Nature is an artwork. The coronavirus image could be a contemporary art painting hanging in any of our, now closed, city museums. 

But I am saying this thinking in a more masterful sense. In a momento where the human species was unstoppably moving towards its own destruction, Nature, yes, Mother Earth, manifests its grandiose power as a single ARN chain that is challenging our way of life.  

Covid-19, one more of the species that form this complex entity that we call Earth and from which we are part of, shows up as a weapon of the Mother, in its most ferocious form, know in the Hindu tradition as Kali, to give us a time to contemplate, to recalibrate our habits, offering us the possibility of survival as humans on this beautiful planet.

In my morning walk with Ananda, I was thinking on how nature continues its course with no alteration. Sun rises in the morning, the sky gets painted in blue, birds sing (it seems even louder with the absence of other sounds), flowers show off happy in their branches. Only humans are missing, and this brings a sense of both emptiness and relief.  

This world-wide experience is a great opportunity for growth and evolution. I hope we all use this time in a wise way to elevate our energy, our awareness so we can start anew with a renovated vision. 

I have been trying to write this blog for a few days, navigating through certain lack of concentration and a inner bombing of  ideas for writing. So I have decided to codify in smaller contents. The most important message I want to convey today is: 

It is not possible to insist enough about this: your sadhana is more important than ever.

Sadhana = regular, constant, devotional practice

It has not been a more important moment to practice YOGA than now, both for your individual well-being and for the opportunity to elevate human consciousness.  

This are  some of the benefits of establishing a regular and constant practice during this time at home:

• At a physical level, practice of asana and pranayama strengthen the inmune system and gives vitality. It will also help you to sleep better.  
• At a mental level, it gives you a rest from so much information and helps you to maintain clarity. 
• At an emotional level, allows you to connect with the observer and not been swept by the intense emotions that can bring episodes of anxiety. On one hand, the emotional body is altered and the nervous system on alert. There is a whirlwind of emotions, thoughts, feelings. Human beings have a brutal capacity for adaptation but even though, we all feel we are in front  of an extreme situation in which we lose control over our lives. It is important NOT deny your emotions. It is totally normal to feel fear sadness, rage,… Allow yourself to cry or to express your emotions. 
• At a spiritual level, yoga connects you with the essence and generates trust.

As yogis we have been preparing for this and, in fact. many of us see this time as a time of spiritual retreat.  In the same way that social discipline is important to stop the infection, the discipline and energy of our sadhana is key in these moments to bring  light into the world

  If you do not have a regular sadhana. this is the perfect moment to create this discipline.  

With the intention to help, I am starting to offer on-line classes in my on-line school rasalilayoga.online in the upcoming days. There will be some free classes and the possibility to subscribe to some more. Lets be in touch. And write me with suggestions about what you need in these moments. 

Today is an anniversary that I would love not to have to remember. Three years ago I had an accident in the ocean that brought, as a consequence, a chronic injury in my legs. 

Pain is relative. For the first few days, when I did not know yet the gravity of the injury, pain was very intense, but it was only physical pain. I do not mean physical pain is not important, but for me it is easier to stand a pain you know is temporary. The true pain came with the full diagnostic: the hamstring tendon was removed from the attachment at the sitzbone. Not only that. The muscles themselves were broken in different places. There was an option of surgery but not fully recommended by my doctor. I was in hell for days. We are never ready for sudden intense changes, and especially if those are in our bodies. Now there was the possibility for pain not being temporary. The uncertainty about my life as a yoga teacher and a surf lover. The difficult decision about a possible surgery without having clarity about the future consequences. 

I have also learnt that what I am more than what I look like or what I am able to do. To feel “broken” is very strange. I touched a place of great vulnerability where I was not feeling full, whole. Who am I truly if suddenly I cannot do all the things that so well defined me?  After an event that de-structures you, a new identity is formed. On one hand, I do not want to feel limited by my injury nor to identify with it. On the other hand, and although normally I do not feel pain and have a pretty active life, every movement I do with my body reminds me that is not as it used to be before.

So I have also learnt to live inside my body in a deeper, more connected way. There is the healthy fear of hurting myself  if I force too much, and sometimes I still can feel the trauma stored in the tissue, even after infinite treatments and therapies. So I am in a state of permanent listening. I am in awe about the body regeneration capacity. About the life intelligence that finds new neural pathways. About how the body tissues respond to love and awareness.  Yes. I have treated my body with incredible love. And my body has responded showing me all the things I can do even feeling broken.

In truth, aren’t all we broken in some way?   

