For many years I studied Iyengar yoga. I loved the precision and rigor of the form and the way that it pushed me into the details of my physical experience.
What surprised me was the way that entering an asana could unlock layers of feeling. I remember lying in savasana shuddering with tears, as my teacher invited me to soften my tongue, my eye sockets, the soles of my feet. Opening, opening.
My instructors in horse yoga (the stallion Capprichio, above) are both demanding and forgiving. They insist that I am present, that I am awake, that I am listening.
The horses ground my experience, both physically and emotionally. There is nothing terribly abstract about being around a 1200 pound flight animal. You have to wake up. Open to the moment.
The yoga is this: I show up every day and begin again. (By the way, my daughters teach me the same lessons.)
In her book Adam’s Task, poet, trainer and philosopher Vicki Hearne, says that humans must first learn to become “kinesthetically legible” to themselves in order to become legible to other creatures. That until we can read our own bodies, we can’t communicate with other beings. I love that challenge.
Here are some questions to chew on:
What is your yoga?
How do you ground your experience?
Are you kinesthetically legible to yourself?
