We have come to be danced. Not the pretty pretty pick me pick me dance
But the claw your way back into the belly of the sacred sensual animal dance, Jewel Matheson
Hello and welcome to episode 339 of Yoga with Melissa. Thank you so much for joining us and
Thank you for welcoming me into your home as we journey into our innermost home
today we are at cattle point in Victoria, BC and
It is incredibly windy today and we are going to do our best
But there'll be most likely the sound of wind going over my mic. We've tried a couple of different locations today
But we've had to move already once because of
machinery
clearing paths in our favorite quiet place in Victoria and
There's going to be some airplanes flying overhead as well
So we do our best to keep the environment quiet for you
But sometimes mother nature has other plans for us and you'll see this actually kind of fits well with our theme for today
so it's about opening to what is and
Bringing acceptance to what is and welcoming what's happening in the now. So it's kind of perfect
I'm going to get you set up in a
supportive fish pose to begin as part of opening to what's happening. So
I'm you're going to need two blocks today. So thanks to dusky leaf for our props
I'm sitting on one of them because I'm on an extreme downhill slope here
But she'll set them up like this one tall one one long one
And then you're going to lie back over them for the opening of today's yoga with Melissa show
You're going to lie back over the
shorter one in the middle of your back and place your head on the tall one and
Then take your arms out to the side so that it supports you in opening your chest and your shoulders
Great release for your shoulders, and you're going to rest back here. Thank
You to squeeze yoga clothing for my clothes today
I'm wearing a long sleeve black bamboo hoodie, and it's lined with
Purple and the hood and it's got purple
baby surge stitching on the sleeves and the bottom and it's got the tree of life on it
And I'm wearing red long leggings today. I have a testimonial for you today from
Tracy from YouTube
from episode number 338 of yoga with Melissa and it was on the class that we did on lost with all the variations on
Tree pose and Tracy says hi, Melissa
The poem was a great connection to the tree poses and I felt I was swaying in the poses and not feeling lost at all
I can try and take this feeling out into the world when I am feeling lost and disconnected
I am a big nature and tree lover. Thanks to you and Tim for choosing such beautiful scenery to do our yoga in
Be well
So thank you Tracy and thank you to all of you who take time to leave your comments on YouTube on
Facebook on
Instagram in on our website when you leave your voice messages on speak pipe and of course our most in-depth
Conversations happen in our membership community and I've been having a lot of fun with you lately on our Facebook live streams
I've been meeting up with you in the mornings here in Victoria and
Just doing short live streams in the morning on topics that you're interested in so you can also let me know that
What questions you have that you want me to cover this morning?
We did one on sore wrists and in yoga and I did some solutions for sore wrists in yoga
So that's been a lot of fun this week, too
We're going to set the intention to come together in peace and harmony as
Student and teacher now for the highest good of all and for the highest good of our learning over the next hour with the peace mantra
Om sahanavavathum sahanobunagthum sahaviryam karvavahey
Tejasvina vadithamastum mavidvishavahey
Om shanti shanti shanti
And those words mean protect us together student and teacher may our student studies nourish us together
May we work together for the union of the good for all
May our learning be luminous and purposeful may we live in harmony
peace peace peace be unto all
So this week's class of the poetry and motion series is on a beautiful poem by Jules Matheson called
We have come to be danced
We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty pick me pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred sensual animal dance
The unhinged unplugged cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms of our hands and feet dance
We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby shake your booty for him dance
But the ring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance the slap the apology from our posture dance
We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see monkey do dance one two dance like you one two three dance like me dance
But the grave robber tombstalker tear scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance
We have come to be danced
Not the nice invisible self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying voodoo mama shaman shaking ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings
Return to our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into the luminous skin of love dance
We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the Trinity
The body breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I yes, you may take ten giant leaps dance the ollie ollie oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance
We have come to be danced
Where the kingdoms collide in the cathedral of flesh to burn back into the light to unravel
To to play to fly to pray to root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced
We have come
Okay, so let that poem sink in
See how it relates to you in your life
Tim's doing the hoochie mama dance behind the camera right now. I
Wish I had a camera so I could turn it on him so you could see all the things he does behind the camera
We need to can't namaste yoga needs to be two camera shoots so you can see what happens behind the camera
And then you're going to bend your knees and you're going to roll to the side and you're going to come and lie on your belly
And
When you come on to your belly, you're just going to rock your hips from side to side
And
then take your left arm straight out in front of you and
