How to Be the Best Dancer You Can Be

Article Source: http://www.compassionate-medicine.com/how-to-be-the-best-dancer-you-can-be/

photo of dancer Samantha Emanuel

“Do you know why I dance the way I do?
Because I have suffered.
I have gone through divorce,
death, a lot of heartache…
That’s the art.
You can show anyone a step
But not a soul.
Never forget why you dance.
It will always
give you strength.”
…Nadia Gamal…


We are all capable of dancing. You see that truth when a baby first begins to move their body to the rhythm of their soul. Watching a baby dance always reminds me that there is a higher power.

Some of us dance as a path of devotion – the ones that consider themselves “dancers” to their core. If you are a dancer like myself, I’m sure you hope to dance till the day you die. As a holistic healer, I know that in order to live long, healthy, happy lives that include dancing, we need to treat our mind, body and spirit. All three are necessary to heal in order to be our most joyous selves.

Know Talent Is Not Born, It Is Made –

In the book ”The Little Book Of Talent” by Daniel Coyle, he talks about how talent is not innate, it is created. “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery,” Michelangelo later said, “it would not seem so wonderful at all.” Rachel Brice, who is considered one of the best Tribal Fusion belly dancers in the world,  uses this book as one of the educational tools for her 8 Elements dance program. I first read the book in her 8 Elements course Initiation that I took with her recently. I have found this book immensely useful for advancing my dance practice.

Some of the key ways that talent is created, as discussed in “The Little Book Of Talent”, are by building strong neural pathways in the brain, not from how long you practice, but by how you practice. You need deep practice, which requires hard work, mental struggle, and extreme attention to detail. Struggle is not optional, it is neurological required if you want to create strong “talent” neural pathways in the brain. You must also make mistakes in order to build talent. I know it is the tendency of myself and many others to want to ignore mistakes or avoid making them at all. But, you have an opportunity to build a strong neural pathway by making mistakes, paying attention to them, and fixing them right away.

Beware Of Reliance On Drugs To Connect With Your Dance -

The dance world is full of drug use. Many artists are drawn to having altered states.  I believe positive, life altering changes and profound healing can occur from the use of psychedelic plants and other mind altering substances, including alcohol. I have had them.  I am not anti-drugs by any means. The danger is when the relationship with a substance becomes unbalanced, and one of my specialties in my healing practice is trying to help people find balance in their mind, body and soul.

Unbalanced meaning the bad effects are outweighing the good. I believe experiences with mind altering substances are meant to be used very, very moderately. Relying on drugs to connect to our dance, whether it be to feel free, less anxious and afraid, is not sustainable. With over use of a drug, the very gift that it gave us in the beginning of using will be the very thing that we lose. For example, drugs and alcohol can definitely reduce anxiety, fear and depression. But drugs actually will destroy the very neurotransmitters in our bodies that create happy states if they are abused. If you find you are “chasing” a high that you had once, and it’s not happening any more with your use, you may have a problem with substance abuse.

Sometimes people are completely reliant, absolutely powerless over a substance. Addiction is very real, and probably has touched the lives of most people. I was in four rehabs by the age of 20 years old. I aso got a degree in chemical dependency counseling, worked in inpatient rehab as a counselor and worked for many years for an incredible local program here in Boulder, Colorado called Natural Highs created by Avani Dilger. I am very familiar with addictions! I know the power of them.Natural Highs is a class for teenagers to learn how to have altered states without mind altering substances through herbs, body work, mate tea ritual, acupuncture and intimate sharing.

It is important to be aware that most addicts or alcoholics have had trauma in their history. In order to heal the addition, trauma specific helping work is necessary. One of my specialties in my private practice is treating trauma or PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). My favorite therapy for trauma and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is Brainspotting or EMDR therapy. Make sure you find a reputable and certified therapist who uses this type of therapy tool in their practice. In my experience, it is essential that the environment and the therapist be completely safe or else the trauma will not be worked through.

The other healing tools I have seen work very well for healing trauma are ear acupuncture, ceremonial botanical body work, plant medicine, aromatherapy, flower essences and abdominal massage. I utilize all of these tools to treat myself and patients.  I have had a lot of success treating self harm addicts with these tools as well.

Other very effective tools are sweat lodges, ceremonies, rituals, cleansing, journaling, cleansing, meditation and yoga.  (*Editor's Note: "The Smudging and Blessings Book" is a beautiful resource for helping one to create sacred space for home and spiritual practice purposes.)

I think every one craves altered states, whether an addict or not. I am interested in ways to have altered states without hurting our biochemistry. There are ways to have altered states through things that actually support our minds and bodies, and do not create imbalance in the body at all. Dance is one of the ways we can get a natural high. Some other examples are meditation, sweat lodges, ceremony and cleansing. If you are creating a habit of needing a substance to dance, you could be harming your dance in the long run. Dance has saved me many times by inspiring me to stop destructive behavior because I was afraid to lose my connection to dance.

Healing Body Work Is Essential -

We must do self care to thrive as a person and to dance forever. One of the number one symptoms I treat my patients for is stress. Stress is so destructive to human beings. Healing body work, massage, chiropractic, energy work, facials, to name a few, can be life changing. I have had deeply moving, radically transforming and healing experiences receiving healing body work. This inspired me to become a healer myself. I have been apprenticing under a teacher named Naomi Boggs who has been teaching me Lomi Lomi bodywork, plant medicine, flower essences, deep abdominal massage and ceremonial botanical body work. I now do these in my private practice and I find them to be radically healing.

Now that I have taken my dance to the next level by treating it as a full time job, I find i cannot get away with not receiving regular body work. It absolutely helps me be a better dancer. Luckily, I can trade my services with other practitioners. If money is an issue, look into massage and acupuncture schools in your area. These schools usually have a clinic where students treat for a very discounted rate. Community healing clinics are becoming very popular in most cities. This is where you get treated in a group setting for a very discounted rate.

Seek Help Of Practitioners Who Are Holistic Healers, But Don’t Rule Out Western Doctors -

 I chose to become a holistic healer because treating my own mind, body and soul helped save my life from suicidal depression. I believe treating the mind, body and spirit is going to evolve medicine. I believe in both Eastern AND Western medicine – a marriage of the two. There are some amazing things that western medicine can do – hello, surgery and pain killers! Let us honor Western medicine. I love how Eastern medicine does not separate the mind, body and soul when diagnosing and treating a patient. The body holds stories that need to be expressed and words won’t get the job done.

