The Master Maker appeared today. He’s the master of the forge upon which We craft Our #future. I have been warned since I was a young thing that #fire is dangerous, especially when flames #sing to Me, and sometimes I act too #young, I’m told. Nonetheless, The Master Maker reminds Us to #utilize Summer’s heat along with Our own #burning passions to bring about alchemical change for this is the dance of life; the spontaneity of Our organic movement (in words and actions) with that of the Universe brings Us into this #moment. We decide each #day in Our practices, what will I make of #today? And, knowing Our successes (as well as, being present to Our Own undoings), The Master Maker reminds Us that Day is, truly, a labor of #Love. We may get burned by The Queen of Hearth and Home, or Our bare bums roasted by The Queen of Laughter, but We are protected and given strength by His teachings. And if one thinks upon this for not-so-long, We feel oh-so-lucky that We received this #wisdom here as The Master Maker is a strict task-master, and only Our best will do. This means that We will enjoy Our Summer days, taking advantage of the sudden rainstorms and the splash of Sun for #wild thought soon to be transformed with The Master Maker’s experienced and skillful hands. He practices all the time, rarely taking a break. His work breathtaking, no? And, here, We are, inspired by the the Sunfish leaping! And, like the Earth, like the Sky, like a wave on the Sea, remember that Your very best work is most principled and most applicable to Us all, to Us all. So says, The Master Maker, and so say the Sunfish.
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Irresistible Circumstances and EMYoga are expanding. Please like, subscribe, share, comment, and enjoy Our content on the platfom(s) of Your choice, and thank You!
Please check out The Heart of Faerie Oracle by Brian and Wendy Froud and The Faeries’ Oracle by Brian Froud with text by Jessica Macbeth at https://www.ferniebrae.com/brian-froud. Thank You for reading and receiving a full moon in Sagittarius’s blessing (& You definitely have Mine, too!). May Our #practice together be a catalyst and the healing itself.
Did you know that Irresistible Circumstances and Earthmother Yoga offer regularly scheduled practices to integrate the ancient technology of yoga with today’s circumstances. Today’s practice is a 45-minute, all levels one, utilizing mudra, intent/affirmation/mantra, asana/movement, visualization, and pranayama to bring balance. Through our time together we will focus on bringing balance to an excessive earth element with the Prithivi Mudra, as well as alternate nostril breathing.
Summer Practice #2: Balance (Prithivi Mudra)
As always, we invite you to practice together in the spirit and intention within the processes and language of nonviolent communication (#nvc). As consciousness and intent can be expressed through silence and our quality of presence, may our cultivation of this awareness and connection to moment in community be both the catalyst for and the #healing itself.
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Visualization: As you inhale, visualize light emanating through the heart and throat centers/chakra. As we exhale, gently expel that which no longer serves us into the ground and into the air. Additionally, I invite you to become aware of the sound of the breath in visualizing the inhale (So) as a beautiful incoming wave and the exhale (Hung) as a returning wave.
Pranayama: We will utilize a smooth and consistent inhale and exhale of equal lengths with a short, natural pause between breaths, as necessary throughout the practice. We will use alternate nostril breathing in a position of rock pose (sitting on our heels). For today’s practice, we begin with using the right hand to plug the right nostril while the left hand is held in Prithivi Mudra. We repeat the sequence to the left side. To end this alternate nostril breathing variation, we release the mudra and the nostril, relaxing our hands to our thighs, taking 3 deep breaths in and out.
Mudra
Prithivi Mudra – Encircle the ring finger and thumb. Privithi Mudra, also known as the “Earth Mudra” works with the excessive energy of Earth, or root chakra (Hirsch, p. 84). An alternative for those, like me, who are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, is to place the ring finger in the center of the thumb pad/base and apply light pressure with the thumb. This mudra is said to stimulate body temperature, the liver, and stomach (Hirsch, p. 85).
