I'm back to stretching, and breathing, and contorting my body into all sorts of funky positions. Yoga, a central exercise and spiritual practice for a few years, has reentered my life.It feels great. It is centering.
My body aches too, as body parts that have been ignored for so long try to deal with the new attention.
My friend Laura Novak Winer taught yoga to a group of CIT's, quoting one yogi who said, "Before I started my yoga practice my body was in one piece and my mind was in many. Now, my mind is one, but my body is in many pieces."
Yoga once, under the guidance of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, brought me a measure of shalom. It embodied the oneness I was seeking.
Returning to Camp Newman, I set a kavannah, a goal, to return to my yoga practice. Responding to Education Director Sara Mason-Barkin's request that we set a "LiveJewish" goal (after which we received a blue "LiveJewish" rubber bracelet modelled after Lance Armstrong's "LiveStrong"), I determined that returning to my yoga practice was mine goal.
For three days running, I have been so focused. My shoulders sometimes feel like protruding brittle bones, incapable of being moved in ways I want. My neck tires easily, and my breathing remains heavier than I had hoped.
But there is joy in the flow, comfort in the doing. I am able to quiet my mind.
May it continue!
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