Don’t Worry About How Old You Are –

I was 38 when I discovered tribal fusion belly dance and fell deeply in love with it. This was shortly after I birthed my second child. I knew that after searching for years for a path of devotion, after living in an ashram, after taking yoga classes for years, after struggling with meditation, I found what I was looking for in belly dance. When I am in a negative mind set, the voices in my head will say, “You are ridiculous! Trying to be a serious dancer at the age of 40! Who do you think you are? You look like a fool! It isn’t even possible! Why didn’t I find it sooner? You can’t be an old, beautiful dancer!” In a positive mindset, I declare, “I am so grateful that I found belly dance this YOUNG!

I am so grateful I found it at all!” Beauty is in the movement, in the soul that shines through the body during the dance. I try to remember and embody this, but it can be a challenge sometimes. I think we are culturally programmed to think that there is an expiration date on us when it comes to being a dancer.  In my own personal journey, I realized that the enemy is not our culture as much as my own fearful ideas about aging and beauty. I am responsible to heal and change those old ideas that no longer serve me. I so appreciate the belly dance community because of the huge age range of women doing it. I will continue to look to the examples of women dancing till the day they die!

Start Your Dance With Reverence Or A Prayer –

Those of us that have access to dance classes and community around dance are very lucky. Be grateful for that! I have met many women who told me when they were a kid, their family could not afford classes. Dance classes were not readily available on the internet, because there was no internet. Which brings me to another thing we should be grateful for – the internet. Now, with the technology of the internet, we can take classes from the touch of a button, from all the best teachers in and around the world.

I love and honor Carolena Nerrico, the mother and creator of American Tribal Style dance (ATS), for always opening her ATS dances with a movement prayer acknowledging the space that we dance in, the dance teachers, the music we hear and our fellow dancers. It’s beautiful to watch. She teachers her students who are teachers to teach the same.

Create An Altar – 

In the book, “The Little Book Of Talent”,  it talks about the importance of “staring” at what you want to become. Not just thoughtless staring, but conscious and deliberate observing. Truly seeing what it is that inspires you and what it is you hope to become. Create a sacred space for yourself with things that inspire you. Hang pictures of dancers that make your heart soar and your light your soul on fire. Surround yourself with beauty. This helps dreams takes flight.

Practice Yoga –

Rachel Brice says, “Yoga is as important to my dancing as drills or any form of practice. Without flexibility in the spine, upper back and side ribs, hips, etc., the movement would not be as “snake-y”. I’m constantly encouraging students to take more yoga classes.” Not only has yoga helped my dance, it helps me calm my mind and find peace in my soul. It helps me get in touch with my body, to know when I need rest, how far to push myself and when to slow down. When I first started taking yoga as a young teen at Kripalu, then a ashram with Amrit Desai as the guru, I was frustrated with how painful it felt.

I would get cramps in my body and limbs were constantly falling asleep. I was not aware at first that my competitive nature, my looking at everyone else and comparing myself to them, was the biggest culprit of my physical discomfort. I had a surrender one day when I decided to practice with my eyes close for all classes. What happened was incredible. I suddenly was able to tune in to what my body’s needs were. I did not push myself. I listened and I grew because of it. I crossed over into a place of physical and spiritual peace. My body stopped hurting and yoga was no longer so frustrating. I have been hooked on yoga ever since.

Warm Up And Cool Down –

Always. Period. It prevents injury and injuries can take a long time to heal and often prevent us from dancing.

Develop Your Taste In Music And Build A BITCHIN’ Music Collection -

Music is a HUGE part of a dancer’s world. It is the soul of dance. The two go hand in hand. My musicality has grown as I have grown as a dancer. As my musicality grows, so does my dance. They are mutually engendering. What’s most important is that YOU dance to music that moves your soul. I met a lovely teacher who said, “If I listen to the song 3 times in a row, that’s a song for me to pay attention to. It is probably the song to perform to. ” – I build my collection by perusing the free online music site, Soundcloud. On Soundcloud, you can create and store music playlists of the music you find on it. I also find musicians on Instagram by searching hash tags of the type of music I like, ex: #hiphop #techhouse.

Be Humble –

Even if you are the most sought after teacher in the world, be humble. We are grateful we get to dance every time we do. Do not take that for granted. I learned from the lovely and amazing teachers Collena Shakti  and Joanna Ashleigh that emoting gratitude in your dance is a powerful way to move yourself and your audience. I also have had the privilege to study with two amazing dancers and teachers, Zoe Jakes and Rachel Brice. I was so moved by both of them – not just by their amazing teaching skills, but by what humble, kind, down to earth and gracious people they both were, despite having become very famous. My experience is that gurus do not exist and that we are all equally human. All teachers and dancers that I respect, have these qualities.

If You Get Injured, Be Patient With Recovery – 
The number one reason I see my patients get re-injured is because they rushed back into an activity before they were fully healed. I get it- being injured can be challenging. You are unable to do the thing you love the most – dance. Fear, anxiety and stress can rush you back into the activity. See injuries or illness as an opportunity to go deeper inside yourself, listen to what your body is trying to tell you, learn the lesson in the healing process. Maybe you need to slow down, take more time for self care, re- evaluate your path. It is a rich opportunity for growth if you have the right attitude.

Support And Be Kind To Your Fellow Dancers –

I have been so impressed with the belly dance community that I am a part of. We are kindreds, and I am grateful to have found a supportive tribe of like minded people pursuing their love of dance. That doesn’t mean I haven’t encountered jealously, competitiveness, and unkindness. I know that I have felt my own jealousy, insecurity and competitiveness. I am human. But I really do not indulge these feelings. I make a conscious effort to spread love, support and kindness. I go out of my way to thank dancers that have inspired me, support dancers that need it, and be humble. I also make a conscious effort to spread love and kindness on the internet by telling someone when I admire their work. I am always trying to reach out a virtual hand to support and be kind. The internet is another world that most of us in this day and age inhabit. I have been horrified by the hatred I see on the internet in comments. Let’s try to spread love.

