Le Chocolat en Rose Truffles

“Come and flow. Powerfully lift your heart, and let go. Yoga is tonight!” read my text tease, for the yoga class.

What speaks to love, more than a box of rose-petal covered champagne truffles?

A heart-lifting (opening) yoga practice can. Luck may have aligned this particular asana sequence with my 7pm class on Valentine’s Day 2011. It was a sequence full of heart-opening asana (poses), including Ustrasana, or camel pose. Intentionally or not, it was a great way to wrap up a Monday.

I put together that sequence because my own shoulders have a somewhat limited range of motion. For me, a practice that spends more time moving and using them in certain ways has helped improve that range, which can help me relax more fully during and outside of practice. Additionally, it often just feels good, during or after that very practice.

On a deeper level in yoga philosophy, one having to do with the subtle body, i.e. energy flow through the seven chakras: including these poses in an asana practice can help lubricate that particular energy valve: if a yogini is experiencing conflict in her life that has to do with love or compassion, doing some heart-opening asana may help her recognize or even resolve that conflict.

But really, any yoga practice speaks to love, on a deeper level, one so esoteric it may slip right in. You come to your mat, pause a few moments to clear your mind, then put that mind to your breath and movement. You’re taking that time to let everything else in your life wait for you, while you give your body – the only one you get –  a little extra care.

When I finished my yoga teacher training, I was resolute on being someone who introduces new people to yoga. Finding the words to tempt them into it (such as those in my first sentence, in this post) has proven to be a worthy challenge. As a word and philosophy enthusiast, I think I’m up to it.

Perhaps I could try offering some of those truffles, at my next class? I want to thank Vosges Haut Chocolat for making them, and for allowing me to borrow the above image from their website. And I want to again thank my loving husband for being a fan of my delicious.com bookmarks page, where he found the not-very-subtle hint that I REALLY wanted to eat those truffles.