Month: September 2020

Categories
Anything Cute Beautiful People Yoga

It will be still a longer time

“If you live to be a hundred, I hope I live to be a hundred minus one day, so that I never have to live a day without you.” -Winnie the Pooh

For a friend who is caring for her mom in hospice … can’t expose the vulnerable population so just dropping off some lavendar praying, reciting what I learned from Yoga Philosophy that helps at times like this … to overcome fear of disease, loss …all suffering…

“Great Death-conquering Mantra”), also known as the Tryambakam Mantra, is a verse of the Rigveda (RV 7.59.12) – wikipedia – is one of the oldest texts from the Vedas.

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Om Try-Ambakam Yajaamahe
Sugandhim Pusstti-Vardhanam
Urvaarukam-Iva Bandhanaan
Mrtyor-Mukssiiya Maa-Amrtaat

Meaning:
1: Om (primodial HUM of the Creation of Consciousness), We Worship the Tryambaka (the Three-Eyed One, referring to Goddess and Mother),
2: Who is Fragrant (giver of Life, a Spiritual Essence), Increasing the Nourishment (of our Spiritual Core);
3: From these many Bondages (of Samsara- cycle of death and re-birth- fear of death) similar to Cucumbers (tied by creepers and vines to describe being enslaved to bondages and servitude),
4: May I be Liberted from Death (Attachment to Perishable Things), So that I am not separated from the perception of Immortality.

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Clearing the mind and focusing on what’s most important to you in this lifetime … meditation practice as well as mindful (vs. mindless) movement drills are so helpful.

Categories
Beautiful Rituals

Full Moon

This week – First week back to school? Traveling in fear? Nerves getting the best of us? Suffering from eyes itching and headaches from the air quality?

Let’s take a pause – I am happy to share Headache Busting techniques … so that we can get on the mat and yoga … as we look up at the nights sky. Tonight’s full moon is the last full moon of this summer. It’s a special time and we can all acknowledge that – it’s been a summer and spring like no other. We feel it in our bones, in our spirit that this year, this summer has been a unique but shared by all kind of summer. When we are put under stress, strife and strain, all that was swept under the rug, all that was hidden were no longer concealed … It has been a revealing time. In a sense, it’s a very yogic time – in that what we go through is a revealing one – where the good, the bad and the ungly like a Western frontier mindset, comes to the forefront. And now as we approach this Labor Weekend … the full moon if we even bother to gaze up to look at the night sky.

Full moons happen when the sun, Earth and moon form a line, allowing the side of the moon facing Earth to be fully illuminated by the sun …

It’s time of illumination at this time of very revealing alignment in the Universe. It’s time to think about how you have taken care of yourself this summmer … or did we? As we head into Autumn, really, really, thinking about SELF-CARE during this time when we really need to manage our ENERGY. Managing our energy, boosting our immune system … SURVIVE with grace this time of inordinate stress where crisis mode we thought was just temporary it rather a lengthly temporary – yet, more so, the need for this practice. Yoga works.

Categories
Beautiful Things Healthy Living Yoga

“Brightening Our Inner Skies” by

Norman Blair, a yoga teacher known for mainly Ashtanga yoga teaching in England. It’s a beautiful book where you see why someone with a supurb discipline of Ashtanga yoga would feel drawn to this kind of practice. It makes for a well-rounded wholeness, that complements his advanced Ashtanga practice. It’s deep and therapeutic, more than a simple stretch – it’s not that casual stretch before your run … but what your body craves and needs… the yin.

Then, there are books like Yoga for Osteoporosis by Loren Fishman, MD… Boom ! Strenghtening weight bearing (all your own!) balancing ideas for a Boost of Osteoblast! It’s really a …blast to practice these poses to to reconfigure, re-organize to promote new growth and strenghening of our joints, our bones! Not just stretch but to ACTIVATE!

Then some Japanese books I picked up while there, pages full of remedies for headaches, eye fatigue … to boost our immune sytem … books I pick up in Japan whenever I visit there as there are so many health and wellness books flooding their market – just like in US and I am sure worldwide, we are so thirsty for any ways we can live a more vibrant life, disease and pain- free.

Maybe this Pause of a Covid-time is that time for re-visiting what you’ve learned before and reflecting on a deeper learning and practice. Ventured during lunch into the smoggy outdoors to pass by this incredible Sunflower, bigger than my face, drooping heavy with the weight of its seeds … petals were wilting but the seeds were abundant and bright … we plant our own seeds too so we may sow them into the fertile tilled earth … in spring. We have the seeds. So all we need is a re-start into that cycle, looping and circling around the SUN … to circle back into welcoming the Full Moon.

We celebrate even a small tiny brightness … not to overlook that light lit around us and … within. We hear all the noise, the turmoil … but there’s always that rock solid balanced core of you rooted to the earth and lifted to the sky. Here, we are.

Going over headache remedies along with natural eyes fatigue-busters and neck tightness cures… Yoga works. I am ready for the new day.