I love this quote by Gilda Gray, which Rachel Brice has taped in her journal: “I know part of me is competitive, but I will focus my energy and attention on the part of me that wants us all to celebrate our differences and similarities in a big network of friends that push themselves and inspire each other to do the best work possible, while crediting each other and our influences.”

Ecstatic Dance: To Fly, To Heal, To Love

Article Source: http://the-toast.net/2015/04/07/ecstatic-dance/2/

I wanted to move, but my body would not cooperate. It was a feeling not dissimilar to the paralysis I’ve experienced when wanting to kiss someone for the first time. Mentally, I was able to project myself vividly into the space. In my head, it looked good. On the ground, though, nothing changed. Frustrated by this self-imposed inertia, I closed my eyes and tried to conjure the living-room parties of college: the empty PBR cans, drunk boys jumping on musty couches to New Order and Bruce Springsteen, the blessed darkness. I opened my eyes: Jenny was being solicited for contact improv.

In ecstatic dance, contact improv is initiated by deep eye contact, and often seems to culminate in an entangled limb-nest on the floor. (A woman who had been the subject of numerous unwanted contact-improv solicitations would later offer us a practical solution: dance with your eyes closed.) Feeling overprotective of Jenny, I wiggled my way over, forcing myself into the groove. The piano music phased into beatless chanting, slow jams, reggae, and eventually the sort of electronic dance music that often incorporates saxophone riffs and sounds best in a loud, cavernous space. We stomped and waved and hopped across the floor.

I performed a rapid, mechanical-looking dance-march that I once saw in a nightclub in Berlin, and felt like a videogame character hitting an invisible wall. I had a short flashback to the step aerobics class I took in high school, and wondered whether this might ever become a suitable form of exercise. “Like curriculum-free Zumba,” the ad copy would read, “but barefoot, in harem pants!”

Around the two-hour mark, I went hunting for a water fountain, and fell into conversation with a gentleman named Happy. Happy was sitting on the outskirts of the party, looking content, and he welcomed me in generously by asking whether I wanted his full attention and eye contact – yes, please. Later in our conversation, I learned that he teaches a healing method called Eye Gazing. Happy was exquisitely kind, and told me he’d been part of the Oakland Ecstatic Dance community for several years. A woman ran over and wrapped her arms around Happy’s neck. “Church should be a party!” she said, then scampered off.

“Church is a vessel for spirituality,” Happy clarified, as I fleetingly wondered whether I had inadvertently joined a cult. “People get their freedom in dance, in wordlessness. They get a lot out of their own freedom, and out of other people’s freedom, and –” this is where he lost me “– it leads to deeper and deeper levels of ecstatic freedom, where we find our true nature. There’s a chemistry to ecstasy.” 

Chemistry, ecstasy: sounds good to me! I thought. I was back on board.

As I made my way back to the dance floor, I bumped into the least probable co-worker, Louis, who was taking a much-needed water break. He was wearing a terry-cloth headband, and we greeted one another exuberantly and with mild suspicion. Louis has an advanced degree in computational biology, which is both practical and sane; at the office, I have a well-groomed reputation as a bookworm and a skeptic. Neither one of us seemed a natural participant in ecstatic dance.

Yet there we were, wearing tank tops and blinking at each other through sweat-bunched bangs. As we whispered by the yoga mats, I tried to imagine any other situation in which he, Happy, and I would all be at the same party. I was hard-pressed to come up with a feasible scenario that didn’t involve a mutual bloodline.

By this point, we had reached Peak Ecstatic Dance. People were bouncing and smiling and sweating; a guy who looked about my age removed the bulk of his clothing and did a prolonged handstand.

A woman held two small children and spun them in a circle. An older man in flowing linen pants, a knee brace, and purple socks rubbed shoulders elegantly with a lithe 20-something woman rocking a bleached pixie cut. One man slithered over to another and they writhed around on the floor, eventually emerging with one airborne on the other’s feet. It was clear who the regulars in the crowd were, but for the most part, I’d seen (and done) this sort of dancing before – if you ever attended a Dispatch concert in the early 2000s, you have, too.

Ecstatic Dance is an often wordless practice – people had their mouths closed, opening only to release an excited yowl or heavy breath. It’s also intended to be a nonsexual space, but there were a few people who seemed to violate this principle. A man in tight cotton shorts pogoed vigorously between women, trailing his fingertips down their sides. Men are perfect at ruining things, I thought, as he barreled toward us.

***

It’s hard to explain, but I now feel oddly protective of the Ecstatic Dance community. It’s not my community and likely never will be, but I have to commend the people who belong, who build and grow it. They’ve identified a need and addressed it. They’ve proactively made something beautiful for themselves. No matter what it looks like from the outside, it works: people there glowed with self-comfort. I wished I could get there, and one day I might. Dance, however, probably isn’t my path.

As I watched an older couple hold each other to a reggae remix – she with swollen ankles, he with slight shoulders and white hair – I was moved. Later, sweaty and beat, Jenny and I emerged onto Oakland’s Broadway. Cars sped past; two men walked by, shouting at each other. I felt a little deflated, and also extremely relieved. Maybe I’d lost my edge. Maybe I’d never really had it.
“I’ll think about that older couple for a while,” I said.

Jenny agreed.

“I never want to do that again,” I said.

“Mmm,” Jenny said. We continued to walk. “It’s so peaceful out here,” she said after a while.

“Yes,” I said. And it was.

Why We Dance: A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming (An Interview)

The following is an interview with Kimerer LaMothe, author of Why We Dance: A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming:

Why did you write this book?

Kimerer LaMothe: I love to dance, every day. It is vital for my well being. And when I scan the landscape of human life, I see dance everywhere—in the earliest human art, the oldest forms of culture, and in every culture around the world into the present. Yet in the maps of and for human life that comprise the philosophy, theology, and religious studies of the modern west, dance occupies a surprisingly small space. Rarely do authors consider dancing as vital to human life, especially to a human’s religious life. I wanted to change that.

How did you decide to approach this problem?

KLL: Before beginning this book, I spent years delving into written works of the western canon, trying to identify the intellectual moves that make it nearly impossible for a given philosopher or theologian to affirm dance as a medium of religious experience and expression. I looked for exceptions. I looked for thinkers who were willing to consider dance as more than just a metaphor, or more than just a crude alternative to the “finer” arts or “higher,” more cerebral forms of religion.

