the gifts of twists
Dear Ones,
Hello! Today is the start of the fifth weekend of my training, The Genius of Yoga. The students are beginning to realize the truth and the depth of this title. Here’s an example of how the mat meets my life.
This week we focus on twists. I teach twists with 4 primary principles:
Set up your circumstances.
Don’t seek more.
Attend to the inside.
Be prepared to receive.
Over the Thanksgiving break these principles served me enormously. The ways I learn to think about postures and body and mind always affect me off the mat. With my kids in college now every minute together seems to matter. I do my best to have good plans in place, where to stay, what to do, friends to see along the way. I set the circumstances of our time carefully. I find once the whirlwind of the visit is over I can finally mull over what happened in slower replay rolling them like beads in my pocket as I walk along. I savor bits of conversation or even their passing expressions in more detail. If I didn’t take care with the setting I can feel regret creep into these reflections - what could’ve been… if only … Regret, no bueno. Regret can needlessly sour our thoughts. But it is a motivator to be sure. So I’ve learned to really think it through - set up my circumstances with a strong base, a clear direction, a simple place of arrival - to enjoy the time afterwards more fully.
Then, the varsity move: don’t seek more.
In a twist, as in much of life, we tend to want more. We can find the initial attempt and then breath after breath we keep pushing further. One more bite of cake, one more comment in a conversation, a little more time in savasana, one more day of vacation, one more … more is better, right? No, little wonder. No more for you. Not the big, effortful outer more anyway. Not in a twist and not in family. The stage is set. Now we let go, let something else take over, watch for the surprise we didn’t foresee, the change we couldn’t have planned. Trust this.
There’s the unknown. We did our best, planned well, set it in motion, watched it take on a life of its own, and now I can attend to the inside. By this I mean savor what’s happening.
In the midst of the pose or the peeling of carrots together or the making of beds, I’m learning that is where to put my attention. I invite an inner stilling, my breath slows, I seem to sink in my skin a bit, like I could affect the passage of time by my very concentration. More of this. More of the side by side in the kitchen. More of the quiet of the car as they sleep off the effort of midterms. More of the daily daily daily life in this moment. I feel into it. Not more action, more attention. How does it taste in my bones? How does my most subtle of tissues shift when I am in intimate contact with my Loves and their lives? It doesn’t matter what we are doing. I am just here to soak in its sensation because that is what makes the juiciest memory to encounter later. I let the twist, the drive, the dishwashing simply engulf me.
I notice how my heart fills, how my most human-cosmic heart in in love with this fleeting, mundane, unrepeatable moment. I savor it.
The final step, being ready to let it in is when we come out of a twist that has wrung through all the spongy inner organs, we are emptied and waiting, and then untwisted we return, and whoosh there is a return. New blood. New fluid. New function. My job is to let it in. And the message of the receiving is to change. Has my body softened or do I just rush off into the next pose? Have I really received the time together doing dishes or am I on to prepping the grocery list? Is there a wave of ease and awe that starts to accumulate? Breath by returning breath the inner landscape get ridiculously rich.
That’s when the kids look at me and nudge me from my inner twist, “C’mon mom, let’s go.” And I blink, alive and clear and more freely, fully in the moment. This is the gift of twists; set me up, wring me out, trust it all, let it in - the best holiday gift I know to share. Enjoy the long dark and bright lights of this season.
All love, Martha
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If you are in Baltimore
- consider December 20, 12-2 pm for the solstice. Expect a slow flow with me exploring these twisting principles to wring out a long year and landing in a soundscape with Zac making winter magic for us.
Or the annual January 1, Kundalini by Candlelight will be 5-7pm with a Kriya to detox, take aim, and name the words that will guide 2026 to new territory. The incredible vocal looping and crystal bowls of IAHIAL will be with us. It’s worth it just for her, but together we are Medicine.
Both are at TRIBE, 107 East Preston St. Baltimore. Register here to hold your spot.
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If you’d rather meet online
WINTER 1 will begin online December 22 and run for 40 days. This is a strong practice to engage with the potency of dormancy that is afoot in winter. There is power in the quiet, the rest of the year starts here. Tend your inward gaze and become skillful with your attention while the world is resting. Register here.
I don’t know who I would be without these 8 sequences through the year.
We move up through the body and the season 40 days at a time.
These are the energies that reorganize and challenge me. God is here. Source is here. Great Nature is here. Consolation, inspiration, organization, all here. I have learned that I am a response to the fields around and within me, that to shape or change my life, I give shape to these subtle fields and let the change come through. The community is my gold. They are my savings account, the place to go that holds everything else. You are welcome. If you have questions, email me. Ask. Get in there. There is a practice for you that changes everything. (Check out the podcast below for more.) Register here.
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Podcast interview : I was recently in conversation with Fit for Midlife: Powerful conversation with Martha McAlpine if you would like to listen. We cover what serves me most in this moment of my life, and how I navigate my body and my world.
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Reply to this email and let me know how you are, and as I consider what to create in the coming year, let me know what you need. Requests for yin and a return of my vinyasa to YouTube have been floated. Tell me your wishes, and they will inspire what comes next.
More to come.
Onward xx