Where Is My Compass? Yoga at North End Yoga: Boston, MA: March 8, 2018
Another nor'easter blew in to make another cold and grey day. The play, always, is to stay warm and bright in the heart no matter the external circumstances.
Winter storms have been following us since Texas. Bad weather adds another layer of complexity in any tour and looking towards the light is the play, even when my skin feels like its clinging to every drop of moisture it can find. While there has been plenty of rain and snow, its the wind and the dry heat in the bus and the buildings create a shrink wrap around my whole body. Or maybe its just fatigue and lack of sunshine, missing warm days on the beach, my friends and a really great facial.
In subtle yoga, the skin is the motor organ of the anahata, the heart chakra. It's so obvious to me these days that the practice at hand is not to combat the elements but use them as a path of learning, specifically how to not shrink the heart space.
As I'm walking through Boston's little Italy to North End Yoga, I'm finding its not only my heart that's a little tight, its also my yoga pants. As the tour progresses and fatigue sets in, my carb level increases exponentially. Lately while here in New York and Boston, its been pizza, pasta and canoli nirvana. In theory a little more fat on my body will assist in warding off the cold, but in truth is just makes me feel gross and adds to the burden of overwhelm.
North End Yoga studio was a mile walk though the dark and cold, and through Boston's historic North End. The sense of awe itself transforming my view of the world, wondering what it must have been like to live in the midst of such times. I mean, my biggest problem this morning is dry skin. The smallness of my thinking blows harder than any nor'easter.
Up three flights of steep stairs awaits the yoga sanctuary of the studio. In class we sequenced towards compass pose, including a standing series that put us in an upside down shape that was so unusual that I haven't been able to recreate it in my own practice.
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he", as it says in Proverbs 23, 7. Where is the compass of my mind pointing today? Towards the cold and dark, or towards the warm and light?
There is a massive amount of work to be done during a tour, not just the show, or the 'seen' part of the tour, but all that happens behind the scenes. We are already in deep strategy about the next tour in May, the end of 2018, and well in to 2019. To add fuel to the tour fires, we are in double escrow because we are moving our Nevada home in April from Carson City to Reno.
Sometimes I like to see the show from backstage because I can see more clearly the joy in each of the band's eyes. Likewise, I like to see my life from the yoga mat because I can see more clearly the joy in living my life on tour and beyond. Way beyond the little shrink wrap of my winter skin and the temporary hassle of a cold heart that feels burdened by the storms of overworking.
Sometimes I like to switch my view of the show to backstage where its easier to see the band's camaraderie and I get close enough to even see the joy of playing in their eyes. Photo: Pio Mancuso