The problem went deeper than I thought. The bias against dance in the western tradition is not simply evidence of a mind/body problem, a fear of sexuality, or a patriarchal devaluing of the feminine per se. Rather, the challenge for dance is rooted in the fact that that the tradition’s dominant structures and patterns of thinking express and reinforce the lived experience of people who have spent years training themselves to read and write. Much of western thought is an apology for the life of a book-bound mind.

While this trajectory of cultural development has enabled tremendous advances in numerous realms, it is less helpful when it comes to making sense of why humans always have and continue to dance.

In order to show how dance is vital to our humanity, I realized that I would have to retell the story of what it means to be a human being from the lived experience of dancing. I would have to tell a story in which bodily movement appears as the source and telos of human life.

Fortunately, across disciplines, researchers and scientists are discovering what many dancers have known and practiced for years: that bodily movement is essential to the biological, emotional, spiritual, and ecological development of human persons. Thus, when I set out to write this book, I had a lot of material on which to draw in making my case.

So why do we dance?

KLL: The reasons are many, and each chapter of Why We Danceexplores one. We dance to matter, to evolve, to know, to be born, to connect, to heal, and to love. Yet as the text spirals through these different chapters, a common argument builds as the substratum of them all: namely, that humans evolved as creatures with a unique ability to notice, recreate, and become relational patterns of movement. Humans evolved to dance as an enabling condition of their best bodily becoming.

Key to this argument is this notion I develop of “bodily becoming.” It takes three moves to shift to this perspective. First, humans do not have bodies, they are bodies. Second, the bodies that humans are, are not objects, they are movement. Third, the movement that human bodily selves are is the movement of their own becoming. In a nutshell: I am the movement that is making me. Humans are nothing more or less that rhythms of bodily becoming, constantly moving themselves as well as being moved by forces larger and smaller than they can perceive.

In each chapter, I explore the implications of this way of thinking about our bodily selves for philosophical questions concerning the nature, evolution, development, and culture expression of human persons. I build the case that the ongoing practice of dancing is the primary action in which humans learn to participate–consciously or not—in the rhythms of bodily becoming.

You note in the opening to Why We Dance that you live on a farm, and that you could not have written this book anywhere else. Why is that?

KLL: If I was to write a book that expressed the lived experience of dancing, I knew that I needed to live in a place where my own impulse to dance was constantly quickened and brought to life in me—a place where I was moved to move by the movements of the natural world.

When the opportunity came for our family to move to the country, I jumped. Little did I know, that once my partner and I moved to this retired dairy farm, our children would decide that they wanted to be farmers. Supporting our children in fulfilling their dreams of raising horses, cows, cats, and chickens has opened my senses up in new ways to how the movements that we make in every moment of our lives make us who we are in relationship to the natural world.

Each chapter of Why We Dance sports an experiential frame drawn from life I live here on the farm. Each frame enacts ideas I develop within the chapter itself. These experiences are not “cases” that provide evidence of “theories.” Rather, they each describe the experiences that have enabled the ideas of the chapter to emerge in me at all. In this way, each chapter represents a coming-into-being of the ideas about dance that it also contains. Each chapter calls attention not only to the “embodiment” of ideas (as if ideas lived in bodies), but to the ways in which ideas express, engender and are themselves bodily movements.

I am not a dancer. I don’t dance. Why should I read this book?

KLL: Part of what I do in this book is to redefine “dance.” I offer a visionary definition of what dance can be based both on what dancing has been across a range of contexts, as well as on what we now know about the importance of bodily movement to our humanity. Dance, I offer, is something that every human can and must do to some extent in order to survive their births as hopelessly dependent infants. Dance, in this sense, refers to a process of participating as consciously as we are able in the rhythm of creating and becoming relational patterns of sensation and response.

While elastic, this definition offers rich conceptual resources for identifying and acknowledging the wide range of meanings, experiences, beliefs, and knowledge that the practice of certain dance styles and techniques makes possible, especially when occurring in religious contexts. This visionary definition also offers resources for understanding how and why the practice of dancing remains a potent guide for people today in the work of nurturing mutually life-enabling relationships with the natural world.

This book is as much an adventure as an argument. It is a call to think and a call to act. It is written for people who can dance or want to dance as well as for those who are sure they can’t and don’t. It is written for people who love to move and want to know why. It is written for people who don’t want to move and want to know why. It is written for people who yearn for a better understanding of how the movements they make are, in every moment, making them. People who want to know: what am I creating?

"You Do!" - Article From a Devoted Student of Yoga

I have been coming across so many words lately, written by others, that I am enjoying immensely.  Not to mention, words that are to large degrees pertinent to elements within my own personal teaching and learning journey ... and so, I feel great beauty within the sharing.  I have taught yoga now for many years, and it is always an intriguing mystery surrounding the teacher/student relationship and dynamic.  

Keeping in mind, I believe we are all our own teachers, and every single person carries their own individuated and potent form of Medicine.  Healing logistics aside, and speaking simply from the practical "one room, one teacher, multiple students" arrangement, I found this article itself to be great medicine, because it is truth.  In nearly every class I have taught in a registered setting, there is a sort of 'archetypal' line up that comes into form, which to this day leaves me somewhat quizzical about it.  Not to mention, I am very sensitive. 

Not in the overly-emotional sense of the word ... but as in, I very easily pick up on what others are feeling and experiencing.  It is a big job, this teaching gig.  It is a big job, and a huge passion.  That is what, despite the 'doubters and comparers', the sometimes judgments, the anxieties and uncertainties that mix up into one breathy room ... that is what keeps we impassioned instructors showing up at the mat. 

Sometimes I have felt like standing at the front of the room, demonstrating a posture, and then calling out to the class "You do!" as the author describes below!  This is not my process however, but admittedly it sounds like a fun one!  Yet I will continue with my methods.  Because there are also the supporters, the cheerleaders, and the pure lovers of the process.  And it is precisely this process, and the trust we know we must hold within it, that will keep us coming back for more.

Ten Tips from a Yoga Student

By Russell Shields 

 I am not a yoga teacher. I am one of those people who bring a mat to class and do the asanas with everyone else. I have been a yoga student for many years. The experience has taught me how to be a better yoga student. I now offer 10 tips on how to get more out of the student/teacher relationship.

