Month: April 2016

Yoga Therapy is the application of yoga practices (movement, breathwork and meditation) for optimal health and well-being. Validated by the latest medical research, Yoga Therapy is one of the most effective complementary and integrative therapies for many common chronic conditions (e.g. hypertension and diabetes, asthma and arthritis, anxiety and depression), as well as special populations (e.g. aging, addiction, pregnancy and childbirth, chronic stress and trauma).

– Niroga Institute

Underestimated the amount of work but reminded how you get out what you put into it. Feeling the need to put in more but first … self-care in order to care for others.  It’s a constant reining in the ego-based urges to do more to be noticed – to be recognized but is that really necessary or important?  Your “worth” or value is not contingent on external validation. I no longer want to get distracted.

Rather re-directing the energies so that it not dissipate into thin air – Training to channel and direct with mindfulness – with purpose – that prana, chi, energy … The boundless energy of the youth is unfortunately not encapsulated into a bottle as an elixir (in the form of caffeine, green smoothie, multi-viatamins …) as we’d like to delude ourselves.

It’s more to do with honoring the need to “rest & digest”. Simply, honoring ourselves with tender care which is oftentimes overlooked.  That through real rest and then digesting not just foods but all those experiences ripe with teachings, we ultimately gain more energy. Not only we gain more energy but by that energy will now reach all corners of your sacred body given the cleared passages – charged with more energy, then, one can actually do something with all that life experience, all that knowledge based on … self-knowledge of not limitations, but our capacity and potentials.

Speaking of yoga therapy, therapeutic applications of restorative yoga  – Judith Lasater’s words so resonated with me – This is an excerpt of her interview with Yoga Journal, a magazine she co-founded.  These words, is one of the reasons I consider her as one of our greatest teachers:

Follow your nature. The practice is really about uncovering your own pose; we have great respect for our teachers, but unless we can uncover our own pose in the moment, it’s not practice—it’s mimicry. Rest deeply in Savasana every day. Always enter that pratyahara(withdrawn state) every day. And just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different. That’s a fundamental understanding. I don’t do my life any differently from what I do on the mat.

 

Judith studied with this master for 25 years … in an era when yoga was still seen as a suspect – even a cover for some  exotic religion rather than a wholesome wellness program that it is  – no wonder she exudes that … aura of a genuine seeker.   A seeker who still led a “normal” life raising children, caring for a family as a wife, mother and daughter … learning and teaching yoga all along – Check out “Living Your Yoga”, a lovely book she authored.  Looking forward to the upcoming Invitational Sangha – I always learn so much from her and from all who show up for that common goal – to be inspired – to be a better student and a teacher.