Bend your right leg you're going to reach around and hold on to the inside edge of your foot put your thumb on your big toe
Roll your shoulder back and up and then you're going to pull your right heel away from your buttocks
Lift your heel away from your buttocks and allow that to lift your chest up and then you're going to
Let go with line's breath, so you're going to inhale lower down
Exhale lift up with line's breath inhale or down
Exhale lift up with line's breath
inhale or down and
Exhale lift up with line's breath, and then you're going to slowly lower down
And we'll do this on the other side
So a lot of this class is about really going for it about connecting with your voice and about opening up
And we're doing this with our poses
And then we're going to do this on the other side
So you're going to reach around to the inside of your foot hold on to your big toe with your thumb
You're going to inhale
You're going to exhale
Inhale lower down
Exhale lift up inhale lower down
And one more inhale and exhale
And then lower down
And then you're going to push yourself up onto all fours and you're going to draw your knees up underneath you tuck your toes under
You're going to sit back on your heels drop your heels towards the ground and you're going to
Come into squat pose
So this is to open up your low back and come into your belly. So this is to drop into the
the belly of
your
wild sensual animal
So breathe right into your belly
So
And then you're going to come
and we're going to sit onto your
Knees you could kneel or you can sit cross-legged or you can kneel on a block whatever is most comfortable for you
And we're going to do a little bit of stand hand stretches to get into those claws because she talked about clawing your way into your belly
So we're just going to stretch out each finger
And this will help us we're going to come into cat pose next
to uh, really spread your fingers wide when you come onto your
uh, cat pose
We were down on the beach yesterday and
I'm very slippery seaweed and very sharp coral and my hands are all caught up
I doubt any of you have that maybe maybe your hands are cut from coral too
If they are don't stretch them too much because it'll open your cuts again
Okay, so then uh, shake them out
And then you're going to come onto all fours with your hands underneath your shoulders and your
Knees underneath your hips and your fingers should be able to spread nice and wide
Because of those hand stretches because you stretched out your claws
And you're going to exhale round up through your back
And inhale and arch through your back and really move from your belly. So think about moving from your navel center
We have come to be danced not the pretty pretty dance
The pick me pick me dance, but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred sensual animal dance
The unhinged unplugged cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms of our hands and feet dance
So you can feel the cat out of the box dance here
The sacred sensual animal dance
And clawing your way back into the belly of your sacred sensual animal here
And then just walk your hands over to the side and do your cat pose to the side as well
Opening up your side body
And
Then go to the other side
And
Then come back to the center
Okay, and then you're gonna come back to the center and then we're going to
Come into
Um downward facing dog
And you're going to take your right leg up
And then bring it forward your right knee forward to your right wrist reach your left leg back
And fold forward over your right knee
So we've come to be danced not the jiffy booby shaker booty for him dance
But the ring the sadness from our skin dance the blow the chip off our shoulder dance the slap the apology from our posture dance
And so we're going to slap the apology from our posture dance
We're going to do that lion's breath again
as we
Come from this forward folding pigeon
Up into a back bending pigeon with that lion's breath again
So take your hands underneath your shoulders and you're going to lift up into the back bending posture with that lion's breath. So inhale
exhale
Lift up inhale lower down
Exhale lift up
One more inhale lower down
Exhale lift up
And then we'll step back into downward facing dog
Reach your left leg up and back bring your left knee forward to your left wrist reach your right leg back and down
And then fold forward over your bent left leg
We have come to be danced not the nice invisible self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying voodoo mom and shaman shaken ancient bones dance
The strip is from our casings return our wings sharpen our claws tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into the luminous skin of love dance
Okay, so from here we're going to take your hands under your shoulders again you're going to inhale
And then you're going to exhale lift
I'll do this two more times
One more time
Great, and then you're going to come up to seated
And we're going to do the spinal energy series now to gather up the kind of energy I think it takes to
Do to create this kind of energy for the courage to face life this way
Okay, we're going to do the spinal energy series
So I'm on a hill that's going like this
So I'm going to sit up on a block so that I have a chance to straighten my spine
And you may want to elevate yourself as well so that it's easier for you to sit upright and for your knees to relax on the ground
You probably won't need something as high as a block
But you might want to sit up on a meditation cushion or a folded blanket
You could also do this whole series sitting in a chair. So do what works best for you and your body
We're going to start by inhaling and rocking your tailbone forward and then exhaling and rolling it back
You're going to be holding on to your ankles
So
I'm going to come back to the center
You're going to place your hands on your knees and you're going to start
Circling from your navel so circle around in front and then behind
So you're making like you're scraping the peanut butter jar
