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Yesterday morning as I was about to open for teaching (NOT tired -it’s bright and early! YES!!)… intro into directing the Drishti point couple of feet ahead, I notice an ant crawling right in front of my mat, the exact spot of Drishti. My mind took over then, should I pick it up – what if I step on this poor creature during class – what if it crawls onto my mat – I don’t want to kill it. Shook off the thoughts and refocused and the ant disappeared – went about the business of Pranayama with the intent of flooding our body with Oxygen for the wake-up to juice up. That ant must have been a reincarnation of … I have few suspects. It’s a full moon night – come to expect the signals.

beaver

Full Moon last night called the Beaver Moon by the Native Americans in Northern America. Apparently each full moon was named from an activity or an event that happened that month. Beaver Moon means that this is the time of transition where beavers are very busy, to fix their lodges and get ready for winter. It is a time of PREPARATION for what’s to come. (hibernation’s not an option – beavers do not hibernate and nor do we. Or do we?) According to Farmers’ Almanac, it was also the time to hunt the beavers to get the winter furs. Living in synchronicity with nature … in harmony, in a sustainable environment of abundance … their wisdom is not lost.

indianmoon

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Beautiful People Yoga

yoga instructors

Recirculating … sense of humor to the rescue…if not the restorative poses sequenced to re-energize and re-boot this tired yogini. Yes, us humans do get tired. However, when you get up in the morning, if you are STILL tired, then something needs to change.

Having experienced a near wipe-out, and resurrecting out of it – the recovery process, the lessons learned, the journey where again the footwork regaining the former bounce, skip and jump – has not gone wasted – I tried yoga (& sticking with it as it WORKS), acupuncture, dietary refinement (yes), supplements(no), Reiki, aromatherapy, couple other (secret:) healing modalities… and so with gratitude to report that they all work – especially yoga – and friends will recognize that I am fairly back to normal. Not quite doing Bikram or power yoga 3 times a week in the needy striving stage and never will again but more enlightened and happy; less driven and less mindless.

As we all know, fatigue or exhaustion – when you are tired, you are no longer yourself. Your personality changes (for the worst). You are not the best you can be. Rather than being the busy person for the sake of being busy, everyday you want to wake up with a smile on your face and ask yourself, is there something I can be doing better? Is there something I don’t know I can find out more about and learn? For that attitude to take place, it is helpful to have that sense of purpose – that you are serving – a purpose. And before all this high talk, you need to wake up in the morning NOT already tired so … if you are waking up in the morning tired or negative in any way, before the day even gets started, re-evaluate and consult Self first and then health and wellness professionals. Find out the root cause. Then visit a yoga studio:) Try couple of different styles of classes and select 1-3 you can dedicate to making it part of your life – in other words, have a program to stick with for minimum 3 months and see what happens. Yoga to me is not exercise and mere fitness. You just have to experience it.

When I first walked into a yoga class – I think it was Hatha class at Berkeley’s YMCA to manage my Cal-student-stress, I walked out and never went back to that class. To me it was so boring – I needed the sounds, the beat, the speed, more movement – so I went to aerobics classes with blaring loud sounds with pulsing beat that made feel like you got so much out of it while in truth, I wan’t tuned in at all. So it is quite ironic that I am preaching like this but … today there are so many different styles to choose from. Times change. People change.

& okay, admittedly your weight change. I weigh 10lbs more but … healthier. Trim and Slim is not necessarily healthier and happier. Medical studies have shown that slightly and I mean SLIGHTLY full bodied people lead a happier longer life – really. So instead of being caught up on what’s on the outside, which is impermanent and fleeting – let’s work on the inside, the permanent eternal timeless place.

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Categories
Yoga

Watch your back!
backpic

Awareness and the focus on breathing differentiate some yoga stretches from similar looking exercises you might get in conventional physical therapy. In yoga asana, your attention is focused on what you are doing and on how it affects sensations in your body and mind. Most PT exercises in contrast are usually done fairly mindlessly and mechanically, perhaps even while watching television. When you do PT exercises without awareness, without turning in, they are exactly the same thing every day — rote and uninteresting. No wonder so many people stop doing them.

Yoga done right gets more interesting over time. Good yoga asana don’t just improve the functioning of the physical body, they engage your mind.
Bringing your attention to what you are doing, and precisely how you are doing it, builds the ability to feel your body’s signals.

Yoga as Medicine
Chapter 11 “Back Pain”
featuring Judith Hanson Lasater’s method:)

A holistic approach … When taught from early childhood – self-awareness vis-a-vis any environment, i.e., adapting to any environment … that is a life-long skill.