Funky Focus | Transitions and Self Compassion Meditation
Transitions: Movement from Pose to Pose
Our theme through this first quarter has been repetition, which has had our focus on the more habitual aspects of our yoga practice like Halfway Lifts, Mountain Pose, Chaturangas, and now: *que drumroll* transitions!! Think right foot forward into Warrior One or Halfway Lift to Forward Fold, there are sooo many aspects of our flow we do repetitiously, eventually to the point of rote, or mindless, habit.
Have you ever driven to work and when you got there, wondered if you actually stopped at those stop signs? You must’ve, right? Sometimes we get so caught in getting to the next place, the next posture, we forget that the journey is the destination too.
Transitions are beautiful preparations, and we tend to do these as the easiest way to for us to move into our next Asana (posture), but sometimes ease can overtake effectiveness. This month at Funky Buddha we’re dialing back and dialing in to play with making our transitions the most effective, which may require more energy, or a new pattern/habit to be conscious of.
Finding presence in those in-between moments of our practice lends an opportunity to build strength and can show us where our bodies (and minds) tend to compensate, underwork, and/or overwork. It also may offer more support, comfort, and benefit to our bodies in these poses. Join us in studio this month to discover how rich our destination, or final postures, can be when we practice presence each breath of the way <3
Self-Compassion
Our March Meditation is centered around Self-Compassion, drawing from the concept of Karuna in the yoga sutras and Buddhist philosophy, and from the more modern work of Dr. Kristin Neff.
A few specific techniques we’ll work with are Awareness (mindfulness of, instead of identification with, your thoughts), Curiosity (self-kindness over judgement), and Connection (common humanity over isolation).
With the intentions of becoming inner-allies, Awareness can allow us the presence to choose new thought patterns. We’ll work with Curiosity through things like Lovingkindness Meditations, questioning certain thoughts, and offering ourselves our own warmth, and unconditional acceptance. Finally, Connection, or Common Humanity, provides a feeling of interconnectedness through reminders like we all struggle as part of our shared human experience; remembering we are not alone in our struggles is part of our collective healing.
If you’d like to dive deeper, we invite you to join us in-studio for our monthly in-studio meditation and check out these resources:
The Dalai Lama on The Importance of Karuna
Read More from the modern work of Dr. Kristin Neff
We invite you to check out our Youtube for an overview of these Tenets or a meditation practice to try them out <3 As always, we hope that you join us M-F at 7:30am for free, live, virtual meditation to learn how we can take these tenets and welcome them into our lives, our practice, and our world <3
