It's About Love

I received an email blog recently about a woman whose eight tear old had a complete temper tantrum meltdown.  And, instead of reacting with an escalated energy matching the child's, she approached the situation with love. She sat down near the child and kept saying, I love you and you are so loved. She wrote that the meltdown was over in minutes.

Today, in class, my playlist is about love and I had everyone write down a yoga pose they love so our practice can mirror love on our mats.  And if someone else in the class picked a pose you didn't love, embrace it anyway just knowing that they love it.

I was hoping to find an amazing poem about love for life but everything I came across was love for my girlfriend, love for my boyfriend, my true love, my romantic love, etc.  I was SO disappointed!  Love for our path in life and love for the breath of freezing air or sultry air, and love for the mountains or the oceans...love for our life is so much more important and meaningful. When you love your life, the romantic love will fall into place.

I did find the following quote that left me a little melancholy. Mother Theresa says,

"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them."

Just minutes before finding this quot, I had been finding things to put in a backpack in case I chance upon someone homeless in Chicago tonight.  But Mother Theresa is saying look even closer.  The poor, those lacking in love, one of the most important if not the most important aspect of our lives, could be in your very own family. In your very own home.

Lisa Ling had a show on about a woman who had been a prostitute and was abducted and chained up with other women for a very long time.  When stolen, she weighed 120lbs.  When rescued, I believe she said she weighed 46lbs.  But one of her major struggles, she said, was not coming home to any support or love. In fact, the town ousted her.

Love is hope.  Without hope, life is hard to love.

I gave everyone in a class a piece of paper and asked them to write down the poses they loved and then I created the sequence from those poses. Here's the list in case you want to try these poses yourself!


Supported Bridge
Twists
Gate
Pigeon
Frog
Downward Facing Dog
Side Angle
Crow
Side Plank
Dancer
Tree
Sphinx
Crane
Cobra
Child's Pose
"Every pose I've tried so far." 

That pretty much says it all.

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