In need of a solid base OR shades of RED

I’m on the road now since many hours, yesterday morning I started my travels somewhere in the swiss alps, flew to the US and obviously made it through all the security checks. Jay!

For my connecting flight I have to wait in New York for 16 hours. Of course I made the very best out of the situation and went to Manhattan to attend one of Sri Dharma Mittras classes.

http://www.dharmayogacenter.com/welcome.php

He is one legendary yoga master and my teachers teacher, this fact was calling my special interest. I wanted to go back to the root, explore where all the inspiration and love originally come from.

Surprinsingly easy I found the studio, which is warm, comfy and very welcoming, pastel green walls, dark red floors, hindu gods and godesses all over the place. There is a shop with merchandising shirts etc. for tourists like me, yoga props, raw snacks and coconut water, Nang Champa in the air... A fun, playfull dog follows the master and stays with us in the shala while we practice. Cool, I like yoga dogs!

We start with Surya Namaskar, he plugs in his iPad and turns on a huge wallscreen, what a modern, open wise man he is. The shala is huge, not to compare with what I'm used to from back home. The class is full, not packed, though.

Lucky me, I found ground for my mat in the second row, from here I can be really close to the master and hey, I came a long way today, the others can attend his classes everyday.

Insisting on my right to be right here! Earlier in my yogi career I would have hidden in the last row, behind a collum, thinking I’m not good enough for the front rows, these are for those who come constantly – NO! First come, first served.

Nowadays Muladhara tells me to go for it! 
I deserve it as much as all the others do. During our sun salutation warm-up I realized my balance was not the best today. I was tired, my body was, since myself did not do a whole lot. Mind good, body weak. The airline moved anamayakosha from Europe to the US, there was just a lack of sleep, which made me feel unbalanced, jetlagged and in need of more grounding...

This is supported by Muladhara Chakra. The root chakra. Red its colour. LAM its bija (seed) mantra. When we are born this chakra is already developed, the others will follow with in the next month and years. At our first stage, as little babys, we can not yet distinguish between us and not us, between inside us and our surrounding, it is all the same, this is why we act like little queens and kings, totally naturally. We are helpless and depend, of course, but we are not aware of that, we take it for granted that we are pampered, this is all we want, expect and need at that stage. At that age we are still completely connected to the source where we just came from. 

It is important that we deveolp step by step, imagine you where born into this world, aware of your situation, it would freak you out, don’t you think...so we are all happy and innocent for a while until we start to find out that there is a difference between me and mommy, there is two bodies, there is my pillow, my bed etc. we start to have belongings, cry if we miss a certain person or a toy. We are more conscious now, start exploring and use our hands. Orange. But this is another story.

As adults we sometimes forget about this feeling and how important it is. So check back in every once in a while, you can only win here.