So
I go the other way
So
Then you can take your hands place them on your shoulders
fingertips point at the front of your shoulders thumbs point down at the back
You're going to inhale to your left and exhale to your right
Big inhale in the center
Exhale
Lower your hands down and then you're going to go to your heart center
You're going to inhale move your heart center forward and then exhale round it back
Inhale forward exhale round it back hands around your knees
So
So
And then you're going to move your shoulders so you're going to inhale your shoulders up
and exhale lower them down that bothers your shoulders you can roll them back and down you
can inhale your shoulders up and exhale roll them back and down
Big inhale up and exhale lower them down
And the final part that we're going to do for this final energy series today is circle
your head around in front five times one way
And then circle your head around in front five times the other way
And then come back to the center and we're going to receive the poem and the teachings today
with the lotus middress so bring the heels of your hands together your pinkies and your
thumbs together spread your other fingers and rest this at the level of your heart
sit so that you're sinking down through your sit bones your shoulders are over your hips
your ears are over your shoulders close your eyes to allow your attention to go inward and allow
yourself to be receptive
We have come to be danced by jewel mathison we have come to be danced not the pretty dance
not the pretty pretty pick me pick me dance but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred
sensual animal dance the unhinged unplugged cat is out of its box dance the holding the
precious moment in the palms of our hands and feet dance we have come to be danced not the jiffy
boobies shake your booty for him dance but the ring the sadness from our skin dance the blow
the chip off our shoulder dance the slap the apology from our posture dance we have come
to be danced not the monkey see monkey do dance one two dance like you dance one two three dance
like me dance but the grave robber tombstalker tearing scabs and scars open dance the rub the
rhythm raw against our souls dance we have come to be danced not the nice invisible self-conscious
shuffle but the matted hair flying voodoo mama shaman shaking ancient bones dance the strip
us from our casings return our wings sharpen our claws and tongues dance the shed dead cells and
slip into the luminous skin of love dance we have come to be danced not the holder breath and wallow
in the shallow shallow end of the floor dance but the meeting of the trinity the body breath
and beat dance the shout hallelujah for the top of our thighs dance the mother may I yes you may
take 10 giant leaps dance the ollie ollie oxen free free free dance the everyone can come to our
heaven dance we have come to be danced where the kingdoms collide in the cathedral of flesh
to burn back into the light to unravel to play to fly to pray to root in skin sanctuary we have
come to be danced we have come this poem by jewel matheson speaks to embracing the world as it is
with tremendous courage and wild abandon and payment children calls this embracing the world as it
is with these teachings we agree to show up fully for all of our life not just the quiet contained
perfect bits the way we want them to turn out bits we don't run away from any experience
and we also don't refuse to accept anything I think that's a double negative so tim would probably
tell me I can't say that there's probably a better way to say that payment children describes it as a
complete acceptance and surrender to every sight sound thought experience person smell and taste
we are experiencing and encountering in each moment the poem be dance speaks to a kind of openness
to all of life situations experiences emotions and a willingness to experience them fully with
complete authenticity there is a refusal to reject any part of the experience with this dance you're
turning towards your experience rather than away from it so we were I was just talking before we
started because my hands hurting today from falling and there were some people yesterday and I mean I
was nervous yesterday on this this walk on the water too because the seaweed was really slippery
and and then so falling was pretty much inevitable and if you fell the coral was really sharp so
cutting yourself was also inevitable so there people were some people were nervous and some people
left and so but the funny thing was the worst thing that could happen to you was that you're
going to fall and cut yourself and you'd be a little hurt so this is the kind of this is what
life presents itself us with all the time this you know you might slip you might fall and you might
hurt yourself but actually no not you might you will slip you will fall and you will hurt yourself
and it's probably not going to be that bad and yet we brace ourselves and we try and control all
the situations so that we don't slip we don't fall and we don't hurt ourselves and this creates
tremendous holding patterns in our physical emotional mental and energetic bodies that probably
creates more pain than if we just open to life as it is with that kind of wild abandon and allow
ourselves to be free and fall and and have a little coral cut on your hand so there is a
willingness to seek the basic goodness and intrinsic good in the world when you're opening
yourself up to be danced you may not like everything that you encounter but when you come back to the
present moment into exactly what you experience your attitude may shift so I'll give the example
of the coral again I've got some examples when I was writing this but I think the coral is kind
of a better example when we were in the coral I opened myself to the inevitability of falling
did you fall yesterday Tim you didn't fall okay pretty much everybody there fell yesterday but
when we open when I open myself to the inevitability of falling
