My yoga teacher Ana Forrest speaks many wise and wonderful words and if you ever get the chance to join her and be part of one of her Intensives I urge you to drop everything, get up very early (they often start at 6am) and roll out your yoga mat and attend to her every word.
For the first fifty minutes Ana will speak of what the day’s practice is to focus on and she will ‘Call in the Four Directions’. The scene is then set and the yoga that follows will bring about all manner of changes and lead, for some, to major breakthroughs and revelations.
It is not comfortable peeling away the layers of crap and armour-plating that we put in place to protect ourselves over the years but that is what she asks of us. We breathe, we feel and we stay with that feeling and stalk the fear within…
During my teacher training I got fed up of stalking and wanted to just piss off to Starbucks! The thing was I wasn’t really stalking, I was lying there and moaning about how awful it all was! In fairness to myself I am not normally a moaner and don’t easily give in but working with Ana gave me the space to be exactly how I needed to be…and then she stalked me!! Time to get up and show the world who you really are Gill.
One of the things that is central to Ana’s teaching is the need to, ‘nourish your Spirit and find out what delights your Spirit. Do something to nourish and delight your Spirit, every day, even if it’s just for a few moments.’ Ana Forrest, Fierce Medicine.
I walked today. I got up and the November day was bright and dry and so I walked. I ended the main part of my journey by having delicious coffee at Deli Coffano Caffe, which is at a local garden centre. I then delighted in a potter around the still-flowering roses. Oh, and I had a cookie with the coffee.
It is important that each one of us taps into that which gives us nourishment. That, of course will be different for everyone. It may be that painting a landscape is for some, whilst painting the kitchen works for another, knitting, cooking, learning a language or the tango lights up the heart of some, or simply sitting in front of a log fire with a loved one is perfect on that particular day. Every day then gives us the opportunity to nourish our Spirit and each day we may head off in a different direction. That is something else that Ana works with..leaving behind habitual ways of being!
Whilst I was walking, and on my return home I realised again that one of the things that nourishes and delights my Spirit is being outside and walking. There are other activities and times that nourish and delight me but the theme of my life is that I walk. Wherever I am, I will often disappear into the countryside or town, which has somewhat disconcerted those accompanying me. What will happen to me if I wander into the alleyway or up that hill to that temple which is blatantly not on the tourist trail?
What happens is that I meet some amazing people or sit quietly in silence and see what lies before me…Angkor Wat, Tonle Sap, Dunstanburgh Castle, Durham Cathedral, elephants in Meru Park, Kilimanjaro from Amboseli Park. The list is endless and the memories are there for ever, what joy. These are things that nourish me and they are about me walking upon the earth and relishing the moment.
Today, like the other Saturday when I walked, delighted me and filled me with a sense of being and doing exactly the right thing for me for that time.
My Spirit is happy, my heart feels easy and interestingly that has led me to my blog where the words have simply flowed. Creativity comes with the feeding of our Spirit…Aho.
May we all walk in Beauty.
This Rose…Joie de Vivre says it all and there it was as I wandered around!
