"Music has charms that soothe the savage (?) beast"

I noticed on Friday while I was working with a student in my living room that Lewis the Bagle seemed unusually blissed out. This was the third time I've worked with the student privately in my home, and the first few times, Lewis was kind of hyper, competing for mat space, walking under her during downward dog, generally trying to get in on the action. But THIS time...it was completely different.


What we worked on was a bit different - lots of trance-dance/Kundalini inspired moves to enliven the extremities and soften the shoulder and hip sockets, before we ever got to anything classically "hatha" (this student is very very new to yoga and is learning body awareness as well as gaining a new mindset about yoga as a way to bring the body into more perfect health than the gym ever could hope to). But I think that what was really and truly the difference for Lewis was the music.

I had recently created a new playlist that seems particularly juicy to me, and my students have been telling me how much they are loving it. It is a realy "gellin'"mixture of:



lots of flutes and recorder and other tribal-sounding wind instruments



soft, pulsing, hypnotic drumbeats, sounds of the rainforest




otherworldly vocals, if there are vocals at all....




And Lewis just went into this trance....


and this evening, wanting to plod on with my Lost Weekend Marathon (I'm halfway through season one now, and I am still completely intrigued) without interruption, I decided to plug the ole iPod Video into its dock and play the Lewis Trance Playlist....

As you can see, the results were superb. Now, I must go back to deciphering what is ultimately going to be undecipherable (I DID see Twin Peaks, so I won't be fooled again).

YC