Everything Yoga

Holiday Traditions: Mixing in a Little New with the Old

Happy Gratitude Day everyone!

As you look to the day ahead, you might find yourself following certain traditions. Perhaps they are ones that you engaged in since you were a kid. Maybe they are ones you've adopted through relationships. Or, you could be following along with traditions that you've seen others engaged in or believe you "should" engage in. I have a suggestion -- why not make some conscious traditions of your own? Create traditions that allow you to be present during the holidays. Here are some suggestions for today:

• Start the day with some yoga and/or meditation. I started the tradition of going to a yoga class (which is something I don't normally do, as I practice at home) on Thanksgiving morning years ago and I absolutely love it. You don't have to go to a full 60 or 90-minute class if time is tight -- try practicing at home for 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of quiet meditation time. The peace and well-being of this brief, 30-minute practice will carry through for the rest of the day. And if you overindulge on Thanksgiving, you'll feel happy that you got in a little bit of movement in the morning.
• Go for a walk after your Thanksgiving meal. Typically, the Thanksgiving feast routine goes like this -- eat until over full then lie on the couch and eventually fall asleep (the ancient yogis recommend this formula for a happy digestive system -- 50% food, 25% air/space, 25% water). I've been on the icky feeling end of a Thanksgiving meal in which I overindulged plenty of times. Nothing feels better than moving around a bit to get the digestive system primed. Don't think about speed walking -- just keep things at a nice, leisurely pace. This is also a great way for you and your fellow celebrants to bond, catch up, share. 
• Dance! Yes, that's right -- move your body to some music. Any type of music will do, as long as your body wants to move when it hears it. Try the song below -- it'll definitely get you up and moving. Moving is a great way to wake-up the body, put you in a good mood, and enhance your feelings of aliveness. A friend of mine loves going to her mother's house early so that she can dance in the kitchen while they prepare the food for the holiday. Her mother loves to take periodic dance breaks while she cooks. Often they end up moving and laughing and have more fun preparing the meal than eating it!

Now that I've offered up a few suggestions, get creative and add some Thanksgiving traditions of your own.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog posts. I'm so grateful that people actually care about and are helped by my rantings and ravings about my passion, yoga. I wish I could sit at a big Thanksgiving table with each and every one of you and tell you how grateful I am to have you in my life. Since I can't, I'll say this with a song -- I love you!

Happy Thanksgiving and Namaste!

Om for the Holiday

The holidays are approaching -- whether you like it or not. Some folks hate em' while others love 'em. Either way, there tend to be ups and downs concerning holidays. Some folks feel sink into depression and loneliness at this time while others fret over "holiday enforced" time with family while others stress out trying to make everything perfect. It's not all bad, of course. Some folks love cranking up the holiday music, decking the halls, and entertaining till they drop. Others fall somewhere on this spectrum.

Here's a little holiday survival guide to help you bring a little OM into your holidays:

