Creating A Space To Get Centered and Breathe Effortlessly

Though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually
startle us back to the
Truth of who we are.
- Rumi -

    Restorative Yoga & Meditation

As you breathe in, imagine you are bringing fresh oxygen into a hollow body, filled with space. Breathe out, and gently back in again.  You may have a sensation of energy coming in from outside on the inhalation and releasing energy from within on the exhalation. Whatever the case, find a nice easy rhythm as you focus on breathing for the at least the next 30 seconds with your eyes closed.

 When you open your eyes, ponder or write down the things you have have observed as the witness... Write down anything you saw, heard, thought about, tasted, smelled, or any other form of subtle sensation, emotion, or message. To give you an example, during my meditation earlier today while I was scanning my body I thought everything felt normal as I scanned my body from the ground up until suddenly I felt the urge to cry when I was scanning around my rib-cage. Observing an unexpected melancholy feeling within my heart, I was reminded how observing your own suffering can be intimidating to people because of common misconception that we always work-work-work in life to enjoy it.


There is only a thin layer of skin that separates you from the outside world. Your body is your vessel. Complete with a full set of human sized organs, bones, muscles, tissues, and liquids. If you break that down, we are a bunch of complicated chains of molecules massed together in a beautiful symphony of form and function. Breaking us down even further, we are comprised of the atoms that make up those molecules. For me when I close my eyes I sometimes sense that there is a glowing light that seems to start at my body's center. At my body's center, the nucleus of the Greg atom, the light beams different colored rays of lights out in all directions so that the inside of my being is illuminated. I am like an atom in the middle of a vast ocean of space, the electrons of my atom passing along the thin layer of my skin until my skin becomes transparent. And as I create this image of space in my mind, I breathe effortlessly, and find that I can release or sequester energy as I then need to.


I laugh thinking that people won't give yoga a shot because they think it's hard. My hope is that I will continue to meet people, like those I surround myself with these days, who teach me how to attract newcomers to yoga, to get the word out about what I am doing. When you look at the picture below, does anything about that seem difficult? Yet to many people, the act of lying still on their backs can be too much to handle for any amount of time. Teaching yoga for me is about creating a safe, welcoming space for anyone to come and get centered, to breathe effortlessly, to lie in Svanasana with the support of some props for the whole class if that's what's right. Why do I like restorative yoga so much? Well for starters it gets people to do something healthy, something fun, something creative, something safe & therapeutic; something that stimulates their body, mind & spirit, something that somehow magically makes food taste better, relationships matter, sex better; something that helps them stay calm in traffic, and something that gives them the ability to show-up for life, to be in the right spot at the right time; something people can learn and do at home by sticking their legs up a wall, or at the office while sitting in a chair to keep their energy flowing. With props the bones and muscles are relieved of their duties of our bodies main support, and true relaxation can occur, and over time the body is detoxified, revitalized, more flexible, stronger; the mind is filled with clarity; the spirit is rejoiced.

If the master maintains constant watchful awareness of his consciousness, associates with nature without attachment and remains a witness, nature leads its owner, the soul, to freedom.  - BKS Iyengar