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Beautiful People Beautiful Rituals Beautiful Things Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

Divine Scent of the “Temple”

as described by tonight’s student …

So lovely to have you grace tonight’s class and how lucky we are for this gift of herbal, medicinal delight lovingly hand crafted by Yasuko, herself.  Thank you, Yasuko of Shastica:)

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Beautiful People Healthy Activities Healthy Living

Gratitude Practice

Message to Self on my yoga practice tonight:

If you look too closely at the form, you miss the essence.

– Rumi

What can we acknowledge and be thankful for.  It need not be a big thing and many times it may not be about material possessions.  It would be as little as a smile of a baby; a flower blossoming … a beautiful moon peeking out of the clouds … how about pitter patter of rain drops:)  The blessings of water.  The liquid flow …of movements … The sound of rain when you have roof above you …  the texture of your puppy’s fur … a kind word; someone saying Thank You.

Just … thank you … makes the day worth living.

If you only say one prayer in a day, make it “Thank You”.

– Rumi

Thank you Rumi 🙂

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Beautiful People Beautiful Places Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

“Aging with Joy & Grace”

As soon as we are born, we are all aging but how do we age with “joy” and even “grace” ? Can we site some examples ? How does YOGA come into play ? Here we are gathering around to hear a well  articulated presentation by Will Meecham MD.  Will is an authentic yogi and a Western medicine trained doctor.  He is now a yoga teacher trained at Niroga who was our anatomy and physiology teacher for our year one curriculum.  Find his MindfulBiology.org,  a beautiful blog site he created worth checking out for anyone interested in a different perspective as we relate to our body and …life.

I recommend reading up his articles under the system, HEART & CIRCULATION, this month being a heart health month.  He is insightful coming from a perspective of someone who did the typical and grueling med-school and practicing doctor stint and now sharing his wisdom.  He’s featured on this blog (that puts mine to shame:) I find his blog incredibly well done with wealth of wisdom. So, AGING with JOY & GRACE was the title to last weekend’s yoga therapist training. Among some 50? and counting attendees finding mat space on the labyrinth at Oakland Peace Center as we gather for the two days immersion ahead. Making up this module missed last year while in Japan for my mother’s birthday. Reminded how my mother would make a great guest to teach this particular module as she would make a role model for many of us. But for her to come along this far, there’s always a great sense of gratitude for her support system that consists of kind social services and attentive care provided to seniors in Japan. Gratitude to tradition and culture where seniors are respected for their wisdom and the frail cared for as there’s a clear acceptance that we are all aging as long as we are living. It’s just not possible to live in denials when slowly your loved ones start to disappear from this particular world, this life.  There’s no exclusion and denial of this natural stages of our lifeline. It’s okay to accept it and go with the flow while doing everything you can to tend to the temple of body, mind & spirit.

Sad to not be there this year to celebrate her special day but need this for my yoga therapist certification … long and fruitful journey I know she fully supports. My feelings of guilt vanished as I listened to a voice message she left on the phone unanswered (looks like she called 2 am US time, hahaha, what about that cognitive decline? ).  Her message said  “you don’t have to get me any gifts as the best gift for me is to know you are happy and healthy. Be sure to take care of yourself.”  Once a mama, always a mama:)

Happy Birthday Mama!