Pulse

My yoga practice comes to its close with a series of forward bends, the last of which is baddha konasana. 

I hold my feet a little differently than in this image, wrapping my palms around my toes and opening both my forearms and the soles of my feet to the sky.  This folding open helps me not only to open my hips, but to open my heart and my breath, allowing me to sink deeper into the asana both physically and mentally.

So, you might be able to imagine that at the halfway point, before I had released myself completely to the floor, I would be looking directly down at my inner wrists.  Though I'm normally focused on breathing through the intense sensations of stretch in this pose, today I was distracted as I noticed a pronounced, rhythmic bouncing between the stretching tendons of my wrists.  My radial pulse.

I've never witnessed the steady surging of my heart down into my hands before.

Returning to my breath, eyes now closed, my attention drew itself upward with the inhale and into my belly.  Without my vision, I felt my upper body bouncing subtlely as I folded forward.  This sensation isn't new to me; having inherited my mother's narrow torso, my abdominal aorta has always been prominent enough to palpate and visualize.  I open my eyes today.  I can see the inner pulse of my heart from out here, and this through the extra skin and bulge of my belly.  Everywhere I look, inside myself and out, as I bow to my heart in this pose, I can see - see - her powerful, sustaining pulse.  Nourishing the entirety of me - body, breath, and spirit.

I exhale the thought...strong heart.  I inhale up from my feet, through the hips, into the heart.  I exhale again with growing assurance...I have a strong heart.

I take this grounding with me as I lie down, letting the solidity of the earth hold me in my final pose, savasana. 

Breath.  Clarity.  Shanti.