Mantra
Utilize “So Hung” to connect with the divine. So Hung means: “I am that.” In addition, we end class by offering three long Sat Nams. Sat Nam mans: “I am truth.” Whether a whisper or voiced aloud, allow the mantra to stimulate and energize You, as in the use, these also take in and send out more energy to the subtle and physical bodies. In short, like yoga, the vibration of each mantra produced by chanting can alter our inner condition (Ashley-Farrad, p. 49).
Nonviolent Communication (also called Compassionate Communication) carries the assumption that we have a shared desire to give and receive from the heart. Thus, even yoga practice can cultivate compassionate communication which fosters listening, respect and deep empathy and engenders this mutual desire to give from the heart (Rosenberg, 12) both to ourselves and the greater world (when we are ready).
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Nonviolent Communication looks to integrate four things: consciousness, language (both verbal and nonverbal), communication, and means of influence, whereby we share our “power” with others rather than using our power over others. In this practice, we explore methods to inwardly topple our self-made barriers of communication. These barriers may include making moral judgements toward ourselves and others; denying responsibility for our thoughts, words, and actions; a language of comparison; use of imperatives to demand rather than request, and other hierarchical forms, which are so deeply rooted within our psyche–all of which can obscure our awareness that we are each responsible for what we think, feel, say, and do (Rosenberg, 24).
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References for this practice:
Ashley-Farrad, MD., T. (1999). Healing Mantras: Using Sound Affirmations for Personal Power, Creativity, and Healing. Ballantine Wellspring.
Hirschi, G., Grimm, C. M., & Ito, J. (2016). Mudras: Yoga in your hands. Weiser Books.
Saraswati, Satyananda (2013). A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya. Yoga Publications Trust.
Rosenberg, Marshall B. (2015). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. PuddleDancer Press.
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We invite You be part as #EMY expands. Please visit us on our new platform or YouTube channel (links below). Your support has made this possible, and We appreciate You!
As in the writing of this blog, I am very mindful of the new year. School is a tough place to be during the continued pandemic. As such, I plan and practice in 2022 with the intent to engender and model compassion for both to myself and others, as well as seek out and build relationship with other-than-human entities without attachment to nostalgia and antiquarianism (Rasmussen, p. 21). As such, my experiences with yogic traditions and practices and its internal and external dialogues are nourished and refined infusing and cultivating these relationships through the language and process of Nonviolent Communication (#nvc). Further, compassionate communication does not occur in a vacuum, nor requires a certain religiosity or ideology or refutation, as consciousness and intent can be expressed through silence and our quality of presence (Rosenberg, p. 7). As such, I strive to cultivate this awareness and connection to moment in community as both the catalyst for and the #healing itself in all interactions and situations.
The simple ways to cultivate connection daily becomes the practice itself; these include, but are not limited to the following for me:
Dancing
Playing xx (e.g., music, music, climbing up a tree)
Learning (e.g., a new languages, skills, perspectives)
Sharing
Today’s first practice of 2022 utilizes mudra, affirmation/mantra, pranayama, movement/asana, and visualization. Please feel free to explore the readings that inform this practice and explore other offerings in platforms listed below. As always, I invite you to practice in the spirit and intention using the processes and language of nonviolent communication (more details below). You can find a link to January’s first LIVE practice here.
Mudras in Today’s Practice
Kalesvara Mudra is dedicated to the deity, Kalesvara, who rules over time. In this mudra, we place our middle fingers together, touching the first two joints of the index finger and thumb tips. Bend the fingers not touching inward with the thumbs pointing toward the chest and spread your elbow widely to the outside (Hirsch, 134).
Benefits: This mudra is said to strengthen memory and concentration as well as calm agitation. It can also support new habits (like those many new year resolutions wish to encompass), helping change character traits, supporting memory and concentration, and/or eliminating addictive behavior; with this in mind, it is recommended that it is practiced 10-20 minutes each day for this intent (Hirsch, 134).
Suggested Affirmation: I enjoy being xx [this] or xx [that] (Hirsch, 135).
