In all my studies of anatomy, philosophy, design and yoga there is the common thread of observing nature's pulsation. This idea of contraction and expansion permeates our surroundings, our bodies, our minds and spirits. When we are able to tab, connect, ride, touch or pulsate with the overarching pulsation of God, then we experience an authentic life that moves us closer to the sweetest experience of life itself. I found this poem by Rumi, which evokes beautifully what all great teachers are trying to cultivate in us.
Birdwings by Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror up to where you’re bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead, here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. if it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, The two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.
It is so easy to live a fragmented existence, mainly it is taught to us by society, by our parents, by our teachers, by our friends. Behave this way when in school, this way when adults are present, this way when these folks are around...so it isn't a surprise that as adults we have to embark in a long quest to make our lives whole again. It took years to fragment who we were into small compartmentalized fractions of ourselves and so it takes years to bring those pieces into who we want to be again. In the meantime, a lots of those fragments get further broken, or polished, or painted. The longer we wait to go back to the whole, the harder the process will be. So wait no time and be, and remember it will take time and this process is a gift. Here is a poem that explains this concept better than I could possibly do.
I am not one to ignore messages from the Universe; and this week the message was loud and clear: BREATH. I was teaching a twists-focus class this week; as I taught, I swear, I saw my students twisting and the image of a twirling cloud came to my mind. Next thing I know I am at the wonderful 
It's three o'clock and it seems that your day at the office is just starting. It's one of those days when coffee alone is not going to cut it. If there were only a way to remove fatigue and revitalize your afternoon. But wait there is such a thing:
AH-doh MOO-kah shvah-NAHS-anna)
adho = downward
mukha = face
svana = dog
Facing the desk stand with the feet a bit wider than hip distance apart; 8" to 12 " apart. Feet are parallel to each other. Begin to inhale and exhale through your nose, allowing the inner body to stay bright and your skin softens. Keep this breath throughout the pose. Uji breathing if you know it. [Stand on the side of your desk that offers more space.]
Bent your knees a little bit and place the palms of your hands on the desk. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out. Keeping the palms of your hands firmly pressed on the desk, begin to walk backwards away from the desk till you create an L shape with your torso and legs (see sketch). Keep breathing into your back body, particularly in the kidney area, so that you feel your lower ribs integrated into your body.
Then with an exhalation, push your top thighs back and stretch your leg bones down toward the floor. Straighten your knees but be sure not to lock them.
Firm the outer arms and press the bases of the index fingers actively into the desktop. From these two points lift along your inner arms from the wrists to the tops of the shoulders. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the head between the upper arms; don't let it hang. Can you keep the heart soft? Imagine the heart as a drop of melted chocolate dropping down towards the floor! Enjoy the pose for a minute or two.
When you are ready to come out of the pose, you can bend your knees and walk forward till you are standing again. If you have extra time you can add to this down dog some other 
One of the most re-occurring contemplations that occupy my mind is that of ABUNDANCE… I spent a whole summer trying to find abundance through butter; please ask me about it when you see me next.
As we come to celebrate the harvest time, it could seem that we don’t have enough, and yet if we take the time to stop and become a receptacle of the always abundant power of the universe we can see how many amazing thing are always available to us. On that spirit, I decided to share some of my favorite sites that are available to all of us that have access to the Internet.
Sit with a straight back, making sure your feet are grounded on the floor-about hip distance distance apart. Clasp your hands, and extend your arms forward. Turn the palms away from you and raise your arms until the palms face the ceiling. As you inhale fill the torso with air from the bottom of the spine to the top of your lungs. Expand the ribcage concentrically as you do so. Pay attention to to your back, we tend to forget to breath in this region. Make sure the shoulders and sides of your neck are moving back. Stretch and feel yourself growing taller as you reduce the stress in your head, neck, and shoulders. This posture lengthens your sides, and it just plain feels good.
Sit tall and place your arms in front of you at a 90 degree angle. Cross your arms so that the right arm is above the left. Interlock your arms and press your palms together with the tips of your fingers pointed upward. Feel yourself contracting. Surrender to this feeling and begin to breath deeply while relaxing your shoulder blades. This pose strengthens triceps, shoulders, and back muscles. It’s a good preventative measure against carpal tunnel syndrome. If you know the full pose, add your legs by simply cross your legs and interlock them with one foot behind the other. Do the left arm above the right next.
Sit in your chair and cross your right leg over your left knee. Flex both feet- press through the mount of the big toe. If chair allows it, lift the feet off the floor. "Thread the needle" by clasping your hands around your left leg, just under your knee. Stay connected by pressing the ankle against the knee, even if you cannot lift your feet of the floor, this posture stretches hip rotators, outer thighs, and relieves tension in the lower back. Be sure to reverse sides.
Before returning to work, give yourself a few minutes to relax. This relaxing pose is so simple but very effective in reducing stress in your facial muscles and helping to prevent fatigue. Simply cross your arms and place them on the surface in front of you. Make sure your feet are planted on the floor about hip distance apart. Then rest your head on your crossed arms; just breath and enjoy the yoga-break.
Lie flat on your back on a mat or blanket, with knees bend. Let the inhalation come down into your back body like the trough of a wave. Feel how it flattens the back against the floor. Let the wave fill your body, let it grow in your front body from the belly to the top of your longs. With the exhalation let your body follow the wave's crest as it withdraws into the back of your pelvis and out of your tailbone...let the whole wave dissolve back to the ocean of grace, knowing that there will be a new wave. When you mind wants to move to a different task, just bring it back to the breath, like a wave, "como una ola," and repeat the wave cycle as many times as you like.
I'm fascinated by words that follow. Last week I encountered the word boundary in many forms: while 
The winter months seem to move slower than the rest of the year, which I am always willing to emulate. The darkness, I thought, was an invitation to contemplate in the solitude of my home. And there is a lot of true in that. My thoughts about winter shifted recently, when my friend Lafy invited me to a walk in the park with her (look at her, how can you resist?) This new experience showed me that there is so much more active energy in winter than what I thought. There in the woods, walking with friends, there was a clam, peaceful, almost inanimate scene, but the energy around us was inquisitive, playful, and inviting.
This shift in perspectives is similar to what we may experience during Savasana (a yoga pose meaning corpse pose). In the traditional pose, the body lays face up on the floor motionless, very much like a corpse or your drunk roommate in college. By staying still for some time and keeping the mind quiet, one relaxes in a very conscious way. According to B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world’s foremost yoga teachers, this is a very difficult pose to master. You can see why; even when we ask the body to stay still, the mind will move in all directions. Sometimes, when I want to practice Savasana for a longer period of time (10-15 minutes), I try a more grounding version as the one I describe below. This isn’t a replacement for the classical pose; one must think of this version as hiking in a winter wonderland with a great friend; something you may not want to do everyday, but you sure enjoy it every time.
and place it alongside a wall. Lie down with the soles of your feet against the blanket. Place an additional rolled blanket or bolster under your knees. These actions will passively engage you calve muscles and allow the thighbones to move deeper into the hip socket (i.e., for 
