Register here
http://www.mokshayoga.com/event-details/412262/2016-12-10/gwen-mihaljevich-a-forrest-yoga-workshop.html

We're going in deep this week. In this Saturday's workshop, a short recap will be offered on the cycle of
sensation > interpretation > choice > reembodiment.
We will recap how embodiment is a capacity, the ground from which we develop the confidence to begin working with our core vulnerabilities. Then we will get the chance to work with a particular outdated strategy/issue. Feel the revivified life!


Be strong then, and enter into your own body; there you have a solid place for your feet. Think about it carefully! Don’t go off somewhere else! Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are.-Kabir

In this workshop you will learn the tools needed to take your practice more deeply--or more correctly--take you into a deeper relationship with yourself. Instructions for how and where to focus your attention will help you build bodily intelligence, and invite a deeper awareness of your physical body, and your subtle, vital body. [The scope of this particular workshop does not directly address the causal body.]

Using intention, breath, and connecting to your core will help you understand better the nature of tension and openness.

"When our bodies are deeply blocked and tense, we often feel numb. We may not even be conscious of our physical discomfort. As the surface layers are moved away, as we break through some of this surface physical pain, we literally open up to the stored pain that is deeper within the body. We may feel aches that we have never been aware of before--and along with aches in the body, a corresponding emotional pain. This pain is not the pain of sickness but the pain of healing. Though much of kundalini’s work takes place below our awareness, much of it must necessarily go on within our awareness. By allowing ourselves to feel the spontaneous release that kundalini inspires, we learn how to release and open up on our own. We can’t do this when we are unconscious. So the pains that we experience in the body during meditation are actually teaching us, helping us to become more conscious of what is going on in our bodies (192-3).” from Sally Kempton’s Meditation for the Love of It.

Holy Spirit, giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, you are our true life, luminous, wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep. -Hildegard of Bingen

Register here
http://mokshayoga.com/event-details/412261/2016-10-22/gwen-mihaljevich-intro-to-forrest-yoga.html

Saturday 10am-1230pm; Moksha Riverwest. What is it? An approachable on-road to backbends for beginners as well as seasoned teachers.
How can it be for such differently skilled practitioners?
The movements are fundamental; they underlie more complex backbends. Teachers can refresh their knowledge of backbend variations while practicing quite deeply.
It's 2.5 hours long, can I do yoga that long?
Yes. The pace is different than 90 min. classes. Rest and demonstrations will accompany new moves.


...By meeting yourself in the place where you feel unmet, something new and powerful happens. Something so simple yet so radical: You start to inhabit yourself. You reinhabit your...heart and bring it back to life” (81-2). from Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships by John Welwood

Often in yoga “opening your heart” is described in terms of surrender. In Forrest Yoga, we consider the process essential to restoring one’s connection to vitality and resilience. This process is necessitated by previous, often historically rooted, protective acts. The intelligence in these protective acts was to preserve the organism from overwhelm or death. In the process of examining those shields in this backbending class, we will explore areas around the heart including the chest, shoulders, upper back, and ribs. We will inquire if those protective patterns continue to serve your highest Good. Take-aways include finding ways to change your habitual life patterns to assist in your personal evolution.

Why cultivate one’s breath?  Why engage invisible practices?

I generated a list of reasons that had very unscientific, externally unverifiable consequences.

• Access one’s intuition and wisdom.
• Develop attentional perspicacity sufficient to create a choice.
• Effecting emotional outcomes.   Impact body’s overall health and functioning.

Imagine if we never developed our experience of gift-giving beyond Santa.  We get.  Where does it come from?  Don’t know.

What if it never developed beyond “I get gifts?”  Similarly our definition of energy may be developmentally underrepresented as Santa's mysterious generosity.

The calorie is a good definition of energy.
It’s scientific.  We categorize foods with it, we effort using calories.  

But "calorie" does not include in its definition words like love, service, attention, or compassion.  Yet calories help us express those things.

The calorie is santa—it brings gifts of combustion.
The calorie never asks us what relationships we hold dear or what value we place on what we’ll do with it.  What will we do in the world with a calorie?  
Will we be of Service or selfish?
When we choose to use caloric energy to grow relationships and values, we ought to term that Divinity.

Remembering one’s divinity.  [Hope]
Accessing one’s divinity.  [Charity]
Relying on one’s divinity.  [Faith]

Divinity is value structure based on energy currency.

That gift came from somewhere—how do I honor it?

That gift came to me without my deserving it—how do I show Gratitude?

That gift could be used not just for my selfish enterprising—how can I be of Service?
Divinity answers these questions.

Overheard in a locker room:  self-admonishing for eating pasta last night.  Seen:  someone pokes their belly with a look of disdain.

Even if you change the number on your waist, arms, or on the bathroom scale...

Is the world a more Beautiful place?  Practice remembering your Divinity...Breathe.

Are you wiser?  Practice relying on your Divinity...Feel.

Do you live in integrity?  Practice accessing your Divinity...Love.

Real estate=location, location, location.
Martial practice=position, position, position

It's very easy to forget in competition your innate resources.
It's very easy to configure your options based on context alone.
If another person has a dominant or controlling position over you, your options, based off of that context, shrink.

Your limited resources are time and energy.
In a lousy position, if you can remember how much you trained to have energy resources, you explode and use them.

The psychology of your position matter.
You may not be flattened out by anything other than your own forgetfulness.

Train to remember.
Train to not flinch.
Train to not lose consciousness.
Train to remember on what you rely.

Train to stay connected to what's really important, under pressure.

In early stages of development, exile--or departing from an undesirable situation--can be an appropriate management solution for difficult energy.  
In later stages of human development, the exile pattern that is trained, or persists, creates more burden for an evolving individual.
The pattern of sequestering Consciousness so as to exclude [an area, a person, an event] results in allergies.
Places left unlit, remain dark blistering pockets of unresolve.
Since we possess greater strategies than exile alone,
we re-imagine a body with breath.
We bring awareness back and light up the areas that have suffered neglect.
In doing so we become more whole.
Energy spent on allergic defenses is now freed up. 
Where breath has been exiled, reclaim.

Head Control => Knowledge
Head Mastery => Wisdom

I love this poem right now. 
Claim your particle matter from the stars,
claim your Christian upbringing,
claim your body,
claim your place on this earth and
express it beautifully. 

By Thich Nhat Hanh

Our True Heritage

The cosmos is filled with precious gems.
I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning.
Each moment you are alive is a gem,
shining through and containing earth and sky,
water and clouds.

It needs you to breathe gently
for the miracles to be displayed.
Suddenly you hear the birds singing,
the pines chanting,
see the flowers blooming,
the blue sky,
the white clouds,
the smile and the marvelous look
of your beloved.

You, the richest person on Earth,
who have been going around begging for a living,
stop being the destitute child.
Come back and claim your heritage.
We should enjoy our happiness
and offer it to everyone.
Cherish this very moment.
Let go of the stream of distress
and embrace life fully in your arms.

Disgust is no sustainable motivator.
Love is
Are you moved into decision by your passionate disgust of something?
Are you moved into action by Love?