musica y Yoga

I am a fan of silence.  I can feel it’s space in my ear drums. I can feel when it peels off that hot caramel of samskaras off of my brain.

Bad memories from High School…gone.  Unpleasant experiences from childhood, scraped away.  My inner connection with negativity as a coping tool…still working on that one.  The feeling that all the choices I have made in the past have jinxed me in my current life……………. fading, at least less alarming.

I am in the moment of feelings, connection and experiences that can now stretch and sprawl in all this new found space inside.  I make time for the quiet.  It is my get out of jail free card-silence.

Adding Yoga to the quiet lets my body breath.  I can really slow down.  I am on no tempo, but my own tempo.  My inner rhythm feeds me the remedy of the day and allows my body to stand out and be itself.

There are also those moments when I am practicing in the quiet and I will hear a sound, muffled and distant where I feel timeless.  The noise, whether it’s a bird call, car motor, or human voice, brings me into a deep state of belonging.  I belong to that sound.

There are other days when my practice needs a lot of coaxing.  Times when I feel like a stale saltine, that just needs a hot bowl of minestrone and a little butter to become appealing again.  Music is the hot bowl of minestrone, and the right clothes (I kid  not, it has made the difference) is the butter.

Yoga music, wind chimes, wood flutes, and synthesizers are one route, but there is also the stuff sitting in my cd cases that I may not have thought would blend well with Yoga.  Depending on the choice, the music can land me right in the center of a mood or far removed from my existing mood.  Below is a list  that I use to practice yoga to on those stale saltine days, or those overwhelmingly emotional days.    The music can give this “stuff”  a place to go.

Atlas Sound-Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel.

Andrew Bird-Mysterious Production of Eggs/Noble Beast

Mammadou Diabate-W. African folk music.  chi rising!

Steven Halpern-Savasana/ Om

Leo Kotke-That’s What.  smooth guitar and spoken word.

Joni Mitchell-For the Roses/ Ladies of the Canyon

Morcheeba-Big Calm.

Beth Orton-Comfort of Strangers.

Ravi Shankar-Into the West.  A collaboration with U.S. composer Phillip Glass.

Elliot Smith-XO.

Cat Stevens-Teaser and the Firecat/or that other one with “Moonshadow” song.

Sufjan Stevens-Seven Swans.

Noe Veneble-Down Easy.

George Winston-Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi

Yo La Tengo-Most anything they do.  New album just dropped.

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