On the past days, I was contemplating how physical injuries are more apparent, but truly, our emocional and physical wounds are much deeper and painfu. Yoga practices aim to heal ourselves at all levels. The process is both beautiful and intense, Beautiful and intense. Beautiful and intense. The dance consist of building strength to face the intensity and cultivating sensitivity to savour the beauty.  

Today I want to celebrate my body. I want to celebrate myself. I want to celebrate yoga. And, especially, I want to renovate the commitments to love myself fully. To love my body even more as I am ageing. To love and accept myself unconditionally, with my physical and emotional wounds.  

I leave you with a video that reflects my progress in one of my favourite asanas. I do not have much attachments to particular yoga poses themselves, but  Natarajasana is very dear to me for many reasons. After the accident, I created a vision board and I put a picture of myself  performing  Natarajasana. Like an unreachable dream… 

The video is two years and a half later, I did not put my focus of the practice in this asana, but in healing my body, with care and intelligent alignment.  With love the body opens, And advanced asanas blossom… or they don’t´. It is not the most important.  

It is a dance and we learn to move with the rhythm,  

In the last years the market is full with offers of Yoga & Surf retreats. But, 

what makes this combination appealing for you as a yogi? 

In this article I contemplate, from my love for these two soul practices, some common things between them and how surf can actually inspire and activate your yoga practice… and viceversa. 

1. Immerse yourself… in the Ocean

The Ocean. Vast. Immeasurable. As the Ocean of Consciousness. The feeling of being part of something so much bigger than yourself. You feel tiny and immense at once. A similar sensation  to meditation, when you explore the infinite Universe inside.

 

2. The great purifier

One of the main goals of the yoga practice is purification. Salt water has been used for millenniums to cleanse the energy of crystals, places, people,.. If you add the purification and revitalising power from all the ions generated in the surface of the waves you have the most amazing energy cleansing cocktail. 

 

3.The breath 

Inhale… exhale… hold the breath for a few second under the water… one… two… three… four… five… feel the air in your face and inhale again

 

4. Listen, observe, flow

To learn to read the Ocean, to choose the right wave… or your favourite one. Feel when you allow yourself to be taken by the big flow and when to take action.

 

5. Concentration

Surf makes your attention focus: on the waves, on your position in the ocean, on the other surfers around, on any change that is happening. Other thoughts move to a second plane and the mind gets free. 

 

6. Strength

An amazing way to develop physical strength… and mental strength too.  But no worries… you can dose it to your level choosing the right place, the right moment and the right board.

 

7. Awakening your inner child

Surf is a play. A play in which you learn to fall and stand up again; to laugh about yourself. To feel your power and your limitations. But specially to enjoy yourself. 

8. The kula: community

The surfer community has a common heart: their love for the waves, their love for fun, their love for joy, the love for challenge.

 

9. Pachamama love

You will further fall in love with Mother Earth. You will become the guardian and protector of the Earth and the Waters of the planet. 

 

10. Cit: self-knowledge

To see yourself inside. To feel your power. To look to your fears face to face. 

 

11. Ananda: bliss

Moments of pleasure engraved in your heart forever. No possible to explain but it is addictive. Really, few things compare to the pleasure of surfing a nice wave. 

 

12. Svatantrya: freedom

Yoga´s main goal is liberation. Freedom from suffering. Freedom from limitations. The practice of surfing makes us feel more free, more able, more integrated with nature and with the Universe. Happier.

Susana García Blanco is a pioneer in the offer her retreats in the Atlantic Moroccan Coast since more than 10 years ago. She founded Yoga Surf Morocco to share these two soul practices in  a country that conquered her heart from the first day she step on African land. 

UPCOMING RETREATS

• 18-24 Julio

• 1-7 Septiembre

INFO & CONTACT   yogasurfmorocco108@gmail.com

Past Wednesday was International Environment Day and, tomorrow will be celebrated World Ocean´s Day. The Tantrik tradition uses what they are called nyāyas, poetic metaphors, to transmit complex and powerful teachings. Today, thinking about the seas, I remember one of my favourite nyāya; one that I have listened to in innumerable occasions from my teacher Paul Muller-Ortega. It is called ūrmi-sāgara-nyāya and it talks about the waves and the Ocean. It is a beautiful comparison between the sea, vast, immeasurable, and the infinite Ocean of Consciousness, and between each wave and each of us as individuals. Although each wave has its own identity, it is never separated from the Ocean, and it is never anything else but the Ocean. In the same way, each of us is never separated from the Absolute, neither is anything else that the same Supreme Consciousness whose pulse and energy are the cause of the full Universe. 

