The Unfamiliar Movement Project: Yoga Week 2

From my head to my body back to my head

My fellow students and I are sitting in a circle of white plastic chairs at the end of a dirt-floor riding arena. At the other end, about 30 feet away, horses are contentedly munching on grass, not paying attention to us in the slightest.

Our teacher, who has worked with horses her whole life and understands their therapeutic potential, tells us to pay them no mind at the beginning.

“We’re going to do a guided meditation together,” she says. “As our mental wavelength increases, the horses will become more interested in us, starting to notice us, maybe even coming to check us out.”

We start meditating together, enjoying the stillness of the surrounding jungle. Our teacher takes us on a guided meditation, bringing us deeper into our minds, calling our attention to the present moment.

And damned if those horses don’t immediately become interested. Both of them walked over to the center of the circle and stood there gently pawing at the ground and harumph-ing. In their presence, I reached a higher meditational level than I ever thought possible.

When we opened our eyes, they spent a few minutes with us, checking us out before walking back over to munch the rest of their hay.

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This was just one of the many inexplicable things that I experienced at Kindred Spirits, a yoga teacher training facility on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

We experienced the same thing with hummingbirds and dragonflies. While we were in group meditation, they would fly right up to our faces. If we opened our eyes or stopped the meditation, they would fly away.

It’s in the quiet moments that we find out who we really are.

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The second week was a lot less intense than the first. My body got used to the constant movement, and I started to understand that I could let my thoughts pass away and simply observe them, not engaging with them and not letting them get the best of me.

But damn, was it an intense feeling.

I’d stretch my hamstring and be transported to a scary moment from my childhood. I’d be in a half pigeon pose, opening my hip, and I’d think about failing as a teacher last year.

We store so much in our bodies. Our tension builds, and we hold onto it so tightly, not sure who we are without it.

But we can release it. If we bend deeply into a stretch, focus on our breath, and let the thoughts come without judgment, without engagement, we can release tension and accumulated crap, and really make room to be who we should have been in the first place.

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