There's a dream where the contents are visible

Strength and flexibility play a much smaller role in this pose than people realise. That's right. Now envision yourself leaning back--like you're doing a trust fall off a picnic table and falling back into a heavenly cloud. This cloud feels so supportive . And it gently lulls your soul down 12 floors. It's almost as if this cloud is taking you away from this earthly world for a moment and toward a deeper and more spiritual existence. Floating down . Drifting down now . As this heavenly cloud takes you down to a place that's infinitely safe and supremely supportive . That's right . You can see it, can't you? One afternoon a friend and I were relaxing by the hotel pool during a break at a conference. Having forgotten my sunglasses, I was shielding my eyes from the sun with a piece of paper. When he reached over to hold it for me I resisted, but he just smiled, saying with absolute assurance, I can handle this. Talk about hearing the dream words you'd always yearned for. This friend, a psychologist with keen insight into human nature, had my number. I was so used--too used--to doing everything myself, wary that well-meaning others will only cause me more work. His competent, consoling gesture conveyed such empathy for my reluctance to accept help and actually trust that someone could make my life easier without having to ask. I was touched that he recognized and honored this vulnerability in me. Compassion also provides the crucible for healing miracles to occur.

One of my workshop participants told the following story. Not all of these songs are particularly about death but they are excellent songs anyway. If ever there is a need for a compilation CD of greatest death-related songs I would be happy to compile it and write the sleeve notes. Just saying.I guess that means we Aspies have a lot of living to do. It Depends On Where You're Standing Perspectives on Comfort Zones Have you ever read C. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew (1955)? I mean, most folks know about Narnia, and the tales of the kids through the wardrobe. But are you familiar with the lesser known prequels? They put everything to come in motion and perspective - explaining the magic and the allegorical adventures ahead. This pose is about self-exploration and really digging in until you discover that mini moment of enlightenment. When you discover that moment in a class, you will look at me with pure animation. A big cheesy grin will be plastered across your face, and your eyes will be as big as your chakras. It is that look that I see so often when I teach that makes teaching yoga so rewarding. That look tells me that you may not be able to do the pose as well as you would like, but you fully understand the theory behind what you are attempting, and you even felt that centre of gravity while you were upside down - even if it was for split second. Disciple: So all that is required to do my handstand is balance? Understanding the idea of balancing opposite sides of the body is the foundation for your handstand. Something else that we need to understand is the concept of muscle memory. The muscles that are required to work in handstand will adapt, over time, to the demand being placed on them.

Through repetition, the right and left sides as well as the front and back of the body will sync and work together to create the pose. And now, as I count from one to seven . If you'd like, you can even have a brief out-of-body experience where earthly time and space float away for the brief time of this practice. Your soul will come easily back down into the body, into earthly time, at the end of this practice because you're not done here . But even so, I'd imagine it'd be so soothing to have a glimpse. Of your spirit . Counting now. And now invite the subconscious and perhaps even your soul . I don't know where you'll go today. Perhaps it's back to a time when you were still wide-eyed and innocent, ready to change the world. Did you forget that you still have that innocent little girl or boy inside of you? Two years before, she'd longed to get pregnant but she had a rare, serious type of kidney disease. Her doctor warned that pregnancy would overly stress her body, even endanger her life. Still, this woman's desire for a baby was so strong she decided to risk it. Fortunately, she stayed well those nine months and her disease stabilized, which isn't typical during pregnancy--a great relief to her, her husband, and the doctor. However, in that same period, her young golden retriever, her constant companion and soul mate with whom she was so attuned, was diagnosed with kidney failure. Soon after the birth of her daughter, this loving animal died, as if having held on just long enough to see her through. Though cynics would dismiss as mere coincidence the fact that both contracted the same rare disease--especially when the dog had been perfectly healthy--I read this quite differently. For me, it seems rather to be a moving reminder of the interconnectedness of our hearts and the power of compassion. There was a special love between this woman and her dog.

Could it be possible for one life to so empathize with another that it can sense and even assume illness? As in most of life, there's more to the story than we think we know. That is the power of perspective. It tags question marks where we think there are periods, undoes absolutes. As Lewis put it perfectly, what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are (Lewis 1955, p. And if you are an Aspie sort of person, your perspective is generally a little bit different. I got glasses when I was seven years old. A routine physical had shown that I was quite significantly nearsighted, yet my parents hadn't noticed, and neither had I. In retrospect, I thought I could see as far as everyone else could. Apparently, that wasn't the case. Double-checking the doctor's exam, my mom tested me herself at, of all places, a Disney on Ice show. This creates a balance between the opposites. Still using handstand as an example, it requires conscious muscle movement and muscle activation to attempt and create the pose. But with time and practice, the handstand movement will become an unconscious movement. To rephrase, initially, the pose requires lots of thought, focus and awareness, but with practice, none of this is required. The pose then happens almost automatically. Disciple: How is that exactly? Picture my Laura doing a handstand. I am reliably informed that she was not born like this. She had to create a memory of the handstand movement within her brain before she could do the pose so effortlessly.

This is similar to learning how to walk or ride a bike. He or she is still right here . Maybe you can imagine that you are there, watching your childhood as a spectator. Or if you believe in destiny, imagine you're there before this earthly time existed . Either way, you can now see exactly what gifts and talents you were given, can't you? I wonder how you were meant to develop these gifts to better the world. Have you forgotten how inherently worthy you are? Some part of you knows that, doesn't it? Or do you need to go back and have a conversation with someone who has passed? Perhaps you can imagine your old self having a conversation with God or a higher power or your highest self. What path would have been different? Certainly it's something to contemplate. As a physician, I know that love can create miracles that defy logical explanation. Selfless giving resonates with such mystery. How wondrous and far-reaching compassion can be among all living beings. Each of us is capable of limitless love. The monumental implications of this fact continue to reveal themselves over the years, always giving me chills and reclarifying my emotional priorities. It's been said that when people stop performing random acts of kindness, the net that holds the world together will fall apart. Woe is that day when our compassion ceases, when anger has no means of being counteracted. Instead, together we can cultivate compassion's bounty and rejoice in each other.