Head & Heart

I’ve been on a quest to balance the energy within my “self”; the self my soul/spirit currently occupies. This incarnation is a mere temporary blip, a sentiment my brain could afford to recall more often. Perhaps I’m feeling called to this yin-yang practice more now, because the breadth of this one life (as Mary Oliver would say), is no longer a vast, endless wilderness. The forest edges are growing inward, like prolific sod that maneuvers toward garden beds, despite yearly edging.  

In a past life, (for those of you who don’t know me well), I practiced endurance sports. Training for triathlons was what I did, morning, noon, and night. Endless hours on trails and in lanes. Miles and miles of pushing, pulling, reaching, kicking, and strategizing. This trailblazing training undoubtedly codified my inner resilience. A resilience I’d need to draw from in upcoming years...another post for another time. Suffice to say my head and heart experienced extreme road-rash.

Through the years I’ve continued recreational running, biking, swimming; even sporting a race-bib now and then. But the craving for  head and heart integration lands me on my mat, with persistent  frequency. It’s here I cultivate trails of empathy, intuition, receptiveness and prune the trails of competition, determination, and assertiveness.  

I’m not certain of almost anything in the world right now. And I’m not a guru expert. I love energetic workouts; they are therapeutic for my vagus nerve. I also crave working-IN, which brings balance and flow to my mind, body, and soul. These moments, minutes, hours, on my mat, make it easier (not to be mistaken with easy), to cultivate “self”- love. This love of “self” helps me thwart egoic weeds from suffocating my head and heart. 

During classes, I invite you to plant your “self” on your mat. Tune inward, nourish your head and heart, question invasive weeds, and cultivate an inner landscape where love proliferates outward beyond the physicality of your "self".