Yoga was a hot topic at the 7th annual Integrative Healthcare Symposium . From yoga in the military to a planned teacher training in Haiti to an explosion of web applications for medical professionals to introduce yoga to patients, the practice is reaching deep into America’s most venerable institutions and professions.   “It’s phenomenal how rapidly yoga has spread into acceptance in mainstream health care,” said presenter John Weeks, editor of the I ntegrator Blog and executive director of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care.   Some of the highlights:   • A more holistic paradigm for overall military fitness has been called for by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. One possible model is The Wellness Inventory, which was featured as an exemplary assessment in a report commissioned by Mullen, and provides a holistic overview of a patient’s needs for purposes of customizing wellness plans. Things like movement, breathing, feelings, and the ability to transcend situations are among the considerations measured by the inventory. “It’s all yoga-the original system of holistic health,” says Jim Strohecker, co-creator of the web-based inventory and a lifelong yogi and one-time student of Swami Muktananda.   • The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, in Washington, DC, has trained “120 doctors, nurses, priests, and voodoo healers,” in Haiti following the devastating 7.0 earthquake there in January 2010, in practices such as guided imagery and yogic movement and breathing, said center founder and longtime yoga practitioner, James Gordon, MD. The center is working on a plan to also offer yoga teacher training there.   • Yoga is finding it’s way into medical practices through a number of other web-based applications, such as LiivMD, which employs video instruction from well-known yogi and mindfulness figures such as John Friend and Joan Borysenko to guide patients through poses and concepts.   Yoga may play an even larger role at next year’s symposium, with a planned presentation about the benefits of the practice in therapeutic settings. Dr. Woodson Merrell, the M. Anthony Fisher director of Integrative Medicine, Continuum Center of Health and Healing in New York City, and chairman of the symposium, said integrative providers “feel like yoga is a foundation for accessing inner wisdom and healing capabilities. It’s fundamental.” By Nancy O’Brien                    

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Yoga Makes a Splash at Integrated Healthcare Conference

Helping women overcome issues like poverty and abuse leads to education and leadership. And this can transform the world. This is the idea behind the annual Care Conference, where artists, politicians, and thought leaders come together to talk about why helping women heals the world. For the first time this year, the Care Conference will kick off with a yoga class with Off the Mat, Into the World’ s Seane Corn, Hala Khouri, and Suzanne Sterling. With both groups focusing on grassroots social change, they are perfectly aligned. “It’s going to be a great way to get participants energized and ready to take action on issues affecting girls and women around the world,” says CARE’s Sarah Moser. The conference takes place on March 8-11th — in conjunction with International Women’s Day — and features appearances by Melinda Gates, Laura Bush, Judy Woodruff, India.Arie, Michael Franti, and others. After their conference class, the dynamic Off The Mat trio will then teach an intensive called Yoga, Purpose & Action, at Washington D.C.’s Flow Yoga Center . We want to know: Do you think yoga has the potential to transform the world?

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Help Women, Heal the World

Larry Schultz, founder of It’s Yoga studio and developer of the signature practice known as Rocket Yoga, has died. He was 60. Schultz founded It’s Yoga in San Francisco in 1987, creating a vibrant hub for a growing yoga community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Known as one of the foremost Ashtanga Yoga teachers in the West, he also taught thousands of classes across the U.S. and abroad and shepherded more than 1,000 Ashtanga Vinyasa students through his rigorous 200-hour teacher training course. In the 1980s, Schultz traveled with and taught yoga to the band the Grateful Dead.  Schultz studied with luminaries such as Tim Miller, David Williams, and K. Pattabhi Jois, and was best known for developing what become known simply as The Rocket, his unique spin on Ashtanga Yoga poses and sequencing that culminated in an intense, sweaty, and much-beloved advanced yoga practice. Over the years, yoga students of all kinds flocked to his studios (he facilitated the opening of 12 studios altogether). Advanced students came to practice on their own, while new students that included Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, artists, students, and entertainers came to explore this mysterious practice. In an open letter on the It’s Yoga website, Schultz shared his vision for teaching: There is nothing more satisfying to me as a teacher than to watch the glow with which people arise from Savasana. Often people walk into It’s Yoga with worry, stress and tiredness written all over their faces but when they leave, they show the effects of Ashtanga Yoga: they feel better and look better, lighter, freer, more relaxed and energized. This is why to me, teaching Ashtanga Yoga is a kind of self-realization; every time I lead class I, as a teacher, grow and express the insights of my own yoga. I see people take in the practice from various different angles and develop, change and transcend their limitations, realize their possibilities. “Larry was a warm and generous person,” remembers Yoga Journal Senior Associate Editor Jennifer Rodrigue, who took his teacher training. “One of his greatest contributions to the yoga community was giving people the courage to own their personal practice, encouraging people to honor the past and to live in the present.” David Kyle of It’s Yoga Puerto Rico, remembers his teacher: “His passing has taken many by surprise,” he says. “His life here has influenced thousands to search within themselves for their inner guru. He is an inspiration to us all.”   Combining his signature mix of humor and discipline, generosity and firmness–and above all, kindness–Schultz delighted in introducing his students to the practice, traveling around the globe, and spreading his gospel of yoga’s healing and restorative powers. “Larry was dedicated to yoga with every cell of his being,” says Eddie Modestini, who created with his wife, Nicki Doane, Maya Yoga. “He was a wild, joyous, funny, charismatic yoga teacher who turned many people on to the practice. He left us too early. He is loved by many and will be missed.” “It’s a huge loss,” says San Francisco yoga teacher Stephanie Snyder, who says that Schultz referred to yoga as a party to which all were invited. “He was an entryway for anyone to come into yoga. He made it accessible to all. He was an institution.” Schultz is survived by his wife Marie.