Visualization: Imagine a situation or scene in which you act and react in a new way.
Pranayama: Take 10 long deep even breaths, listening and observing your breath, and lengthening the pause after the inhalation and exhalation evenly as we progress (Hirsch, 134).
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Nonviolent Communication (also called Compassionate Communication) carries the assumption that we have a shared desire to give and receive from the heart. Thus, even yoga practice can cultivate compassionate communication which fosters listening, respect and deep empathy and engenders this mutual desire to give from the heart (Rosenberg, 12) both to ourselves and the greater world (when we are ready). Whether this meets you in disbelief or in possibility, I invite you to explore the process through our practice together or further reading. The four components are::
Observation
Feelings
Needs
Request
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References for this practice:
Hirschi, G., Grimm, C. M., & Ito, J. (2016). Mudras: Yoga in your hands. Weiser Books.
Rasmussen, Rune H. (2021). The Nordic Animist Year. Nordic Animism.
Rosenberg, Marshall B. (2015). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. PuddleDancer Press.
We invite You be part as #EMY expands. Please visit us on our new platform or YouTube channel (links below). Your support has made this possible, and We appreciate You!
This 50-minute practice is the first of three in a series as the Northern Hemisphere moves into the winter months and busy holiday season. November’s theme on EMY is connection to #moment through practices using visualization, movement in and out of familiar postures, and breathwork using the language of nonviolent communication (#nvc). Be blessed in your abundance and practice.
The hardest part of moving from autumn to winter is #change in sunlight. As the Sun moves further south with each passing day, I am pulled to hibernate, drawn to the warmth of a hot cup of tea, a book, a hot steamy bath, and my legwarmers. Moving into the busiest part of the year causes great conflict within, waves of uncertainty. To combat this, I use my practices to connect to the #moment, spending even the smallest moment of time outdoors in Sun, tapping into this beautiful affirmation. The familiar warmth reminds me of familiar postures that I return to again and again for grounding, balance, and hope through the pain of season, mental fatigue, and existential crisis. I know that winter will make practices like this impossible for a time and I will miss the sweet familiarity of cold mornings and warm afternoons; the butterflies will migrate or hibernate and leave only dried cocoon upon dying perennial, the Cuban tree frogs will return to warmer haunts, and our neighborhood duck families will swarm our lawns picking grubs and bugs and leaving not-so-beautiful reminders that in Spring we will have new little duck babies. The mornings would be shrill without wonder and curiosity, such as that of our last new moon and Samhain reminding us of the tenuousness but abundance of this moment; creativity through winter seasons sustained and fed by our connection to this.
November’s theme is connection to #moment through practices using visualization, movement in and out of familiar postures, and breathwork using the language of nonviolent communication (#nvc). Today’s LIVE practice on EMY’s Facebook goup is the first of three in a series as we move into the winter months and busy holiday season in the Northern hemisphere.
For my friends in the Southern hemisphere, this practice is equally powerful. As the focus of practicing #nvc is the practice of grounding in the return to our familiar Earth, so, too, is exploring and cultivating #space where all the elements are balanced and nourish and support us. May you be blessed in your #abundance and setting.
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Below are more resources for these practices, which draw upon work of Marshall Rosenberg and his student, David Weinstock (links below), and their exemplars of grounding and mindfulness practices to cultivate and sustain the language of nonviolent communication (NVC).
The morning is cooler. I can hear Thursday’s cold front rolling in from the North. I heard it from Crow, who heard it from Mockingbird, who heard it from Cat, who heard it from another Crow, perched at the top of the Australian pine: Hawk, hawk, hawk. Hawk says not a thing, but like this great wise and winged #moment, perched upon my fence, eyeing me with #confidence. She heard it from Me, who heard it from Crow, who heard it from Cat, who heard it from Mockingbird, who heard it from another Crow. The morning is cooler. I can hear Thursday’s cold front rolling in from the North.
