Burn Brightly

The power house at your navel translates to graceful interaction in the world at the heart transforms into the light of wisdom at the third eye. 

Agni means fire in Sanskrit and it is hard to remember that we carry around our own warmth and light at this point of the winter. Especially this winter. If you've ever taken classes with me you know the word core doesn't come up very often. To me that word has become a buzzword and it has been used to the point that it doesn't really mean anything anymore. The use of the abdominal muscles is more important then I have credited them for. One of the most practical applications for the use of the four layers of abdominal muscles is to safeguard the low back. Anyone who's ever tried to back bend knows the spine attached the ribs is not as flexible as the spine unattached to other bones. And I think sometimes I'm prone, as we all are, to think that just because I  didn't know about it, it's not widespread knowledge. But I never knew the practicality of abdominal muscles. They're so often viewed as an aesthetic. Or lack there of. 

In yoga the area around the belly button is considered the powerhouse. I believe that's true Pilates as well. Not just in the sense that there's a lot of muscle tissue there but in the sense that it is the seat of fire in our body. The digestive fire is used to assimilate that which serves the growth and maintenance of our bodies or eliminate that which does not have use. Part of the work we attempt in practicing yoga is refining that fire so that it not only becomes very efficient at digesting physical nutrients but also to be discerning in our choices, so that we are able to integrate people and activities that serve us in our growth as human beings and eliminate that and those which do not serve us in our growth.

So we have many reasons to practice focusing on fire this week. Not only does physical movement and our cellular respiration create heat which helps us to be warm when there's less sunlight and colder air but we also have the benefit of being more efficient digesters of nutrients and information, while increasing discernment.