Yoga Roots: Moving through the Mists

I still long for the mists of coastal California and Brigid's Isles, the mostly gentle pull of my soul beckoning me to walk into the unknown. In those places, I easily cross into the otherworld, learning about my own inner world. Many times too, I needed to tether myself into this body for fear of dying while walking through those same mists. Always a visceral experience, my cells are both anxious and filled with joyous memory; I never question that I could depart this plane to experience that world completely naked, and fully, once again.

There are few encounters in this body that replicate the sense of emergence in the moving nature of the mists, or the invitation to meet myself face to face. One of those experiences is lying in the shallows of the ocean on a Full Moon night with my eyes closed, surrendering to the movement of the waves after they break, washing me into shore and out again.



Another is gentle movement to open the energy centers and meridian channels. Here is a podcast series that will guide you through gentle movements to re-awaken your body to its spiritual essence. Energy in Motion helps you create awareness of the connection between your body and related energies. We focus on the power sources of the physical body to open the chakras and release stagnant energies, creating alignment and weaving energetic balance through your beingness.

When the ocean and misty climes are far away as they are right now living in the high desert, I am most present through various forms of movement: breath, energy, body. Yoga creates a stillness of mind. As air becomes conscious breath moving through me, ultimately turning to Prana, it nourishes my cells and related energy points. Restorative in nature, it also relieves me of the mundane world for a time, pointing the way toward the void. The common thread linking the mists and the ocean to my breath is the feeling of freedom, the knowingness of being the drop in the ocean, however briefly.

And here we are, beings with bodies walking heavily upon the Earth, living a solid existence! How do we anchor ourselves here every day while simultaneously offering nourishment to our spiritual natures? This is the omnipresent question of this world, even to those who have no conscious memory or awareness of it. The soul knows and we are inside the soul. The inherent sensibilities of the body tell us to keep it in motion, healthy, strong and flexible, to assist us in being present; to assist us in opening our vessels for the divine remembering. We need to move to be here.

All movement is rooted in yoga and ritual dance, both of which vibrate at the frequency of our planet. All experiences, whether physical or spiritual, can be enhanced with conscious attention to the body and its energetic connections. Much like inhaling & exhaling or the movement of the tides and currents, it is the nature of the body to act and rest, give and receive. Human physiological systems mirror the Universal Law of Yin and Yang. Circulatory, digestive and neurological functions, just to name a few, have afferent (movement inward toward the center) and efferent (moving away from center) qualities and functions, as do the meridians and nadis.

This dynamic is reflected throughout the human form, in the essence of life, yoga and dance. Yoga implies an awakening of the divine in human form, creating awareness of our deep inner workings. We open our vessels to the divine which is waiting for a place to reside. Here we will link physical and subtle bodies, increasing awareness and vitality with gentle forms of movement, core awareness, breath and visualization. We turn ourselves toward the Mists, becoming the free and moving essence of spirit, merging with like qualities to explore unknown places.

"We are mist, flowers, and southerly wind. We are composites of all we see around us. We have the woods, river, clouds, mountains, within our very bodies, and in some unexplainable way, these elements that make up the physical universe and our physical bodies are also the powers of our souls," from "Yearning for the Wind" by Tom Cowan.

These workshops are dedicated to all forms of movement, especially those that take us into still-point where the veil is thin and we are offered an opportunity to walk with a foot in both worlds. Here you will find recorded course-work, and online programs which encourage body to spirit communication through movement, breath and visualization.