“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
-~B.K.S. Iyengar
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Bo Forbes profiled: “Yoga Therapy Today calls Bo ‘a scholar, healer, and maverick’. She is known as an innovator who bridges the worlds of yoga, yoga therapy, psychology, and neuroscience. Her workshops, teacher trainings, and yoga therapy trainings marry the yoga and mindfulness traditions with a modern, 21st-century context”.
Bo Forbes got her PhD at age 25 (when she looked 12 she jokes) and now she’s how old? Maybe in her 40’s… But still look to be 25… an ultimate proof of yoga at work. She has won the endorsements and earned the respect from some of the best of the best teachers – I call masters – around. Here’s a positive feedback on Bo’s book on Restorative Yoga from Judith Hanson Lasater, herself the most well known expert in this field:
“After reading Bo Forbes’ book, I had the paradoxical experience of being excited and eager to get down on the floor and practice a deep relaxation immediately! I attribute this desire equally to Dr. Forbes’ expertise in psychotherapy and to the wisdom she has gained from her own mature yoga practice. While the simplicity of these practices belies their profound power and benefit, how wonderful if we all followed her advice and relaxed deeply every day. Yoga for Emotional Balance gives us a window into this possible and healthy world. Highly recommended for all levels of yoga students.”
Bo’s actual teaching style is therapeutic vinyasa yoga followed by restorative yoga which is what I practice at home! Her workshop “The Fascial Web: Accessing the Sentient Wisdom of Our Connective Tissue Matrix” was simply fascinating because of my interest in anatomy – and mind/body interdependence… “The Fascial Web is a system of connective tissue that links every cell in our bodies. Far from merely a physical entity, this web is sentient and intelligent. It plays a key role in the health of our nervous system, emotional brain, and pain pathways. Come discuss why fascial health eclipses the importance of muscular health. We’ll learn why neurofascial integration is such an important element of mind-body health and explore the three main interventions that promote neurofascial reintegration. We’ll experience a variety of fascial release techniques to incorporate into our group classes and private yoga sessions.” So many great teachers at one place one weekend – what a treat for anyone who wants to learn and experience from those teachers whose books you read. Here’s a the chance for an actual privilege to learn directly from the masters. Great energy, great space, made possible by great yogis and yoginis whose love for yoga is infectious.
What did I learn here this time?
Fascial health eclipses the importance of muscular health & what’s needed for neurofascial reintegration.
Fascinating stuff I shall share in my class someday:) First of all – what’s Fascia? Muscles, connective tissues, joints, ligaments… vertebrae … us humans are to be marveled at… We are made up of estimated 50-100 trillion cells – and the human brain has approximately 100 billion neurons. Its a whole cosmic universe within us.
It is believed in folklore that rubbing Buddha’s belly brings wealth and prosperity.
While Yoga and its sister science, Ayurveda, took root in India about 5000 years ago, Buddhism, a major world religion, began about 2,500 years ago in India. This faith spread to Japan and took root there mingling with the already indigenous native spirituality to create their customized version of Buddhism. Unique and at the same time universal and rooted in the original texts that traveled from India through China, Japan’s form of Buddhism underwent a factionalism during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333):
The Kamakura period was a period of crises in which the control of the country moved from the imperial aristocracy to the samurai. In 1185 the Shogunate was established at Kamakura.
This period saw the introduction of the two schools that had perhaps the greatest impact on the country: (1) the Amidist Pure Land schools, promulgated by evangelists such as Genshin and articulated by monks such as Hōnen, which emphasize salvation through faith in Amitabha and remain the largest Buddhist sect in Japan (and throughout Asia); and (2) the more philosophical Zen schools, promulgated by monks such as Eisai and Dogen, which emphasize liberation through the insight of meditation, which were equally rapidly adopted by the upper classes and had a profound impact on Japanese culture.
Additionally, it was during the Kamakura period that the influential monk Nichiren began teaching devotion to the Lotus Sutra. Eventually, his disciples formed their own school of Nichiren Buddhism, which includes various sects that have their own interpretations of Nichiren’s teachings.
(excerpt from wiki)
In Christianity too, prayers by the faithful is another form of meditation and hymns, another form of chanting… I embrace all forms of spirituality and not one is better than another as they all value non-violence, love and compassion. Above all, Peace.
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In Japan, round bellies of babies and toddlers are looked upon adoringly with afffection…at temples, people will suround the smaller buddha statute to touch and rub all over especially the belly for good luck.
In Yoga terms, were you aware that Enteric Nervous System – at the solar plexus (yep, that’s the belly region) – so called the “Belly Brain” has 100 million neurons – more than the spinal cord ?!
What’s interesting is that nerves involved in the solar plexus include those that govern the autonomic nervous system, that part of the nervous system that we cannot voluntarily control. The autonomic nervous system regulates organ function, constriction and dilation of blood vessels (for e.g. pupil size).
Maybe rubbing our belly brings more than wealth and prosperity while I wished for that as well when I rubbed the Japanese version of buddha at a temple in Kamakura many many times:)
Wishing you all the best of health in 2014! Health is our most precious wealth.
Without Health, There is no Wealth.
Happy New Year !
May Year of the Horse bring about optimal health steeped in inner-wealth.
You are born in the Year of the Horse if your birthday falls in one of these lunar years:
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02/11/1918-01/31/1919 |
01/30/1930-02/16/1931 |
02/15/1942-02/04/1943 |
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02/03/1954-01/23/1955 |
01/21/1966-02/08/1967 |
02/07/1978-01/27/1979 |
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01/27/1990-02/14/1991 |
02/12/2002-01/31/2003 |
01/31/2014-02/18/2015 |
| 02/17/2026-02/05/2027 | 02/04/2038-01/23/2039 | 01/23/2050-02/10/2051 |