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Iconic Bay Area Yoga Teacher Dies

“This sh** is hard,” says one NBA player when describing yoga in an article in the online magazine Slam about the growing interest of yoga in the NBA. Some teams have on-site teachers during the season, while others direct their players to practice during off-season. In the piece, author Kyle Stack talks about how yoga helps NBA players deal with the intense stress and strain of their job–and the clash of cultures that can happen when yoga meets the money, fame, and pressure that goes with professional sports. ” That there is even one NBA team which has a yoga instructor on the payroll is fairly surprising,” he is quoted as saying. “Yoga has a fundamental association with nature and soft music and showing one’s sensitive side. That doesn’t jive with an NBA environment that is filled with aggressiveness, even ruthlessness. ‘Soft’ doesn’t work; NBA players can read through someone trying to tap into their inner self. ” We want to know: Should yoga adapt itself to its environment or remain true to it’s original format?

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Yoga in the NBA: Culture Clash or Savior?

From February 4-6: His Holiness The Dalai Lama will initiate The Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is the Buddha of Universal Love, and the goal of this teaching is to bring abundance, peace, and joy to the planet. For this event, taking place at a monastery in India and documented by Elevate Films , The Dalai Lama has called ten thousand monks from around the world. Of course, most of us can’t attend. But you can do your part, thanks to  Do As One. This site hosts online “breathing rooms,” where people can sign in and join others breathing; current breathing rooms include Laughter Room and Om Room, among others. “I had a vision of having a billion people breathing together synchronously,” says Do As One co-founder Rabia Hayek. “And then I realized with the Internet that I could actually do it.” The goal is 10,000 people breathing together at any given time. For this week’s happening, Hayek encourages everyone to log in and join the Universal Breathing Room anytime during the 4th, 5th, or 6th to take part. We want to know:  Do you think breathing together has an effect on the planet?

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Breathe with the Dalai Lama!

Last week, I started walking through the door of my Pilates class. Just as the door almost shut behind me, I heard the sound of funky world music coming from another room. I gave the teacher an apologetic glance, backed out of the room, and found myself in a huge roomful of people laughing and dancing and moving en masse to a really loud Afro-Cuban beat.  The moral isn’t to shun your Pilates class. (I went back the next week.) But for me, it’s clear that I need to have more fun. Since then, I’ve been trying to practice The Art of Silliness. Even though I often feel weighed down with responsibility, I’m trying to find small ways that I can bring a silly, childlike quality back into my life. Here’s my modest Art of Silliness list:  1. Host a nightly “dance party” with my kids before bed. 2. Go out with my girlfriends–even when I’m “too tired.” 3. Smile with joy during a tough asana practice instead of grimacing.  4. Play charades. We want to know: What’s on your Silly List?

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The Art of Silliness

Indie actress Michelle Williams is spreading the gospel of yoga for stressed-out single mothers in need of a sanctuary where they can rest and rejuvenate. The actress, who stars in the new film Blue Valentine , says that yoga helped her grieve the loss of Heath Ledger, the father of her daughter, Matilda, and gave her strength to be a single mother. As a result of her experiences, along with two local yoga teachers she’s launching a pilot program in Boston, called The Yoga for Single Moms Project. The Project offers childcare so moms can practice, and practical suggestions for a home practice specific to the needs of single mothers who just can’t get away. We want to know: How does yoga help you with your parenting?

