A Yoga Apologist

    I'm not sure if this term is used anywhere outside of the Catholic Church, but, someone who explains the faith is called an apologist.  Google defines it as

Noun: A person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial.
Synonyms: defender

    As a regular churchgoer and a yoga teacher in a church basement, I have often felt like an apologist.  Not that I am apologizing for yoga, rather that I am explaining it, making it more approachable.  I have often felt rather less than successful.  So far, not one person who has thought yoga might be a religion in disguise has ever come to a single class.
     Today I was rereading  Eat Right for Your Type by Dr. Peter D'Adamo and I realized, he is a great apologist for yoga.  Here it is:

...some patients have told me that they are concerned that adopting yoga practices may conflict with their religious beliefs.  They fear that the practice of yoga implies that they have adopted Eastern mysticism.  I respond, "If you eat Italian food, does that make you Italian?"  Meditation and yoga are what you make of them.  Visualize and meditate on those subjexts that are relevant to you.  The postures are neutral; they are just timeless and proven movements."

    Such a calm, rational, and coherent explanation.  Hope I remember it next time I am asked.   If not, I'm hiring his ghost writer to follow me around....  Be Blessed (and happy!)
 

Yoga for a Quiet Mind

      Today's yoga class was great!  It really crystallized some thoughts that have been running through my mind.  We always begin sitting and I ask for requests for a focus for the class.  One student asked for yoga to cool a "hot" brain.  Without thinking much, I was up and running.  What I realized about halfway through the class was that I was teaching my "Take the Sting out of Stress" class in yoga format.  Who knew?
     Here is a YouTube video of a highlights version of the class.

      Better yet, if you are looking for the yoga version, here is an outline of a home practice to accomplish the same steps.  For clarity I will use the common English terms for each yoga pose.  This is going to be a bit long, so here are two versions (the Readers Digest and the full length...)

Short Version

Breathe- Sit quietly, noticing your breath.  Encourage the exhale to become longer than the inhale.

Affirm- Give your mind something concrete to focus on, rather than running loops around whatever subject is currently driving you crazy.  In class we used 4 alignment points (feet, hips, shoulders and hands).  For our purposes, pick one and as you do your active practice, notice the alignment in each pose.  A few sun salutations would be a good choice.

Relax-  Come into a wide legged forward bend, resting your head on a block (or stack of blocks).  Let the mind begin to quiet.  Do a few standing poses like Warrior 2, side angle and triangle.  In each pose, place your back hand on the base of your skull and relax into it. If your toes are turned toward the right, use your left hand.
             Lay down in corpse pose (savasana) or sit for seated meditation.  Set a timer for 5 minutes and allow the body and mind to rest.  Enjoy.

Long Version

Being Me...

   Being me.  Isn't that what we all want?  Just to be the most perfect expression of the person we were divinely created to be.  Somehow we keep getting caught in "trying to..." the attempt to be whatever we perceive society wants us to be.  Today, life showed me the way that I am caught up in this crazy mission to be the perfect person.

 From the Center's Website

    A group of friends and I went to the Center for Respite Care to help a friend stuff an invitation mailing for a large social event.  The Center is in a beautiful old mansion in Avondale.  Here we are, five white women from the suburbs, you can just imagine.  There was some nervousness about being in the area and sadness over the gentle decline of a once great house (the entire hallway was paneled in quarter sawn oak!)
    Last Friday, when I was asked to help, my friend who works there told me that 'this place changes everyone who comes in the door.'  I listened politely (and again when she said it today), but completely dismissed it from my mind.  How could that possibly apply to me?
    During our visit, we learned about the Center's mission (click on the link above to learn more, they do great work!). We toured the facility, then got down to work. Stuffing envelopes is very necessary, but very tedious. There were all kinds of interesting discussions from why Medicare does not fund the Center to local produce to mission trips.  It was a good way to do a very boring task.  As the afternoon wound down, I went to the restroom.

The Grand hall, from the Center's website (check out the banisters!)

     It was like the rest of the mansion, a hard working room with whispers of a beautiful past.  All of the wiring is in metal conduits on the surface of the wall.  The shower was full of bagged laundry.  Everything was well used, but well maintained.  The minute I opened the door, I felt at home. I love something used and loved far better than something brand new. Though I love beauty, when I create a quilt, I expect people to sit on it, let the baby use it, and wrap themselves tightly enough to pop the stitches. Being useful is so important to me.

Me, (oh, my!)

