Wag-a-Yoga: Healing & Revitalization with Kay T Ananda Yoga Therapy

If you attend my Sunday evening classes, you know I incorporate aromatherapy in my practice. Having studied with a licensed aromatherapist and floral designer & herbalist, Mari Kato sensei, I feel, I have the fundamentals necessary to share the knowledge she imparted responsibly. Mari sensei has a lifetime of experience in all things flowers and herbs, having founded Foliage over 20 years ago, having started her service in Tokyo then migrating to Los Angeles, then to Berkeley where I spent my college years. Foliage blends are exquisite… reminiscent of our longings for nature and all things beautiful.

I have always been very sensitive to scents… and believe that olfactory coding goes directory to our brain, influencing our mood and perceptions. True to my cultural heritage, I will be designing various scents to complement the season we are in. Will be trying out Autumn scents in the coming recharging station – I mean, classes.

You need not call it therapy but part of life, aroma has been used from time immemorial. Incense has been used ever since dawn of humankind – in offering to the dead, incense is burned; in meditation practice at temples, incense in burned, aristocrats and noblemen had a practice called “Kodo” where guests were invited to play games based on fragrances passed around to smell during the party. Some of the scents were considered to have healing properties, treated like medicine. In Europe, if you trace the history of aromatherapy, flower power had medicinal properties and they were used as homeopathy treatments in alternative medicine. Unlike Japan where there was dominant bathing culture (hot springs country!), perfumes were invented to mask the stench when one was unable to take showers and baths; whereas essential oils of highest quality was treasured like medicine. These practices are not unique to the Orient and Europe. For instance, Native Americans, North and South, used various incense. It is said that Native Americans used natural scents derived from Mother Earth, such as sage, sweetgrass, juniper, cedar and pine to clear the air of negative energy and instead invite positive energy which was especially important before their ceremonies and rituals.

If yoga practice is to promote natural inborn healing powers, then, naturally, we are drawn to aroma, fragrances that bring about relief, calmness, clarity, and positive outlook. I never found colognes and perfumes I truly liked – man made chemicals and artificial scents are no match to what Mother Earth provides – yes, then with essentials oils, I realized the difference between the natural and the authentic vs. the artificial. When scents are “real”, you will realize you have no allergies or negative reactions. Pure goodness, that’s real. That’s all I use.

* Please note however, not all things “natural” are necessarily good for you. Bear in mind, depending on special conditions such as pregnancies, some scents should be avoided or at least not consumed directly.

Teaching or should I say, serving as a guide for a 90 minutes journey – a class I want to take myself …that was tonight.

Tonight a student left with a kind comment, “your class is like going to heaven” – this must be the most memorable comment ever – I was truly touched and honored with such a compliment. It made my effort all worthwhile as, to be honest, I was looking for an emergency sub this morning when I discovered my LA to SF flight was delayed. The night before I had arrived at LAX from Haneda… So it is interesting how when you are feeling your absolute worst, so so miserable, apparently you deliver one of your better classes – perhaps because, then, you are truly coming from a place of compassion and empathy. You truly cultivated serenity amidst the turmoil and stress. Why miserable? Having logged near 6000 miles and crossing a time zone in the last 24 hours, night and day flipped, I was feeling like someone with a bad case of a hangover. Only 2 hours ago, my head was spinning, only an hour ago, my head was pounding and my head muddled… my entire back aching from sitting over 12 hours, unable to sleep. I was stiff, sore, gripped in tight knots all over … I needed yoga to the rescue. Is this some kind of cruel and unusual punishment? No, just coming back from Tokyo, via one night stay in LA where I was treated to a grande size cocktail which was supposed to knock me out cold (I could not say no to the host) into lovely uninterrupted slumber before I got on to the final leg of my trip from LA to SF. Well, that cocktail got me up at 3am at which point I simply felt… awful. Hearing the recipe for the drink before my departure of SF made me realize why – FYI – only alcohol I drink is wine and sometimes beer – but this cocktail was made from high doze of Vodka, Limoncello, and some other hard liquor I was unfamiliar with. While it is a very powerful drink, it tasted like innocent lemonade… reliving the foolishness of youthful days gone by – How one suffers later on when you give into sweet but harmful temptations.

Pressing the reset button – starting anew for tomorrow. While I miss my old home very much, I am happy to be back in California. Here are the list of what I miss about Japan or specifically Tokyo:

1. My Mommy:)
2. My relatives.
3. OFURO – japanese style bath.
4. High level of sensitive attention to details, especially to season, weather and service.
5. Japanese functionality in designs and aesthetics in designs.
6. food, food, food.
7. politeness. Gentle speech and refined manners of some not all.
8. Cuteness in things in general…
9. just walking in some parts of town is fun.
10. Gentle and kind souls, i.e., people.
11. Best restaurants and cafes. Best service. Most international – from Indian, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese… on and on.

What I do not miss:

1. muggy weather this time of the year – mosquito bites and dengue fever scare.
2. smokers polluting the air. Too many smokers.
3. too much politeness – get on the elevator in Ginza and a very thin and refined lady says, Excuse me for taking up space – I am absolutely of no use to anyone – Pardon me for being a nuisance crowding this elevator. ummm, you are a beautifully dressed dainty senior, you do not have to say you are worthless and should not take up space in this elevator – Yes, I know, it’s just a figure of speech but really… exasperating. The figure of speech from years gone by are spoken… amusing but a bit sad when one is past being modest but self-deprecating at best. I guess I am Americanized. I am not going to apologize for taking up space.
4. Too much bowing.
5. Too much inappropriate cuteness. Do high percentage of men in Japan have Lolita complex? Girls are just too cute for cute-sake.
BTW, trivia – did you know Hello Kitty is not really a cat? Of course it’s really a super cute girl.
6. bad air in subways. Thank goodness I had Foliage aroma stone with me.
7. Too crowded. Had to jump into cafes to regain some sense of peace… I know temples in Kyoto and countryside is not like this but this is Tokyo…Yes, there are pockets of mini-shinto shrines and gardens in most unexpected places… that was nice. It was an Urban Zen in a true sense of the word in the country that mothered the word, “Zen” – as in Zazen. More on this later.

Or Comedian the Poet…

To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl

“Do you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon
on the day you were born,
you would be all done in only one more year?
Of course, you couldn’t have done that all alone.
So never mind; you’re fine just being yourself.
You’re loved for just being you.
But did you know that at your age
Judy Garland was pulling down 150,000 dollars a picture,
Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory
and Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room
— no wait, I mean he had invented the calculator?
Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life,
after you come out of your room and begin to blossom,
or at least pick up all your socks.
For some reason I keep remembering that
Lady Jane Grey was queen of England when she was only 15.
But then she was beheaded,
so never mind her as a role model.
A few centuries later, when he was your age,
Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family,
but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies, four operas and two complete masses as a youngster.
But of course, that was in Austria at the height of Romantic lyricism,
not here in the suburbs of Cleveland.
Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15
or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17?
We think you’re special just being you —
playing with your food and staring into space.
By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes,
but that doesn’t mean he never helped out around the house.”
—Billy Collins

In this case, boy or girl must be interchangeable.

Who was your role model when you were a teen?
B.K.S. Iyengar was introduced to yoga at the age of 16…
What a difference it made on his life… May we all find something, anything that makes such a profound difference for the better – an ultimate transformation over a lifetime.

Did not realize he was on TED but I like the comedy central reading better:) You have to sit through the commercial ad in the beginning which is the only flaw. I missed his visit to San Francisco’s City Arts… wish I had known.