Open Skies (Wishcasting)

Wishcasting Wednesday is here and today the question is:

What do I wish to experience?

What came to mind was a relaxation/visualization that I often use at the end of the yoga classes I teach. If you've never practiced yoga - and possibly even those of you who have taken classes for years - then it might be surprising to hear that the entire class - the postures, the breathing practices, the sweat and the stretch - is all preparation for the final relaxation or Savasana that comes at the end. Indeed the corpse pose as Savasana is translated is considered by one of the great masters and teachers of yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar to be The Most Difficult of all the poses. It requires one to be completely still, balanced and present. My teacher says it mentors us in the experience of dying to the past and the future while abiding fully in the now moment.

When I guide students into this practice I like to use visualization to help the mind get past some of its busyness while the body relaxes. One of my favorite prompts is to visualize the wide open sky. And in considering what it is I wish to experience, it is that sensation of feeling myself wide open and spacious like the sky.





I wish to experience myself as the sky: vast, boundless, unlimited potential, limitless possibilities.

I wish to experience myself like the sky embracing everything and holding nothing.

I wish to experience myself like the sky completely filled and completely empty.

I wish to experience myself like the sky always present, always changing.

I wish to experience my life like the sky: clouds, storms, rain, wind, sun, heat, humidity moving through me but ultimately never defining or describing me.

When I have had a deep Savasana experience, there is this moment where I am waking up and briefly I do not know who I am. Rather than being frightening, this moment is liberating. For in that moment, I am free of any burdens of who I am, who I believe myself to be and of the weight the circumstances of my life may place upon my shoulders.

Or rather, I am free of the weightiness that is being a finite me. This is what I wish to experience: my infinite Self.

(For an thoughtful article on the lessons Savasana offers us, I just found this article.)

Full disclosure: A very close second to my wish would be: I wish to experience Ewan McGregor ... well, use your imagination ...




... a spin on relaxation pose?

For more wishes (of the G-rated variety I'm sure) check here.