Author: Kay T. Ananda

Yoga brings Joy!
Joy to your body, heart, soul and allows your mind to settle all the debris to the bottom of the lake, ripples gently subsides so that like that shining water, your lake in your mind is still and crystal clear. Only then, you can find your truth... when your mind clears and all distractions are gone, leaving you - stillness and clarity. Peace.
Dog is doing yoga all the time and brings you laughs!
Anger is borne out of fear; how do we find that fearless path of inner peace?
Why Bark when you can Wag to express your JOY Joy joy !!!???
無心でしっぽをふる喜びを表すあの子犬のようなJOYを糧に無理ない、各自のコンデイションに寄り添いながらもチャレンジ精神をとりかえす…そんなヨーガを：）
全米ヨガアライアンス公認ヨガ講師養成コース修了、リストラティブヨガ指導者認定登録、アメリカRYT500登録インストラクター、800hrsヨガセラピーIAYT今現在一瞬ThisMoment&NOWをCELEBRATEするカリフォルニア＊ライフ！

帰国子女としてニューヨーク、テヘラン、カリフォルニアと転々、いずれ東京に帰る意識で日本語高等部卒大卒後シリコンバレーにとどまる。ヨガはカリフォルニア州立、バークレー大学時代、ストレス解消に効くと教授に教わり試してみるが... 合わずジャズサイズ、ウェイトトレーニング、エアロビックスのクラスに移転の２０代、３０代、産後、過労で体調を崩し大病も治癒。死ぬかと思った～大病後、久しぶりに足を踏み入れたヨガスタジオのヨガが大学時代のスローでポーズごと器械体操ごとく、つまらなーいヨガとはまったく違い進化していた。流れる踊りの振り付け的なヨガに魅せられる。数々の流派があることを習い、数種類のスタイルを試す。ビクラム、ホット、アイヤンガー、ヴィンヤサ、アシュタンガ・パワー、などなど。数年前サンフランシスコにて、ヨガアライアンス認定インストラクター養成を経て、インストラクター証書習得。同じ年にキッズヨガインストラクター証書ゲット。リストラテイブヨガ、インストラクター認定、陰ヨガのインターン、アシスト後、陰とヴィンヤサ、レギュラーハタクラスを教える。又プライベート、セミプライベートレッスンをクライアントのニーズの合わせ、ヨガセラピストとしてセラピー集中ヨガ提供。その為に２年間のアドバンスコースに挑みｃ－IAYT証書習得！ヨガ療法士としてIAYT(国際ヨガセラピスト協会）認定のヨガセラピスト、C-IAYT(Certified-IAYT) １０年以上、ベイクラブ、ヨガスタジオ、シリコンバレー社などで子育て中週４－５回レギュラーレッスンの講師を務める。３月２０２０にあの頃は最後とは知らずの週２教えていたスタジオにてのインパーソンヨガクラスを後に…遠方介護ニーズとコロナ禍を機に当分はパブリッククラスリードからはリタイア。
自分自身が心と体の調和で得た平穏…日常の小ちゃな事に見出す喜びをヨガ愛好者のどなたとでもと共有できたらと願うばかり。ジョイを共有し、ジョイフルライフを。そう、もし犬に例えるのであれば、恐れや威嚇で吠えまくる犬ではなく、シッポふりふり笑顔で愛と喜びに満ちた心持をヨガを通しシャア。恥じる気持ち等恐れず誰でもできる自身ジョイフルヨガを肝に銘じりたい。LOVE LOVE LOVE:）Shanti Shanti Shanti:)

Categories
Healthy Living

For the Aromatherapy Smitten

First, let me be clear and confess that

I HATE perfumes.

Some people would say, it’s just the cheap perfumes but expensive ones should not make you ill – Channel No 5 or Coco ? ugh !  Expensive or cheap, believe, me all perfumes literally made me sick – like nauseous sick.

So, imagine this stark  change in how I frame aromatherapy now.  There are some companies, brands that pay commission to sell their products which … I am not against as we all need to sustain ourselves as long as we ourselves have full faith in the product we are recommending, much less selling.  Over time, one’s olfactory sense is sharpened and refined enough that we can tell the difference between those scents supposedly “pure” that’s been adulterated, diluted, blended or chemically enhanced… Just be watchful for the “fakes” which tends to be the ones that smell heavenly so much that you wonder if it’s real.  Chances are … it’s not.