1. BE A STUDENT. If you are a student, it is important to be a good student. This means adopting the attitude of a diligent student for the class period, especially with a new teacher. For many of us, especially if one has a regular practice, there is a tendency to compare teachers and think we know of a better way for the class to be taught. The mind likes to think, “My other teacher did not do it that way. This feels weird.” When I first took ashtanga yoga, it seemed that some of the set sequence of poses would make more sense if done in a slightly different order. After years of practice, I have come to realize there is wisdom in the sequence just as taught.

2. BE OPEN. Thoughts that the teacher is teaching incorrectly is a wrong attitude that puts up a barrier to learning what the teacher has to offer. The truth is, we can learn something from every teacher, if we can BE OPEN to what they have to teach. I have had teachers whose asana practice was less developed than mine. However, I learned much from them. The more advanced student must be especially aware of this pitfall, as there is a tendency to use existing knowledge and experience as a sort of bias against new teachings and experiences.

3. OVERLOOK. Yoga teachers, like all of us, are works in progress. It is not unusual to hear them mispronounce the names of asanas, embarrass students, criticize other teachers, arrive late, start the class late, run the class past the scheduled end time, display anger, direct you into a sequence of poses and then forget to do the “other side,” leaving you feeling lopsided. Most yoga teachers are not masters and teach at least some mistakes. It is important to remember that they are people in different stages of development, just like the students. My wife once asked an East Indian lady the secret to a long, happy marriage. She responded, “Overlook.” The fact is, people come mixed. They are not all good or all bad. It is up to us to overlook the flaws so that we can enjoy the real yoga teachings, which are pristine and eternal.

Although yoga teachers may be flawed, it is also true that you would be hard pressed to find a more heart-centered, God-loving group of people. They do not teach for the “big bucks.” Most yoga teachers are not striving to reach early retirement. However, it is fair to say that most are working on piling up sizeable spiritual bank accounts -- a quality that is both admirable and endearing.

4. EXPECT ODD SITUATIONS. Yoga teachers sometimes do things that seem very odd. There is an implicit trust relationship between the teacher and student. It is the teacher's duty to find a way to get the student to learn and the student's duty is to be obedient and open. Since yoga deals with mind, body and spirit, the forms of teaching can be quite odd indeed.

One of my yoga teachers, Dawn S., would often choose one person per class session to receive special help with supta kurmasana, the turtle pose. This is a pretzel pose to end them all. Dawn was not happy until someone was completely scrunched into a tiny ball, feet crossed, head in crotch, arms between and under the legs and bent behind the back. When she “helped” me into it, my breathing became about 1/100th of what it was up to then. Tim M. could somehow put me into twisting poses like marichyasana D, where my hands barely clasped, and then he would help other people for what seemed like FOREVER, or until my sweaty hands got so weak they slipped apart and the pose collapsed. Tim was also fond of saying, urdhva dhanurasana, or backbend/wheel, “is like pancakes--the first two are no good.” To me, that meant we were going to be holding the pose FOREVER, or until the body shook and collapsed down, over and over again. At the end of the wheel poses, he would sometimes say, “OK now, second set!”

The yoga literature is full of stories of teachers doing even more strange things to make a point to the student. For example, the great teacher, Kabir, was chastised by some Muslims for pointing his feet in the direction of Mecca. Kabir responded by asking his critics to kindly point his feet in the direction that did not face God. Mulana Rum, or Rumi, is reported to have said, “If the teacher says soak your prayer mat in wine, soak it in wine.” In so many ways, the teacher and the yoga challenge our parameters and break down limitations to growth. So if the teacher places you in an odd situation, try to use it as an opportunity to learn.

5. HANG IN THERE. I have found that the solution to the odd situations is to hang in there, even if you don't like it. Sooner or later, the wisdom comes out. For example, after a while, I learned from Dawn that the turtle pose can be very peaceful, sort of like your own personal sadhu cave. I learned from Tim that twisting poses can really help me to open UP and expand. I even learned that backbends get easier. The key was always just hanging in there. When one of my teachers, Steve, saw the class straining in a difficult pose, he would encourage us to hang in there by saying, “Don't leave before the miracle. It is just coming.” There is truth to that statement. I am grateful to my teachers, including Dawn, Tim and Steve , for their encouragements and patience.

Avoid comparing yourself to others. Negative thoughts can block all progress. Thoughts like “I will never be that good” will suck away your energy and put you into a mode of struggle in the practice. Expect that some days you will feel better than others. Ultimately , it is what is going on internally, not externally, that counts. If you hang in there, you will get great satisfaction from the yoga. Just keep doing the yoga. Do it during the ordinary turmoil of life. Do it despite days of lesser strength and flexibility. Do it without comparing yourself to what others are doing on the mat next to you.

6. DO IT THEIR WAY. Teachers have different styles. Some are young, very flexible, strong, and vigorous. Their classes are often a faster paced, more intense workout. Older or more experienced teachers often place less emphasis on external form and more emphasis on breath and concentration during the practice. There is no bad choice. What is important is to do the practice their way so that you can get the benefit from their style of teaching.

For example, I have noticed Iyengar teachers talk a lot during class. They explain every tiny detail of the asana until I feel mentally exhausted from the input. Also, I know several Iyengar teachers who can be very picky about the way you fold blankets. However, I am deeply indebted to them for teaching yoga etiquette and the great body of physical / mechanical info rmation they provided. I would not have gotten that benefit if I left the class because the teachers never shut up

7. YOU DO! In contrast, I have noticed that ashtanga teachers give very little instruction. The class moves from pose to pose and you are left to figure out precisely how each pose should be done. One teacher would sometimes silently show a pose and then only say, “You do!” I learned a lot from those two words. To my surprise, what I did not know the doing often taught me. If I had not experienced the asana flow without the teaching interruptions, I would not have developed the slow , rhythmic breathing in movement that leads to a deeper practice. In the end , it is not doing asanas but learning to repose--to achieve a deep sense of the eternal within -- that is the real yoga practice. The understanding and internal experience that eventually come from the yoga are the best teacher. If you open your heart and just do the practice, then the timeless and pristine gifts of yoga will be discovered.

