Surrender

When was the last time you laid down on the floor with your arms and legs sprawled out, palms up, like Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man?  It's delicious, especially when the house is clean and quiet (which doesn't seem to happen that often or last very long).  It's the ultimate in passive surrender.  I have to make an effort to surrender because I'm a Capricorn and responsible to the core.  Even allowing someone else to clean my house is a study in surrender because I was raised by mother who essentially believes that a clean house should truly be spot and dustless.  Two weeks ago, I had cleaning ladies over to my house for the first time in over a year.  I was still reveling in post-cleaning bliss when my parents came over and my mom pointed out that they didn't dust the blinds (which they did).  I didn't care, because I had allowed myself to completely surrender to the fact that someone ELSE had cleaned my house and it smelled really nice.

In my yoga practice, my favorite surrender pose is Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (aka, pigeon pose).  I like to think of this pose as Cheap Therapy.  It's so important to feel good in this pose in order to optimize the potential release.   Check your ego and inner-judge at the door.  Make sure you're you're well-aligned and not feeling pain or numbness then SURRENDER.  Breathe... deeply.  Take in BIG, DEEP inhales, and actively exhale.  This is where the Cheap Therapy comes into play.  Observe what comes up emotionally and release on your exhales.

According to Carolyn Myss, “Your biography becomes your biology. This biography includes the totality of your choices, the things you feed your body – your thoughts, your actions, your food – the things that feed your life.” Our stress and negative emotions are stored somewhere in our bodies at the cellular level.  Chances are a lot of it has settled into the hips.  Releasing in Eka Pada Rajakapotasana enables me to peel away my layers of stress and whatever else isn't positively serving me.  It's a DEEP hip opener capable of such release that I've seen people brought to tears when in it -- not tears of pain, but of emotional release.  That level of release and surrender may sound kind of scary, but believe me once you've let it go, it's a beautiful thing -- like having someone else clean your house.  :)

Namaste, y'all!