I remember sitting in a cafe in NW Portland with a teacher I had put way up high on a pedestal. She sat across from me at this expensive cafe where I had asked her to join me for lunch. Sort of crazy as I look back on it. NEVER do I want anyone to feel around me as I felt in her presence…. starstruck, nervous, sitting beneath her “throne”.  

With her, that day, was when I first learned of being “vertical”. I was newly married and she was essentially schooling me on how I needed to tend to my own needs and be clear for myself, and by myself, as to what was mine and what was his. We weren’t talking bank accounts and cars, we were talking about emotions and traumas. That stuck with me…. and I committed to getting vertical. Which, by the way, I have done (or more accurately, I do everyday).

Fast-forward to living in the coastal foothills of Oregon, where my closest friends were 30 foot tall Hemlocks and Cedars. No matter what happened in terms of hills or river, meadow or cliff…. they taught me what it meant to remain vertical, and what would happen if I began to lean a little too far one way or another.

And here we are, now. And I’m thinking about what it means to be vertical. Again. In my life. In my relationships. In my yoga practice.

I think of Hatha Yoga (the kind of yoga I teach) like the “trunk” of one of those big, old trees. Thick, nourished. Pulsing with life, and connected to all the other “branches” of yoga: the yin, vinyasa, svaroopa, iyengar, anusara and kundalini, to name some.

Still, ask any old sage, and Hatha is the trunk. Vertical. Steady. The first to come. The last to “go”. It holds the sun practices, the “energy out” practices. The radiant, penetrating, will-powering practices. And it holds the moon practices, the “energy in”. The magnetic, absorbing, intuition-powering practices. And it also holds the space in between…. Where the night meets the day. Death meets life. The inhale meets the exhale. Tragedy meets miracle.

So today…. I just wanted to share with you a little bit on getting “vertical” and let you know that I have some really sweet little practices for you to “imbibe in” over on my YouTube Channel. Just head on over for some inspiration, yoga, and a little more vitality in your life.… if you are called, of course.

That’s all. Just love, Love, and more LOVE.

XOm,

Britt