I have practiced the bulk of my yoga outside in the past 8 months.  Today is a sunny fall day here in the Midwest and I walked one of my favorite trails to the prairie, full of tall grasses that have lost their green and when the sun shines on them, it truly creates a field of gold (cues Sting’s song Fields of Gold)!  So, I began my sun salutation ( a series of asanas, poses) and as I bent down into triangle pose, I took in the bare trees, the last brown leaves blowing in the wind, the world’s breath. Breath, said to be the most important part of yoga.

In fact, when preparing for a Healing Art Workshop, I researched yoga for the disabled and found that disabled yoga students had profound changes in their lives just by focusing on their breath. Research shows that shallow breathing can cause 50-70% of medical complaints. So, I began to focus on the effects the wind  has on the trees, the grass, the clouds, the lakes, the world!  Wind scatters seeds, pushes sailing ships across the oceans, creates hurricanes, can blow down buildings, and in the form of a tornado can destroy an entire town!

Now back to the tree, standing bare. I became aware that the tree was doing it’s own asanas. Each pose so slow in human terms, yet the results are powerful. Imagine the tree setting up it’s series of poses for the year….Spring Buds, Growing Leaves, Open Flowers, Petals Fall, Fruit Begins, Fruit Ripens, Fruit Falls, Leaves Turn, Leaves Fall, Bare Winter. All the while, the tree supports the life of birds, animals, insects, microbes, humans! Then does the amazing job of being beautiful!

So, yoga and nature seem infinitely intertwined.  Three part breathing can help you focus on your breath (see link below for directions). Next time you are outside, do a few poses, focus on the world around you, the yoga happening in every moment. -Amy Roemer November 2009

To learn how to do Three Part Breathing for better health go to http://yoga.about.com/od/breathing/a/threepartbreath.htm

To view Sting’s music Video of Fields of Gold go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UppX6vP3c4g&feature=related

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.