by Mei Lai Swan | May 28, 2015 | Uncategorized
Dear friends,
Greetings from beautiful Bali!
…where I am in the second week of a month-long intensive Embodied Flow™ yoga training with my incredible teachers Tara Judelle and Scott Lyons. While intensives often conjure up the image of physical and mental exhaustion, and whilst our days are certainly long and full, the work is so rich, so deep, so authentic and so playful, that each day is a pure joy. Each morning starts with contemplation, journalling, meditation, and an asana practice exploring different systems/tissues of the body-mind – we dive into the felt sense of the organs, the glands, the bones, the cells, and allow movement and the poses to be guided by that felt sense. It is a practice that is at once exciting, challenging, confounding, and revelatory. The mid-morning and afternoon sessions of this ‘Mind’ module are spent exploring somatic psychology – individually, in pairs, small groups, and the larger group. We have been delving into embryology, developmental and childhood patterns, the role and nature of ‘stories’ or narrative, understanding and working with emotions from a somatic perspective, and so much more… needless to say, I am as happy as a pig in mud!
Embodied Flow™ is an approach to yoga developed collaboratively by Tara and Scott, through their personal journeys and extensive experiences with yoga, tantric philosophy and practices of awakening, Body-Mind Centering, somatic psychology, and a wide array of other spiritual and therapeutic practices. First and foremost, it is an approach to the art of genuine, authentic self-inquiry – which is really the essence of Yoga. It invites us into the rich landscape of ‘unknowing’, unites scientific and spiritual inquiry, and offers a direct path into some of the most esoteric practices and philosophies of true tantra, which offers a non-dual understanding of life and consciousness.
We start here, at the highest teaching of the Shiva Sutras: “Caitanyam atma” – the independent state of supreme consciousness is the nature of everything… and then we dive in deep.
Asana is there, to be sure, but it takes its rightful place as one amongst the myriad of practices that are available to us in the path of awakening – yet it also flowers through the expansion of rich somatic explorations, or what might be called “embodied anatomy”. The ultimate aim is the knowing of self, of awakening, and of true freedom.
And I am so excited to be exploring and sharing these teachings with you: I will be dipping back into Melbourne briefly in June, and offering a 5-hour Embodied Flow™ workshop at Gertrude Street Yoga on Sunday June 21st (yes, a winter solstice special!). If your curiosity has been ignited, I’d be thrilled to have you come and play, explore, and discover together…
Please visit here for full workshop details.
In the meantime, wishing you warmth, joy, and blissful discoveries in your yoga journey.
With love,
Mei Lai xo
by Mei Lai Swan | Jan 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
I recently returned to Melbourne from 4 intensive weeks of advanced yoga teacher training in Bali with the formidable team of Tara Judelle and Scott Lyons. Dubbed “The Embodied Science of Yoga”, the training was Tara and Scott’s first official offering of Embodied Flow – call it a style, a school, a practice, a method… it’s a term that captures a means of inquiry using the art of yoga, practices of embodiment (the felt sense of experience and anatomy, drawing on Body-Mind Centering and somatic psychotherapy), and science.
As we discovered together on the training, it is an offering of awakening practices that draws on both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. And to me, it felt like home: a weaving together of all the things I love, a freedom to ask and to explore all the questions I have (did someone say ‘infinite’?), and to perhaps even experience something that feels like an answer… But mostly just learning how to swim in the unknown and the unknowing, and learning how to have fun whilst doing it…
Acknowledging the importance of tried-and-tested tradition (ie. the lineages of yoga or other spiritual traditions), what I really awakened into on this training was an understanding of the constant evolution and expansion of consciousness, of knowledge, of awareness.
As universal and timeless as the teachings and practices of the traditions seem, what if what we knew then, and how we knew it, is not the be-all and end-all? What if our capacity to awaken is even greater now than it previously was? Or what if we can find new ways for awakening that are more accessible and more attainable for those of us living in the 21st century. After all, isn’t that what the Buddha did, for his own time?
So amidst all the practices, the explorations, the sensing of glands and organs, the dancing from bones, the videos of breathing lungs and glistening fascia, the discussions on evolution, the brain gym exercises, the creative expression, the expansive meditation and the effortless asana that emerges from being embodied, my one true gift from these four weeks was this simple question, emerging from deep wonder and reverence: What does this make possible?
My sense is that this is what today’s lycra-tight yoga really needs: a practice of genuine inquiry that engages the entirety of our body-mind-heart-soul, and calls upon us to be fearless in the asking of questions, in the discovery of our own experiences, and the diving into the challenge and freedom of not-knowing. And we need a physical practice of yoga that emerges from within, from a deeply felt sense of being and connecting and experiencing, rather than an exercise routine that makes us look good and think we are better.
So it is with a deep sense of honour and gratitude that I have been invited by Tara and Scott to officially offer Embodied Flow. For those of you who already know me, it does not look so different from my “regular” teachings. But as teaching emerges from experience, well, I can say that I have experienced and discovered so very very much over the last month or so, and I have been gifted additional tools with which to offer these experiences.
Scott demonstrating the ligaments of the spine
So if you are a curious and fearless inquirer, I invite you to come explore, play and discover with me. While all of my classes will continue with this flavour and experience, my Friday 5.30pm class at Gertrude Street Yoga Studio is now my official Embodied Flow class, starting in the first week of February. Woven into your asana practice you will find embodied anatomy, some developmental embryology and movement patterns, partner work, and plenty of questions for you to ask and experience. There will be time to break it down, explore, play and yes… maybe even dance. Because really, what is yoga?