It’s Saturday, and I’m sitting down to plan. I had the opportunity for a planning day at school yesterday, away from the constant hums and bangs of the classroom; this being one of the first ones in 5 years or so that involve me carving out personal time, which–since Covid–has seemed so precious. Planning next steps felt a little easier than during the huge uncertainties of 2020, the election of Biden, my husband’s retirement, and hybrid digital format, but the “survival” line of thinking habit is so hard to break. It’s hard to shut down the necessities, self-created in a bygone error for a system that wholly operates digitally now. Learning is, indeed, all about connections, inter- and intra-personal ones. Learning with “survival” thinking–for both the student and teacher–is fodder for getting the same results, declining test scores, especially now that 2021 has brought a new set of uncertainties.
To break out of survival thinking and #moveforward, I’ve been setting myself up with a new set of skills, trying to think away from the idea of higher certifications (although I am pursuing them currently) and into other realms. I learned to do this fluidly last year, creating realities (in this crazy hybrid virtual and realtime, synchronous S&#! show) where there were none for #compassion and #listening so #needs and wants could be heard. I also learned what NOT to repeat from face-to-face past school years, and carry this into planning for the academic school year and retiring common core standards (more to come after training on the NEW new standards once again–my third cycle).
Teachers know the realities of any regular year–the traumas we experience or observe in others, but try to ignore. Once you are aware of an injustice or a circumstance, how can we just ignore it away? The public school systems of the United States have perpetuated many injustices, which cannot be ignored or silenced. Covid laid to bare this at an alarming rate, and we just didn’t have time to argue too much about academic excellence and dress code. Nor plan.
This greater issue for me personally was, and still is, sustainability. I’m constantly looking for an even #exchange of energies here, and constantly reminded we are a business transaction, a human resource (which is smaller in my district than the money dedicated to digital infrastructure). Yet, too, as a teacher and learner, I’m reminded here that I have agency. I try, instead, to learn new skills and explore outside of the box, moving forward. We have to learn how to give and take ourselves, and how to model this #balance in a world under great change. It’s a huge step forward for me to carve out time to plan, to understand its importance, and to be focused in something I once felt a great deal of #passion for, even though its #burdens are not sustainable.
Skill-building is just a fancy way of saying #practice (in my opinion) with a little planning. Here’s some actions I’m currently using as I #plan for opportunities:
Planning – Dream, List, Break apart, Chew On, Brainstorm, Revise, Reflect, Analyze, and Stick To
Getting outside – Camp, hike, sleep, hang out, take pictures, watch the skies, dream
Building intra and interpersonal skills with the goal to be connected to others. To hold and be held in their love. There’s sustainability in this :). What’s your attachment style? – One survey for this here.
Learning a language (or two) – I wrote my first one in German (it’s Haiku–the structure provides me much without getting into my own inner patriarchy) – might share it here.
Reading, writing and creating – A blog, a book, a poem, a video, a website, a masterpiece, a doodle.
Moving – move earth, pick up things, move air, flow like water, breathe the sky, dance, shimmy, move
Learning – Take a class (even if you don’t want to) – Anything! Today’s for me are mostly for professional development but I believe there’s always something to learn and #practice. I practice #NVC in those times of ennui and complete disbelief (there are times when a sense of humor comes in handy and #abandonment is a better course of action).
Practicing with awareness, #NVC, Yoga, Meditation. Turn it into #daily #ritual.
Putting myself out there – EarthmotherYoga is transforming into a business.
Listening without Judgement and Teaching with that in mind and #heart
Here’s one of my favorite videos on how to make #connection and building skills of #listening. May we all be blessed in our #abundance and #practice done and shared in Love.
something else hidden in the muscles of the face, something the throat wanted to say.
