a bit of work for ourselves and our student’s. But reaching for this level of stillness once in every shakti flow is refreshing, and part of your homework for the week.

X. Homework: Shakti Flows

If we zoom out and see this cycle of life from the macro lens, we see that the space between sides of your shakti flow is another great place to allow the sequence to dissolve and find stillness. Taking this time between sides is a natural way of collecting ourselves, checking in with our effort, and letting ourselves find zero naturally. Here we might not be cueing a literal slowing of invisible circles, but rather, seeing our postures themselves as tapering down, each individual movement as invisibly becoming a smaller version of the movement before it. So that is the other half of your homework, to consciously work the concept of nimesha into your shakti flows as not only the space between sides, but the postures and ways we work towards that space.

XI. Homework: off the mat

There is also homework this week for our time off the mat— because stillness is not a static form, but a state of clarity we can bring into all the actives of our day. Take time each morning to sit, and establish a couple of checkpoints to revisit your practice of stillness during the day. See if you can start to find this concept of stillness even amidst the swirling circumstances of our your life, on the go. As Babaji teaches: “During your workday, when you are engaged in mental activity, it’s good to breathe into your navel and feel centered. If you feel congest- ed in your head or in your emotions or in your lower chakras, you just breathe down through the congestion. The clearer your mind is, the better you’ll be able to do or see what you’re doing. Use the breath to calm the mind. Become very still and learn how to function from that stillness, and do your work from that place. We all have chores that we need to do, and we all have activities that we do on a regular basis. Just going through the motions of doing your daily business is not very effective. Instead, you should become more conscious and aware of what you are doing. You should also develop the ability to surrender and step back a little bit while still performing your duties. You will be developing a very useful skill. The source of creativity that artists, musicians, and other creative people are looking for comes from a place beyond the small mind” (SP, 14)