In the week since my last post I have not gone to a yoga class every day. I regret to say that my goal of 40 days has been squelched, simply because work has been very busy (which is good) and I've been enjoying a lot of time with friends (which is also good) so I regret to say that I don't really regret not going to class! In my post "Rest" I stated that "in yoga, rest is 50% of the growth" and I have to say this statement is very true. In the time that I have not been in class I have found a breathing room that I didn't have before, and when I have been in class that breathing room translates into my physical practice. For the first time in a very very long time I feel very strong, and not just in my muscles.

(*Below - it was a really fun weekend with the boyfriend and with some good friends)
In the time I haven't been in class I have also been catching up on my reading. I've been slowly making my way through Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss, and it seems that whenever I pick up the book I learn something more about myself and the people around me. That's essentially what the book is geared toward anyway, but it's always pleasantly surprising when something seemingly unrelated to certain aspects of your life parallels exactly with those aspects. It gives me the feeling that I'm moving in the right direction.

(*Below - been making so much good food lately! Still trying to keep it raw when I can)
Anyway the part of the book that I'm reading currently is focussed on the second chakra which is considered the partnership chakra. It's main location in the body is the lower abdomen to the navel area, and it effects the sexual organs, the large intestine, the lower vertebrae, pelvis, hip area, appendix, and bladder. The energy here is considered to be the source of our creativity, the source of our need for relationships, and the source of our (limited) control of our physical environment. It effects our perception of sex, of relationships, of money, authority, and morality, and in the book it states that the sacred truth attached to this chakra is "Honor One Another."

When reading this chapter of the book I noticed a lot of the emotional discomfort that I've felt over the years is described as being attached to this chakra. Fear of loss of control or being controlled by another person, fear of betrayal, abandonment, addiction, rape and loss of power of the physical body. Before I had no idea where these fears were coming from, and I assumed they developed over time from certain things I was exposed to and subconsciously held on to, and that's really exactly what happened. I held onto these fears so strongly that they began to build themselves into my body, and whenever they were triggered the scars only got deeper.


Since I was a teenager I started developing issues in my hips. I had no idea what it was from, but if I walked for extended periods of time it would feel like my hip joints had been rubbing together creating this deeply warm pain that wouldn't go away for hours. I've held a tightness there that only grew over the years, and it wasn't until I started my yoga practice did I really realize how bad the tightness was. It began effecting my knees and lower back, and I started getting really scared of what might happen if I didn't do something about it.

After seeing a few different therapists and physical therapists I was told that I had a large amount of scare tissue build up throughout my hips and up through my lower abdomen. I came to the conclusion that the only thing I could do was to stretch this area often and as much as possible to bring blood flow through the tissue and allow it to heal naturally over time. This has been a main focus throughout my practice, and I have to say through the years I've been seeing a lot of improvement physically.




At the beginning of August I started a new physical challenge for myself, which is to really work on releasing the tension in the lower half of my body much more so than I have before. This requires me stretching out my hips and lower abdomen everyday for 30 or so minutes. Since I've started doing this, the energy I feel pulsing through my hips has been crazy! It's as if I've been slowly opening a blocked river and the water is just pouring through.

But the parallel to my challenge has been this chapter of Anatomy, making me entirely aware that this is not just going to be a physical challenge but also a spiritual and mental one. One that requires me really letting go of my fears listed above along with my fears of money, sex and power (funny how those three things are always linked, huh?). The really exciting part of this challenge is that the energy is linked so much to creativity that by utilizing the creative power within me I'm encouraging this chakra to open, and my physical body to open with it. Which means any time I get the urge to do anything artistic or creative I'm taking it!

(*Below - these and the few images above are a few of my daily hip openers)

So although I haven't exactly been in class, I have still been practicing every single day. After the 30 day challenge I've realized that my journey with yoga must extend past my physical body, and I must let it envelop my emotional and moral world. And really I'm not even trying (in the sense that I feel like I'm forcing) it's just happening. It's really exciting.

As an end note, I have a few awesome quotes from the book I'd like to share. I hope you guys enjoy :)

" Paradoxically, while the energy of the second chakra inclines us to try to control our lives, the lesson of the second chakra is that we cannot be in control. We are physical beings and energy beings, but since the physical world cannot be controlled, the task before us is to master out inner responses to the external world, our thoughts and emotions... The truth contained within the paradoxical nature of dualism this: It is not what we choose that matters; our power to influence an outcome lies within our reasons for making a certain choice."

"If allowed to flow, creative energy will continually act to reshape our lives and reveal more meaning for why things happen as they do than we could determine on our own."

"...relationships are essentially spiritual messengers. They bring into our lives-and we into theirs- revelations about our own strengths and weaknesses... We can more easily see the symbolic value or our relationships when we release our compulsion to judge what and we has value and instead focus on honoring the person and the task with which we are involved."

"So long as we focus on trying to control another person and forget that that person is a mirror reflecting back to us our own qualities, we keep conflict alive within ourselves. Seeing ourselves and others in symbolic unions, however, helps us accommodate differences. "

"Habit is a hell to which people cling in attempt to stop the flow of change."

Expect a million more of these from me in the near future. x