Ruth Stone, “The Wound” from Simplicity
Today
everything but
the soreness from lifting you
the rawness in my throat
quarrels captured and salty tears
everything but
triaging our afflictions
dressing words and what is not there
silence and no quick cures
unknowns romance here
except this
Tomorrow
is everything but
alienation
your rights and rites
practiced skills
everything but
my words
once
in allodium
i stay to suture harm
stitches say its my fault, too
(& maybe it is)
this the unraveling of that once
which opened festers
repaired itself unto
today
everything except
dusty ghosts & empty bandage wrappers
the world of gain and political correctness
true to tradition
everything but
what you ask of my days
and I ask of my days
yesterday
i plunged into trauma headlong
and wounds became
everything but
scars
This has been a fragmented school year. The familiar routines still feel uncomfortable. The ringing of bells off and on, picking up students (and teachers) in unexpected places. So many, many hurry-ups and whoopses and much profanity and bold ennui. We practice words we never knew until a year ago but they don’t help us learn. Well, maybe some of us knew the educational jargon before, but memory has been another fragmentation, and of this I write in some kind of long-awaited space, which defies education altogether. The existence of words can make them so. And each morning I study these, like some ancient map or unread dusty book (there are many this year). Literacy and learning fragmented by new words and new Science and (even) here in America, new Civics.
The nonexistence of someone’s beliefs fragment us; it can’t be done or had to be done yesterday. School language is rough and sputtering–fragmented–throughout the day until great intentions need a nap (by lunch time). Fragments of learning evidenced everywhere in my classroom closet full of 17 years of children’s books and classics and hands-on activities. But like some great wall, which may never really be built except what already exists in our nation’s head, beliefs give us comfort, a neat and tidy border from which to cross or turn and go another way. I can almost taste it in the Air. Change. For better or worse. We’ll be writing about it forever, maybe with a little humor.
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
The Destruction of Sennacherib, Lord Byron
I wish to purge and be light again. It’s time. The long fragmented year (and a half) is coming to an end; I wish to read and remember, and empty myself of fragments, writing kennings and highlighting that something can be done, has been done, will be done, about the struggles here–in this space and time of pandemic–in its nonexistence which dictates we must push on through testing, and Saturday school, and special programs to help the learning lag and mind fragmented by impossibilities and directives (ad infinitum). I wish to regroup and find a way back to what I remember, but memories are fragmented, too.
I toyed with words early on, abandoning this blog and my journals, to add big sweeping strokes of color and narratives, upon my backyard fence. Meadow and swamp grass grow through the boards now, speckled with paint of last Spring. Reminders everywhere on my return Home from school where here hours grow and grow and grow, fragmented. And after the inevitable fight for normalcy, what will remain? Testing? Old ways of doing school? Memories? And is my stamina and strength so fragmented as not to be taped together with duct tape, my pandemic friend for fences, computers, and chargers for our learning?
Here now fragmentation gives us imperfect organizational cell called public education, splitting off into new life without mention of what worked in the old one, tidied up by memorandum of understanding and PDFs covering i-cloud assignments and on-the-spot withitness. Here exists fragmentation of all that is real: budget, time, students, teachers, learning, reading, words. Our books piled high and in misuse and border control. I miss just reading, and I know the students do, also, but…
The hour is late, and I have some fragments to sweep up and out the door and into my car so I can drive away, never really knowing what the Day is until it’s over. I wake to sleep and sleep to wake, fragmented from myself and dreams. And writing my blog has that same deja vu; a chance for irresistible circumstances to collapse in its own silence and return to unknowing and unknown as a pleasure. I’ll leave the fragments of incompleteness and ubiquity to my memory.
All the Elements
Came to play
Danced and sang
And went their way
Fire in Moon
Moon in Fire
The South whispered secrets
Of North's dark desire
Bring me your frankness
Your spices and ice
Weave in the lemongrass
Bundle this tight
Walk all the quarters
Crouch on the ground
Fill sacred space
With a Leo's Moon Sound.
All the Elements
Came to play
Danced and sang
And went their way.