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Actress Michelle Williams Launches Yoga Center for Single Moms

As yogis, we aspire to work toward a deeper acceptance and understanding of ourselves, and to live healthy lifestyles. That’s why starting out the New Year with yoga can be a powerful and soulful way to bring in the year. You set the intention to be a bit more loving and accepting yourself, imperfections and quirks and all, while gifting your mind and body with a practice that helps you in every way. There are New Year’s classes happening at studios across the country to help you set this powerful intention. Or maybe even gather a few yogi friends for a powerful New Year’s day practice in your home. There are many ways to honor what is passing while welcoming the possibilities to come. Here are a few happenings in some major cities: San Francisco: Yoga Tree (shown above) is offering five workshops before, during, and after the New Year that include live music, kirtan, and a range of yoga classes. Cleveland: At Evolution Yoga , choose from Pilates, Jivamukti or restorative yoga classes on New Year’s day. New York Jivamukti Yoga has its 22nd annual New Year’s Eve celebration with Sharon Gannon and David Life, that includes a class, vegan dinner, kirtan dance party, and ending with silence to bring in the New Year. Los Angeles Start 20111 with Siddha Yoga ’s audio satsang, featuring founder Gurumayi Chidvilasananda teachings. We want to know: How can you love yourself just a little bit more this coming year?  

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New Year, Honor You

Before you buy another mug or pair of salad tongs, remember it’s not too late for a meaningful gift that someone could actually use. The right book can inspire, teach, or just add a little humor. Here’s a few ideas: For the kid in your life: Watch Me Do Yoga (Rodmell Press) by Bobby Clennell . A delightful children’s book written and illustrated by this seasoned Iyengar Yoga teacher. For someone who could use a good laugh: Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses (Farrar, Straus,and Giroux) by Claire Dederer. The best kind of yoga memoir: witty and inspirational. For that person at a crossroads: Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience (Sounds True) by Sally Kempton. With a forward by Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, this riveting book explores practical ways to love yourself. We want to know: What will you read over the holidays?

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Holiday Book Gift Guide

I love the energy of the yoga community. Like a flash flood, a flash mob comes together like a FLASH!, flows through Sun Salutations–and then, it’s gone. This Saturday, three flash mobs are happening around the world. In London, Nairobi, and Los Angeles, yogis will come together to raise awareness about the upcoming documentary Yoga for Unity , which highlights the work of the Africa Yoga Project and explores how yoga can be used to combat tribalism, violence, and poverty. A powerful testament to yoga’s ability to transform. Baron Baptiste, executive producer on the film, will be speaking at the LA event, which is taking place at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Stay tuned for the video of these three events edited together. We want to know: Do you think of your yoga as activism? If so, in what way?

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Saturday: Global Yoga Flash Mob

We don’t always have two hours to go to a yoga class. Especially now, when the holidays are gearing up, along with our nervous systems. When you need to decompress but only have a little time, Wisdom FIlms has an answer: 3-5 minute films that calm your senses. With award-winning cinematographers and composers, these small films are narrated by inspiring teachers Deepak Chopra, success coach Bob Proctor, Thich Nath Hanh, and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandchildren, Arun & Sunanda Gandhi. So if you can’t get to a rushing river, have it come to you. Learn more, watch a sample, or purchase for $39.96 at Wisdom Films. We want to know: What is your antidote to holiday stress?

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An Antidote to Holiday Stress

I love the energy and buzz of urban life. But I’ve notice that sometimes after a day out in my beloved city, I feel more drained than when I take a vigorous two hour hike in the mountains. So I wasn’t surprised to read about recent research from Harvard Medical School that shows spending a few minutes on a busy city street can affect the brain’s ability to focus and to manage self-control. That makes sense, because all of the stimulus takes up a lot of the brain’s processing power.  According to an article by Scott Edwards that appeared in On The Brain:  Directed attention fatigue is a neurological symptom that occurs when our voluntary attention system, the part of the brain that allows us to concentrate in spite of distractions, becomes worn down. People suffering from directed attention fatigue can experience short-term feelings of heightened distraction, impatience, or forgetfulness. When the condition is severe enough, people can exhibit poor judgment and feel increased levels of stress. What to do about it?  Next time I’m going to head for the streets, I think I’ll head for the hills instead. Research shows that only 20 minutes in nature is a remedy for getting the brain to recover from directed attention fatigue. When you are overtaxed, overstimulated, overwhelmed,  what will you do? 

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Study: City Living Changes the Brain

I’m continuously impressed by the creative ways people find to bring yoga to those who can really benefit. The latest example is from Yoga Bear, a non-profit organization that promotes yoga for health and wellness to the cancer community and beyond. For the next month, the organization is presenting Cinemasana , an online yoga film festival, which anyone with a video camera and a computer can enter. The idea is to encourage yoga instructors to create videos of specific sequences that can benefit cancer patients and encourage them to start a home yoga practice. Anyone interested can go online and watch the videos. On December 15, the festival’s organizers will look at the videos with the best ratings. Creators of the top five videos will be showered with swag from sponsors like Lululemon Athletica, Numi, Satya Jewelry, Dr. Hauskchka, and more.  Whether you are a yoga instructor, know someone with cancer, or are part of the cancer community, I urge you to take advantage of this creative–and beneficial–challenge.   For more information, and instructions on how to post your video, visit http://www.yogabear.org/page/cinemasana-1

