(Image from Creative Commons)

Those that know me know that many Really Good Things have come into my life recently. One of these things is having the opportunity to train with Carla Wilcox, former female pro boxer, and who has made a name for herself around town as Seattle’s Best Zen Boxing Instructor.

You might be thinking, “Um, ahimsa, much?” Why on earth is this yogi training in what sounds like a really violent way, when ahimsa, or non-violence/non-harming, is one of the tenets of self-discipline/restraint, or yamas that are outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras?

Well, I met Carla when she started coming to my Morning YO classes at local nutrition bar Healeo (that I’ve blogged about here), and I’m a big believer in the Universe’s propensity to send you exactly the right people you need in your life at exactly the right moments in your life. So let’s just clear something up right now: I don’t have any intention of beating the crap out of anyone, nor getting the crap beat out of me. Rather, I am working with Carla within the powerful context of spiritual kinship and cosmic timing.

In that spirit of trusting that things will fall into place as they should, the story in this post begins yesterday afternoon when I got a text message that read: “Can u do a yoga class then tea then short meditation then box?” This meant the following morning (which, as of this writing, is a couple of hours ago). I retired last night with the intention of heading into the boxing gym to teach yoga, but early this morning as I was preparing to leave, I got another text that said: “Change of plans. It’s so beautiful out. Come to rooftop!”

So I did, and we had a lovely small group class facing this:

Urban Sunrise on Seattle Rooftop

After yoga we headed over to the boxing studio and indulged in a beautiful tea sharing among friends, including Healeo proprietor Justin, and Jeffrey, who works over at Seattle Best Tea Corporation, one of many hidden gems in the International District. Jeffrey expertly prepared several kinds of tea for us, including a rare and beautifully aged Pu-erh, and a high elevation Oolong. At the tender age of 19, Jeffrey has led an extremely unique life and, apart from gleaning an expertise in high quality tea from working at the tea shop, also happens to be a gifted meditation instructor. So following conversation and friendship over tea, bodies relaxed and hydrated, we moved into a brief meditation practice guided by Jeffrey.

Following meditation, we then began an hour of boxing training, which is comprised of, depending on the day, a lot of heart-pumping cardio conditioning, and some time practicing connecting with either a heavy hanging bag, a wall bag, or punching pads in the ring held by Coach Carla.

Let me tell you folks, it’s 11:30 A.M. on Thursday, September 17th, 2009, and this yogi’s body, mind, heart, and soul all feel conditioned, focused, and blessed by my morning, and the magical synergy of circumstances, people, and details that allowed all this to happen.

Joy to you.

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