☀️”…And you thought beauty was the outward show, but now you know the truth my love, it’s always been the inner fire.” ~ John Geddes.
🍃Tapas, a Sanskrit word for discipline, commitment, routine, ritual, fiery enthusiasm, our inner fire, what sets our soul on fire!
🍃Hey beautiful souls! Since beginning my Monday classes last September, I've been diving into ancient yogic philosophy in each class, and sharing the Yamas & Niyamas, tools for how we live our lives, with my students! January began with the Niyamas, daily practices & habits for healthy living and peaceful existence! So this week in class, we dove into the third Niyama, Tapas! In every Tapas~themed yoga class I've been in, "discipline" and "fiery enthusiasm" is translated into a super high intensity work out style fitness class. I wanted to take a different spin on what Tapas can look like, for my class. It doesn't have to be "I'm going to the gym at 6:00 every morning to burn calories" interpretation. In our incredibly fast~paced culture, we can also find discipline in whatever brings us peace. And that encompasses many things. Have you ever tried to sit with yourself in silence for 15 minutes? Even 5 minutes? IT. IS. HARD. We are always so busy, always on the go. Sometimes that’s just how life is, sometimes we use it as a distraction from ourselves. So we don’t have to be there in the hard stuff, the pain.
🍃I've made it a point to start my day, for the past year, in meditation. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes, sometimes it’s 15-30. Some it’s in the car driving listening to a guided one on my Insights Timer app, or it’s in a parking lot, or it’s in my meditation room. It will vary, but what hasn’t varied is my commitment TO IT. That is Tapas. Thoughts come in, I don’t attach to them, they flow through, and leave. I come back to the guided voice, to my body & my breath, and the cycle continues. Over time, with practice, my focus will improve, and less mind-wandering will happen. But the commitment has begun, and it’s a much more healthy start to my day!
🍃Tapas can mean a new routine of sleeping one hour earlier, so we can enjoy a yoga class, or a sunrise walk, to wake up with earth, not our emails or mindless social media scrolling. A new ritual of healthier eating. A new commitment to listening to a guided meditation for 5 minutes after dropping the kids off at school. When we discover that spending more time in nature, laughing with friends, reading more books, Tuesday afternoon ice cream dates with our children, Saturday kayak rides down the river, Sunday horseback rides, we become more aware of who and what surrounds us each day. We make time to delight in connection, not what stresses our body and mind, but what brings peace and happiness. Tapas is whatever lights our inner fire! Maybe that is exercise & fitness, but it can also be connecting with our inner child, with something forgotten, with a joy that's been lost. Find time to discover your true passion whether old or new, to bring purpose and joy back to your life!
🍃For our Tapas class, I brought a little fire, but I wanted to bring the peace we all need, we found the balance between the sun & moon energies, the heat and the cool. We opened on our backs, allowed the body to become heavy, grounding into the earth, feeling her support, one hand resting on the heart, one on the belly, our solar plexus~ the chakra responsible for our passions & inner fire! We lengthened We found T-pose and flutter kicks hovering toward the mat to our soft edge, creating fire in the core. Supine twists were a must for moments of stillness after that intense fire. We healed with self reiki, let ruminating thoughts of the past wash away, worrisome thoughts of the future melt toward the earth to be refined into something better. The mind is a time traveler, but the body is always present. Backbends and forward folds got us moving once more.
🍃We moved in yummy ways, opened our heart & lungs, lengthened, twisted, extended, flowed linking breath + movement, opened our hips, releasing tension & tightness to release negative energy & nourish the body. We threaded the needle with a leg extension, and discovered (perhaps to some) new movements like cat cow with a tiger bent leg nose to knee crunch vs traditional cat cow, & encircled the healing space on our mats! Our tadasana moved us into a Sun Salutation B for some fire, followed by a Moon Salutation for a more peaceful moving meditation. Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to serve as a reset button! Massages to the crown, temples, jaw brought healing and calm, ear lobe pulls and finger swipes down the neck stimulated our vagus nerve, and sternum massage released everything harmful still attached to the body! We connected into our parasympathetic nervous system, sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it can now relax, it is no longer in a continuous active state (fight mode). These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives! We did a full body cleanse! We cooled down with low cobra lifts, Broken Wing, Locust, Sphinx pelvic rocks, Half Frog and spinal twists. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the most important pose, the goal. To find peace. To hopefully discover a new routine, a new Tapas, of peace.
🍃That’s what I LOVE about yoga, it renews the soul! What we do on the mat, transforms our life off the mat! It is beautiful!!
🍃Listen to my “Tapas” class playlist here!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41Elt1PILJ9Spf4CBvRGuO?si=tAUdwn5XTKuLCuQ_5KAh8w&pi=u-lSGHwIZ7QRaT
🍃Come practice with me Mondays at 8:15am!🫶🏻 ✨🌿
