Yoga In My Backyard

With the end of April around the corner, my backyard is starting to green up! New growth, bird songs, sunshine, and my favourite green patio chairs…ahhhh spring at last. The season provides the perfect opportunity for clean-up, de-cluttering, and airing out, not only in house and garden but in body and mind. I thought I’d make a more serious effort to “green” up my diet in order to tidy up my “inner yard”. I have a big juicer taking up space on my counter. It stares at me every day, beckoning me to USE IT so I decided to answer its daily call.

This lovely plate of kale, mango, spinach, pear, pineapple, and red grapes would have been a chore to eat. So it all went into the juicer and voila!

  Diluted it with a bit of filtered water and took a few big gulps…delicious! Thanks to a good friend who motivated me by linking me to a juicing website called http://www.rebootwithjoe.com. I am now motivated to juice every day! Tomorrow, WATERMELON CRUSH (watermelon, lime, basil). Share your favourite recipes with me…

Today was a day to send out energy…A family in our neighbourhood lost their daughter to a tragic car accident recently. I cannot imagine how devastating this must be, and of course as my mind went to my own boys, I wondered how I could ever deal with the loss of either one of them.

Support comes in many forms, from direct contact to well-wishes from a distance. At the visitation I was able to hold both parents today, to feel their heartache, to share their grief; and like many others who were lining up behind me, we offered the family energy to keep on moving forward. From a distance, I can continue to send them strength by dedicating my practice to them. If energy travels, surely they will feel it.

This morning I taught a particularly powerful yin yoga class; powerful for me as I sat at the front holding space, just listening to the collective breath of the group. I suspect that others may have felt it, too, in some way. As a teacher, it might be surprising for people to know just how much I get back from my participants. There is a mutual exchange of energy within the group, so that those who have an abundance to give will support those who are in need of a lift.

Sometimes, without us even realizing it, someone…somewhere is sending us strength, love, compassion, healing. If we are open to receive it, we have the support to do just that – heal…