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Film Festival Brings Yoga to Cancer Community

Hugh Hefner has done it again. The controversial and eternally youthful playboy is in the spotlight once more, this time because of a flashy Playboy video showing a female playmate doing yoga poses. The Hindu keepers of the yoga flame are livid, according to a various news reports . “Hindus are upset over what is the misuse of the age-old and revered system of yoga by Playboy for mercantile greed. . . ” said Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism. “Yoga is one of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy and it is highly revered in Hinduism. It is a serious mental and physical discipline by means of which the human soul can unite with the universal soul.” This is yet another chapter in the raging debate about who gets to define modern yoga. Not every case is as extreme as Hugh vs. the Hindus, but the core issues–materialism, commercialism, and sexism–remain the same. We want to know:   Do you think Hugh Hefner has crossed the line? Is this latest flap an insult to yogis, or do you just take it with a grain of salt?    

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Hefner Blasphemes Yoga

The folks at the Australian-based YogaAid have dreamed up a large-scale nationwide yoga event on September 18th and 19th to coincide with National Yoga Month. The two-hour yoga classes around the country will be taught by 12 local yoga teachers to benefit charity. While the biggest events are being held in Chicago, New York, Miami, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco, organizers say that more than 20 others will happen around the country. Participating in a Yoga Aid Challenge is easy: Log on to www.yogaaid.com and click the red button for the United States Yoga Challenge. Here, you can register to create a profile page.Then people can visit your page and donate–all online. The idea is that students raise money for charity in advance of the free class. (Many well-meaning charity events actually lose money, because the cost of putting on an event eats into the profits.) YogaAid’s model is funding the event so that all of the money raised goes directly to the chosen charities: Off the Mat, Into the World, Africa Yoga Project, 4OneWorld, and Yoga for Youth. Beyond raising money, the organizers hope that the event will have a ripple effect, sparking the desire in each student to serve in their community. Karma Yoga (the yoga of service) is one of yoga’s eight limbs. How do you find ways to serve in your family or community? Let us know. And to get you in the giving mood, Yoga Aid and MC Yogi have paired up to create the tune, “Give Love.” Download the MP3 for free by going to yogaaid.com and clicking on the blue box at the bottom right hand corner. Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Give Love! Join a Nationwide Yoga Aid Challenge

Stories about yoga in schools come across my desk all the time–maybe a weekly class after school, a teacher coming for a visit, or a rotation during gym class. But Headstand, a nonprofit with programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas really caught my eye: The folks behind Headstand have created a comprehensive 40-week curriculum that meets the state’s standards for physical education, making it a mandatory part of the curriculum. They currently have programs in three schools, with a full-time, Headstand-trained, staff yoga teacher at each. So far, the pilot program is operating in 3 KIPP schools, which are free, open-enrollment academic charter schools in underserved communities; the yoga programs range from elementary to middle schools, depending on the location. Headstand founder Katherine Priore, who teaches at KIPP San Lorenzo, California, told me a few things her kids have passed along about yoga’s impact: One boy said that when he gets really mad, he now uses his new mantra “yoga breaths, yoga breaths” and calms down. And recently, a fifth grader told her after Savasana: “I really think that was life-changing!” Along with San Francisco-based yoga teacher Stephanie Snyder, Headstand is working on a new curriculum. Sounds simple. But yoga can be so hard to define, much less systematize. We want to know: What do you think are the most important yoga principles to teach children? What do you wish you knew about yoga that might have helped you in school? Get involved: Want to donate to Headstand? Visit www.headstand.org/donate.html Want to know more? Visit www.headstand.org Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

