Month: May 2015

A gift for EVERYONE… this practice.

Post author By Kay T. Ananda
Post date May 17, 2015

Okay … I’m late.

Very late…

The weekend was so compressed, I really needed to take my own class tonight (the shuttle does not come; long lines everywhere; unplanned hike in the hills of Saratoga on an empty stomach; mad rush to get to a place …) drama, drama, drama … Luckily, as an eternal student of yoga, I have a toolbox to not let the drama hijack my intentions. In a way, because of that need to take my own class I felt, ironically, I was so much more able to empathize with the students who showed up. I really saw them with tender eyes …we were on the same boat, floating down the same river, on the same journey.

I had meant to read a passage on the New Moon vis-a-vis “us” but … time went by so fast (no worries – sharing at the end of this post), I cannot understand why there’s not enough time to do all intended as I have so much more to offer but then, that’s what it’s about. To know that there is actually more than enough time to do all – there is enough time. We have to stop replaying this feeling of “not enough” nagging at us. We create the scarcity sometimes – There’s not enough money; there’s not enough to share; there’s not enough energy; and, the most common, there’s not enough time … on and on with feelings of deprivation to the point of believing even this – I am not enough. That fear begins to take over sometimes – fear that perhaps it’s not the time or the money but maybe … I am not enough? Really? Make a shift in that mindset of scarcity … There’s enough. There is ENOUGH. In fact, we have so much, that’s more than enough. We have plenty. We are swimming in abundance – There is “abundance” if you tap into it. Time really is a weird concept – and we have enough. we are enough. You are enough. I am enough.

I like to approach a group class for all-levels as just that – for everyone … For special needs, I rather customize and gear the class to serve that particular group’s specific needs but of course all are welcome. In a general group class (unlike say, specifically directed to students suffering from cancer or autoimmune disease such as MS or chronic fatigue … then, the practice lead would be more keenly nuanced and delicate), I have to assume that each student is listening to their own body and I too am there to help modify and bring comfort. If Yin yoga is about training and dealing with discomforts to have breakthroughs; Restorative yoga is about … Bliss – How can I find Bliss – in a yoga pose, really letting go. It’s also part a meditation practice if you so choose it to be.

In a general group class, then, Restorative Yoga class as the name “restorative” suggests, is for (1) the healthy and the vibrant to use the practice as preventative measure to maintain that health and ideally, have even more of a surge to attain “optimal” health; (2) and on the opposite end of the spectrum, for the suffering, to find healing and restoration… a renewal through acceptance and receptivity for better things to come; (3) and everyone in-between to find their balance and the inborn natural vibe … that harmonious rhythm, the riff you strum within. In other words, as Judith illuminates:

Restorative Yoga is for Everyone !

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– New Moon tonight so plant your “seeds” of intentions … wherever you direct your desires to, wherever you direct your energy to, the seeds will germinate and flower… yes, they blossom…
There are different kinds of lunar salutations (just as there are different variety of sun salutations) and the one practiced tonight is not actually the one that I practice at home – that’s a secret – haha – no I will share one of these days – but more resembles this one so thought to do together. It’s the more familiar if you are used to doing sun salutations during the day… Here’s my coverage of it from a previous post… Click Here.

It’s best not to exercise 2-4 hours prior to bedtime especially on a New & Full Moon evenings not that yoga is supposed to be just an exercise. So don’t let Chandra Namaskar to be energizing … instead, let it be soothing and dreamy …kind of like you are one with the air, the ether …wafting like the scent that surrounds you. Delicious deep sleep is the most anti-aging, anti-inflammatory elixir that can remedy so much… I bid “Good night” & wish all sentient beings “Sweet Dreams”… Here I share an affirmation good for the whole week post-new moon as we are still in that phase. Namaste.

