I Slept like a Log, uh, Tree (Pose)

“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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August 10, 2019 – This is, I’ve realized, 8+ years after I wrote this, a story, a true story… 😊

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waking, has been it’s own kind of dream lately

i’ve contended and firmly believe that most of what we learn, doing asanas, is really more a remembering, or re-connecting to what is already part of us [1]

most frequently, i find a reminder to this re-connecting, during the doing of a fitness routines i like – though, i rarely do one i don’t like anymore   😉

chasseing or twisting or breathing, i’m reminded of doing something similar at another time –

things, movements i did before “fitness training” or “workshops” existed –

i’ll remember sitting on a roof, as a young teen, mid july in houston, doing summer construction work and, typically, will smile at remembering how i didn’t even notice the heat – the concept of feeling hot never even crossed my mind – i didn’t even sweat!

now, remembering the same moment, i notice how i’d twist so fluidly, to the right to reach for a new wood shingle with my “left” hand, eyeing the next shingle for placement among the rows, sizing-choosing where it could easily lap the gaps between those shingles already laid down to prevent leakage –

twisting back to my left shingle in hand, and, having chosen it’s best over-lap spot, created a gap between it and the shingle it’d lay next to, to allow for a natural expansion and contraction of wood in houston heat and humidity –

reaching for galvanized nails from a nail box (called a stripper) that hung from my neck with worn leather straps, then twisting again, further left, as i brought my hatchet hammer across my torso with my right with a tap-tap as swift as allowed my left hand to escape being smushed, tap-tapped the nails, heads flush into the wood –

seeing the shingle laid flat secured to the decking below –

and now, now, i realize how easily i breathed with each movement…

not an inhalation exhalation with each micro or mid-range movement, but a slow..steady..breathing in..and..out…

throughout the various motions, the motions joined as one movement within one breath

more frequently, i find this type of memory-joining occurs during aerobic or stretching or strengthening routines

lately, in the morning though, when i first wake to the fact that i’m in my bed, my sleeping wife snuggled near by, the light

beginning to detail the view outside our bedroom window –

my first wakening breaths bringing me wiggles –

in my shoulders..with archings in my lumbar while i squeeze my groin and stretch my neck –

i’ll point my toes and, think, yes, oh, yes, there’s my right foot..toes caressing my left inside thigh –

huh!

i’m in a supine tree pose!

tree pose [2] is not one i “practice” on a daily, or even frequent basis –

yet here it is, my in-my-sleep, go-to wake-up pose 😉

from that pose – tree pose – still supine still sleepy in my bed, i sometimes press my sleep walking foot, gently to the other leg, and in this mild tension, isolate and flex my hips-laterally, with light lifting stretches, pulling my lats like ladders toward my heart..awakening me..slowly

by now, leo [3] would have quickly known i was up, meowing it’s was time to eat!” 😉 and sheila, sensing i was waking, usually made an instant decision, to further wake, or slip back to needed sleep…

first few times, i figured my waking tree pose was an “accident” – night time positioning gone wild!

but it’s become more regular, though not yet a habit

this, i believe, is a new level of remembering or re-connecting, to the already-present postures, patiently posing..in my yoga-dna

and as long as i don’t wake up on my head, dream or not [4], that’s ok with me 😉

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2019 – I’ve added the above 3 shots of my wife took of me in 2011 because I wanted to show, and still believe, there’s no “one way” to enjoy a yoga pose 😊

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Related Posts

2011

• Yoga Wakes Me Up (in the middle of the night) (yoga-adan.com)
• Does Cross Training = Recovery Time? — My Yoga-to-Dance aha! Moments! – # 4
• “It’s A Stretch: Is Connective Tissue The Link To Yoga’s Benefits?” – Lecture Review, University Of Vermont 092011
• Happy Baby Pose (Ananda Balasana) – Original Yoga Poetry

2012

• Yoga Injuries – An Article Recap Pointer, via YogaDork
• Open Link Night ~ Week 33 – Recycling “Evolution of a Yoga Pose”

2013

• Paris Shorts Collection – Love, with Yoga, Grandparents, and Cafe Allonge

2014

• Story Sample plus Links : Eiffel Tower Pose on Family Yoga Day – Grandparents with Grandchildren, in Paris

2015

• Playing Your Edge in Yoga or Writing Includes Enjoying Your Sweet Spot

2019

• SilverSneakers Yoga – I’d Forgotten What I Was Missing
• Aging Gracefully – When Yoga Breathing Paid Off In the ER
• Wild Music – Original Arts & Love Poetry (reblog)

footnotes

[1] “asanas are inherent and evolved from our very being, our DNA“

[2] tree pose – vrksasana; i tend to remember the sanskrit name better when i think of the “vrk” part as similar to the “bark” of a tree; whatever associations work is good i think 😉

[3] thank you leo

[4] i’ve got some cervical disc issues, so best my waking and dreaming selves align, in more ways than one 😉 and i keep good safe healthy form

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