It's All Connected

This weekend I had my fifth weekend of Teacher Training here at MindBodySoul Yoga. I am so thankful to be participating in this training at a studio I have come to know, love, and work at! We began with the foundational texts of yoga, the theoretical background and this weekend moved into the chakras and the spine. I find these topics to be extremely interesting, probably because we traditionally learn so little about them and I have not yet read too much about them in my own research (life's work :P). So during the spine lecture today, given by a doctor of chiropractic medicine, I began to realize, again, how everything is connected. Just as with the chakras, when one thing in your spine comes out of alignment, the body shifts. The body does all that it can to bring us back into balance. If there is something off in one area of the spine, the body may compensate by strengthening a certain muscle group or tilting the body in a certain way. The chakras, the same. When we are in a lower vibrational frequency in one chakra, another will compensate to bring the body back into alignment. There is nothing in isolation. Each movement, each action affects the whole system.

The Chakras

The Spine

As is with the body so is with any system. Because that is really what the body is: a complex system of networks, of roads, of pathways, of communication, each working together seamlessly or not so seamlessly, in the functioning of each individual. As with the body, so is the earth, so is New York City, so is your school, your work place, your family: a complex system of networks, of roadways, of communication. Of each part playing its roles, of sharing, of balance, of cooperation. Or not. When one part is out of whack, the other compensates, and back and forth and back and forth, trying to find balance. Peace. Stillness. Ease.

For this reason it is important to LISTEN. To get still and tune in. To be HERE. Now. Acknowledging what is going on physically, emotionally, psychologically. When we do this, we can see how everything is connected. How this pain in my shoulder may be related to something I am physically doing but also mentally holding onto. How the plantar wart on the bottom of my right foot (ughhh I know, need to get this taken care of!) affects the way I walk, my balance, and the strain put on my right hip. Oh wait, and this may be affecting my left shoulder, too. And in my life... that person I met the other day, they know that other person that I know, how interesting.

And today, someone I met in high school while working as a lifeguard came into the studio. It was so natural, too. I felt like I had seen her or imagined her here, thought about her recently, and there she was today. She's living in the neighborhood and studying again. The last time I saw her, probably over five years ago, was in my hometown, she was waitressing and working on her masters. I think I had just come back from China and beginning a new adventure. Much like I am doing now. So here we are again. I'm not sure why people pop up in my life like this, but they do, and I love it. It's become something I wait for and expect. This magic. The connection of each and every part of my life and this body into expressing the capacity of ME in this human form, in this life. There are so many possibilities, if we just notice... it's all here. It's all connected. #namaste #cometogether #connect #beherenow #magiceverywhere #itsallhappening