8. ETIQUETTE. The newer student may be surprised to know there is an unofficial yoga etiquette that is widely accepted. First on my unofficial list is to come with fairly clean body and mat. I am not all that finicky about odor. Even so, being on a yoga mat next to malodorous feet or mat has ruined the whole experience for me many times. Be on time. If you are late, just stand near the door and wait for the teacher to acknowledge you and direct you to a spot. Most teachers will arrange a spot for you, when the time is right.

9. RELAX/DON'T TENSE UP. As a result of being the equivalent of human pretzel dough to many teachers over the years, I have learned that the best way to take an adjustment is to RELAX. Let it happen. Try to get the feel of what the pose is like after you are in the adjusted pose. Try to get the “body memory” of the adjusted pose. Does it feel better than before? How is it different from what you were doing? Good things happen when you relax. You go much deeper into the pose. You may learn that mentally surrendering is a huge key to spiritual growth. DON'T TENSE UP. The converse is also true. Tense up and bad things happen. When you resist, the deep steady breathing is lost, tension comes in, the mind gets defensive and becomes unreceptive. The selfish mantra of “what will happen to me” is soon to surface. One of the challenges in backbends is to relax in what is at first perceived as a stressful situation. This lesson carries over into daily life. As my practice has become established, I notice that when my daily work gets intense, my deep , slow yoga with ujjai breathing get going and automatically the situation becomes more even.

10. HONOR AND ENCOURAGE. We should honor and encourage our yoga teachers. I notice that when a yoga instructor just walks by me, or adjusts me, my practice immediately perks up, and I try a little harder for awhile. Teachers also benefit from recognition and feedback. When I think of the great line of yoga teachers stretching back into antiquity who brought these great teachings to us, it is natural to feel humility and gratitude to all yoga teachers. For these reasons, it is good to honor and respect yoga teachers. I try to bring flowers to class once in a while. I like to remember them at Christmas with small gifts like nuts, incense or a yoga type calendar. Sometimes just a few words about how I sincerely enjoyed a class or how I improved from an adjustment in the class bring a smile to their face.

Russell Shields was last in Chicago in 1968.  He came as one of many Students for a Democratic Society who engaged in anti-war protests at the Democratic Convention.  Soon after, he began studying hatha yoga with Yogi Sharma in Long Beach, California.  In 1972 he was initiated into surat shabd (meditational) yoga by G uru Charan Singh.  Russell has traveled to India between 15 and 20 times, mostly to see his guru at an ashram in Punjab, India.  He has traveled the Himalayas, studied medi t ation with the Brama Kumaris in Rajasthan, performed Shivaite practices in Varanasi. Russell is a partner in the law firm of Shields & Kowalski located in Tustin, California.  He is a longtime , familiar student at many yoga studios. Since writing this story, Russell has started to teach a yoga class at Bally's Gym in Southern California.

The Stories We Weave

As a necessary part of getting to know ourselves in this day to day dance we call life, learning what we want and what we don't, knowing where we came from and where we are headed, feeling what moves us and what holds us in stillness...

We tell ourselves stories. 

We do it beginning at an early age, and perhaps some of these stories are ones that are told to us.  If you've been around children for any length of time, you know that children are incredibly skilled with their imaginations and the worlds they weave.  

Their imaginary worlds can be very real for them, in that moment... but then the moment will pass once they decide they need a nap, some snuggle time, or a mid-afternoon snack.  Suddenly hunger or fatigue sets in, and the physical once again becomes primary.  The story is put back on the shelf, momentarily, awaiting the next play date much like a toy placed back in its box for the night.

Children however, being fresher to the world, are usually able to let go of their stories and let them wisp to the wind.  Perhaps to come back at some point, or perhaps never again... but rarely to let it stick, and certainly not to cause harm.  

How could it, it's only a story, it's only imaginary, right?  Even invisible friends come and go, though some know or believe these to be guides and spirits (and this is something that as tuned in parents, we should nurture in our children).  The idea of tongue-clucking and eye-rolling at the unseen - which is expressed by our children - is shifting.  If not accepted, I would say it is at least more tolerated.

Now, that is children.  As we grow into adulthood, we are still very much able to tell ourselves stories. 

Harmless, right?  Sure.

So long as we are aware that it is just that.  A harmless story.

Dance with your own stories, sing with them, play and write with them.  If left unexpressed, they may stew and become a bit more solid within you.  Express them - and be sure to do so safely, beautifully, and lovingly - however that may take form.  No one else has had your experiences.  No one else has your filters or your eyes.  There is no one else that believes exactly the way that you do.

Stories become harmful if they become your reality, unfounded, born of anger and mistrust.  If you move from these stories as a base without studying them inside and out, you may trip for a hard fall.  And they become destructive if projected upon another, without shining your light upon them first and seeing them clearly.  

Placing them gently upon a smooth foundation, studying them intently, and taking all necessary action to be sure that your story is aligned with the world you wish to have expressed within and around you will be of great benefit.  It will help to heal and nurture you, your loved ones, the world. 

Now go on... breathe deep. 

Turn the corners of your mouth upward in delight and curiosity. 

Place your hand upon your chest. 

What is your story?  Do tell.

The world is waiting.

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Breaking In New Shoes

Just the other day I heard the most wonderful string of words:  "There is no path to Enlightenment, there is only stepping out of the Darkness."  Bam.   The world is shifting, flowing into new territory, and I see more and more that people are placing others upon pedestals less and less.  We are all human, all fallible, and there is no means to an end.  We came from the spirit realm, we know it there well.  And that is to where we shall return.

Tonight I was spending some fabulous quality time with my eight year old niece.  She was having great fun goofing around, and one of her plays included her donning a pair of too-large heels, turning to the door and exclaiming, "Oh my, it's midnight!"  Then running for the door, she kicked one shoe off and left it behind... having us all laughing so hard we were in stitches.

This got my sometimes too-deep mind running later on in the evening... it is indeed midnight.  The end of one cycle, moving from light of day to dark of night momentarily, allowing the world and all beings upon it to rest before we give birth again to the light.  And sometimes, we need to kick off our old shoes and find a new pair.

The sleep is being wiped from our eyes, even while commercials, flyers and advertisements are being hurled our way to spend, spend, spend.  The old is making way for the new, and perhaps we are experiencing its final death throes.  Could this be true?  Are we really clearing through the brushes to pave new paths for yet uncharted soul journeys?  The old won't go down without a fight, and this is where we must keep the light in our eyes shining strong, our senses alive and engaged.