oh yeah he's a cafe he's he's less air he's nowhere
when you open yourself to the when I open myself to the inevitability of falling
then I was able to be present for all this incredible sea life that we are watching and
starfish what did they call them see sea stars we learned all the correct names for things
sea stars and all these amazing when we were turning over rocks and looking in tidal pools
and just seeing all these amazing sea life and the tidal pools that we wouldn't have seen that I
wouldn't have seen if I'd braced myself and held back from this so by opening rather than bracing
by opening rather than turning away I experienced more than I would have so it's
it's that opening payment children sense the whole point is that discovering basic goodness
discovering the awakeness the nowness the isness of things doesn't come from a place of transcending
the ordinary reality it comes from appreciating simple experiences free from the storyline
she says it's only when the fearful eye is not pushing and pulling at life
freaking out and grasping at it that full engagement is possible we become more fully
engaged in our lives when we become less self-absorbed and as we have less and less
allegiance with our small egocentric self less and less allegiance to who we are and what we
are capable of doing we also find we have less and less fear of embracing the world as it is
and to me that's what be danced is all about letting go of the fear of embracing the world as it is
so reflect on how these teachings and the poem relates to you and your life and begin to form
an intention of what you would like to create sustain or release in your life right now
or even rebirth in your life right now and then once you've formed your intention you can
begin to wiggle and stretch out we'll do a little bit of downward facing dog and then we'll make our
way up to standing
okay from standing we're going to just do some shoulder shrugs there's the part in the poem
that about shrugging it off I think that's why it shows those so we're going to inhale
or I like the part about slapping the posture out of you in the poem too and inhale up and exhale
lower it down
good and then these are my favorite warrior one versions I learned these from my teacher margine
Olson at estermire yoga studio this is from the part in the poem where she says the mother may
I yes you may take 10 giant steps forward pose 10 giant steps forward and it reminded me of when
margine used to make us do these stomping warrior one poses through the studio to open up our hips
and to just really just release and so the way that it works and I'm just gonna go for it and
it's great for proprioception on the bottoms of your feet and you're gonna let go of your mat
you're gonna let go of staying on your mat the way that it works is you take a big step forward
with your foot and you throw your arms up in the air and you say ha and then you go on the next one
ha and you just keep going ha are you okay with following me hun
ha
the crow doesn't like it
ha so that was four steps forward
ha so I'll come that was my five steps I'll come back with the next five and that'll be my
10th big giant steps forward with the mother may I
ha
so that's a great version of warrior one that I really really love
and then I just felt like this whole poem just embodied the wildness of the goddess
and so we'll do goddess victory squat so take your feet wide on your mat
it's like the wind the wildness of the wind turn your toes out and pull your knees back
sink down into goddess victory squat and then bring your arms up we'll hold the goddess victory
squat and actually you could even do some movements in goddess victory squat so that
you're doing some dancing so you're you know having that you know not the safe structured
like slap the posture out of your body and let yourself move and let yourself be danced in goddess
victory squat so it doesn't have to be remember it's not the pretty pretty pick me dance it's
the move with wild abandon dance and it's good it's okay your knees are going to be fine they can
move in different postures they can survive your joints they're going to be fine it's okay for them
to move through different ranges of motion too so let your goddess victory squat be a little more
wild bring out those sharp claws I remember I used to do do some uh lion's breath here
and let your goddess victory squat squat be wild and that'd be creative today
and then you can let this be danced version of goddess victory squat fall out of your body
and then I wanted to do wild thing pose because this this this class and this poem I felt was just
all about letting go to that wild abandon and stopping stop trying to control life and just
being more open to it so the way that we're going to come into wild thing pose is from
downward facing dog so I'll show you how to do that so stand at the top of your mat
and you could do downward facing dog against the wall and stay with us along the way okay so inhale
reach up exhale hinge forward through your hips come into standing forward fold and then you're
going to take a step back into downward facing dog and from here you're going to take your
left leg back and up and open your left hip up and you could stay here or you can drop it over
and open up for wild thing pose
and then come back to the center and we'll come into child's pose just to rest
and then you're going to come up onto all fours again and we're going to do that on the other
side so remember you can stay in downward facing dog with one leg back you can even come on all
fours and do one leg back and open your leg up to the side that would be a nice modification okay so
do what works best for you and your body so downward facing dog you take your right leg
back and up this time open up your right hip and then step it over and then open up your right arm
and then you can come back and we'll rest in downward facing dog in child's pose
so
so
so
then we're going to come from downward facing dog one more time to come into dying warrior
