March 15, 2006
wrinklies
I was doing yoga tonight and go to the lovely relaxation part.
Mmm.
And the woman narrating was meandering through relaxing and letting our minds stay present and noting where our bodies store stress and learning to find that stress. She suggested that we find whatever body part our stress is associated with (your back or your jaw, for two examples) let it drop. She meant that we could coax the body part into relaxedness so that it isn't held taught above the calmness, so that it has the ability to feel calmness and to soften. Her imagery was leading to a place where the body is relaxed enough that it feels like it's sinking slightly into warm sand so that there's support that conforms to your body.
One thing she said, though, that was a bit odd, however, was when she was describing relaxing the face. She said something like, "Let your face melt into your back brain."
What's that? I'm supposed to visualize that? I tried to think of an alternative way to say what I think she's trying to say. My version went like this: "Let all the tightness and the wrinkles and the lines melt into smoothness; feel the skin on your face relaxed and free from cares, your hair and your ears and your chin coaxing your face to surrender to their pull." It's longer, yes. But there's no face melting with the slop ending up in the back of my head. Eww.
Earlier in the DVD she wanted me to relax my lower back, not press down my lower back ribs, but to "let them hang, like garlands."
Garlands, huh? I'm never going to her house for Christmas.
My thanks to Texas 4-H Meat Judging Retail Identification for their photos. And to Mark Ryden for the meat angel.