Natural scents, no matter how intensified by distilling process, usually tend to still be rather … subtle, delicate and soft.  Pungent intense smells can be just from squeezing a lemon or make your own humidifier with heating up an apple cider with some cinnamon sticks and cardamon or just … from baking or jam making.  Pleasant scents are all around us.  It’s in the everyday … yet I concede there are some special ingredients you just can’t get unless you go to a place of majestic resonance …

***

All scents I use are hand made by myself or much better, hand-crafted by a certified herbalist, Yasuko of Shastica.  You can feel, sense and yes, your brain can tell the difference between synthetics and chemicals vs. non-synthetic, therapeutic-grade scents.  I used to visit Mariko sensei at Foliage, a certified aromatherapist and floral artist in Berkeley who teaches mostly Japanese-speaking community … so it’s no surprise that now there’s a aromatherapy museum in this town …where yoga is embraced along with all alternative forms of healing and wakeful living.

Archive of Curious Scents @

Details:
Open only on Saturdays 10 am – 6 pm.
Tickets are $20 for a 1-hour time slot.
Tickets include 3 letter-press scent strips to dip in essences and take home.

Location:
Cottage at end of brick driveway,
1518-1/2 Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709
Phone: 510-841-2111 Email: info@aftelier.com

a scent museum in … of course …

Berkeley or

we used to call Bezerkeley !

Categories
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!

Categories
Uncategorized

Response to the dumbest idea ever … Head Banging works:)

So now a sacred place of education- a place of learning, pursuit of knowledge and flowering of imagination is potentially turned into a war zone ? So now job description for teachers include operating semi automatic weapons fit for battlefield ? So then do teachers go to target practice in addition to curriculum planning and … um teach??!

What happened to teaching non violence and creating a more peaceful, just and civil world? And Does he know or even care that some schools don’t have the textbooks and supplies due to budget cuts etc. Is PTA to have fundraisers for this additional cost !!!?So so out of touch but apparently very in touch with you know. International community’s comment I read so far is – that of shock as it seems NRA is even more powerful than the leader of the free world.

ALSO – Would any of his children or grandchildren attend a school where teachers are armed? Are teachers human and sometimes have bad days or anger issues? Of foremost importance – Would his idea to arm 20% of teachers really deter violence? I don’t think so.  I think it will escalate it – as he refers to lunatics – okay, lunatics sometimes don’t care as they are feeling so miserable themselves, they want company – aren’t the suspect under 24 hrs. surveillance for possible suicidal act; and that’s just it.  Those who do something so evil don’t care about their own self-preservation.  In fact, they may glorify going down with a gunshot.  Hasn’t he heard of suicide bombers ?  Those feeling desperate is not deterred by guns held by teachers.  In fact, he may know which teacher has the gun and which teacher does not.

Has he thought about the resources needed to administer this great idea of his? Obviously having gone to private prep school all his life, he clearly does not get it – out of touch with the realities of regular folks.  Schools are not commercial airliner; teachers are not pilots. Where’s that deep critical thinking  you learn in a classroom?  Didn’t he brag how he is educated at an Ivy League school ?

Mental illness did not kill innocent lives at these incidents; guns did.  Guns in the hands of wrong people. Even age requirement would not change that as – recall – that seemingly normal man who shot and killed over 50 and wounded nearly 1000 at a country music concert in Las Vegas last year was an adult and probably would even pass the background check. After the mass shooting, the perpetrator killed himself so … if he were to show up at a school, someone like him would not be afraid of few teachers with guns.  He will far outdo them as he was able to shoot over 1000 rounds in just 10 minutes.  Why was he able to do that?  Because he was legally able to procure all those weapons fit for a battleground, that’s way.

This country does not have any more mental illnesses than rest of the world per capita.  BUT for a so called “civilized” society, gun violence far exceeds. Why? Because rights of the paranoid minority with distrust of the taxpayers funded peace officers are somehow considered more important than the right to life  for our teens and children.  Our teens and children are our future – our promise for a better tomorrow.  How is it that the rights of the paranoid few overtake rights of non-armed innocent people with a whole life ahead of them?

As you can see I’m a little angry.  Quite angry and … sad.  Which is why I probably need to spend more time on the mat:)  I probably have to harness this anger and channel into action for good deeds to support this movement.

This is from few years ago and there’s an “angrier” version but I like the head banging on this as I may have to incorporate this technique in my home practice  – humor always help at times of fear … fear for the children; fear for the teachers, fear for lunatics on the streets and lunatics selling out for profit – fear for the sanity of the current leadership … as I contemplate trauma-sensitive yoga class safe for everyone attending.

https://youtu.be/UH-G-zh8qDo