Yoga

“Hang Loose” and practice Preventative Medicine

Post author By Kay T. Ananda
Post date May 16, 2015

Few weekends ago, I went with my gut feeling listening to my inner guide based on what I want vs. where I should be and what I should be doing.
Thank you M-san for seeking my company to join you. It’s amazing that it’s exactly what I was interested in finding out more …as you can tell by my previous post.
Fusing Eastern healing methods from different divergent traditions – Japanese Medicine, Chinese Medicine and … YOGA, my passion…
& turns out there’s a team who does something similar to what I had in mind ! Kindred spirits! M-san, you are, of course:)

My mind has not digested all learned so hope to integrate the knowledge over time – someday, it’s all going to spill over:) Currently, just letting things soak… soaking it all within me to tap into like an apothecary… For now, all mixed and seeping out a little by little as I integrate my own practice from all these different styles and teachers… and what I made up that worked for me. (yes, me the laboratory rat, haha) It’s an alternative medicine – and very interesting to listen to people with different issues – someone who just had a neck surgery; someone who has weak knees, etc.
But we all did yoga (yes, it’s possible with injuries) and … felt sooooo good:) because it was gentle but highly methodical. Therapeutic. Effective. Yes, I trained my mind, using mindfully choreographed asanas as my tools.

When I saw this video and realized that, although, a little, well couple of subtle shades different, she nevertheless, shares much of my own philosophy. I decided YES – I will try her workshop – just squeeze it in – as she basically said virtually everything I had been thinking and churning in my head and sometimes expressing – when it comes to the kind of Yin yoga I teach … although I try more to alleviate or eliminate that “frustration” and discomforts through various tools … THEN there’s the restorative practice, to me, the actual “fascia”kind of a practice, that fuses and melds the yin and yang together… yes, in its nourishing net, the web that envelopes into one the duality in all practices. Similar and different like so many things in life… we need.

Yes, A LOT of YANG activities in our lives as we are conditioned to “work-out” “get in shape”, so this is a lovely off-set, a counter-practice to work-in, find peace within. Lovely time for meditation that clears your mind and also clears and purifies the body.

I don’t care about all the academics but “to me” yoga is about purifying the body and training the mind …in whatever form it takes, it’s just a different path we take to get to the same destination. Here’s Setareh on Yin even though the workshop was not so much on yin but on Qui-Gong … which is an ancient practice I also hold in high regard:

Setareh Moafi (yoga) and Salvador Cefalu (Qi-Gong), the duo gives skilled workshops and felt we share the same core values on how best to attain optimal wellness.

Beautiful Things

“Beautiful Broken Things”

They catch the light differently … beautiful broken things …musing “reflections”…
– Zane Lewis, Shatter Painting Collection …
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There is a rest in brokenness. You lie on that hard ground, unable to function as you did before. So you lie there. There are no more “should s” because the luxury of self-recrimination was taken from you when you fell and broke into pieces of the earth below. “Cannot” doesn’t matter now, either. All that exists in this moment is “What is Now.”

This.

And there is beauty in the brokenness. It is a beauty of constellations in the scars,
of tides in the tears, the heat of fire in the bleeding of you.
In the abrupt quiet that follows and unexpected injury, a sacred silence fills you.
And because there is nothing left in you that can create, push, force, be, or drive into,
there is a blessed empty space, to be filled by something other than all the crazed and busy thinking, the manic achieving, and the over-scheduled hours.

This blessed, beautiful brokenness is the prayer that summons the spirit, calls forth the angles, lays us down gently.
In these seasons of humble brokenness, we are opened, utterly. There is not protecting yourself here.
This is the stripping way of ego-driven, striving conception.

Let there be grace.
Let there be mercy.
Allow the broken places to show you their beautiful rest.

The broken stick on the forest floor is the branch who earned her rest. I bless the stick. I bless the branch. I bless the rest.

– Sarah LaRosa

With humility, allow the healing to take place …broken pieces will come together again … Here, take my hand – let me help you up… Then, moving onward you go, all fixed.
Yes, repaired, fixed, renewed … like magic, no longer broken.
No longer fragile… but strong and steady.
Now Fixed and whole, beautiful; Before shattered and broken, but you know, beautiful still, yes … fragile but strangely beautiful
because … it’s not the physical that you see throbbing with pain
but its what you cannot see that’s glowing and beautiful.

And it’s true … realizing there’s beauty in broken things.
Finding balance on the wobbly drift wood and sticks and stepping stones … crossing the river … healing sounds of flowing water engulfs you. Energy of healing for the broken on the mend, reaching to the cellular level, one reclaims her true essence. Breathe in – forest fresh energy; Breathe out – sayonara to the stale and the toxic. Pause. Rest. Then… Meditate. When you come out of it – you will have it back – the clarity, the sparkles, the light, the smile, the original “you”.