Is all mindful movement yoga? This morning I watched a robin outside my window stretch, flutter its wings, stretch its golden orange throat before moving into song. It reminded me of the movement ritual that I practice before beginning my day. Does the robin shudder, shake, and stretch so it can give the world its best song?
I have thought about this with my two dogs. They wake up each morning with a big stretch, go from down dog to up dog, let out a little yawn or squeak and then greet the day with a wide smile. Is this movement ritual a simple way of moving their life force so that they can optimally enter into their day?
This leads me to only more questions and has me imagining how all kinds of animals and plants like frogs, armadillos, agrimony, daisies, and dandelion move to enhance their own experience of life.
My Piscean south node likes the idea of a hundred billion yogas. Each one specific for the needs of that individual. A musician and metal worker who cooks only in crock pots wakes up twirling her wrists playing invisible notes across the room and squats from her heels to tippy toes to warm up her body for lifting her crock pot from the cupboard below the stove to the tall counter. The single mother with an hour commute arises and pantomimes the games she plays with her children and makes sweeping motions with her long neck swaying her head side to side as she looks over her shoulder.
If your body contains its own yoga, its own movements created entirely for the betterment of your life, how would it go?
What would be your poetic way to prepare your limbs, rivers, voice and bones for each wonderful day?
Written by Ashley Litecky Elenbaas