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Yoga Goes Back to School

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Stephanie Bernstein

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Jessica Berger Gross

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Kristin Shepherd

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Sarana Miller

I was honored when my friend Benjamin Finnerty who is living and teaching yoga in Shanghai, China invited me to come teach the Anusara Immersion at Fine Yoga in Beijing. I must admit a feeling of unease came over me because this would be my first time teaching to students of another language and culture and working with a translator, but I knew it was a great opportunity for me to grow as a teacher.   Over the next several months, as we made the plans the idea became more comfortable. During that time a friend said that “life begins at the edge of your comfort zone”!  This is so true; it is the experiences where we have to dig deep inside our self and find the courage that expands us the most. My yoga practice and years of teaching had prepared me for this endeavor. On my first day, though I was quite jet-lagged from the journey, I was taken on a whirlwind tour of Beijing. First we visited the Temple of Heaven, which is located behind one of the biggest and most famous parks in Beijing.  Like most Chinese parks in the morning, it was full of people practicing Tai Chi, dancing, playing games, stretching and enjoying themselves.  This particular park had a section with equipment like a gym in the USA!  At 9:30 on a Wednesday morning people were playing together, both men and women young and old, were getting exercise, socializing and enjoying life. It was beautiful. Thursday was the first day of the immersion. Though I felt at ease about teaching and comfortable with the material there was still this question in my mind about how to connect to the students.  We spent the whole first day on the First Principle of Anusara Yoga, which is opening to grace. Though the students wanted to learn the alignment very much we kept our focus on cultivating sensitivity, connecting to their breath and their hearts and taking a more expansive view.  In Chinese, just like Sanskrit, the word for heart and mind is the same, and both cultures are very connected to the idea of living from their hearts.  There is a Taoist expression that says, “See every thing from the light of heaven,” so the concept of first principle was not new. As the day went on they were beginning to soften their effort and embody it in their poses on the mat. Though we began worlds apart, by the end of the first day each member of the group shared their experiences, and the boundaries between us dissolved with their shyness. I saw the reflection of my own trust that we would connect reflected back through them, and it was more apparent to me than ever that our hearts’ know no boundary of language and culture.  We connected on the most fundamental level, and I will be forever transformed. When have you had to find courage to do something out of your norm?  How are you better for the experience? Stacey Rosenberg is a Certified Anusara Yoga teacher in San Francisco and around the globe.  Her classes are dynamic and playful and provide a fun, safe, and nurturing environment that invites students to move deeply into their own hearts and transform their lives.  www.namastacey.com

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Boundless Hearts in Beijing

testing code to pull most popular entries from blogs. In the right column you will find six lists… three each from Yoga Buzz and Beginners Blog. Each blog has a list for Most Popular of all time, Most popular since July 1 (could be quarterly), Most popular this week. They have been intentionally left un-formatted.  With a little formatting and perhaps including an excerpt, they could be powerful drivers.

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Test: Most Popular List

There are days – pushing my stroller up a steep hill, scooping dog poop while answering the phone, trying to meet writing deadlines while Lucien plays at my feet, managing outings and baths and meals and schedules, not to mention making time for my yoga practice-when I could almost forget. How hard it was getting here. It was hard for me to become a mother, excruciatingly so. (Now, in comparison, is the easy part.) Neil and I married when I was 30, and though it seemed prudent to wait to try and have a baby-for our careers to become more stable, to have more of an income, to settle down in one city -I wanted to get started right away.  Maybe deep down I knew. After six months of trying, I became pregnant. We lived in Los Angeles at the time and immediately I changed everything. My diet: Goodbye coffee, hello egg salad sandwiches. My asana practice: so long Mysore series, hello Iyengar. Even the way I thought of myself changed in the instant I saw that plus on the pregnancy stick. In a flash I went from struggling would-be writer to contented mom-to-be. That pregnancy was seven years ago. At eight-and-a-half weeks (that half week was as important to me then as Lucien’s “half” a year after his two years is to me now) I went to the doctor for my first ultrasound. In that fancy office in Beverly Hills I sat feeling out of place but confident in my impending motherhood as I flipped the pages of the magazines laid out in the waiting room. And then the exam. There was no heartbeat. What followed was an everyday nightmare that I know many of you reading this have been through-the blood work and waiting, the D & C, the endless and unexpected free fall of grief. It took a long time for me to heal. One thing that helped was working on my first book, an anthology I edited, About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope . I wrote my story and collected others.  Hearing women’s stories, immersing myself in them, steeled me as I spent the next several years determined to become a mother, but not sure how or when or some days, if, I would. Yoga helped too. In class I felt cared for and comforted, and on good days I felt that everything would be all right. (On the bad days I stared in envy at the gorgeous pregnant women in class, on the really bad days I cried at home on my mat, and on the worst days I stayed in bed.) Now, all these years later, I have my beautiful boy.  As he sings to me and as we snuggle and make believe, and even when I get so exhausted from keeping up with him that I need to collapse in front of hours of reality television in a pop culture coma, I remember, and I feel for all the women (and men) out there struggling-whether with IVF cycles or adoption waiting lists or simply the monthly still-negative pregnancy tests. I’m sending love to all of you and prayers that soon you’ll be with the children you are meant to parent. And believe me, I know how lucky I am. Do you have a story to share? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Remembering

