I learned from another yoga teacher at the Yoga Outreach trauma-sensitive yoga training that there is an offshoot of Bikram yoga called Moksha yoga. It is another form of hot yoga that has a gentler pace than the relentless Bikram yoga. Another difference is the teachers have the option of creating variety in the poses. The studios are environmentally friendly, and the source of heat in some studios is radiant heat rather than forced-air, causing the heat to feel different. There is a Moksha Vancouver studio on Alma St. But last night, being at Monkey Valley, I created my own Moksha practice in front of the woodstove.
In the picture above, notice the blue light around the edges of the glass window in the stove. This light is not visible with the naked eye, but the camera on my cell phone captures it. Similarly, I noticed the next morning that the light coming through the window in the living room cast a constantly moving shadow from heat streaming up through the air in front of the stove. But the air itself was not visible to the naked eye; only the shadow cast on the couch was visible. This illustrates for those who might doubt. What does it illustrate? That there is more to life than what we can see with the naked eye! That there are more subtle forces and energies and realities that we can’t necessarily touch with the limited five senses. And I suspect the five sense developed through evolution with a range that we needed to sense for survival. So there’s a reason we are the way we are. But we can learn to use the subtle senses to see more deeply into reality.
Anyway, back to my practice: the heat was rather uneven, being very hot at the end of the mat closest to the stove, and about 10 degrees cooler at the other end of the mat. It was 7 degrees inside the house when I arrived, and the living area had only warmed up to about 14 degrees by the time I started my yoga practice. But it was hot on the mat, and I was soon removing a couple of layers of clothing as the heat penetrated.
Not having internet access to My Yoga Online, I decided to do my regular practice, but more slowly, and taking the time to integrate some of the learnings from recent classes. I held standing forward bend and child’s pose much longer than usual, à la restorative yoga, feeling into what happens as the body settles into the position for a longer period. Different muscles are impacted as the primary ones reach their full extension. In extended side angle, I brought the thigh on my bent leg closer to parallel with the floor than I usually do. It could go there, but I just don’t usually bring it there, because I have gotten into a habit of where the range of movement stops. The Bikram class had taken my body past all the previous limits for range of movement (which is why I was so sore for days afterwards), and now my body knows a new limit. This was a lovely discovery to make.
When I did the final sequence on the floor, I noticed other impacts from recent classes. There was more ease in my upper back from the extended time spent in sphinx in the two yin winter restorative classes I’ve done. As I did the seated forward bend I tried it the way Melina teaches it, with the head hanging forward heavy, and then supporting my head in my hands. It brings the stretch into the upper back and neck in a whole new way. When I did the seated bent leg pose (a half version of the full version taught in the Bikram class), I remembered the teacher making a correction on the angle of my legs, but in this instance, I chose not to go for the all-out form. The comfort of habit ruled here. In happy baby pose, I remembered from the trauma-sensitive yoga class that this is often a triggering pose for people who have experienced particular forms of abuse, and I felt a softening and empathy for them, while appreciating the safety I was feeling in the moment.
Towards the end of the practice I recalled the idea of total movement from the Diamond Approach summer retreat I attended earlier this year, and I began to open my senses in this direction. I sensed the consciousness of my being, permeating through my physical body and beyond, into the totality of being that is all around and through everything—that is everything. So moving beyond the sensing of the physical body, into a more subtle sensing of the awareness that can sense the physical body. And then feeling how it feels as this awareness moves the body. It is a sensation of space moving through space. As I sense into it now, the space-consciousness that is everything feels like a loving and intelligent awareness, which delights in knowing itself by being aware of and sensing itself. It seems that the impact of the many yoga classes I have taken recently has formed a richness of impressions that impact my personal consciousness. The easiest way to recognize the impact is through the physical body memories, but the awareness that holds the memories is actually on a more subtle level, and it is filled with love for the richness and colour of all these experiences. Appreciation for reality.
This might seem bizarre and hard to understand for those of you who have not yet ventured into the depths of your inner awareness. But perhaps it will awaken a flame of curiosity in you—a curiosity to find out what you really are.
Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!