Why do so many adults love Halloween? I think it is because it lets us express parts of ourselves, perhaps even those shadow parts, which we rarely show. Behind a mask, a costume, we can embrace the qualities of our outer form. We may find ourselves not just acting the part, but feeling the part. But what does all this have to do with Yoga? Yoga poses have long been considered ways to “try on” the qualities of other characters and creatures – the mighty roar of the Lion, the proud carriage of the Warrior, the grace of the Swan.

This has been one of my favorite classes since I began experimenting with the theme in 2006. I have based classes on yoga animal and plant asanas as well as on Kali, a ferocious Hindu goddess. In college a senior left me her leopard pantsuit when she graduated and it has been the basis of my go-to Halloween costume for decades since. I’ve bought cute ears, pinned on a tail, painted on whiskers… You get the picture. I have even had the nerve to prance by the guards at the women’s prison, with my tail tucked modestly in my satchel until I get to class.
This year I centered my groups with an energy face massage. Rubbing hands together to create heat and a lovely vibration we brought the energy up to our faces. Before the hands touch the skin, there is a moment when our expression is hiding behind the screen of our fingers and we can “let our masks go”. How many faces do I wear in a day? What a relief to have permission to let my facial muscles relax. In this class we return again and again to this simple exercise to transition between the different characters we assume.

The Cock and the Lion set the tone for in this class. Kukkutasana and Simhasana appear in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, an early Hatha Yoga text (probably written in the 14th to 15th Century A.D.), so I feel we are joining our energies with generations of yogis when we practice these postures. There is much controversy about where many of our modern yoga asanas actually arose, but familiar sitting postures , spinal twists , inversions, forward bends, and backbends are included the Indian guru, Satmarama’s, compilation of the wisdom of Hatha Yoga of his time. Once in a while I like to remind myself of the classics.

Try any sequence of your favorite postures, visualizing and imitating the energetic qualities of each character you choose. If there is a pose that has always been too much of a challenge, try making up your own version so you can add the energy of that animal or plant to your practice. Imagine each yoga pose as a Qigong frolic – a chance to explore and connect your playful inner child with the energies of the natural world.

I have begun to organize my yoga classes around the five elements and seasons of Chinese medicine and Qigong. As I work with my students I am seeing great value in the repetition of what I have come to call “default practices” and I am beginning to organized them seasonally. This corresponds to the first stage, or willful practice phase of yoga. Each day, in my own practice, anxiety arises as I have to choose how to begin. Depending on the day, I have to make a willful choice of what to do next rather than simply finding my body flowing into its own practice. Do I start with Pranayama? a prayer? a physical warm-up? Students often tell me they love to be told what to do in class. No brain weighing the effort and benefits of various activities, just mind attending to present sensations. Both Qigong forms and Kripalu yoga pranyamas, warm-ups, and vinyasa flows help me reduce the number of decisions I need to make in my Sadhana. I generally pick a warm-up sequence and then proceed through it, allowing myself to explore the familiar postures as feels appropriate at the time, but knowing the general sequence I plan to follow. Once I pick the plan, the pressure of decision making is over, I relax, and sometimes find myself moving in a new direction! Then I pick a pranayama or a standing qigong meditation, followed by vinyasa (a fancy name for any yoga flow of postures), or a qigong frolic, ending with relaxation. Once the initial decision is made for each phase of my practice, I too can attend to sensation. I generally include joint loosening movements, self-massage,attention to breath, still and moving postures in a balanced practice. Organizing these elements within the structure of the Chinese medical calendar lends me additional guidance. I feel rather like a poet writing in a given form, narrowing some choices, yet still free to express herself.

Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth are the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine. Just as Yoga is linked in India to Ayurveda, so is Qigong linked to Chinese healing. Therefore, the five elements are central to the practice of Qigong. Each element corresponds to a different season of the year (the Chinese add Indian Summer or the harvest for the Earth element), a different set of emotions, a color, one of the five senses, a healing sound, particular organs in the body, even planets. In Qigong there are different animals associated with these elements, organs, and emotions, leading to the practice of animal frolics. Not surprisingly, there are parallels between the Indian and Chinese traditions that make it interesting to create seasonal classes that incorporate elements from both traditions.

Currently, when I choose practices for myself or my classes, I focus on the elements of the season I am in, consciously balancing the energies of the moment. My next post will focus on the harvest season. If I am ill or in a particular mood, it may be useful to bring in practices from an element that is not of the current time of year. Healing Sounds Qigong, for example, balances all the elements and can be a soothing practice any time. I often choose all, or just the seasonal sound, for the standing meditation in my practice or classes.

Yang Ying is a former Chinese opera singer who teaches the proper Chinese sounding. I find the precision of her sounds very challenging for my American ear, tongue, lips, throat, and mouth. Maybe I’m just not that vocally coordinated. Deborah Davis simplifies the sounds for Westerners and coordinates them with simple physical gestures that I find very rewarding.