what we are made of

today i ventured to a cadaver lab for my yoga teacher training . the overall experience was extremely dynamic for the four hours we spent at the lab.

from the time we announced we were going to the lab and when we physically got there i had a few different feelings about it. at first i was excited to have the opportunity to study the cadavers and to get a deeper understanding of what we are using everyday. for people in my group i think a lot were hesitant towards the 'death' aspect of it all.. i mean no one really wants to be faced with their mortality, but in retrospect of our training yoga is the science of death. it prepares us to move on in this world to not be attached to the vessel we are apart of. when we got to the location i was a bit anxious (not nervous) to see how it all unfolded.

the man who was leading us through our experience was a wealth of information, you could clearly tell he was purely passionate about what was in front of us and that in itself was a positive experience. he guided us through slowly which was great because to be honest, i wasn't ready to see body parts exposed. he took it from bones to the outer most layer of the body. it was overwhelming at times, but i gained a greater awareness of how amazing our insides are.

how important it is for us to have movement in our life and to eat healthy just resonated a lot more clearly to me today. i practice yoga quite frequently, pretty active and eat a well balanced diet, but sometimes the idea of 'being healthy' only rings surface level. truly it's important. today i saw where our bones can break, or where are muscles could bruise, or ligaments rip. with that greater self awareness and base of anatomy i am a lot more interested in learning more not only about the human body, but where i am physically and how i move through this world.

when the class was coming to an end one of the last things we got to interact with was the heart. how fascinating it was to see all the chambers and vessels it contained. to hold something so beautiful (and know it's power) allowed me to have a greater connection to what's inside of me and that was a vibrant perspective to take home. i'm generally a man of many words, and the car ride home was relatively silent..

the main cadaver was a 70+ male utah resident who had lung cancer. obviously i'm not attached to the story, but it in my head i couldn't help, but think of a person who used to be attached to this body. although i've never met this cadaver, or even got to see a face he taught me a lot about myself and i think thats what is the most important thing about the experience is. this person dedicated their body to science, and knew it would be for the greater good. in a way it showed me that he wasn't attached to his body, and that he was ready to move on and thats what life is about.

i guess death is relative (maybe even that it doesn't exist). the energy from our remaining body transfers into something else on this planet. i guess you could say that "death" is the movement of life.