Encouraging Connection

Bourbon Yoga

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bourbon yoga

Some new friends and I celebrated a birthday this past weekend in Lexington, with easy access to bourbon country. The company and the lack of concrete schedule was the primary highlight; however, I can’t resist sharing a bit about the distillary tours.

I know, I know. What in the world would a simple yoga instructor have to say about bourbon? (Or, what does bourbon have to say about my Downward Dog pose?) Ah, my friends: this is why you love me or leave me. Herego!

In once sense, if you’ve been on a distillery tour, you’ve been on them all. We learn about the mash bill with over 51% corn, that’s been around since the company started – just after the prohibition, of course (unless you’re Buffalo Trace). You see the barrels with the level 3 char. The rick houses, the handwritten labels, and you learn to sniff the bourbon with your mouth open.

Bourbon is aged (minimum of 3 years, of course) in charred oak barrels because it flavors and colors the clear liquid that goes into the barrel. Here’s where I go Yoga Nerd on it all: it’s the process of expansion and contraction that allows the alcohol to become a part of the barrel, and then it returns. Changed.

Bourbon takes its flavor from its container, it’s home.

And it does it through changing temperature, humidity, and wind conditions. In essence, through all these uncontrollable variables of living on earth.

The practice of yoga is about bringing connection – often we reference body, mind, spirit, soul, breath as these parts and pieces that can feel like they’re operating in isolation. But it’s not like a lego kit, where you stack a red brick with a yellow brick and a white brick and then, presto, you’ve built a wall.

We’re much more like an aging bourbon. Our properties are being absorbed and distributed based upon their interactions with one another and the environment in which we live. Much like bourbon, we take on the flavor of our surroundings as we navigate living in a world filled with change.

The way we think impacts our mental and physical health. And when we’re hurt, our emotions shift. When our spirit is inspired and revived, our energy lifts and we find new capacity for moving, eating well, and partaking in spiritual practices.

If you’re going to take on the flavor of your surroundings, let’s be intentional about it.

  • Choose friends who show you your best self.
  • Allow your living and working space with beauty
  • Eat foods with properties you want to become (so, maybe not as fake or cheap)
  • Fill your mouth with words that take you in the direction you want to go: gracious, thankful, hopeful, joyous
  • Let your mind rest on ideas that are expansive and inclusive, rather than small and divisive
  • Listen, read and watch that which inspires awe, laughter, and intrigue

She loves you back.

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Thanks to weeks of prep work on our first chakra workshop, I’ve had my attention turned to the ground. This was exacerbated with the plethora of tomatoes ripening and thus my hours spent in the garden or the kitchen, dealing with the bounty. And this was multiplied by my current morning read, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. (Highly recommend!) One of the thoughts/questions that has arisen is: do we belong to a place or does it belong to us?

Of course, for practical and economical reasons, land ownership exists. Deeds, mortgages, all the things. Likely, for most of us, we take pride in our homes, the patch of dirt where we raise(d) families and spend our time, maybe even that grows some of our food and the place where we toss a ball with our kids. We love our spot of earth. More and more, I see the way we tend to it.

Kimmerer raises a question amongst nature-writers: What would happen if people believed this crazy notion that the earth loved them back?

That’s how I’ve been seeing these beautiful golden balls falling from our tomato plants. The earth collected weeks worth of sunshine and rain water and morphed it into the makings of a perfect BLT or pot of sauce. They’re like gifts of love, the same when my kids paint me a picture to hang on the fridge. Tokens of love.

If we use the ancient way of seeing “the microcosm of a macrocosm”, our own bodies are the more immediate dwellings of our homes of the earth. I’ve been prone to remind us to “love your body” and now I need to take a moment and ask: What would happen if people believed this crazy notion that the body loved you back?

As I get older, I tend to notice the way things in my body don’t work they way they used to. But rather than perseverating on the extra poundage, what if I recognized that my body was concerned I might wither away and has been leaving me future meals in the storehouses, much the way we put the jars of salsa on the shelf? You might need this later, she says.

Even the early symptoms of illness – a drip of the nose, a tickle in the throat – could be love notes, reminding me to take it easy. I’m more inclined to eat nourishing foods when I’m under the weather, so maybe those “symptoms” are her way of saying, “more veggies, please!”

Love moves two ways (we’ll learn more about that with the 4th Chakra), and if you’re like me, sometimes it’s harder to receive than to give. That dose of humility required to say “thank you” or “wow, I didn’t even know I needed you in this way” can uncomfortable at first. We are accustomed, especially as women, to being the doer and the giver.

But if it’s true, the earth and your body do love you, then what does that mean? How will you move about in this world a little differently? My hope is that it’s filled with more compassion, generosity, and confidence. Because ultimately, those who feel loved also grow into their worthiness to be loved.

Here’s to it, my friends. Let’s show up. Work hard. Shine bright. Love all.

What is yoga?

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Yuj (sanskrit): To join, yoke, unite.

Entire books and hours of seminars expound on the meaning of yoga. Some see it simply as a physical practice and a form of fitness. Others take it to the far opposite and view yoga as a largely meditative practice of the mind. There are groups who lump it into religion, or at least a system of belief and practice. Any of these definitions can work for particular groups, depending on what you’re looking for it to accomplish. At Woven Yoga, none of these preceding definitions accurately fit the teachings we offer. At it’s heart, yoga is union.

As we practice it at our studio, yoga is the bringing together of body and mind, breath and movement. And because the body resides in the soul, a regular practice will begin to change the way we think and what we believe about ourselves, others, and the world around us. As my teacher says, as the body, so the soul.

So you may find that by coming to class and noticing the breath, perhaps expanding inhales deeper into your belly, that you’re able to take a big breath before other life circumstances. As you practice folding and lengthening certain muscle groups, you could see that you’re able to let go of some of the rigidity that used to confine the way you lived. And as you bear your body weight, this newfound strength could serve you well mentally.

Sir Ken Robinson says in his popular TED talk that we now live and act as if we’re simply “floating heads”, keeping education – and I will add work life, family life, and civic life – all in our heads. While our brains are powerful and important for the flourishing of human life, our bodies, our emotions, and our sense of will also contribute to the human experience. Because the mind gets so much of our attention, giving space in the day or week to give awareness to the body and the breath helps bring a person into a more unified state, aware of all the components of life.

A yoga practice is meant to bring freedom, not burden. One of the most famous of gurus (and my personal favorite) spoke of his own teachings and practices as he shared it with others, saying, “my yoke (yuj) is easy and my burden is light.” While keeping us grounded, the way we integrate our lives should bring lightness, to ourselves and others.

Of course, a quick googling will give you thousands of other answers, as yoga has over 5,000 years of history, beginning long before someone could have a YouTube channel to teach it.

Yoga as an ancient practice, specifically in the ashtanga (“eight limbs”) lineage, from which vinyasa (“to place in a particular way”) yoga emerged – and which Woven teaches – involves more than an hour class, once a week. It includes practices of the breath and elements of meditation, along with aligning your personal and social life with ways of living that keeps you in healthy accord with others and the world around you. You may find that some of these other limbs of yoga work their way into your studio practice and the teachings at Woven Yoga.