#fullmooninleo
In previous incarnations, prior to the imminently eminent momentary unknowns and everyday survival modes of 2020, I was a sloppy #yogawitch. Not a person to methodically organize my life was I, any facet, focused more on the only structure I learned: language. Going through the motions of life while learning the rules through reading and writing #teaching and #practice’s purposeful mistakes, splitting infinitives deliciously aimed at irritating my perceived naysayers. Breaking small rules was an unconscious act of intention awry–a small wickedness and hidden pleasure. Over time, I let this go, confronting and discarding these darknesses hidden to me.
Shadows still dance in my inner realms and these, my familiars, I have learned to organize and call upon to move me past my disorganization and anxieties (I simplify here–there are many helpers involved). I can find these readily in myself and, as such, I began to see them in other places, outside my purview, in the collective. Last night’s full moon allowed these to dance and sing about us in our Full Moon circle. I hear and see those beautiful poetic birds of mystery; you can see them, too, maybe? They are here and here and here and here and here and every morning on my morning playlist (maybe you’ll find comfort and strength here, too?). The sound (not the words), as #memories fills my sight, organizes my Day and Night; my flow feels genuine and intuitively organized.
This is not to say I don’t recognize the sharp oppositions in play in the greater world–only my tiny justification of how presented before I saw my inner chaos. In those “other” roles and realms, those of mother, wife, teacher, daughter, sister, friend, employee, adult, woman, shadows pooled: a stack of dishes; a pile of laundry (clean and folded–or dirty); #practices scribbled down in the wee hours of the morning to do again (as if); a teacher closet with an #abundance of learning unused and a file cabinet of empty files which commiserates; a grocery list with items circled and forgotten; a bottle or two of lotions and perfume I’d never put on (the glass extraordinarily, iridescently filling spaces). Abundance of words and worlds I possess and reflect upon–light bouncing off every corner of my mind; the fast pace of my physicality finally caught up to me, and my body had to slow down, creating a new spaces and organizational flows.
Death is a real thing to me now. There. I said it. I wrote it. Death is a real thing to me now. Understanding comes from experience, I think. What was 2020 but one long catalog of lessons in being alright in the moment while doing what is epically needed to be done? And I understand I get confused, I get things wrong, I make typos, I run around in circles (literally) while I think of what I am doing, and I fucking procrastinate every hard task (as I am doing today), but I understand that each moment is predicated on the words I say to myself–spoken or carried within my thoughts (an element in myself). Beautiful organization takes time, and that same messiness in discovering this, carried me through 2020. Processing in new ways (and historical ways to me on Erika-Standard-Time) allowed me to handle death in the classroom.
My day-to-day as a teacher in a hybrid classroom during the pandemic is predictably challenging; we all do the best we can in our levels of awareness to #balance and ground and survive. I return to language here–mostly poetry (in all Her forms) and runes (ancient communication). And then, I enter our classroom and continue to practice the appropriateness and preciseness which convey the standards as equitably and compassionately as I am able. This is #goodwork, and this is happening all over our building–some teachers have multiple areas to teach (#gratitude for how they still do the same in separate spheres of realities). As I, too, run for the bigger classroom for my bigger face-to-face classes with my computer screen projecting my shirt and lanyard, with mouse and sheets of paper in tow, always one dropping to the floor), I’m learning to quell the words of self-doubt in mind which causes us to waffle in indecision at the most critical time for language–6th period!
I know I am not alone. I feel the energies move through me as shadows, pooling and accumulating in great abundance; warnings to be careful what type of #abundance one calls. This organization destined to fail: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre/The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”. The pace is harried and my husband reminds me at home I don’t need to run to bed, and in his calm way, guides me to see my organizational spaces work both ways: to let out as well as in.
Here I linger on a blog. I let my mind get lost in those words that bounce around and catch in the shadows’ dark pools. I let the greater picture captivate my inner sight, the soft rhythm of a needed day off (one which I promised would involve grading). I am no longer a sloppy #yogawitch; today’s plans include my abundance of #dreams and #goals. This, the continued practice of letting Death’s presence remind of Life’s import, helps create and maintain #irresistiblecircumstances wherever I go.
