A new year signals new choices. New choices mean we get to discover new versions of ourselves–if we are open to being curious, brave, and adventurous. Are you ready to dive deep into your roots, your ground, and be transformed?
“Here in this body are the sacred rivers, here are the sun and moon, as well as all the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.”
–Saraha Doha
The body can be thought of as a container, even a storage battery, for subtle energy (prana). All life experiences are recorded at a cellular and energetic level. Love, compassion, empathy, and deep bliss are available to all of us, if we are willing to dive deep into our sacred rivers and explore.
This month we will delve into what it feels like to be grounded and stable. From a place of abiding steadiness we can then dive into opening, changing, and shifting with a sense of adventure and curiosity. Another way to think of change is to simply realize that it is motion. Change is momentum and progress. Feeling stable, safe, helps us move into change with a sense of ease, equity, and a certain degree of courage–like having all four wheels of your car on the ground as you negotiate a winding road.
Grounding through our feet is one of the primary ways we stabilize ourselves, pressing downward through all four ‘corners’ (big toe, little toe, inside/outside corners of heels). A second pathway is working with the first bandha in the body–the Mula Bandha (root lock)–located at the base of the spine, the “root.” Working with the Mula Bhanda is a way to help ground the energetic body, or more specifically the central channel nadis (Sushumna, Ida, Pingala). To find and engage the Mula Bandha, feel for the space between the pubic bone and tailbone, and the space between the sit bones. Imagine drawing those four points together into the center and lifting upwards just a bit (about a 2-3 on a scale of 10).
So, the next time you feel anxious or fearful, or resisting change, ground yourself by dropping into the sensing body–slow down, watch your breath, press down through the corners of your feet, and practice engaging Mula Bandha.
We will be practicing all this, and more, in class. See you on the mat!
Beginning this month!
On the LAST Wednesday of each month, I will be LIVE streaming a 15-minute, guided meditation, at 8:00am. The first session will be Wednesday, 1/31! Like and/or follow my FB page for notification: https://www.facebook.com/physiquebyfountain/
Claudia Fountain Fitness + Yoga 