i think everyone is well served touching their own tailbone once in a while. for sure they should check out that bad boy during yoga class.

though this might not be the case for others, i find my own tailbone (coccyx, actually, and check out the groovy diagram on wikipedia) to be thinner and, well, bonier, somehow, than i always imagine it to be.

this is the base of your spine, the thing that holds you up so well. it’s amazing to think that the tailbone is where it all goes down.

i am teaching thursday nights at 8 pm now, hatha 2, right after the 630 pm open hatha class.

i started this post several weeks ago when i noticed that the amount i was being thanked for adjusting students in class went up.

i didn’t know what to say about it at first, but i’ve decided now that it’s surprising.  i want all yoga students to expect to be adjusted, or at least be guided, with as much precision as possible through the poses they do in my class. when i adjust someone’s pose verbally or physically, i consider that part of my job, part of what i’m paid to do.

so, you’re welcome, but sheesh! it’s what you deserve!

i’m thinking of moving my monday 8 pm class to thursday nights at 8 pm. i’m wondering if the hatha 2 students think this is a good idea. let me know.

last night in yoga class with john schumacher at unity woods, i noticed in meditation how the eyes either help or hinder.

i meditate almost every day. as with last night, i often catch myself in a thought or series of thoughts that i can immediately map into an experience of stress or discontent in my body. worry is a big one: i suddenly realize i’m fretting about a conversation i’ve just had with my mother, or thinking about finances, and i can feel tension in my shoulders and a swirly, uncomfortable heat in my solar plexus.

but last night, noticing myself running along one of these stress roads, i experienced the eyes. they, too, were, running all over the place: rolling around and looking for more and more images as my mind produced the thoughts.

we are creatures of habit and, to support a system designed to live on patterns, the eyes mimic the patterns our eyes follow in response to thoughts during our waking days. indeed, if you watch someone sleep, their eyes roll around to mirror the images the brain produces in its yin state.

so, in meditation at the end of class last night, i observed my eyes relaxing, and poof! at least for a few minutes, i forgot to think. this created a state of calm i observed for some time after.