Yoga Practice Evolution

As a student and teacher,
I'm increasingly less interested
in finding clever ways to
make yoga practice
more of a workout,
and more invested in
eroding the common notion
that yoga practice is
primarily about
getting a workout.

Alison Bristow
#theshaktishaman

Transcend Offense

You can either become
offended by other people's
misperceptions about and
slander against you or you
can use these situations as
opportunities to transcend
the tendency to take offense.

Alison Bristow
#theshakrishaman

Teaching as Pratyahara

Almost 5 years ago I took a 3 hour workshop with Leslie Kaminoff at Black Dog Yoga that opened my horizons on how I see and experience the body. Since then I've devoured everything I could find online and in print doing self-study as much as possible. This weekend I had the privilege of further in-person study. Reflecting back, the experience feels like a form of Pratyahara as Iyengar defined it in one of his books as the withdrawal from labels or naming things. The exercise he gave was to go out for a walk and refrain from using names for anything and everything you see - such as "oh that's a tree, there's a flower, a mailbox, etc." The idea being that by not labeling you can actually continue to see what's in front of you. The survival mind uses labels as a form of dismissal. Once it can name something, it assumes it already knows what it is so it doesn't have to continue to look and inquire as to the essence of the thing. For me, this is what drew me into Leslie's teaching and keeps me going back. His teaching methodology invites students into further inquiry rather than a self-satisfied sense of "ok I got that...now on to the next thing." The context in which I experience Leslie's teachings is that anatomy is a microcosm, a gateway through which we may discover the function and flow of the ever-expanding universe we're part of and that our bodies express. I just glanced down at my notes to see one thing I wrote that will be with me for the rest of my life -- "Mastery should always be a verb, never a noun." #lesliekaminoff #youandthemat #yogaanatomy #blackdogyoga

Awakening or accumulation?

Mustn't the goal
of this life
be to leave with
fewer blind spots
rather than more stuff?
After all, what can we
take besides our awakening?
Alison Bristow
#theshaktishaman

Who are you when no one is watching?

The choices I make
every moment ~
especially when
no one is watching ~
determine the level
of transformation
I am able to
facilitate for others.

Alison Bristow
#theshaktishaman

Satisfaction or depravity ?

The hamster wheel of
self-gratification always
leads back to depravity.
The circle of service
begins and ends with
satisfaction.

Alison Bristow
#theshaktishaman

Innocence vs naivete

The great teacher called experience
requires us to surrender our naivete,
but never our innocence.

Alison Bristow
The Shakti Shaman
#theshakrishaman

Crazy Bitch is a Compliment

Those of us currently in a female body have a natural proclivity towards feminine (lunar) energy. We feel the wild (not reckless) feminine flow within. In order to survive in a world that is currently and has been for thousands of years dominated by masculine (solar) energy, we learn to adjust, make accommodations, and even hide. Now is the time, for us to be courageous in honoring the feminine within our own being. If we don't do it, who will? As we do, we teach others to do the same. We teach our husbands, fathers, boyfriends, bosses, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, and most importantly our sons and daughters. We must become ok with being called "crazy" or a "bitch", or better still a "crazy bitch."  With few exceptions, these are the labels designed to oppress the non-linear but highly logical and intuitive feminine intelligence, which is so inconvenient for a world overly slanted towards the masculine. Perhaps we even arrive at a place where "crazy bitch" is the highest compliment anyone could pay us for it lets us know we've upset the apple cart of conventional masculine and are restoring the balance within and without the human psyche.

And just for fun I prescribe listening to this song and having a 

good dose of laughter medicine! 

The Shakti Shaman

Birth and death are two sides of the same coin. You are not the coin.
Alison Bristow
The Shakti Shaman
#theshakrishaman