Sutra 1.33 and Sonnet 116: Teaching Gentle Yoga: Wailea Yoga Shala: Wailea, Hi: December 3, 2017

The practice of maitri--a juicy combination of gentleness, friendliness, and loving-kindness--was our primary alignment today. It is one of the first suggestions in Patanjali's yoga sutras (sutra 1.33) on how we might find yoga for real.

The tricky part in any of these alignments--and this especially--is that they aren't always convenient. Kindness, gentleness, friendliness--those are often tough tasks to accomplish when the people around us are being difficult. Today, we got in touch with our capacity for love by focusing on our hips and shoulders, sending breath, movement (but mainly kindness and gentleness) to these parts with the intention of seeing if opened space in our hearts for greater acceptance. After all, you can't change others' behavior, but we can take responsibility for our own reactions.

Yoga reminds us that the heart center, anahata, translates as "unstuck, unbeaten, and unbroken." Sounds beautiful, doesn't it? This is not about self-improvement; rather, it's about self-study. It's an examination of the blocks that keep us from the steady, ever-present light of love and kindness. The higher practice of yoga is to be tuned to this light as much as possible; to feel it with the same combination of softness and intensity that arrives in eka pada (or pigeon pose).

Shakespeare said, "Love isn't love with alters which it alteration finds." With these words in mind, this is the sequence I led:

Windshield wiper

Supta pada gustasana with strap

Cat and cow

Balasana with side bend

Seated toe stretch

Downdog

Uttansansa

Tadasana

Shoulder shrugs

Standing shoulder rotation with neck release

Tadasana with maitri meditation

Easy lunge salutes

Lunge

Twist

Hammock

Warrior II dance

Standing Pada Gustasana

Eye of the Needle

Twist

Heart opener over bricks

Savasana

Sit

Namaste

Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. Who knew the Bard was such an awesome yogi?