What To Do In Case of Miracle

I was having a discussion the other day with some ladies, one of whom had just finished an intensive disaster preparedness seminar, in which she learned all kinds of things about what to do in case of earthquake, snake-bite, poison ingestion, choking, seizure...you name it, and she regaled us for several minutes with all the horrors of "what could happen".

And as she was talking I was feeling some distaste, not for her (she's lovely), but for the whole world of "disaster preparedness".  So often I feel like seminars about disasters are contributing to a kind of generalized fear...about disasters.  There's so many "what if's" and "get ready"s being thrown around, I don't know...something about it doesn't sit right with me.  And then I immediately thought about how silly it was for me to have any kind of issue with being prepared.  Because, isn't it important to be prepared?  Shouldn't we know how to un-choke someone who is choking?  Haven't 100's, 1000's of lives been saved by exactly this kind of pre-disaster know-how?

And then I thought of two things...I thought of a story I'd heard in which a man in some seminar had fallen to the ground in distress, and another man, unrelated to the first, had jumped up and tried to help, and for reasons unbeknownst to him, this second man had felt the urge (and followed it) to bite down hard on the compromised man's index finger.  It turned out that the man who had fallen to the ground had been having a heart attack, and the other man (the biter) had bitten down at exactly the place where some artery or meridian ends and his bite had acted as a kind of defibrilator. And the first man lived. Again, the biter had no idea why he'd felt the urge to do this...he just did.  Where's THAT covered in the emergency preparation course? 

And the second thing that came to mind is how we have all of these talks and drills and practice runs of the worst stuff that could possibly happen in our lives, so we all know exactly what to expect, how it's going to go, exactly what our chances of survival are and aren't...but we have nothing comparable when it comes to the awesome stuff.  What about a Miracle Prepardness Course?  A Best Day of Your Life Preparation checklist?  The What to Have Handy in Case You Meet the Love of Your Life Kit? Where are these things?

Is it just because we think we don't have to be "prepared" for the good stuff...because the good stuff we can navigate via our intuition? And if that's the case, why wouldn't the same apply to the emergencies (see example number 1 above, about bitey and the bitten)...why is it that we have to run the worst case scenarios over and over in our head, meanwhile giving no attention to all the possible awesome outcomes in our lives?  Is it simply because we BELIEVE more in the inevitability of bad stuff than of good stuff?

We all know that we're going to die, and that we are going to lose people in our lives whom we love.  We all know that's inevitable.  (And I'm not arguing it, obviously.)  But, how many of us feel that same sense of inevitability about experiencing, even just once in our lives, deep and miraculous magic?  Or a total stunning transformation of our minds and our hearts and our souls?  And if we DO believe in it...why aren't we "planning" for it.

Which leads me to the question, what would YOU do in case of awesomeness?  I want to hear your best What To Do in Case of a Miracle checklists, Shanti-towners...leave a comment here and tell me what I should have handy...

Just in case.

Ode to Jasmine the Awesome

So, I've missed a bunch of days and a bunch of classes, (not in life, but on this blog). In life, I've been going to class almost every day, and have been trying to stick to the longer upper-level classes, as the hour-longs are a little too quick for my taste now.

Some highlights (before getting to the main event):

Edward is amazing, and I love him. I don't know how he does all the zany one-handed stuff he does, but when I grow up I want to be as agile as he is.

This month the theme at the Lotus is "chakras" and I have learned some super fun and amazing chakra facts. These include:

The Nadis. As far as I can figure it, the nadis are these channels of energy that travel up the body. The shushumna nadi, is kind of a straight arrow, shooting right up the center of the spine and all seven chakras. The ida and the pingala, are these beautiful snaky twisted channels of energy that travel up and around the chakras in opposing waves. Love this image. I think that the ida and the pingala are in opposition energetically as well, meaning, one is that wild shakti energy and one is the more peaceable loving soothing energy. But, I could be wrong about that.

Obviously my knowledge of the chakras at this point is cursory, but I plan on doing some research and reporting my findings back here later! I love trying to feel these circles and waves and centers of energy in my body...each one symbolized by a different color and mood and body-part.

The other major thing, which I knew before but did not strike me until just recently, is that the very first chakra, the Muladhara Chakra, the lowest and first of the seven chakras, while it is located at the base of the spine, encompasses the body from that point ALL THE WAY TO YOUR FEET!! This chakra, the chakra associated with grounding and survival and earthiness, the chakra that carries the energy that will travel up to all the other five chakras, is ENORMOUS! Or, at least, the part of the body which it makes up is your entire root system, right down to your toes. I pay no, and I mean no, attention to this part of my body. In fact, my entire emotional/psychological system feels and works and lives from my waist up! I ain't been livin' with that first chakra! I gotta get in there with that mo' fo...

Alright, so hooray Chakra Month...I've been learning a lot. Now on to the real honorarium of this post:

Jasmine, the Cosmic Goddess.

Ah, sigh.

Jasmine is back in town. When Jasmine is back in town, stuff gets crazy at the ol' Lotus. I was totally and utterly blessed to get a spot in her class this afternoon, even though I only got there 15 or 20 minutes early. Her classes (and Dana's, when she's back in town) sell out instantaneously...they are packed. And today was no different. But, I would sweat it out in a class twice as crowded if I have to...that is how much I love, love, love this woman.

Double sigh.

I think, that unless you have ever practiced with a teacher who is as much a light-bringer, as Jasmine, and as much a master teacher a, dare I say it, yoga guru, you can not really understand the kind of wild positive energy that just starts pinging around the room in one of her classes. I sound like a bit of a zealot, I know, but she and Dana (the other co-founder of the Lotus) are the energetic force behind the place that has become my spiritual sanctuary. And so I kind of like them. A lot.

So, Jasmine talked today about the sixth chakra, the chakra of intuition...she spoke a lot about psychic space and about looking into the "third eye" in order to not think, but to feeeel your way into intuition. She also told us that today is the birthday of Albert Einstein, and she conjured this image of Einstein as mystic, that I thought was just freakin' awesome. See, this is the thing I like about Jasmine--she is, yes, a yogi through and through, and I would consider her a bit of an enlightened being, but she is ALSO a grounded person...she is not a hippy-dippy flake-flake (as may be misinterpreted by my slobbering flattery above), she is a woman who lives on the planet earth and also cultivates a whole hell of a lot of love and openness and mysticism in her life. I'd like to list these qualities among my own someday.

That said, she also leads a kick-ass asana practice (and by kick-ass I mean ass kicking), which reminds me both how far I have come, and how far I have yet to go in my own practice. It also makes me want to get better and stronger and more risky and creative in my asana and to hope beyond hope that I will be able to do it, in some form or another, for the rest of my life.

Thank you, Jasmine, for busting open my heart in a myriad of wonderful ways.

-Yogalia