On Wednesday, in Amy’s Prana Vinyasa class, she talked about how the New Year has started and how we each have been blessed with a clean slate to work from as 2011 begins. She asked us to take the time in yoga class to plant seeds that were meant to represent aspects of our life that would grow throughout the year. As we would move from pose to pose, she would instruct us to plant seeds, with our palms in downward dog, or with our knees and toes in child’s pose. With great skill she lead us through a seamless Prana Vinyasa class, gently correcting postures, her calm voice instructing our movements and our thoughts.
For me, it was her lesson within the lesson that stole my heart and imagination. During class my mind would wander to an enormous garden, or an empty field that was longing to be turned into a forest. I imagined I was a vessel filled with seeds and every time I touched the ground, a new pod would be planted. I planted seeds of love for my family. I planted some in honor of wishes of health for the people I know who are going through physical hardships. I planted seeds that represented my passions and goals in both business and monitory prospects. As I planted, I imagined that the seeds I would plant today in yoga class would grow into a lush rainforest or beautiful vegetable garden, bearing fruits that I would share with everyone in my life. Some of the pods I planted on Wednesday will grow early in the spring, and some will be transformed by the coming summer’s heat. The realist in me even imagined that some seeds would never take root, being planted in sandy or shaded ground.
In a yoga class I find the movements and postures speak to me the most, but in Amy’s Prana Vinyasa class, it was the lesson she spoke to the class that reached out to me. The garden and the forest I planted both represent me, the body I live inside, the life I live and how I want the good in me to touch as many people as possible. It was Amy and her amazing teaching style that have opened my mind up to many positive intentions, she has encouraged me to start out my New Year on a more positive and selfless note than I have in years past.
Going forth, my peers (in class) and I will carry her lesson in our hearts. Thank you Amy for your encouraging and uplifting words.
Namaste
I agree. I was very honored to be part of the sangha of yogi’s for intentions to grow together in the new year. Amy is a gifted teacher, she has a uniqueness with intention even with the smallest things like using mandala’s in the way we move. It is as Iyengar wrote of the Tree of Yoga… she guides with the yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, and leads into the dharana, dhyana and samadhi. thank you Amy