    This was such a revelation.  From pre-K through high school, I attended one of the most expensive schools in the city as a teachers kid.  This means that we did not have to pay nearly as much tuition as the other families.  Somewhere deep in my heart, a place I never look, I wanted to be one of my classmates. Those girls who could go shopping whenever they wanted and carry the very expensive purses that it seemed like everyone had.
    As an adult, I have never become that person (the shopping girl), but it turns out deep in my soul there is a 13 year old who wants to look just like all of the other kids.  I have always had friends in the country club communities.  They are living the life that 13 year old wants, but they've always liked me just the way I am.  From the intense student, to the loud laugh, to the interest in alternative healing, they never asked me to change.  It is time I loved that young girl enough so she doesn't need a purse to make her feel acceptable.
     The next miracle in a long line from the Center for Respite Care.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Take the Sting Out of Stress

          Life seems to give us all more than our fair share of stressful moments. Over the years I have tried lots of techniques and remedies, but my favorites are the ones that need only a few moments to explain and can easily be taught to children.
         As always, when I was developing this class, life gave me ample opportunity to practice.  From dropping one son off at college, to fighting a body that was fighting back(yes, I knew as soon as the word fight entered the conversation I was in the wrong), to needing to confront someone about underpayment, I think I spent the whole week remembering to breathe, creating affirmations and reconnecting with the heart.  This is not for sissies!
         This video explains the easiest techniques to remember when you are stressed out.  Just remember BAM!

• Breathe
• Affirm
• HeartMath or Meditate

Please enjoy and take the sting out of stress.

Is There Such a Thing as To Much? (or anatomy of a healing crisis)

   Last week, life was really getting me down.  I hesitate to say "for no good reason," because we can always find a reason to be upset.  Lets leave it at, I was more down than was reasonable.  I felt like my nephew did when someone stole one of his potato chips....

       All this sorrow seems a bit extreme for one potato chip, but it was how he felt... and last week I felt the same.
        Well, I learned something very interesting today. There is more than one kind of healing crisis.  In the past I have dealt with physical issues.  When the body is getting rid of something, it can be a bit spectacular but I'll spare you the gory details.  We'll get together over coffee sometime and swap war stories.
      I've always known you can move too fast when healing, but had never experienced something quite like this.  (Now the funny thing is, as I typed those words, I realized that they aren't true at all.  For me emotional discomfort is kind of like childbirth, I forget the worst parts so I'm willing to go through it again.  Who knew?)  I was just so sad, over everything.  I can't imagine how people deal with depression every day of their lives.
       The good part about a rough time caused by too much of good thing (energy work, herbs, vibropathics) is that all you need to do is back off a little bit and find a happy place to let your mind rest. I spent Sunday recovering, probably listened to my relaxation meditation enough to wear out the tape (thank goodness it is on YouTube). By Monday I was gently (but inexorably) cleaning house.  I remember my father in law comparing the women who helped him set up his new home in the retirement community to battleships called dreadnoughts.  I didn't get it at the time, but now I understand. They just keep cleaning and it restores order to the world.
        I guess the lesson here is all things in good time.  In my hurry to be "fixed" and be done with it, I couldn't see the beauty of the world around me. What a shame it would have been to miss this sunset!

From Pain to Peace

       I had the most interesting experience last night.  I learned how to relax into pain.
       For the last few months (okay, longer than that...) I have  been having a rough time once a month.  Let's just say, my friends have been teasing me about The Change.  Not being ready for menopause, I have been denying it vigorously.  What I couldn't deny was the pain that each month brought.
       Since I have been preparing for a class on stress, I decided to treat pain as a stressor.  On Monday, I wrote a post about how I create affirmations.  Last night I put it to work.
       When I described the cause of my stress, it had the words hurt, afraid, whole body and descriptions of time (more than last month, less than two months ago).  I realized that a lot of the pain was caused by my reaction to the initial complaint.  So how to relax the body amidst distraction...

     I printed out Monday's post and wrote all over the back.  You can kind of see the bubble of the zebra's words in the top left corner. The affirmation I came up with you can see on the bottom.  " I am consciously aware of the calm silence of my spirit." (this sounds awfully good, bet I read it somewhere before, maybe from Louise Hay...) I like this because it also reminds me of the calm I have cultivated when things are not as stressful.  I love to meditate, why not access it now?
    It took about 2 hours of conscious inner relaxation.  The pain was still there, but by not tensing against it, I was not creating more.  Once I got to bed, I slept easily through the night.  I also found that this came in handy when I was running this morning.  Consciously relaxing the muscles that were protesting really works!  I hope this technique will benefit you as well.  Be Blessed!

Finger Tips 2: the Video

         Recently I've written a couple of blog posts about Jin Shin Jyutsu and have been using it in my yoga classes.  Here is a video with a simple explanation and a mnemonic to help you remember which finger is associated with each emotional state.