Honoring Dr. King, a Being of Great Intention

Introduction: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great and influential figure. To speak to how profound an influence he was on the world. I’m reminded of the time I asked my Grandmother Thelma Peterson what the greatest thing she’d seen in her lifetime. My grandmother was born in the early 1900s and say the first cars, the airplane, and all kinds of other great technological achievements. She was a Rosie the Riveter, working on bomber planes during WWII, and she saw women gain the right to vote.

But of all the things in my grandmother’s lifetime, when I asked her what the greatest thing she’s seen was she said this, “The other day I was looking out the window of my apartment and I saw a little black boy playing with a little white boy down the street. And you know when I was a child and for most of my life you would
never see that. I think that’s just the greatest thing.”

You think of what you can do in a lifetime and Dr. King is a modern American hero. Someone who moved mountains and touched the hearts of everyone who lived in his time. This is important to our yoga practice because ultimately the goal of yoga is our own union with the highest and best potential. Seeing people like Dr. King who really connect with that potential inspires and enlightens us.

In today's class we’re working with the seven energetic loops in the body. These are all subtle refinements on the poses, but these little things all add up to create big consequences. We engage this with strong intentions to fully
align with our highest and best in each pose.

Centering: We're working with the energetic loops by engaging them sequentially in our practice from the foundation to the extremities of the body. Each loop is part
of the unique beautiful woven tapestry that forms our body. Let your body mirror the community of the heart and the Kula. When all beingslive in their own truth in their fullest, brightest light, we can realize our own truth.

The way the loops are integrated in the body is similar to the way MLK says all beings are interrelated in finding their truth –

“All I'm saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of
mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“faith is taking the first step even who don’t see the whole staircase”
1. SN/LL hands on floor with back leg straight/chatturanga – press
through the heels
2. SN/LL twist – shin loop, shins in thighs out, bend knees slightly

“freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed”
3. SN/LL back knee down to hanumanasana – thigh loop,
4. SN/Pvakon/dhanurasana – pelvic loop, when in doubt stick it out, scoop tailbone in bow

“Everthing we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see”
5. SN/HL/dhanurasana – kidney loop, inflate the lower back, beach ball grab in HL, then puff up kidneys in bow
6. SN/HL twist/shalambhasana – engage shoulder loop – side body long, shoulders to ears, shoulderblades onto the back. Widen tops of shoulder blades and bring bottoms together. Engage from the back body. In high lunge plug arms in then rise up.

“Darkness cannot drive out darknesss. Hate cannot drive out hate.
Only love can do that.”
7. SN/Warrior I to II/hands on back of head lift skull up – focus on skull loop, pull ears back past shoulders and draw head back. Lift the chin and press head back into cosmic headrest.
8. Demo then as a group - Engage all Seven Loops sequentially in Side Plank and open to Wild Thing

“A man can’t ride your back unless its bent”
9. Rest in child’s pose, roll over onto back and come to bridge, engage the seven loops in each.
10. Urdhva Dhanurasana x3

”We might have arrived in different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.”
11. Uttanasana/Malasana engage the seven loops
12. Savasana

Closing: We honor Dr. King and the others in the civil rights movement who taught us that we can only realize our highest and best intentions by reaching out to others to help them reach their highest and best.