Reverberates inside of me this teaching, today, in the world we live, contemplating about the Ocean, the extreme pollution of the waters of the Earth, the studies about the plastic invasion. It is said that in about 30 years there will be more plastics than fishes. The last UN report affirms that every year we pour 8 millions tons of plastic to the sea. That is equivalent to 15 full shopping bags per square meter of coast in the planet Earth!!! And the very serious problem of microplastics, entering the food chain, and  that are present, for instance, inner cosmetics!!!

I cannot stop feeling that I am the Ocean. I am the Earth waters. Not only because I spend some of the best moments of my life inside the sea.  Also because a  71% of my body is salt water. Because I nourish myself with respect from the seaweed and the fish. Because all species we rose out of this pulsating womb that is the Ocean. I was reading recently (I would love to transcribe the exact words and credit the author but I cannot remember) that most disasters were not happening as a consequence of human evil, but as a consequence of lack of consciousness and lack of action. No one wants to contaminate the Oceans as none of us would fill up our house with plastic containers or will use micro-plastics to dress our salada. And, however, that is exactly what we are doing, just because we do not do enough to revert this chain process of consumption and rubbish that ends up in the Ocean. Could you imagine that upcoming generations maybe can not swim or surf in the Ocean? That they might not ever see  a bank of fish swimming freely? ¿Have you thought that maybe our next generation will not be able to survive in planet Earth? 

I know, It is not easy. I also feel a big sense of impotency. Even being fully conscious about the issue, we are immerse in a life system with a huge inertia and resistance to change. And it is normal to feel too small to make a difference. 

Remember that you are the wave and the Ocean. You can start integrating small changes in your daily habits.  These are some advices and some initiatives that are already working and which you can collaborate.

Your effort is not important. It is totally necessary 

• The best residue is the one not generated. Recycling is important but most plastic is not recycled. Reduce plastic consumption, 
• Complain in shops and supermarkets about products wrapped in plastic. If you don’t buy it, they do not sell it. 
• By bulk products and reuse bottles and containers.  
• Use recyclable bags. 
• Some products to say good-bye: plastic straws, chewing gum, plastic glasses, plates and cutlery
• Use microplastics-free cosmetics https://www.beatthemicrobead.org
• Do you know that toothbrushes are some of the most difficult plastics to recycle and they end up most times into the Ocean? You can substitute them by bamboo toothbrushes https://brushboo.com/
• Filtered water instead of bottled water. Dropson has designed a brilliant product to take with you in your travels. http://www.dropson.es/dropson-filter-can/   
• Organise your own beach cleaning. The Asociación de Medio Ambiente Europeo proporcionales full material and information for you to organise a camping of Citizen Science. You can contribute to know in detail what is contaminating the beaches.  http://ambienteeuropeo.org/proyectos-2/

I feel a kind of relief as the Sun leaves the sign of Pisces. I never thought I would say that, since I love water signs, but this last month has been so intense emotionally. I have felt at times as the little mermaid, of my favourite tale, prisoner inside the ocean of my own emotions. 

I know I am not alone. These are powerful times. Both individually and colectivelly we are cleansing eons of karma. I felt touch reading this sharing from the  Mystic Mamma website: 

For me, and I know for many of us, these past few months have not been easy. I have sat with Truth as she held my hand and wiped my tears. So much unraveling, a slow surrender. No longer trying to hold up the ceiling or patch the crumbling walls, the ground literally moving beneath, rearranging my foundation, shifting my allegiance, to the One inside, the queen, the wise one, who is ready to come down into this body. Who is needing me to make a new place for Her, on Earth, inside of me. 

It takes great courage to be vulnerable and true to that Self within. We are who we are, and ultimately we have to be true to our ourselves. 

In the last days I have been feeling and welcoming the new energy coming: the purifying energy of fire, Aries, he warrior, the initiator.

The new Astrological year starts with Aries as we continue this period of deep transformation, but with a turning point. Mercury in retrograde invites us to look back to our old self, to our old life, so we can express gratitude for the lessons learnt and for the power we adquired. 

…surrender to the new waves of energy

…… surrender to new possibilities

……… dream big

………… open yourself to new strengths

…………… believe in your power

The Sun entering Aries empower YOU. The Moon in Libra makes us look for harmony, to care for THE OTHER, to celebrate the beauty of relationships. 

This Full Moon is a great time to fully forgive as you set the boundaries you need, to be both the warrior and the peacemaker, to be a compassionate leader using your power for the benefit of the others. 

Happy Spring Equinox – Happy Full Moon- Happy Holi