Here are a few things that help me maintain a consistent practice in the early morning-

1. Try to have 5 1/2 hours of sleep every night at a consistent time (10:30 to 4 am or 11 to 4:30 am). If it has been a late night, get up at 4:30 -do your practice and go back to bed after sunrise if your schedule allows.
2. Nap- Three 11 minute naps is ideal (many great creative thinkers were nappers; Einstein for one). Lay down, use an eye bag, cover up with a blanket in shavasana and relax. You can use the same music you use for shavasana in your practice if you like. Don’t worry about sleeping. Just relax. 
3. When you go to bed tell your self when you will get up and why.
4. Don’t listen to your mind when the alarm goes off- get up and go directly to your morning routine. 
5. Prepare for your practice. The night before lay out clean sadhana clothes, a beautiful spot to practice with a shawl, timer, music, journal, etc. 

Sleep is important, for the immune system, for the nervous system, for all the bodies. Don’t push through being tired day after day. It is possible to practice and get enough sleep to feel rested. Be compassionate to your self. We are forging a householders practice. We want the depth of practice of the monastery, while being in life with families, work, friends. We are discovering the Aquarian Age together. It’s not easy but we are blessed to make the effort.

I arrive at the girl’s shelter with my yoga mat, ipod, speakers and a large thermos of tea. The girls’ knees bounce nervously up and down as I ask, “How are you today?” “Frustrated and annoyed” they answer. We talk about how uncomfortable it is to feel this way.

“Inner anger can mess up our relationship with ourselves and everyone else. Removing this stored anger in the body makes it easier to control our temper, and allows us to leave past frustrations in the past,” I explain as we warm up.

The girls in this locked facility are in state custody. They have been arrested or are being sent to a new home or detox center. The average stay is three weeks. The class is always a mix of new girls and some I’ve met before—5 to 15 plus staff. The staff are present to keep me and the girls safe, but they also look forward to practicing yoga.

They do the Kriya for Inner Anger, * and when they lie in relaxation, they are completely still for 15 minutes! Some girls tell me that this is the most relaxed they ever remember being. After class, we drink yogi tea and draw. They draw peace signs, flowers, hearts and one girl draws her home, and one her cup of yogi tea (above).

The school principal tells me a “yoga day” is a noticeably better day. “When they come back up on the day of yoga they’re a lot more relaxed. I wish we had yoga more than once a week…they are more relaxed, less likely to snap at each other…”

It’s not hard to do this. Just a few more hours in my week … about the same as watching a movie. But the effect is big- As one staff member puts it,“…these are girls with a lot of frustration, a lot of anger issues, and usually they haven’t been given any good way to deal with those things…the yoga program here is really valuable because it teaches them to…have something to do to help calm themselves down. The breathing is really important, and some of the exercises she gives them for relaxation.”

*pg 38,39, 40 Art & Yoga: Kundalini Awakening in Everyday Life

Hari Kirin
artandyoga.com

moving our exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum home

The first day back from teaching in New Mexico, I did nothing but sleep, eat, and email from my back porch. The next day,my friend Susan Brown (Sat Dharam) and I rented a U Haul  to drive to Vermont and bring home the eight 6’ x6’ canvases and the projector that is ,”Wherever You are is the Center of the World.” The show was a success with record numbers for the opening and our artist talk (which included a three gong bath),Tom’s gave a talk on Dreams- click to him wax eloquently about Magritte..

And our friend, the poet Patrice Pinnette did an amazing embodied reading in the exhibition.
Here’s my favorite of the poems she read, Pink Cloud

Happy to the degree
we step out
of ourselves
almost completely
bringing back
the residue
that beauty made
of opal overlays:
a light impure but
improved by flecks
of blue green pink.

Poetry and Art help each other.  It was a good run. Now Susan and I are on the back porch together. Looking up grants, emailing curators and museums, and looking for the next show.

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