This is the first of a series of blogs by yoga teachers on tour. Join them as they find inspiration to practice all over the world! Seven years ago a friend invited me to his hometown of Haines in Southeast Alaska. I had never considered visiting Alaska and didn’t give it much consideration; however, he didn’t give up easily and started sending me pictures of the river and mountains that persuaded me to visit  the little borough of Haines (pop. 2,400) for a week.   I fell in love with Haines at first sight and have returned every summer since. The people are friendly and generous and the natural beauty unparalleled. I started teaching a yoga class or two at the local community center that also houses the public radio and theater, and now have expanded into leading a full weekend workshop and evening kirtan. An incredible family (Beth MacCready and Gregg Bigsby) who practice yoga and meditation host me at their unique 15-acre waterfront property where the river meets the ocean. I stay in a yert, pictured above. Eagles fly overhead, seals and whales swim by, an occasional moose or bear wander in, and  snow-capped mountains rise out of water as far as the eye can see. It is here, by the sea in southeast Alaska that I have precious time to recharge my battery that gets worn down from living in an urban environment the rest of the year. My month here is a time for me to remember the practice of slowing down, the importance of rest and the healing power of mother nature. My singing, mediation and asana practice have plenty of space to unfold in this unique natural setting.   I plan my workshop with nature as a theme: trees rooting down to grow up toward the sun.  We practice rooting down into the earth with our feet and drawing energy up from the earth through the spine and out the crown of the head, allowing it to open and expand from the sky. We practiced this in Tadasana and through the standing poses. I gave the students a “home play” assignment to practice this extension as they stand and walk throughout the day.  I invite you to join us in this practice as well! Where do you go to recharge your battery? And what makes you feel connected to nature? Sarana Miller is trained in the Iyengar and Forrest Yoga traditions and is currently studying the Sarah Powers style. A student of Jai Uttal, she teaches yoga and leads kirtan in San Francisco. 

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Moose, Yoga and Alaska!

Two historical events occurred this weekend on opposite coasts. Chelsea Clinton got married in New York, celebrating with  more than 300 guests. Meanwhile, a few thousand miles to the left, more than 8,000 yogis celebrated yoga, rock and roll and dance at the Wanderlust Festival at Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe, California. I attended the latter.   My Wanderlust journey began with Annie Carpenter’s 8am class Thursday morning. Smiling volunteers welcomed us to the first class of the festival. Next up on the line-up was Shiva Rea with live DJ Bom Siva and the Mayapuris, who lead us into an ecstatic dance and yoga practice as an informal opening ritual to the festival. We raised the vibration to the level Shiva and co-founder Jeff Krasno (other co-founder Schuyler Grant) dreamed up over 2 years ago while lounging on the terrace of Shiva’s Malibu home. The celebration continued into the afternoon, where Shiva hosted a sold out river rafting party with live music. As we lazily drifted down river in the summer sun,  we soaked in Mayapuri’s kirtan and Steve Gold’s rhythm and blues melodies.   This uniquely epic experience raised the collective conscious vibration of the planet with it’s diverse line up of world renowned yoga teachers and musicians raising awareness of sacred activism including a Yoga Aid event that spilled off the yoga floor onto the hot tarmac; funds were raised for Seane Corn’s Yoga Off the Mat; Baron Baptiste and Paige Elenson’s Africa Project; Shiva Rea’s Global Mala Project; Brock Cahill’s Kurmalliance (Rescuing Turtles from the Gulf Coast Oil Spill). Moby’s Speakeasy talk, “May All Beings Be Free of Suffering: Why I Am a Vegan,” moderated by Kaitlin Quistgaard editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal , was also an event to remember.   Celebrity sightings included world-class sport climbing champion Chris Sharma and Nick Rosen from the Enlighten Up! documentary.  And “non-celebrity yoga celebrity,” John Friend made a surprise appearance on Saturday afternoon, days after The Yoga Mogul appeared in the New York Times , stepping off Beaver Theodosakis’ private Prana plane in time to participate in the Yoga Aid event taught by Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste and Shiva Rea. Ecstatic dance parties included (music headliner) Moby’s epic Friday night performance, a breakout dance session in front of the Natural High booth during Base Nectar’s Saturday night performance (which almost burst open the fences with record attendance), and literally climaxing (a t 8,200 feet) on Sunday afternoon at the pool at High Camp, the ultimate chill-out zone where relaxing yogis and families made way for DJ Dragonfly’s spinning extravaganza. What a weekend!   For more information, go to www.wanderlustfestival.com .    Twee Merrigan is senior teacher trainer of Prana Flow and a sacred activist traveling through America this August to raise funds for the Gulf Oil Spill Clean Up on her Butterfly Effect Tour. Wanderlust was a stop on the Tour to raise awareness and inspire sacred activism.