so you're going to come into downward facing dog and let's start with your left leg up
and then take your left leg between your right leg and your right wrist reach your left leg through
and then fold forward take your left arm out to the side your right arm out to the side
you can turn your head to either look at your right hand or your left hand if you've had any
neck injuries you want to look at your right hand if you haven't had any neck injuries you'll be able
to turn your head to look at your your left hand so do what works best for you and your body drop
your right hip towards your inside of your left thigh so i chose dying warrior because i felt like
a lot of the things that were addressed in the poem were about
about about death and new beginnings and and that sort of thing so i thought dying
warrior was appropriate for this class
about how you get slapped around in life sometimes
so
and then you're going to come back into
downward facing dog at home next to an asin so that was dying warrior uphill now i'm going to do
dying warrior downhill it felt quite good uphill actually so i'm curious to see how it felt down
goes down feels going downhill so take your right leg up and then you place your right leg in the
space between your left wrist in your left leg you reach it straight take your arms out to the
side lower your chest to the ground your head turns towards your left palm if you have any
neck injuries or if you don't you can turn your head towards your right hand
so dying warrior on the other side open yourself to the tougher situations in life
so
so
and then gather yourself up and you're going to lie on your back
for shavasana with your palms turn up allow yourself to be open to all of life
and i will sit up and redo that poem one last time
so
so
we have come to be danced by jewel mathison
we have come to be danced not the pretty dance not the pretty pretty pick me pick me dance
but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred sensual animal dance the unhinged
unplugged cat is out of its box dance the holding the precious moment in the palms of our hands
and feet dance we have come to be danced not the jiffy booby shake your booty for him dance
dance but the ring the sadness from our skin dance the blow the chip off our shoulders dance
and the slap the apology from our posture dance we have come to be danced not the monkey see
monkey do dance one two dance like you one two three dance like me dance but the grave robber
tombstalker tearing scabs and scars open dance the rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance
we have come to be danced not the nice invisible self-conscious shuffle but the matted hair flying
voodoo mama shaman shaking ancient bones dance the strip us from our casings return our wings
wings sharpen our claws and tongues dance the shed dead cells and slip into the luminous
skin of love dance we have come to be danced not the holder breath and wallow in the shallow
end of the floor dance but the meeting of the trinity the body breath and beat dance the
shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance the mother may I yes you may take 10
giant leaps dance the ollie ollie oxen free free free dance the everyone can come to our heaven
dance we have come to be danced where the kingdoms collide in the cathedral of flesh
to burn back into the light to unravel to play to fly to pray to root in skin sanctuary
we have come to be danced we have come
reflect back on your experience of this yoga class the postures the poetry and the teachings
what stands out to you what seems most important
what's one thing you're going to carry with you off your yoga mat and into your life this week
then gradually allow your breath to deepen
wiggle your fingers and your toes
bend your knees roll to your right side and pause there for a moment
slowly make your way up to seated
so thank you for joining me for episode 339 of yoga with melissa
we appreciate your presence here we're going to finish with the loka samastha suki no bhavan
to mantra make space with breath and a sigh
suki no bhavan to
may all beings be happy and free and may the thoughts words and actions of my own life
create happiness and freedom for all so thank you so much for joining us for episode 339 of yoga with
melissa we appreciate you being here if you like today's show please give it a thumbs up if you're
new to our channel please subscribe you will receive a new free show every friday if you know
somebody who would like this show then please share it with them and i would like to thank
khalid donna shon and viola for your donations this week we super appreciate your support
you can make a donation here it helps us to fund the show these shows are freely giving
but they're not free to produce one of the things that tim is looking at in investing in is he needs
a a new video he needs a whole new computer actually to deal with all the 4k video that
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space because video takes up a lot of hard drive and storage is always an issue so
there's always things that we need to keep the show going so you can donate here or you can donate
of your time by leaving a comment in the comment box and my question for you is what fear are you
releasing today to embrace the world as it is and if you would like an infographic of my top 3
benefits of engaging with poetry then go to melissawest.com slash 339 and scroll down to the opt-in
box and if you type in your email there then we will send you a beautiful infographic of
my top 3 reasons that it's beneficial to engage with poetry i'm sending you much love from beautiful
british columbia may your joy be as deep as our pacific ocean may you be as rooted as the trees
in our forest and may you be as strong as our mountains om shanti namaste
melissa would love to hear your questions and thoughts please leave your comments below the
video thank you for your reviews on itunes and youtube your reviews help us to share yoga and
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