Sun Salutations
We are gifted with a new beginning, everyday. Yet, how many of us are opportunists and seize the day? How many of us let the auto-pilot button be switched on and watch the day roll out in routinized fashion as if we’re a helpless bystander?
Do we forget that each day is novel? A new start. An opportunity to be born anew and begin how-so-ever we please.
It’s an easy sinkhole to fall into, moving through the day in a manner so unconscious and unintentional that our senses numb. Our food isn’t fully tasted. Our aching bodies contract into unfeeling. Our eyes glaze over the morning commute until, suddenly, we arrive to work remembering little to nothing of how we got there.
Much is missed. Much is repeated.
Yet, we need only remember that the option to choose differently is forever available. We are always able to choose to live with purpose, on purpose. Upon waking, we’re not quite so influenced by the world around us and more in touch with the sovereignty we have in our own world.
We get to be selective of the energy we want to harness and embody as the day unfolds. We get to decide with what power and expansive we wish to rise
Again and again
And again and again
Energy is electric. It courses through us. It carries us forth into the day, nourishing and sustaining us if we choose to let it. If we are intentional.
If we choose to choose.
When we’re tired and groggy, it’s hard to summon the energy. We may call out and are met with no response. We cannot conjure it from the mind and that is when we must turn to our ancient wisdom, that which resides in the body.
We breathe and move to expand its flexible frame. A stretch of the chest opens the heart, open the body and we are prepped and prepared to receive. We allow the energy to enter us and the traveling breath spreads it to the distal parts of our body and then it emanates outward, encapsulating us in a sort of protective layer. We are able to hold the energy between our hands, charge it with the sun and bring it back inward, harnessing for however long we will it.
Mornings have long been sacred for me. Screeching alarms once violently forced to wake amidst a deep sleep and I’d rise with exhaustion and dread. I’d leave the comforts of warmth and rest to plummet into freezing temperatures in the dark before the dawn. Whether it were running practice where I by feet pounded against the frozen ground that was long to be thawed, or I jumped into a frigid swimming pool mostly naked, I was thrown into the day that I wasn’t quite ready to start.
I intentionally made a life that I can indulge in slow mornings, sipping hot coffee in a state of pensive contentment.
I do light stretching in the form of sun salutations to gently awaken my body, mind, soul, and spirit.
I first find my breath, and then the grounding in my feet. Then, I find the power in my stance. Next comes the expansion within that extends through all of my muscles and all around. I hold the energy betwixt my palms and lift it upward above my crown. The sun charges the energy and I then bring that back inward to my heart space, to the seat of the soul, so that I can live this day exactly how I intend.
Out flows a list of mantras that are unique to each day. I savor the sound of their song and the movement of my tongue as I say them. They are a part of me because I choose it.
What energy do you wish to harness? For a guided sun salutations exercise, send me message using the button below
