Breathe

"Inhale lift.... exhale fold forward....... inhale to standing....... exhale fold forward......... inhale lift halfway....... exhale vinyasa......"

She teaches us to breath cues, we have all done the poses and the sequence thousands of times, but nothing can match or replace the sound, synergy and energy of 40 people moving and breathing together.

I stand in between Abby and Angelo tonight, and it is if the three of us are dancing to the same song, our asanas move together, our energy is blended. It's a connection that does not require words, or explanation. It is a connection that just takes place within four walls, and on top of a yoga mat.

Within my practice I was taken to the edge. I know with progress there is pain. With joy there is grief. With happiness there is sorrow. With each push there is a pull. Every action has some sort of reaction. Maybe it lies within our physical self, and maybe it lies within our metaphysical being. For me tonight it happened in both places. Yet other Thursday nights I feel like there is a cork blocking my connectivity to myself and to my fellow students.

The heat was terrific, ninety and climbing. The sweat was dripping and without the music it sounded like rain was falling.

"The winds of grace are always blowing........ you just have to raise your sail...."

Tonight I raised my sail. I floated from bakasana into headstand back into bakasana, I felt myself float from there into chattarunga like I was a feather. My forearm balance felt effortless, like nothing in the world could weigh me down.

And as we all laid together in Savasana, forty sweat drenched bodies lying on the floor, in silence breathing. The hamster wheels in our minds stopped. It was as if we were lying in the eye of the storm where there was stillness, clarity, and presence. Nowhere but here in a world where we are used to being everywhere but here.

Equanimity in it's most true and raw form.

Breathe.

:-) Mary Eggers