• Let go of perfection. Don't have anyone to spend the holidays with? Estranged from family? Without a significant other? Forced to spend time with people that you aren't all that fond of in the name of familial peace? I know a lot of folks that are dealing with these issues and a whole lot more this holiday. Maybe it's all of those holiday commercials depicting perfect families, loving mates, in picture perfect surroundings that make us feel like our reality isn't good enough. There is no "should" in regards to the holidays. They don't necessarily need to be filled with expensive presents or family or even turkey (shout out to all the vegetarians out there). Make the holidays reflect your deepest desires rather than perfection. If you don't have family, spend time with friends or volunteer and help others (contrary to popular belief -- you're never alone. There are always people out there who welcome the company of others). Don't eat meat? Serve Tofurkey or salad. Don't feel like celebrating? Take time for yourself and go on a retreat (Kripalu offers an extensive schedule of retreats during the holidays). If you're wanting your holiday celebrations to honor tradition but reflect a your personality and beliefs, inject them into your holiday. For the environmentally conscious among us, go green this Thanksgiving.
• Say NO to holiday hustle and bustle. When I ask people who groan when the holidays are mentioned why they dislike the holidays, they typically use the word obligations in their answer. Many are overwhelmed with tasks, commitments, and traditions that no longer work for them. Try making a list of all of it and then going through it with a critical eye. Do you need to do all of it? Can you let something go (last year I didn't send Christmas cards and it lightened my load and my mind considerably)? Can you plan ahead to make things less stressful? The holidays don't have to be a blur of rushing and stressing. Be sure to schedule in some yoga time, meditation time, or breathing time to keep the stress at manageable levels. You'd be amazed at how 5-minute breathing breaks 4-5 times per day or 20 minutes of meditation a day will keep you calm and focused through periods of stress and overwhelm.
• Fuel yourself wisely. I know, I know -- there are a lot of tempting foods that come out of the cupboards to tempt you at holiday time. We hear about holiday weight gain every year in the media.  The good news is that you're not doomed to eat poorly at the holidays -- you just think you are. Be sure to drink plenty of water and follow the simple golden rule of food -- everything in moderation. You can eat whatever looks tempting -- just not huge portions of it. And if you're like me, who suffered from a "I have to eat it or I'll hurt feelings" complex for years, get over it! You can politely decline foods that you don't care to eat without causing a war. Just smile when you deliver the news that you couldn't possibly eat another bite and all will be fine (trust me -- I do this all the time). If you need a little help with maintaining your health -- and weight -- this holiday season, I highly recommend this wonderful program by health coach Christi Collins. It's filled with common sense, helpful tips, and motivation.
• Use commercialization to your advantage. Gotta be honest -- I'm not a huge fan of all of the rah, rah advertising that comes with the holiday, and I tend to think that stores opening at 5:00AM is a little odd but...you can typically find good sales around the holidays and/or shopping that benefits worthy causes. For example, one of my favorite source for clothes -- Tranquilit.com is having a rocking 4-day sale in which everything is 40% off (from Nov. 27-30 use code NOIRFRIDAY at checkout to get the hefty discount). If you're looking for adorable holiday cards this season and want to help animals (I'm a big fan of animal charities), the Animal Rescue Site is offering a wide selection of goodies in their shop -- and the proceeds go to helping animals. If you'd rather donate to others causes with your holiday shopping, click on the hotlink and choose from fighting hunger to raising money for breast cancer, literacy, child health, or rainforest conservation. All worthy causes. If you're going to spend money this holiday season, you may as well get good deals and help a worthy cause.
• Remember the most important thing. It's all about gratitude. Even when you don't feel like you have much to celebrate or you're feeling down or depressed, you still have things/people to be grateful for. This holiday, spend 10 minutes first thing in the morning making a list of what you're grateful for. List as many things as you can in a 10-minute period. Do this every day through New Years and you'll find that your attitude shifts for the positive. Also, try dedicating your yoga practice to someone who needs it (perhaps they are going through a hard time or you just want to send them love). Sit with your hands in Anjali Mudra for a few minutes before you begin your yoga practice (even if you can only squeeze in 15 minutes) and dedicate your practice to someone in need while sending them love and peace.

If you can do nothing else this holiday season do this -- BREATHE! And remember -- the holidays are supposed to be fun, so breathe in pleasure and joy and breathe out stress, impatience, and unhappiness.

May your Thanksgiving be a day of joy and gratitude that extend throughout the entire year!

Namaste!

Yoga Ouch: Is it in Your Mind or Your Body?

The other day I heard a yoga teacher say something that made me cringe a bit (I'm paraphrasing here) -- "If you want to stop, that's only your mind. Push through and keep going." I'm a fan of the listen-to-your-body club, so this direction didn't sit all that well with me (it's right up there with a yoga teacher going up to a student and aggressively adjusting him/her to suit an ideal form). But then I thought about some examples where this might be true.

For instance -- childbirth. I haven't had a child myself, but I understand that many women get to a point where they feel like they can't possibly continue. Yet somehow their bodies know what to do. A woman wracked with pain may be overwhelmed by sensation to the point of giving up or she may feel fear about a process through which she hasn't undergone before and feels somehow wrong. And while the physical pain is very real, in this case, it's part of the process of giving birth. The yoga teacher might have something here when she says "push through the pain."

Then there's the triathlete that trains very hard and puts his/her body through an enormous amount of strain in the name of sport and competition. Many times you hear about an athlete who crosses the finish line only to collapse shortly thereafter. This person was pushing his/her body, using the power of the mind to finish a race even though the body was shutting down. 

So, which is it -- do you push through the pain in yoga or is the pain a signal to stop? I often go by the motto "no pain, no pain," making my clients stop if something hurts. Yet sometimes feelings/thoughts play a part and staying with sensation can provide a yoga practitioner with a release.

