Category: Yoga

Categories
Yoga

Easing into TGIF Ocean:)

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning.” 

Lao Tzu

 

Subbing tonight for a lovely yogi – TGIF restorative – after guiding a restorative for about 3 years, I stepped away as I found myself needing a break from trying too hard to create that space. Trying and trying so hard to create space of safety; space for acceptance; space for regeneration …  space for loving-kindness.  I think I am ready to teach it again – but this time, a little different.  There’s no formula – it’s just about care and …knowledge or tools to draw out the magic each of us have within – some just lost it or forgot how to use that wand.  So immersed in the secular brain-centric thoughts, just forgot the spiritual aspects of our heart.  My job is to serve as a guide rediscovering that wand that we all have within.
A kind of Sherpa ? Hahaha.
Categories
Healthy Living Yoga

Liver 3 & More

PASCHIMOTTANASANA – Seated Forward Fold – Forward fold as you press into an acupressure point, “Great Rushing”, located on the webbing between the big toe and the index toe … believed to improve liver health and known to helps with insomnia. Give it a try:) note:  there’s a block under your third eye for stability and support for your neck/shoulders.

***

Different people come to yoga for different reasons and reasons oftentimes vary according to the stages you’ve entered in your life.  In your teens or early years, yoga serves well as a means to improve your athletic performance or to recover from or prevent athletic injuries.  Or given today’s teens pressures and stress-level, it can be about healthy body awareness and techniques for relaxation and self-care. At any age, and especially in developing formative years, practice of yoga is enormously helpful by improving proprioception while toning and strengthening the muscles and generally improving the muscular-skeletal alignment. (To improve proprioception, we do better without a mirror during practice but for beginners, mirrors can aid in that path of self-discovery as long as you are not into body shaming and over-self-consciousness. Then it’s a distraction more than an aide)

So yoga can serve different purpose depending on – one’s age and condition – so for the teens, it may be to reign in the fidgety wiggly lack of steadiness and focus. Perhaps in your 20’s, it might be about being in better shape –  yoga may seem too slow in the desire to break a sweat – maybe it’s not enough to quiet the agitations and the angst you feel… but there’s so many different styles of yoga to meet such needs if that’s the priority – there’s ashtanga style (physically very demanding) and there’s … faster paced vinyasa and of course, hot yoga – you will be sweating for sure.  Or why not dance and then yoga to help you dance better with more freedom,  less pain or tightness – a rehabilitative non performance based practice can serve us all.  It’s about a fusion and a customized blend as you become more and more sophisticated in your yoga practice to fulfill your own unique needs. At any stage in life.

So, then, in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70′, and beyond ( you know, committed yogis remain sharp witted and live a long time, lol, seriously look up “Tao Porchon-Lynch”:) – again, there’s that sports medicine aspect (your PT, Chiropractor, doctors may recommend it) and your own desire to just feel better.  Less in a slump, less stuck, less frustrated and agitated.  The practice may represent an alternative medicine of sorts – And that is empowering because … you are the one to find that inner body wisdom and healer within – there’s no dependency on anyone else but to be with curious mind, find out why you feel the way you feel and calibrate it to that place of peace and tranquility.  To self-soothe without any outside intervention … if that isn’t empowering, I don’t know what is !  THEN, sometimes, that inner wisdom may lead you to seek some professional medical advice after all.  It’s all good.

Invariably though, the most powerful reason people take it up is to find more room and space within our body, to find more freedom within, and to better manage stress and energy level –  To keep at bay those undesirable symptoms that accompany stress. In whatever stage you find yourself though, there’s a common thread in that yoga is to simply feel better, feel whole, feel fully integrated and engaged … to be freed of pain and suffering. To return to the source of your blissful being, inside those layers and layers of blockages that shroud the true radiant “resplendent” light that you truly are.

So whether your own reasons are multi-faceted or deceivingly simple …how about, to just feel light and joyful:) Here’s another reason as recommended by Dean Onish, MD:  Here & Here:

To add, here are some readings that may be helpful in addressing your Cardio and overall health:

  • The Heart Speaks – A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing by Mimi Guarneri, MD.
  • 108 Pearls by Mimi Guarneri MD
  • Yoga for Healthy Aging, Baxter Bell MD (one of my teachers at Niroga:)
  • The Healing Power of the Breath -Richard P. Brown MD & Patricia L.Gerbarg, MD

& here’s a book I am reaching for right about now … Good Night:) Sleep,  the elixir of rejuvenation we all need.  Evening yoga practice should be about – how to invite an ever more luscious and relaxing evening, free of worries and anxiety of what a future may hold; regrets on what’s past. Like babes, sometimes we need to be swaddled and stroked and sang to a lullaby or two (an adult version may be that Chill tune that puts your mind to ease.) Get your sleep – everything else can wait.

