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Poetry and Yoga: Ground Yourself During Life’s Challenges With This Moving Meditation

Welcome to our Yogi Poet Series – a place where poetry and yoga unite to bring you a sensory experience of movement, meditation, and mindfulness. Meet Nate Pritts – an English Professor, poet, and yogi.
 
Nate’s words have been published in eight books of poetry, and in his most recent collaboration, has teamed up with YouAligned to bring us the Yogi Poet Series.
 
Nate’s most recent book of poetry, Decoherence, was recently released and is filled with inspiring poems that intersect our environment, emotions, and creativity – a perfect parallel to our yoga practice.
 
Enjoy this poem with accompanying yoga pose and guided meditation.
 

Read the poem then practice the pose.

 

How to Face Your Challenges as You Approach the Poem

Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and find a quiet place. Get comfortable and take your time reading the poem below, allowing the words to fill your heart and wash over you:
 

ANOTHER NEW WORLD

 
Some hearts are smarter than others.
    I keep mine dumb
maybe a little too open to being awful
 
maybe too close to the darkness
because I worry that a predictable compass
makes the journey a bore
 
    or else I’m deficient in some other way,
not able to depend on the pleasures
already around me.
 
I’m exhausted     at the prospect of dealing with
my contradictions     or apologizing for the difference
between how I act & what I feel when I sit
 
like a galaxy in frantic balance with itself.
I reject any desire         to understand
the bulky machine of responsibility
 
& consequence lodged in my chest. I reckon
the weight of my soul using flawed methods.
    Sometimes I have visions
 
but if I described them, you’d laugh. No epiphany,
nothing biblical. They’re more opulent, like a hotel
with large bathrooms, mirrors everywhere,
 
& my own face looking back     expectant
like a sweet lost dope. The apparatus inside
is just something I learned from television,
 
    from a few old records,
& is not real spirit, not actual fire, not your breath
in my ear which I can’t stop feeling
 
even here where everything is still, & so solid.
What you need most can’t be found
in this regular world. It’s not on your phone
no matter how often you check.
 
 
Sometimes we feel like giving up, as if nothing we’ve done or could ever do would serve to make everything better enough. We feel ourselves hit from all sides – too many responsibilities, too many demands.
 
We stand in the present but are too full of the past and too scared of the future. This poem reminds us that the world is real, and it matters, but sometimes what we need most comes from some other place.

 
Begin to notice any themes that arise, either in the words or in your thoughts as you read. What do you feel? A sense of familiarity? A feeling of acceptance – that it’s ok for us to get lost from time to time because that’s how we find ourselves on a deeper level?
 
Take time to reflect on the poem’s meaning – how do you translate the meaning, and how does it touch your own life?
 

 

How to Approach the Yoga Pose and Guided Meditation

When you’re ready, read the caption beneath the yoga pose. Get into the pose, and then stay there as you begin to breathe deeply. Maybe you close your eyes, or maybe you set your drishti on something beautiful nearby.
 
 

Tree Pose

tree-pose
 
Standing grounded and rooted to the earth, rising tall through the crown of your head as you find steadiness and ease amidst the struggle. Life will always throw you challenges. It’s not so much about what happens to you; it’s about how you choose to handle it.
 
Like a tree, remain steady. Become still and tune into the vast knowledge that comes from within in. Through it, channel your strength and prowess to rise up, root down, and stand tall.

 
As you hold the pose, reflect on the caption’s message. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in life where you’ve proven your strength and ability to remain grounded?
 
What challenges are you currently dealing with that you can channel your strength, rise up, and face with power and poise?
 

Make Every Day Poetry In Motion

Today, we invite you to take a few moments to enjoy this beautiful poem, center yourself in the accompanying yoga pose, and breathe a little empowerment into any challenges that you’re dealing with. Allow this poem and moving meditation to be a reminder that you’ve got this!
 
Thanks for practicing with us! Stay tuned for more poems and yoga practice from our Yogi Poet Series.
 
Namaste, yogis!
 

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Poetry and Yoga: Find Gratitude and Presence With This Moving Meditation
The Yogi Poet Series is a place where poetry and yoga unite to bring you a sensory experience of movement, meditation, mindfulness, and gratitude.
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Nate Pritts

Nate Pritts is the author of eight books of poetry, including Decoherence, and he often writes on the intersection of the environment, emotions and the creative arts. He lives in the Finger Lakes region of NY State.

natepritts.com

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