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Wanderlust Wows with Music, Dance and Yoga

Okay, what is it with triangle pose???? (Those of you who are experts need not read this one. Go back to practicing your one-armed handstands with your legs in full lotus. I adore you, I do. I worship your accomplishments. But today’s thoughts are not for you.) Triangle pose. Pretty basic. Do the triangle thing and reach forward to grab your first toe. For the entire 10 months of my gorgeous, intensive involvement in yoga, this is exactly what happens with my right leg. I reach down, gently grab the first toe of my right foot, and look up to the ceiling. I breathe slowly and evenly. I don’t care if Rob and Cristina (my teachers) count to 29 on this one. Happiness. Not so with my left leg. On my left side, I reach down, all the while thinking, I am so flexible, I am flexibility itself, I am flexibility incarnate and reincarnate. And my hand reaches mid-calf. Not an inch lower. Makes me crazy. I know, I know, patience, kindness, acceptance of what is. Even if what is is a daily reminder of my exaggerated imbalance. All I wish for is balance, I tell myself. So guess what happened this week? For no reason I can think of, my triangle pose has changed! But not the way you think it might. Not the way it happens in fairy tales and romantic comedy yoga videos. Now neither of my hands can reach my toe! I mean it. I just tried it again before sitting here to write. Both sides to mid-calf. Not an inch lower. My thoughts? Be careful what you wish for. I wanted balance. I got it. Is there a pose that drives you crazy? (Okay, if it’s the one-armed handstand with full lotus, you can play, too.) Thanks to the yoga poses that drive us crazy, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd.

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Poses That Make You Crazy

We’ve all had days like Alexander’s in the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. In case you haven’t read it (you should) one thing after another happens from the moment he wakes up: from finding gum in his hair, missing out on the cereal box prize to fighting with his big brother, a trip to the dentist, and having a broken nightlight, Alexander wishes he could forget this mess and simply run off to Australia (me too!)–they don’t have bad days there. As adults, and as yogis, we hopefully have outgrown some of these limited belief systems–but somehow it seems like this “bad day” allowance issue still comes up. We wake up and know this day is going to be off, so it is written off as such. What does science, and yoga have to say about that? Steve Schwartz of LifeHacker checks it out: The brain’s facility to simplify, in most contexts, is very useful and beneficial. Our brains develop symbols, or abstract representations of complex ideas, that allow us to connect the represented ideas with other ideas, and to build upon them, without having to keep the full details of every complex idea at the forefront of our minds. In other words, simplification clears our minds, freeing our brains to draw additional connections and conclusions from complex ideas, data, and experiences. But what happens when we simplify experiences with the wrong symbolic conclusion? This is precisely what happens when we conclude that we are having a bad day. We blame our misfortune on factors outside of our own control, in order to avoid analyzing the real reasons things happened as they did (or perhaps even to eschew our own responsibility). Hence, it is easy for us to believe we’re having a bad day. The obvious downside is that once you accept the convenient conclusion that the entire day is for naught, it will actually cause the rest of your day to go horribly awry. Experiencing the world with negative expectations is like viewing reality through a muddy water glass. Your view will be distorted and you won’t like what you see. Schwartz offers a four-step program on how to not have a bad day any day, most of which sound pretty much like yoga to us. In summary: 1.Reflect on the negative feeling you have right now. (Presence) 2.Re-evaluate the situation or events that lead to this stress. (Perspective) 3. Remember that the outcome of the previous minute is not indicative of the outcome of the next minute. (Avoid Samskaras) 4. There is no number four…get on with your life already! (Yoga is now!) Next time you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, try being present and changing your expectation–just like we do in yoga–and see if you have a wonderful, awesome, not bad, very fantastic day. Because some days are still going to seem like that, even in Australia.

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Got a Bad Case of the Mondays?

This summer in my house, nap time is yoga time. The best feeling in the world is listening to my “baby” sleep off his hard morning of play while I settle into my practice upstairs. Then there are the days when he skips his nap.  I go into Lucien’s room, change his diaper and offer him some water, and then it’s back in the crib to try and sleep. I head back upstairs to my yoga corner, feeling exhausted at the prospect of a long, hot afternoon with a tired toddler. I have a few minutes to practice before giving up on the nap completely. It’s one thing to practice yoga when he’s sleeping soundly, but quite another to practice when the monitor is all lit up and red. Here’s a quick sequence* for when you’re tired, and time is short.  It should take you about 30 minutes, long enough for your baby or toddler to have a chance to fall asleep, but short enough so that you can feel refreshed and like you fit in a decent practice–even if a nap is just not happening today. Supta Bahhda Konasana (Take a good five to ten minutes here.) Downward dog Sirsasana  (If headstand is a regular part of your practice–no need for stress today!) Chair Shoulder Stand Ardha Halasana with Chair  (My all time favorite nap-time pose.) Savasana  (Enjoy a long and luxurious rest once your child falls asleep.)    *Sequence inspired by one of my favorite asana books, The Woman’s Book of Yoga and Health by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden    Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Five Poses to Beat the Nap-Time Blues

