Lunar Flow

Lunar flow is my homecoming.  It is my balance point where the dancer that flows through my muscles and bones can be met with joyful celebration, and the mind can be directed back to the core of my being through the gentle tide of the breath onto  the firm ground of awareness beneath.  My practice has constantly evolved since I started teaching 5+ years ago, from classical Hatha sequencing to a vigorous Vinyasa, to now somewhere in-between where the movement of Flow continues but the dynamic stillness of Hatha resonantes through my body.  I was first trained at an ashram in Northern California  where the room was always silent, the sequence was always the same, and between each posture we found neutrality not through chaturangas but through Śavasana.  When I left the ashram and slowly made my way across the country  I was reminded of my deep love for dance and this soon shifted my practiced to meet a faster more fluid movement that my body craved after all the repetition of ashram life.   Over the past year, I've had a very strong part arise within me that resisted taking any classes, I wanted to focus just on my practice, and my body.  As the year unfolded Lunar Flow did too.  I once again began to appreciate the dynamic stillness and silence of my classical background and found myself weaving this intention into each class, even as we continued our fluid motion.  I honestly don't remember the first time I decided to circle around my mat, but once I did I recognized how whole it felt.  We all know that circles represent something that is unending, and yet at the same time, complete; this defines my yoga practice.   In yogic philosophy the moon (chandra) represents the mind.  The ever-changing phases of growth, absence, retraction and expansion reflect the ever changing phases of our own minds.  Lunar flow is about remembering our own inherent fullness and light within the core of our beings, moving through and letting go of the illusory darkness and shadow that we pick up from our experiences in the outside world.  

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