This morning, at the crack of dawn, I met Jeff, a fellow yogi from my Saturday morning class at Alameda Yoga Station, for some one-to-one practice as work on freeing my shoulder.
Jeff's observation is that my shoulder is pre-frozen, which sounds very daunting if frozen is more painful than my current state. We worked on several stretches and with each one the range of motion increased in my left shoulder. Jeff suggested that I use my breath in the stretches to make them effortless, an Ashtanga yoga concept. Remarkably, my shoulder instantly had significantly more motion. With each guiding breath I became freer and my head became lighter. In fact, I felt gitty. How could my breath free my shoulder? We talked about freeing the Id and the Ego as a way of letting go and I suddenly understood that my body is not a series of parts working in isolation but a unit of muscles, fluids, bones and a spirit. We talked about how living a life of consciousness is so appealing, rather than a life filled with noise that causes congestion.
My intention this week is to support my calm, assertiveness with Prana, full body breathing, to let the noise flow past me instead of freezing my shoulder and my spirit.
