List of all Open Weekend Presenters |
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List of all Open Weekend Sessions |
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”
--Mary Oliver
The keen observations of animal bodies and behaviors have informed and inspired yogis and yoginis through the millennia. The earliest depictions of yoga come from the Indus Valley and depict a deity, Pashupati, in yogic meditation surrounded by animals. Furthermore, the majority of asanas that we practice today are poses named after and honoring animals.
In our modern era, the practice time on the mat is a potent opportunity to connect directly with the rhythms of life and nature expressed through one’s physical body. The beautiful, compelling movements of animals in the natural world offer insight for the yogic journey of yoking with the deeper rhythms and energies alive in one’s being. This energy is called "prana" in Sanskrit by the yogis, and has also been described as “the bird of prana.” Additionally, one of the yogic techniques of moving energy in the body (uddiyana bandha) translates as “flying upwards.”
This asana class takes inspiration and instruction from dragonflies, deer, pumas, humming birds and sparrows, to name a few, in the exploration of the coordinated and integrated yogic movements of uplifting energy and taking flight in body, mind and spirit.