 

 

 

Categories
Beautiful Rituals Yoga

Spring: Time to focus on “Wood” element

木　林　森　木　林　森　木　林　森　木　林　森　木　林　森　木　林　森　木

In the woods by the foot of Mt. Shasta here … in alignment with the theme of the season:)  It’s a season symbolizing GROWTH, RENEWAL and HOPE as we celebrated Easter and Passover. Then next month,  we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day here on Mother Earth and to those past on to reemerge as Celestial Mothers… our guardian angels and ancestral gene pool with unique genetic codes… celebrated.

How can we weave in the seasonality into our practice?  And why should we even do that?  So many ways and that’s why the mindful reminders in Niroga yoga therapist training is so unique and precious. In order to really be Present as we are often told in the yoga classes, it’s not only the breath to breath moment to moment renewal but also the distinct season of the year we want to be so conscious of and embrace because … while eternal, time never stops:)

So noticing the markings on our time line as we journey on our path. With all five-senses, taking in the sight, sounds, smell, feel of the woodsy hike and taste the pure fresh water of the spring water.

Let’s grow that tree within:) There’s strength, balance and focus – all in one in Vrksasana:)

It is said in Chinese Medicine that Spring is a time when we pay special attention to Liver/Gallbladder meridians.  The energetic pathways or the meridians that affect our Liver health affects the health of not only those particular internal organs but our overall health.  With an intention to spring clean those pathways, and to achieve an overall balance … here I am, growing a tree pose balancing on a wooden plank supported by river rocks – of a “bridge” – more centered and grounded you allow yourselves to be with one-pointed attention (drishdi), more balanced you become.  Your mind is as clear and lucid as the spring waters bubbling up and flowing at the base of Mt. Shasta.

When our liver/gallbladder meridians are out-of sorts, we experience various physical illnesses and emotionally, we become prone to agitations whether it be minor irritations and frustrations to all blown out unleashing of  … anger.  Have you noticed there are a lot of angry people these days and they don’t even hide that ugly lack of control  … as they are unable to.  What do they need?  Yoga works.  Anger is the outward manifestation of what resides deeper within …that of fear.   Yoga is all about becoming less fearful, more fearless you are less guards you put up, less closed off and protective you are – more tolerant or even open and welcoming of new and diverse ideas and people – life is delightful – when one is fearless.  Becoming fearless … Being fearless, to be brave is to  cultivate peace within in and that is the most advanced practice of yoga; some people may call that stress reduction or stress management  … but at a deeper level, it’s more than that.

Today, I received some lovely complements from some students and I was happy that I saw my own growth in receiving the positive reinforcements without weird sense of pride called ego – because I know it’s the yoga not me – I am just a conduit, mirroring their own beauty they had forgotten. I was just happy that I was able to transfer what I learned from so many great teachers a little bit better.  It was not ego but just sheer joy and gratitude that someone, some people do understand that I am – yes, merely a conduit, simply guiding or facilitating their own transformations, with an intention to simply be a reflection of their own luminescent Self full of limitless possibilities.  If I had impurities and clouded vision and mind, I cannot serve so … I have to keep up my own practice.  As young ladies worry about the upcoming bikini season,  it’s time to just really own the body we have – live in our skins – truly embody the body we are given and … perhaps your weight will settle where it is meant to be. There’s no shame to be that perfect imperfections that we all are.

Of course we have to eat right but it’s not about depriving ourselves – sometimes you have a slice of cake, a cupcake, a deep fried veggies – called tempura – donuts even (yes, jelly filled donut in New York …) I mean … it’s okay.  When eaten with delight and appreciation, the body will lapp it up and turn them into nourishment.  Our body has the power to convert the negatives to positives; even poison into elixir of energy … then surely it turns stored fat into energy. Yoga, not simply calorie burning exercise, makes a difference because it’s about lifestyle change and shift in self-awareness and self-love.

So … reevaluate what self-care truly means and what yoga is really about – it’s about “transformation”.  Maybe not an “enlightenment” yet but moving into that direction … allowing your body to eliminate the toxins and the knots and stress; so that we may meditate with ease.  Every transformation happens in baby steps with a regular practice in which we “yoke” the mind-body to enliven our spirits.

Namaste:)