That said, I think the name of the game is discernment. Ask yourself -- am I feeling sensation or flat out pain? There's a difference. Sensation may be uncomfortable or intense in some way, but pain is sharper. It's important to differentiate between the two. The ability to discern can mean the difference between a beautiful experience on the mat and a harmful one that hobbles you with injuries.

Just last night I was doing a Yin Yoga practice. I came into Happy Baby Pose and immediately I felt an intense sensation in the upper thigh/hamstring area of my left leg. Thanks to lack of discernment in my early yoga years, I've injured this area in the past. As I settled into the pose, my immediate reaction was to come out -- NOW. Rather than come out of the pose, I ease up just a tiny bit and stayed. A minute passed and sure enough, I could feel the tightness loosen and the intensity lessen and turn into something warm, soft, and -- much to my surprise -- pleasant. In this case, staying in the pose served my mind (rather than look at this area as tight and injured, I'm now starting to realize that it can be loosened and feel good) and my body well. 

Before you can exhibit discernment in your yoga practice, you must have awareness. If you're practicing yoga automatically, you won't notice when you push past the point of no return until it's too late (believe me, I've been there, done that, felt the pain of it). So how do you amp up your awareness and powers of discernment? Try these helpful suggestions:

• Stay with the breath. I know that this instruction is pounded into your head in yoga class, but it's for a good reason. Staying attuned to your breath keeps you from tuning out. Minds wander -- that's what they do best. Keeping your focus on your breath helps you bring it back to where it's needed -- the here and now. And noticing the quality of your breath will keep you informed as to your effort. If your breath is smooth and even, you're staying within your physical limits. If you find that your holding your breath or your breath is short and choppy, you might want to pull back on your effort, as your overextending yourself.
• Eliminate the baby bathwater mentality. If you're someone who believes that it's all or nothing, try this on for size -- a little goes a long way. Rather than fall into the belief that your yoga practice has to be all out and you have to do everything to your best ability, ease up. As soon as you notice sensation in a pose, ease up a bit in the pose. Don't go as deep. Then notice how easing up affects the sensation. Play with this using micromovements until you find the place that's just right for you -- enough sensation to keep you interested but not so much that you're "gutting through" the practice with a grimace and choppy breathing.
• Build up your discernment muscle. When you first discover ice cream as a child, you notice that it's cold. You may also notice the sweet taste. As you get older, you realize there are different flavors of ice cream, different brands, etc. This is an example of your differentiating one thing from another. Try this in your yoga practice. Take just one pose in your practice to start with (and build up over time) and ask yourself as you move in an out of intensity (using the micromovements mentioned above) -- how is this (and intense form of the posture) different from this (a less intense form of the posture)? When you're doing an asymmetrical pose, ask yourself -- "How is this side different than the other side?"
• Make a connection with your every day life. How you approach your yoga practice often has similarities in how you approach your life. After you finish your practice, take 10 minutes journaling about your experience and how it connects with your daily life. Here are some questions to get you going:
• • How am I showing up?
  • How do I approach my practice?
  • Does the intensity level of my yoga practice fit or reflect my truth (or not)?

 
Mind, body, emotions -- all play a part in your yoga practice. The key is to acknowledge all three and pay attention rather than sacrificing one (or two) for another. Being aware and using discernment can transform your yoga practice -- and your life -- for the better.

Namaste!

Illness as Yoga Practice

Last week I was knocked down cold by some sort of nasty virus. I had the whole enchilada -- sweats, chills, almost vomit (not a good sign from someone who hasn't actually vomited since she was 6 years old). Needless to say I was miserable, uncomfortable, and weak...and yet the whole experience felt like some sort of yoga retreat.

Say what?!?!? I know, I know -- it sounds a little crazy, right? No, I'm not on medication and haven't lost my marbles (at least I don't think so). Just hear me out...

I awaken in the wee hours of the morning feeling unsettled, which then leads to feeling inhuman (yep, I'm a total wimp about the nausea/vomit thing). As I semi sit/lay on the bathroom floor, I find myself resorting to yoga tactics -- I focus on my breathing and try to use it to calm my roiling stomach. I sit in stillness simply noticing what's happening (heck, I was too weak to do anything about it anyway). I even gave myself a little internal pep talk like I did when I was 1.5 hours into sitting absolutely still while being instructed in a meditation technique while dealing with my mind screaming over the fact that various body parts had fallen asleep and/or were filled with "sensation" (translation: pain).

