Raise Your Vibe: Yoga with Amy at Happy-U Namaste Yoga in Ocean Beach, California: September 13, 2017

Happy U Namaste Yoga Center in Ocean Beach, CA.

I laughed and immediately loved this yoga studio with her bold "Raise Your Vibe" painted in turquoise right there in all her glory on the front window. Einstein said you can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it, so raising your vibe is key. And its all fun and games and a cute idea until you actually have to do the hard work.

Amy opened her lovely class with a new-to-me variation of a heart opener over blocks, with legs in baddha konasana supported with a blanket around the ankles and under the thighs. Before exiting, she cued us in a butterfly wing movement to bring our arms overhead and circle them along our side. Then we removed our blocks and rested in savasana.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,  the rest if the world calls a butterfly. I've been practicing gentle backbends over bricks for years. And it still catches me off guard how wonderful it feels to do it, but even better when the blocks are removed.

To change into a person who can do handstand in the middle of the room and who writes blogs and a book about the practices of yoga on a rock tour means I'm going to have to change. The blocks in my heart holding me back from expressing a more creative Winifred and showing up bigger in the world absolutely have to go.

In theory I'll do anything to change into that person, but in practice I'm clinging to blocks such that real transformation is literally just beyond my grasp . I"m not practicing handstand drills everyday, for example. And there's something very scary about getting so strong I can hold steady all by myself, even upside down.

I can see that pretty clearly but just can't muster daily drills or enough courage to break the chains binding my heart today.

I wonder how long this will last.

Namaste