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Healthy Activities Healthy Living

Our Amazing Heart

IMG_3558Original cause of my late father’s demise – if only I had known what I know today …sometimes when one is in eye of the storm, we just cannot see so well.
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So here are some take-aways from Cardiovascular System Module. We learned that usually issues with the heart is at the peak of the pyramid of other abnormalities or dysfunction that had not been addressed. It’s a culmination of issues unresolved such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, low HRV, Leaky Gut Syndrome, various heart disease. The heart literally aches:

When we are not Present
When we abandon love and care
When we are fragmented
When we are disconnected

All the above, AND when we are not equipped with tools and techniques to “self-soothe”. The heart disease is a manifestation at the peak of the pyramids of cumulative imbalances. For some, heart issues could be something one is born with. Luckily, those people tend to have built up the resilience, having lived with it from birth and not a malaise that developed as a result of lifestyle choices. Disease tends to find lodging in our body as a result of series of “infinite insults” we inflict on ourselves. While not all are self-inflicted, the body endures many insults to such degree that it stops cooperating. Only when we learn to HONOR and APPRECIATE our body, our inner healer re-emerges to aid us. It’s through self love, not by fearing, shaming, berating our body with all its flaws … but to HONOR and CELEBRATE this body made in the image of God. That’s the first step on the healing journey.
IMG_3653Why the reason you have to deal with chronic stress – Yoga gives you the techniques and tools to manage stress and energy level better.IMG_3648
Heart – Heart – Heart – One can’t help but marvel at this amazing organ, developed first in the embryo state, a central unique muscle organ that moves 5-6 liters of blood with each heartbeat. That’s with one heart beat, the entire blood volume is put in motion. I always knew the importance of the heart but marveled at the more astral energetic aspects of this beating heart …

We learned that:

“Heart is more powerful than the brain.”
& our
“Cells need downtime for recovery.”

Common sense? Apparently not put in practice for many of us, where the Heart is treated as a mere pump to “work out”. It’s way way more than just a pump:

(1) Heart is electrical conduction system with electric impulses and looked at as an energy body, has 5000 times more powerful seat of electromagnetic energy field than brain’s.
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(2) It is a seat of compassion, kindness and LOVE.

IMG_3560IMG_3564IMG_3566All systems within us, are integrated and inter-connected and affects our heart health.

* All photo credit to Niroga Yoga Therapy TT module Cardiovascular Health & Yoga. This is a very small portion … still reviewing the material to digest it all – Digestive System module is still far-off !!!

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Placement

There’s a lady who shows up to my yoga class who I just could not place but looked like someone mnnnn … kept thinking … I have seen her somewhere – she looks like …

THEN today finally it hit me – the “placement” was made – YES, she looks like …. Annie Lennox !

Karaoke anyone?


Star struck? Sometimes a song will loop over and over and so does some thoughts. Pratyahara state comes and goes.

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Healthy Living

Women’s Health

After giving him a BIG hug, blessed to find the ritual of grounding with Charlie …to be so energizing.
IMG_2549_01_smallOpening the heart during shinrinyoku after Wanowa’s “no salt macrobiotic” cooking class hosted by Shinobeau. It was a mini-get-away to breathe in forest fresh oxygen and eat purifying foods… I consider as my self-care retreat. BTW, will show you the restorative version of this pose one day … it’s SOOOOO delicious. Why? because we feel so safe and secure, letting go. It’s about surrendering to the softer side of yoga; balancing so much of the efforts and all that “it’s not good enough”striving we put ourselves through, that self-flagellation – Here, it’s ENOUGH – surrendering of that ego to find the effervescent light within. IMG_2547_01_smallWhile of course I care about Men’s Health (mag title isn’t it?), for the research paper due in June, I am doing one on Women’s Heath. That in itself is too huge a topic so I will have to key in on just one aspect of it. Influenced by a book called “Yoga for the Three Stages of Life” by yoga master, Srivatsa Ramaswami. I will be piggy banking on his way of approaching a huge topic and just focus on one stage even though there are many many stages in one’s life. In this case, it’s more about the major turning point us women experience at a biological, hormonal level I am talking about.

While doing research, came across this utube video While I do not enjoy the tone of anger in her voice, I empathize with the feelings of mistrust or frustrations. Western medicine is highly effective for acute issues but sometimes for the more chronic issues, depending on the care system, one may feel a bit abandoned. That’s why the interest in alternative medicine – and one has to be educated enough to be able to distinguish horse so-called-doctors from the real medicine man … not easy.

Yoga Therapy is not an “alternative” but supplemental, augmentation or that humanity that fills the gap …the unifying force so that we may feel more integrated, whole and fearless. Learning – We just have to be more responsible for our own health and not be okay with popping pills for every malaise we experience for a quick cure. There is no real quick fix without unwanted consequences, i.e., side-affects and mental and emotional abandonment. More alarmed that sometimes these practical quick fixes can turn into a “dependency” over time and who wants that?

One of my earlier and wonderful yoga teachers, Jean & Brenna used to say something like, best barometer of health is how much we are able to forget we even have a body. That’s the total freedom we enjoy when we have holistic and complete health. We can thank yoga practice for that but even then…. even the healthiest have some days when she is not feeling her/his best (I for one gain and lose 10 lbs like a yoyo directly tied to whether I am doing restorative yoga for myself or not. If I don’t practice, the weight creeps up along with stress, blood pressure, noise and mind clutter) All I know is that we get in trouble when we don’t know who we are … It is surprising how much I knew about other topics, newsstands and textbook “knowledge” we get graded or evaluated or judged on all these years but … remained so ignorant of myself. I mean, for example, who would have known what my Dosha might be or what my purpose may be … Learn, grow … ultimately to share. What could be better. Wanting to live Consciously and Conscientiously.


Heeding our inner wisdom and honoring our inborn, instinctive, intrinsic power to self-correct & heal, when we know how to best take care ourselves, women are NOT defective. We are NOT a “basket case” – We are the mothers, daughters, sisters and friends … We oftentimes are the caretakers of others. We are WHOLE and STRONG. We are not flawed but rather, each perfect and divine. We don’t need to be fixed – just need to be understood and valued. Gratitude and respect always for the women in my life, doing their best to care for others sometimes even forgetting to care for Self in the process. Allow that time to just “abide” in self sometimes – Judith’s books can start the process of self-discovery. First from the physical superficial exterior and then layer by layer to explore deeper layers … to ultimately reach at the core, your true source.