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl (today I'm feeling better and I'm wondering how it got to be late afternoon so quickly -- of course!) and all I could do was focus on the moment. I really, really wanted to feel better but I didn't know whether the next moment would bring about something worse or something better so I narrowed my focus to the present moment. I focused on my breath. In. Out.

Hmmmmm...if I had been laying on a yoga mat rather than the tiled bathroom floor, I could have been in a yoga class. Granted, I've never felt so physically awful in a yoga class, but there was an intriguing similarity between being sick and...well, just plain ole being. 

For me, when confronted with misery, my only option seemed to be sitting and noticing what was going on in my body without getting too caught up in it. It's a bit like Vipassana meditation (not as I learned it from S.N. Goenka but more like the folks from Insight Meditation) -- you notice and label what you're noticing in a non-judgmental/witness sort of way. So for breathing you label the inhale "rising" and the exhale "falling." When you notice yourself getting lost in thoughts, it's "thinking." When you find yourself listening to a noise outside, it's "hearing." And when feeling something physically uncomfortable, it's "sensation." It was interesting to me how I got less hooked in feeling miserable (which is a judgment, not a label) when I noticed sensation without judging it. Granted, this isn't a new concept for me, as I've experienced this during meditation. I've just never had this experience when I've been in physical pain.

Ah, yoga and meditation practice pays off yet again.

Prior to getting sick, I found myself doing short bursts of Vipassana meditation throughout the day. I even tried it during my yoga practice. Why not try it yourself and see what happens? Your mind might just get a little quieter, your pain a little less intense, your life a little more peaceful.

Namaste!

P.S I'd like to thank everyone for their comments about my last post. The discussion was lively, and I often wanted to jump in and keep it going, yet I held back because I had already presented my views on the subject. I sure did appreciate reading all of your views though. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being heard!

Yoga No-Nos

What a week it's been in the world of yoga. First, a yoga student sues a Boulder, CO yoga studio owner over an unwanted adjustment during yoga class. Then the financially-strapped state of Missouri taxes yoga. Hmmmm...I'm thinking Patanjali would be shaking his head (or is that hood) over these two happenings, reminding us of ahimsa and asteya. My comments on these two events -- always ask first then proceed with caution and is it really necessary or is greed driving the bus?

The other recent what the h@#$ item in the news regarding yoga lately is one near and dear to my heart (WARNING: the yoga blogger in residence is about to jump on her soapbox) -- yoga as a competitive sport. Check out this poll (and feel free to vote) about making yoga an Olympic sport and the accompanying video. Personally, I find the video disturbing. Call me a yoga purist/elitist/whatever but I don't like to hear the following phrases ass0ciated with yoga: "suck it," "judging asanas," "vicious yogi and yoginis," "maximum flexibility and balance."

If you've been reading my blog you know how I feel about yoga as sport (I don't). At the risk of repeating myself, I'll say this -- in regards to asana, it's about the function NOT the form. Yet, competitions like the one depicted in the video focus on "the full expression" of the pose. Perhaps these folks need to re-read Patanjali's sutras. I don't believe that Patanjali discusses yoga practitioners desiring a high number on a scale of 1-10 regarding "beauty, balance, strength, and flexibility" in a pose. Or perhaps it's just a ticked-off yoga practitioner like me who is reading the wrong translation of the sutras. Pardon me.

What is it that all of this nasty yoga news have in common? EGO. The teacher who thinks that he/she knows a student's physical limitations and adjusts according to what he/she thinks the pose should look like, a bureaucrat who thinks that he/she can line the coffers by taxing something that shouldn't be taxed, a movement that cares about a yoga practitioner's outer state than his/her inner state. Last time I checked, yoga wasn't about injuries, money, or a gold medal. If I thought that it was, I wouldn't have started practicing nor would I have continued my practice for well over a decade. 

Okay, end of rant. Whew -- I feel better.

After all of that bad news, I like to focus on the good. The good news is that you don't have to get caught up in all of this nonsense -- you can simply practice yoga. You can practice imperfectly, without worrying that some judge is grading you on your form in Virabhadrasana. You can practice as yoga was meant to be practiced -- with sthira and sukha. You can practice knowing that yoga is more about changing the quality of your mind and releasing the knots from your body and mind and less about your yoga wardrobe, the depth of your back arch in Wheel, which "guru" you've studied with, and  whether or not you're practicing in a hip studio with the latest big name grunting on the mat next to yours. Yoga is more than all of this. And someday it just might save the world -- or at the very least, your little corner of it. 

See, it's not all bad news.

Namaste!