“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”
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My Yoga-to-Dance aha! Moments! – # 3
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what might yoga or dance inform to the other today, i wondered, as i made my 30 mile drive to clear lake for jazzercise this morning
as jazzercise’s trademark music and moves began, i slowly started working out the kinks of the drive, letting my limbs decide my range of motion, gradually, letting my limbering lengthen my reach and internal muscle-stretch “feel”
felt good, nice, fun moves
but nothing new…
oh well, i thought, i’d just gotten spoiled with all this integrating, internalizing an unrealistic expectation of endless aha!’s in me –
besides i miss my kitty leo, i pictured him waiting for me at home, but he wasn’t – my mom had helped, smiling for me, a group of us, as we shared a few jokes, saying, “isn’t it good when we can laugh and forget our worries for awhile” – didn’t need to stop at groceries going home but would need gas, the truck – opps, i missed a, a step – anyway, need to see if i have everything ready for silversneakers yoga class [1] next week darn missed that chasse turn – oh, i know, concentrate, i’ll concentrate on the music
fairly quickly, i regained movement-concentration, muscles mimicking the dance of bouncing beats – i was back in the moment, brain smiling
i’d forgotten expecting-wanting a new aha! moment –
that’s when i got my yoga-dance connection –
it wasn’t about the steps themselves this time, or a commonality of muscle movements, or similarity of pose expressions [2]
it was about concentration, which i’d done for decades, bringing my focus back into the now, being able to enjoying the moment more completely –
but, i realized, i was not giving myself credit for knowing this –
this was and is, legitimate motion meditation i can do…
as i flowed more fully thru the music, my sense of motion, i sensed the similarity of sensation, leading the breathing exercise, the beginning of yoga class, the night before, similarity, to exercise, in jazzercise class, the focusing the grounding –
yet there was a nudge of something missing –
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i inhaled deeply during a right then left half spin of the torso as i reached down behind me with alternating arms, almost zumba salsa-like, and inhaled deeply again – the breath!
moving to the music i joined my static-pose breathing-exercise in yoga the night before to the bouncing breathing i needed dancing, expanding my chest with breaths, an instant memory, reading ray long’s keys to deeper breathing articles the night before…completed the links…
meditative-concentration and the breath – their span crosses all disciplines…
i knew this before, but i know it better now, more consciously…
it’s a process…
namaste – con dios – god be with you
footnotes
[1] it’ll be interesting seeing how the typically very useful-information-dense silversneakers class, focussed on yoga, would feel after my recent yoga teacher immersion
[2] for examples of previous aha! yoga-dance connections, please see the related article links below
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related:
My First Yoga-to-Dance aha! Moment! – Feb 12, 2011
My Yoga-to-Dance aha! Moments! – # 2 – Feb 19, 2011
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INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS
