Amanda Ramcharitar Yoga

The other day i was passed a beautiful book named “Awakening the Spine” by Vanda Scaravelli.  I immediately devoured the simple philosophical beauty of her many truths in accordance to Yoga.  Much of my love of Yoga is found in its myriad of expansive philosophical thoughts that inspire a thought that triggers space in my mind… Something that feels like “freedom in mind” to me.  Not that logical type of thinking that everything must make sense and there is an answer to the question, but that type of thought that leads to more questions or even space where questions do not find words…

In much of Yoga Asana there is a necessity to be physically balanced, for example the mountain pose, Tadasana, its the grounding for all other standing poses.  With equal distribution of weight through the feet, from this grounding a pull of energy is allowed to course up through the body, but only by being fully grounded can one truly find the extension upward.  Using the muscles and skeletal system to draw the energy through the body can one truly feel the energetic, Prana, at work.   Vanda Scaravelli likens this movement to something similar of a tornado, through a very strong base, the body like a tornado can swirl and extend in many directions with a strong gravitational grounding.

On a Pranic level the same is true, if one sits in mediation and allows the thoughts to quiet, a stillness may come, but without the grounding of the inhalation or exhalation, breath, can one be grounded?  Or will we simply follow this stillness away from the reality of the here and now?  The breath is the grounding within this existence, it tells its own tale, when we are stressed, when we are content, when we are excited, if we can follow the breaths tale we can come closer to our truths.

After finishing Vanda’s book, i put the book down and the thought popped into my mind, I remembered listening to Casey Kasem’s Top 20 Countdown on the radio growing up on Sunday mornings, and the last line of his broadcast he would say, “keep your feet on the ground & keep reaching for the stars”.

How interesting how true his words would ring 25 years later…