With love and curiosity,
Mei Lai xo
FYI – Here is the official Embodied FlowTM description from Tara and Scott:
Embodied Flow™ is a continuum of movement and expression that draws from the discoveries of various hatha, tantric and somatic movement systems in order to experience yoga as a living art form. Embodied Flow™ provides the technology for a deep sense of ease, strength and connectivity in the human form. This in turn, empowers the practitioner to be their own greatest teacher as they expand, integrate and facilitate awareness in their entire body-mind.
For more information check out Tara’s website: www.tarajudelle.com
by Mei Lai Swan | Sep 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
I’m writing this from the midst of a women’s yoga, ayurveda, and bellydance retreat in Bali, that I am running with my two dear friends, Carla Simone and Lakita Lynes. Every day the sun is warm and golden; the view from my villa at Nirarta Centre For Living Awareness overlooks rice paddies, a sacred mother river, and the spectacular Mt Agung. It’s far from the tourist hustle bustle of Ubud. Far enough away that when we bathe in the cool clear river, the local villagers still peer with fascination at white skin and fair hair.
The Nirarta gardens offer delightful ponds with bright lotuses, tree ferns with fronds begging to unfurl, slinky yellow-throated lizards bustling about, and colourful Balinese offerings placed in almost every nook and cranny and doorstep each day. Every morning, I return to my room from class with delight to find different kinds of fragrant flowers lovingly placed on my bed, my desk, the bathroom sink, even adorning the statue of the voluptuous, bare-breasted woman carved into the outer stone wall. It is a place overflowing with natural beauty, and enhanced by the touch of the Balinese, who know the power of beauty, of the feminine, and are not afraid to celebrate it.
It is the perfect place for us to come together as a group of women of all ages to take time out of daily life, to practice, to dance, to learn together, and to lush it up in Bali’s natural beauty. But most importantly, simply to be women together. To share personal and collective wisdom, to explore what it means to be a woman in today’s Western society, and to simply support one another as sisters, unreservedly, wholeheartedly, and with full acceptance.
So in this space I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on and sharing what yoga has to offer women, what yoga has to offer the experience and expression of the feminine – because most yoga as it is understood and practiced in the West today is very masculine, very ‘yang’. It seems like we’re all hooked on power yoga: turn up the heat and sweat it out, push harder, breathe louder, move faster, jump higher. You know the type… the type that has us injured and exhausted and limping home once the initial thrill has worn off.
So what would a ‘feminine’ yoga practice look like?
Yin yoga is recently being touted in studios everywhere as the feminine counterpart to power yoga: it is ‘receptive’, passive, still. It contains the principles of letting go, of non-action, of surrender…
But this understanding of a ‘feminine’ yoga keeps us confined within our painfully constricted Western view of the feminine as passive, inert, and submissive – and the masculine as active, powerful, and willful. These limited concepts hardly help us understand the dynamic expressions of the feminine that we find in contemporary Western life – the multi-tasking devoted mother, creative artist, yogini, focused businesswoman, and passionate lover. And they hardly help us develop a yoga practice that has the ability to bring us into balance, help us lead a skillful life, and guide us toward radical freedom and union: the goals of Yoga.
So how can we expand our yoga practice so that it is not a mechanical yin or yang ‘workout’, but a truly transformative practice that cultivates in us at once strength, yielding, power, devotion, surrender, wisdom and love. All held within the all-seeing embrace of blissful, crystal-clear awareness that is Shiva, the masculine.
Enter the teachings of Tantra. Not the bastardised Western sex practices kind of Tantra. The traditional Tantra that teaches that there is no hierarchy, no division between the physical and the spiritual. No differentiation between the world of humans, nature, and ‘God’. That everything – every sinew, every cell, every thought, every dust particle, every emotion, all the upheaval and all the beauty – is infused with the divine, is the direct expression of the divine. And that divine power is the feminine, is Shakti, the energy out of which everything comes to life.
In Tantra, we are offered tools and practices that bring us into intimate connection with the Hindu goddesses that Tantra celebrates as the personified expressions of the feminine energies that exist within all of us*. Amongst the most celebrated, there is Durga, the protectress and fierce warrior of love; Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, music and the arts; Kali, the terrifying force of destruction and transformation who wildly destroys our inner demons and illusions to bring renewed life and clarity; and Lakshmi, who imbues both the worldly and the spiritual with beauty, virtue, abundance and nourishment.
From this perspective, a ‘feminine’ yoga practice is one that gives us the capacity to experience everything: the fullness of life in both the worldly and the sublime, the delights and sufferances of the body, the mind, and the emotions; the beauty and terrors of human existence, relationships, politics – and to celebrate it all as sacred, as divine, as nothing but the incredible expression of consciousness itself. It is a practice that teaches us to honour this sacred human existence with deep attentiveness and celebration.
So let us move slowly enough to pay deep attention; to build strength, endurance, devotion, wisdom, and love; to truly experience the flow of breath as the river of life that sustains and nourishes us; to celebrate the dance of body and mind with all our individual quirks and perfections and imperfections; and to develop the capacity to embrace and to be everything, without judgement and without restriction: limitless, whole and free. This is the call to action and the real potential of a ‘feminine’ yoga.
* Last year I was fortunate enough to undertake a retreat with renowned meditation teacher Sally Kempton – a fount of knowledge, wisdom, experience, and transmission on Shakti and the Goddesses of Yoga. She has recently released an incredible book, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Powers of the Goddesses of Yoga, which will open you to the rich world of traditional Tantra, the sacred feminine, and the goddesses. This post is offered in deep reverence and gratitude to Sally and the rich offerings of her teachings, both in person and in writing. If you are inspired or simply curious, I encourage you to dive in and explore!
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