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Short Lived

rainy days. That’s California autumn for you. Unpredictable. Found an umbrella, boots and a waterproof jacket so that I can skip hop and jump into rain puddles – so looked forward to more wet weather. BUT no rain today – sunny is the forecast. Varied weather patterns make life interesting. Nothing is permanent. Made me think of sad traumatic losses taking place around us – While it would be more a celebration for someone if she had led a full complete life; there’s so much grief, regrets for someone so very young, so incomplete, short lived; when preventable. Sometimes when so young and not equipped with long range vision, stress management does not come with ease. The adults around them are no help by exhibiting more signs of stress themselves rather than relieving; giving off the wrong vibes, not serving as much of a role model, showing signs of duress, mismanaging stress themselves. Take a look at yourself because you, the adult is the teacher to the young. How do you set that example?

The mantra should be – This TOO SHALL PASS. Bigger, better things awaits. All is not lost. NO matter, it’s never hopeless. Have faith. Things will get better. Not belittling it or making light of it but just get through knowing that – No problem is too big to solve nor too important to cost a life. Unfortunately, sometimes, we are not given the skill set to cultivate peace and resilience. We don’t know what’s really most important. Take care of yourself. Don’t be so hard on yourself. What you are doing and who you are … is enough.
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Confession – There’s a person I usually avoid because this person lacks any sense of the greatest virtue called … “humility” but I realize it’s because he/she feels the need to compensate.
Here are some quotes that may help cultivate that sense of – it’s okay, you don’t need to be the authority – the boss – the driver at all times. Let go that needy needs.

“To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.”

― Criss Jami

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

― Ernest Hemingway, The Wild Years

As Judith said at our Invitational – doesn’t it occur to you that your students know much much more than you and you can learn from them? Then she had Kelly teach a lovely sequence with full awareness of how our body works (and how that affects our mind, visa-versa). At a sangha of the liked minded teachers, it’s about learning from each other as much as learning from a veteran master teacher, herself. Her strength and wisdom lies in her ability to be humble and open. And still remaining the authority in all that she knows and shares with wit and intelligence. Indeed she is like that container she asked us each to become. TO me, that is the fountain. Fountain? Yes, more on this later.

Ending with humor I did not know he had:

“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words,
and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”

― Winston S. Churchill

While I never thought I would have anything in common with OMG this man, I would say that my diet is pretty wholesome as well. Besides, some words are retractable? It just takes forgiveness, a not so easy act and a skill few possess.

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Pumpkin Carving &

sipping hot apple cider day … Kitchen filled with sweet apple and cinnamon scent. Mulling spices are used for apple ciders and … wine. Lovely rainy day, listening to the rain fall, an artist in residence off to a pumpkin carving gathering – getting the carving bug, wanting to carve a big pumpkin… light them up with candles for some spookiness tomorrow night.

Get the costumes ready – Mine? Photos to share a bit later … Have a lovely Sunday. Be creative, carve a Jack-O-Lantern for fun. Cozy up and huddle – then a brisk walk in the rain. Rain Dance! Why are people freaking out over rain – okay, it is riskier to drive in a downpour and traffic – BUT if you make your home a sanctuary, rainy days are comforting – the air feels fresh, roads and cars get washed … trees and shrubs look enlivened with the wet gloss. Grey skies and the winds makes you want to do all things to ease and comfort. Snuggle. For this Kapah dosha*, it’s soooo soothing.

dogpumpkinLove this… wish we can do shiba inu carving too but a bit complicated and I lack the knife skills … a challenge for sure.

I love rainy weather as much as sunny ones. We needed the rain to fill our drought dry reservoirs and now, nature has answered our prayers. We are blessed. Namaste.

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Yoga

Yoga Alliance on Yoga Therapy

Yummy – It’s Turkish. I spent about 3 years when I was a little child in … Tehran (Iran, the country shares a border with Turkey – they are neighbors!) and still remember the tasty cuisine of that region of the world I got to experience, before returning to Japan. I probably love Persian food as a result of my exposure to it at such early age. (surprisingly not spicy as in hot; flavored with spices like Saffron yes, but not salty or spicy hot – quite fragrant and fresh. Then, I was educated … Turkish food is similar but different from Persian food … Something new to learn everyday ! Thank you for this melting pot of a country. Love the diversity, generosity and open-mindedness of American people.)
img_1052Enough about food and onto today’s topic …

While some simply ignore the latest developments with Yoga Alliance’s announcement while even a legendary teacher like Judith will straight up make the statement, I am NOT a yoga therapist. She is so humble and wise. So eager to use any words that appeal for marketing purpose, we throw around the term “therapy” easily and freely but … from those actual practicing medical “therapist” who spend way more hours to obtain that credential to be a physical therapist, occupational therapist, psychological/mental therapist, social worker/family therapist, it must be rather annoying to hear someone who trained in teaching yoga for 200 hrs. say, and took couple of workshops or one week “therapy” training will elevate themselves to provide so called, yoga therapy. It’s actually quite a responsibility. To provide yoga therapy means that the provider, that service provider is a “therapist” – is yoga “instructor” a therapist? According to Yoga Alliance, the answer is NO. Unless you are already a therapist, such as a physical therapist, psychiatric therapist providing yoga instructions or you are truly trained in yoga therapy and hopefully (not just be a member but) “certified” yoga therapist.(in this case, then who certified the instructor to become a therapist is the next question…)

Here you go – Click Here.

In a world where the word “therapy” is thrown around very casually with light amusement, like – “shopping therapy”, “chocolate therapy” “forest bathing therapy” “moonshine therapy” “Vitamin D therapy” “Comedy Central Therapy”, pet therapy (this, scientifically proved to be effective!) we may wonder why this policy now? Yet as you read through this latest Yoga Alliance policy, you will understand what it’s really about. It’s for the protection of this practice as it is taught today and protection for the yoga studios so that their business remains clear on what their offerings are. If it’s a therapy, then it’s more a medical field, to be regulated as such; but if it’s not a therapy, then it remains in a more sports/fitness field with less regulation, less intense scrutiny and potential liability. Unless you are already a therapist, such as a physical therapist, teaching yoga or a MD teaching yoga, I would refrain from calling an instructor/teacher a therapist. Is high school teacher a teacher? An instructor? YES, but not a therapist. So in the same vein, a yoga instructor is a teacher, an instructor but NOT A THERAPIST. Or are you a massage therapist maybe? Unless of course she/he is certified to call her/himself that … crazy – all this about semantics but I would have to agree, an appropriate LANGUAGE is so important because that defines what we do and who we are. While when someone is feeling vulnerable and in a dark place, any kindness extended is a form of therapy; but …then what? That does not make the kind one a healer, a professional. The extent of training a professional “therapist” undergoes is … extensive and it should be.

Yoga instructor cures? heals? OR do they teach? It’s the latter. That’s all this policy is saying, is it not? It’s about the teaching. It’s about that, what Judith calls “a craft”.

Therapy – Treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder.

It’s because I am actually a student of yoga therapy, I am now more careful to use that term indiscriminately for anything that feels good. cookie therapy, cupcake therapy, dance therapy – basically whatever you love to do …sure, but YOGA THERAPY is about working with both Western and Eastern medicine providers, to provide a treatment and a self-care skill as defined by the word, “therapy”. It takes a deep understanding of the human system vis-a-vis yoga teachings. I am humbled by it and thus, appreciate the defined scope, that discourages the indiscriminate use of that T word. It comes with greater sense of responsibility.

cookiemonster This is called the cookie therapy. No policy on this, lol.