We hear so much of the statement, "it's not about You", while in the same breath we are told that the work that we do on ourselves is what will effect the outcome of all that surrounds us.  So in this regard, everything is about You.  What I will say to that is this... we are learning to step into our power as individuals, while sensing the intrinsic pulse that connects and keeps us all as One.  We each came here for a reason.  

Each of us carries a Medicine, and we are each a piece of the greater cosmic puzzle.  Some vastly aware of their missions, some working corporate jobs perhaps unaware of the lightwork they are performing, and there are all levels of awareness in between.

I am reminded of a spiritual teacher who once told me a story.  She had been rushing to buy lunch between classes and was digging through her purse for change.  Outside of the shop was an older man, appearing weathered and homeless, and he asked her to spare some of her change.  She replied that no, she could not, and with an apology she rushed into the cafe.  

As she turned to leave with her food, she passed the man on her way out.  As he walked, she saw rainbow colours and beautiful codes flying out from beneath the man`s feet.  She stopped, frozen, and looked up at the man.  He paused to catch her gaze, and then with a sparkle in his eye, he winked at her.  My teacher at this point remembers standing there awestruck and thinking, ``I know nothing.``

So I end here with this - perhaps clarity is finally gracing us as we dust off the shoes we brought with us to wear at this time.  They may feel a bit tight, but if we just wear them around the house for awhile, we`ll break them in and finally be able to wear them out.  Maybe even spend some time dancing the night away in them, and with a bit of luck, grace, and faerie dust, maybe our coaches won't turn into pumpkins (wink, wink ;)

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The Spirit of Give and Take

“Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last fish has been caught, only after the last river has been poisoned, only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.” - Cree Proverb


Lately there have been plenty of childhood memories surfacing for me.  The other night I watched a show about a man who is travelling the globe to take part in the lifestyles, ceremonies and rituals of indigenous cultures.  He is doing so in the hopes of learning their ancient ways and telling their stories before they die out for good.  Brilliant, I thought - absolutely brilliant.  This brought me to recall the time I was preparing to move to Ireland, and over a cup of fresh organic coffee I said to a friend that it was part of my plan to attempt to learn some Irish Gaelic; this was just something I always knew in my heart and my soul that I would do.  “Well“, he said, “Now why would you do that?  There’s a dying language.”  A bit surprised, as to me it was obvious … “Well that’s precisely why“, I replied.  

Reflecting upon this I remembered the ‘tests’ I would put myself through as I was growing up.  Even though we never had much in the first place, I was always getting rid of things.  I refused to accept or play with dolls, opting instead for one well loved stuffed bear.  Along with that, my music collection, clothes and a bed, my room was filled to what I was content with. 

I was quite happy also with a tall round Tupperware container filled with clothespins, and I would spend lots of time clipping the pins around the upper edge of this container.  By the end I was very happy with the completed ‘fan’ look.  As the years progressed for me, it became a game of “What can I do without?  How minimally can I live?”  I could never quite understand why I did this, why I had such a repulsion to most things I felt were frivolous or unnecessarily technological.  I later realized that subconsciously, I wanted to be prepared to live out my life comfortably even if all things as we knew them were taken away.  There was a sort of deep seated thought pattern that said “This, as it is, won’t last … be ready… “

I knew this idea could also be a bit extreme.  Until I lived with a girl who really WAS extreme.  And I realized I wasn’t alone in my quest for the minimal.  She would keep the heating down in the house to such an extent that the pipes would freeze while it was colder than forty below outside, and you could see your breath inside.  We would wear layer upon layer inside of the house, with hats and scarves, and I would have to sleep in fleece outerwear just to sleep comfortably. 

She later admitted to me that she was testing herself, to see how cold she could stand it.  I would be going to teach classes, already so frozen by the time I got there, that I still wouldn’t feel warm by the end of class.  So I thought, there needs to be a balance.  I realized, there is no need to be harsh to myself any longer in order to understand how to “live without”.  And this balance comes down to that which I learned in so many of my energy work and spiritual healing classes - absolutely everything is about the give and take.

This is a concept forgotten by many for so long, but one which I believe is re-awakening.  If you take something, give something back.  And as has been the way with indigenous communities, and as we all inherently know and remember somewhere within our psyches, this doesn’t need to be a material exchange.  There are subtle exchanges as well, exchanges of thought and sentiment, exchanges of good deeds, exchanges of energy. 

If someone wishes you well, it is a natural response to wish them well in return.  Relationships are wonderful practice rooms for healthy exchange.  It takes all one can muster not to respond in kind to a negative word or action.  On another level, the earth is giving to us continually, sustaining us and nurturing us.  We drink of her blood (water), walk on her body (soil), are kept warm by her vital energy (fire) and are supported by her essence (air).  It is the indigenous cultures and those practising indigenous ways that have kept the exchange and the gratitude alive.

Giving thanks every single day is empowering.  Being aware of one’s surroundings is empowering.  We need to come back to our natural and innate connection to our elements, animals, and negative space; ie, that which we cannot “see” with our eyes alone.  Increase our collective awareness.  The ways of greed, anger, selfishness, and violence are not innate to the human condition.  It took a long time for these programs to be bred into the human vein, and we are now at a time in our planet’s cycle where these programs are being triggered, challenged, and preparing to be disseminated.  As with any cleansing of the old, it is initially a painful process but will be so rewarded in the end.  Many cultures believe that it is in fact the heart which is the mind.  And most shamanic teachings tell us that it is with the heart that we “see”. 

I am now reminded of a wonderful teacher of mine.  We met at a time of great transition in my life, and I don’t believe in coincidences.  He was a Native elder, true to form, living in the forest straight off of the land and performing healing work with medicinal herbs and plants.  When we first met he triggered me greatly, as I knew what he had come across my path to do.  So naturally, I closed off to him, out of fear and my mind telling me “I’m not prepared”.  But we’re never really prepared, are we?  Knowing what was going on with me, he looked me straight in the eye and said “I AM a true shaman”.

I blinked, my resolve struck for a moment.  Then my cheeky aspect of self replied, “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you.  I don’t have any tobacco”.  He blinked.  Then he chuckled.  I then broke down and began to divulge to him what I hadn’t told anyone in many, many years … the dreams I’d had, the visions I’d been having, some about the past, some seeming to be future, but all with a common thread and with the idea that “time” is simultaneous. 

