In our last blog, we talked about the importance of cultivating resilience to ensure that we adapt and thrive when life throws us curveballs. Resiliency is not a static state of being nor is it a personality trait that only some people possess. The development of resilience is a process to be cultivated and practiced. Tom Myers, of Anatomy Trains and a beloved teacher of the Dogwood team, provides a clear and inspiring roadmap towards resilience. According to Tom Myers, the key to building resilience is a 5 pronged full body approach. Resiliency includes mindful movement, stretching, humor, service and pranayama!
What exactly is mindful movement? And why does Dogwood Studio have a class called Mindful Movement and Yoga? We see the word mindfulness thrown around when referring to meditation, yoga, tai chi and qi gong. It has been part of popular culture for the state of calm, but the nuances of what a mindful practice entails is often overlooked. Mindfulness is the English translation of the Pali word sati. (Pali is an ancient language from the Indian subcontinent used to write some of the oldest Buddhist scriptures,) And as Bhante Henepola Gunaratana says in his book Mindfulness in Plain English, words can not provide a precise answer. But hopefully, my attempt to describe the experience of mindfulness sheds light to its simple nature.
Humans have the ability to think. And we have thoughts about the ways we think. Oftentimes we go about our days reacting and doing so much activity we forget how to be fully present. Mindfulness is what brings us back to our true nature.
According to Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness is an experience. It is being aware. In more concrete language, mindfulness is observing the here and now without any judgment; paying attention or focusing your senses to a single sight, smell or texture. Being mindful is being truthful. It reflects what is presently happening and in exactly the way it is happening. It does not get hung up on beliefs nor is there an analysis. You simply observe for the sake of observation. Examining what is there. Noticing the exact sensation.
You can’t examine something fully if you are busy rejecting its existence. And when you are mindful about your experience, you see the experience as objective allowing it to have a little less hold on you. You befriend the constant changes that surround us. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana says that there are three fundamental activities of mindfulness: mindfulness reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing, it sees things as they really are, and it sees the true nature of all phenomena.
Although we only use Mindful Movement for one of our class titles, we take a mindful approach to all of our movement classes. As we go through our yoga poses, we learn how to observe what is going on. We become aware of how we move and do not move. We stop labeling one side as being bad and learn to listen to what our body has to say. Our mindfulness approach combined with adapted yoga poses, promotes increased elasticity, strength, balance, decreased reactivity, and sense of well-being.
If you have any questions about our offerings, please email info@dogwoodstudioyoga.com.
Aviva Chaye Tulasi is a team member at Dogwood Studios. She is a certified yoga therapist (C-IYAT). She applies the teachings of classical yoga to reduce the effects of negative stress and to balance the nervous system. Aviva will be teaching Mindful Movement and Yoga Mondays at 10 am in January and is available for private sessions. Email Aviva at yogawithtulasi@gmail.com. She is here to help.
SAM Sather, founder of Dogwood Studios, is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT), individualizes the yoga practice with appropriate modifications for participants’ unique bodies and medical histories with a focus on finding calm and improving health. She offers several live, online class in yoga as private sessions so you can focus on your needs one-on-one.