My Manipura

Trying to remember my hope for 2013, I took some time out of my insane work weekend to meet my friend for a yoga class at Rasa. I knew it was a going to be a ridiculous weekend and I also knew that if I didn't say yes to my friend's offer to meet, I would never have made it to the mat. As it was, I was pedaling full speed ahead on my Velib to get there on time...

There was one spot left to park it.

I arrived, gave my friend the bises, blurted out that I was having the worst weekend of my life, ran to the dressing room, changed and then proceeded to bombard my friend with all of the reasons why I was stressed out. My poor friend. She took it in stride, told me I needed to make some changes (um, yes please!) and then told me that she was happy that we had found time to meet for a class together. She's a good friend. We are both dancers - who haven't danced in a long time - and had been saying that we needed to get to some classes together.

On this crazy weekend, despite all the odds, we finally did.

My friend was feeling nervous about certain poses due to a recent abdominal surgery, but we decided that Silke's class was gentle enough for both of us. We placed our mats side by side, sat cross-legged and waited for Silke to begin the class...

What I love about Silke is that each class begins with a focus or an intention. It helps to settle the mind, remember why you are on the mat, the beauty and power of your own body. As Silke began to speak, I realized that the stars had aligned to get me and my friend to that yoga class. The focus of the class would be the manipura - the solar plexus, but also the stomach and lower belly. She talked about balance and the importance of putting good sustenance and good thoughts into our bodies in order to maintain that balance and therefore, happiness and confidence. Here is a more thorough definition since I'm not really doing the manipura justice. 

Third Chakra:

Manipura (yellow)
The third chakra, which governs our will, self-esteem and sense of personal power, is located in the solar plexus. When energy flows freely through this center, we’re confident about our ability to manifest our intentions and desires. When the third chakra is blocked, however, we feel powerless and frustrated.
source

Ummm, did Silke read my blog post? (Did she also know that I ate pizza and beer the night before because I was too tired to make dinner and woke up feeling like crapola?) Did she know about my friend's surgery? I'm pretty sure our third chakras were allllllll blocked up, and that we were both feeling totally powerless  and frustrated (for various personal reasons).  We both tuned in to what she had to say, feeling as if she was speaking directly to our frustrated souls.  

At La Fourmi Ailée, where we got tea and coffee afterwards, we both reveled in the relevance of the class to each of our particular challenges. Then we decided that yoga needed to be on the schedule for next Saturday - because hello, our manipuras are clearly in need of some additional assistance and the universe seems pretty adamant that we get our bootays on the mat - stressful life or healing body be damned.