He calmed me down and gave me basic instructions on what to do next.  I became his student for a time, and one thing he showed me involved being able to “see” a blood clot within the chest of a friend of mine.  He then proceeded to draw the clot out and to my amazement, a dark red spot appeared on the back of his hand as he worked.  It grew in size until he had finished.

Appalled, and in the spirit of give-and-take, I asked him, “What on earth will you do with that now?  You can’t keep it!”  With a smirk of patience, he replied, “I will take it home and give it to a tree”.  Again creaked my cheekiness, “But how do you know the tree wants it?”.  Chuckles, chuckles, and more chuckles … but no reply.  Fair enough, I thought.  I clearly have much more to learn!  Much time has passed since then, and I am so grateful.  The balance of give and take, an easy concept, but a not so easy practice.  We are getting there.  All of us.

“They will start as fires that burn within us, and we will burn up with desires and conflict if we do not remember the original teachings, and return to the peaceful way of life.”

Soul Tree (by Robert Moss)

 This is absolutely one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.  So naturally, I couldn't help but share it with you.  Robert Moss is incredible with his work on the power of Dreaming.



Soul Tree 
From Dreaming the Soul Back Home
© Robert Moss, used with permission from New World Library

"Tree at my window, window tree, My sash is lowered when night comes on; But let there never be curtain drawn Between you and me."
— Robert Frost, "Tree at My Window”

We can't lose our way if we go to the root of things, to the roots of a tree. By finding the right tree — a tree you know that also knows you — you can reconnect with the soul of nature. You can find grounding for soul in this world, and a shaman’s ladder to travel between the worlds.

I once moved to a place in the country because of a tree, an old white oak behind the house that had survived the lightning. I knew it for a guardian of the land and a wise ancient. Sitting with that tree, I would have impressions of all the seasons it had lived. When I walked the farm road toward it, I would sometimes feel its silent greeting. Sometimes I watched the moon rise over the hills from up in its branches. The oak became a tree of my dreaming and a portal to the ancestors. Rooted deep in American earth, the oak also joined me to the ways of oak-seers of my bloodlines in the Old World, to the druids “grey, wood-nurtured, quiet-eyed” (as Yeats sang), to the sacred oak at Dodona where the Greeks listened for the voice of a god in the creak and rustle of the branches. After the first snows, when the cold stung my eyes, I saw that the oak still hung on to its leaves, longer than any other shedding trees on that land. Oaks hang on.

When I was leading a workshop by the Bay of Riga, in Latvia, we had a wonderful singer and folklorist in our circle who knew many dainas, traditional folk songs that celebrate sun and sea, earth and stone. I asked her to help open our circle with a song of the oak tree:

I found in a field
a tall oak tree of spirit his feet go into the earth his head touches the sky

Oak tree, oak tree
how wide you are
the bee flies for three days and can’t get around you

The big storm boasted
“I’ll break the oak”
Oak tree, stand strong
but let the wind shake your branches.

In the last stanza, this song of oak teaches us to give a little in a strong wind, to avoid being broken. This is one of the lessons of the trees.

Spending good time with a tree that welcomes us is a great way to repair and renew our connection with the soul of nature. Trees have personalities, as individuals and as types, and sometimes we find they have a second personality that was not originally arboreal, a spirit from a different kinship group. In front of the farmhouse that I purchased because of the white oak was a great sugar maple. The patterns of the bark around the place where its broad trunk divided made the vivid likeness of an ancient Native shaman with a storm of gray hair and a long, twisted body. I learned later that there are legends in the Native traditions of Northeast America of shamans who have, in one of their soul bodies, taken up residence in trees after physical death.

South of the farmhouse was an elderly apple tree that no longer gave fruit but still put out a few leaves in the springtime and let a few branches fall, which I burned in the hearth of the family room. The sweetness of apple, through pine and spruce and hickory, provided a kind of olfactory portal, and I would slip into conscious dreaming of ancestors for whom the apple branch was the passport between the worlds. North of the house was another great old tree, a shagbark hickory, that shed limbs as well as leaves profusely, as the deer sheds its antlers. I would often find antlers in the hickory hollow, dropped by bucks in the great herds of white-tailed deer that made their home in our woods, from which hunters were banned.

What trees call to you on country walks or from memory or dream? Any tree may be your soul tree, and it may also be your sole tree, the One Tree through which the three worlds of the shaman’s cosmos are joined, and which may become your ladder between them.

At the start of most of my depth workshops, I lead a standing meditation, in which each person in the circle finds the image of a special tree and then lets the body take the form of that tree, rooted in earth, rising between earth and sky, feeding on sun fire. We let our bodies sway as we stand, as a tree will sway in a strong wind, giving a little in order not to be snapped. We see the seasons chang- ing around us. We feel what it’s like to have a squirrel run up our trunk or to have birds nesting in our hair. As the meditation deep- ens, we feel ourselves reaching deep into the earth, through the root system, going deep and spreading wide. We feel, with our inner senses, how we can travel this way to connect with the animal powers, and with ancestral spirits, and to receive healing and blessing in the realm of the Great Earth Mother.

Then we let our awareness ascend to the high branches. We picture ourselves perched up there like a bird, or a happy child in a tree house, able to look out in all directions from this excellent place of vision. We imagine that we can fly now to a person or place at a distance and look in on them, and sometimes, quick as thought, we are there. We discover that, from our place in the high branches, we can not only see across any distance in space but also scout across time and travel into the possible future to see what lies on the roads ahead for ourselves and others. This is something that tree-seers have al- ways been good at.

Now we go higher, into the world of the tree. We feel ourselves rise up into the canopy, up to the green crown, and then feel our- selves rising up higher and higher until the sky opens and we are in the first of the many levels of the Upper World. We are on our way now to make or renew our connections with our authentic spiritual teachers. They may take many forms and may be using “contact pictures” adjusted to our level of understanding. Beyond all the other forms of the guide on these levels, there is one that will never fail us and that is always waiting for us to resume contact: the soul of the soul (as the Sufis say beautifully), the captain of the heart, the Higher, or Greater, Self.

Your soul tree can be your portal to all these realms of adventure, discovery, and connection.

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