Two interesting, and strikingly different articles caught my eye in Sunday’s New York Times . The first, a book review by Pankaj Mishra that somewhat negatively reviews the rise of yoga in the United States. Whether in the streets of Mysore or on Fifth Avenue, yoga cannot be disentangled from specific histories or specific cultural and economic practices. Of course, the more vulgar aspects of its inevitable commodification in the United States, like $1,000-a-night yoga cruises, ­ought to be deplored. Certainly, the civic or political virtue that results from limber, yoga-toned bodies is not yet measurable. And it would be nice if American followers of yoga, who increasingly define the future of this Indian discipline, would at least occasionally seek something like spiritual transcendence. And the second, a glowing interview with Anusara founder John Friend by Mimi Swartz . The first time I encountered John Friend was at a workshop at a Woodlands community college nearly 10 years ago. At the time I was practicing a stricter form of yoga, and Friend’s joke-cracking and mind-boggling acrobatics — he is famous for his handstands — were something of a revelation. Yoga could be . . . fun ? As Friend led us through the poses, he spoke in a soft voice, insisting that we contain divinity within ourselves and must discover and express our inner goodness to fulfill our obligation to better our world. How to do so was never expressly stated — except for practicing yoga, of course — but I left the workshop feeling better physically, mentally and emotionally. I didn’t know at the time that this was my introduction to what others call “the cult of John.” If Friend could be compared with anyone outside the yoga world — and I am not sure he would like this comparison — it would be Joel Osteen , the magnetic evangelical megachurch minister with the feel-good message and a book-and-television empire. Osteen’s God is loving and forgiving. Osteen doesn’t get hung up on dogma, and thus everybody is welcome. I, for one, am happy to see yoga being discussed in the mainstream media. Glad that it is a part of our culture and open to debate. It’s good to know that people are thinking about these things and that makes it more likely to reach a deeper stream in our society. What do you think? ps- John Friend (@anusarafriend) plans to post his response to the interview today!

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John Friend and Yoga in America

This week my home practice happened at 5am one day, 3pm the next, and in spurts throughout the afternoon on another day. Not at all on two days. Occasionally I feel disappointed in this, wondering whether I’d finally be able to grab the toes of my left foot in triangle pose if I just applied myself with greater consistency, greater diligence, greater drive.   These same feelings come up when I hear friends say things like, “I haven’t missed a day of yoga in 2.7 years. It only takes 27 years to form a good habit. Only 270 days of boot camp and you’ll be a new woman.”  Etc., etc., etc.  Hearing these things, I slump into a kind of anti-achievement stupor. I have set the bar too high to make the leap and all I want now is a bag of chips and a lousy movie. Same thing goes for every area of my life. Extraordinary colleagues who make Tony Robbins look like a slacker, volunteers who single-handedly bring clean water to very thin children in very small villages, friends who climb absurdly high mountains in Peru for fun and charity dollars. I know these people, and watching them from the comfortable chair in my living room, I sometimes do a little dance with discouragement. Here’s my response to discouragement and disappointment when they’re doing a nasty tango with me: 1. Lower the bar. This may not be Tony Robbin’s advice, but it works for me. If an hour of practice feels like too high a climb, do thirty minutes. If thirty minutes feels daunting, do one downward dog. I mean it. One. 2. Adore myself for doing one downward dog, for giving myself one glass of water (the children in the village may come another day), for giving every little bit of love I can to myself and my fellow human beings. A well meaning hello with eye contact can save us all, some days. 3. Dream, dream, dream. Of the hamstrings I will have some day, the peace of mind, the work and workplace I’d love, the people I’d love to play with all day long. I do this because of an absolute conviction that dreaming serves to pull these things toward me. 4. Ask myself what one, small thing I’d love to do right now that would take beautiful care of me. Do that one small thing and forget everything else. These work for me. My guess is that you have your own wonderful thoughts.  I’d love to hear them. Thanks to yoga for putting all of this in my face this week, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, speaker, and workshop wonderwoman in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd.

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Lowering the Bar

As an urban yogi I often day dream about coming to a bustling, messy street square and seeing–instead of garbage and taxi cabs– hundreds of yogis. Wouldn’t that be a sight? Well, Bay Area yogis are in luck because you are all invited to yoga it up in Union Square on August 7. Stephanie Snyder and Darren Main have signed on as volunteers to lead the masses, and just to add a little agave-flavored icing to this holy granola treat; registration fees benefit City of Hope . Here’s the spiel: Yoga for Hope is an event for yoga beginners and experts alike to bring awareness to the benefits of yoga practice for patients with life-threatening illnesses. Join City of Hope’s efforts to expand awareness of the importance of the mind-body-spirit connection is when battling cancer, diabetes or HIV/AIDS. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for Yoga Journal’ s sponsor booth to get a goody bag and magazine. There are also prizes and incentives to raise donations above the registration fee, for more information visit Yoga for Hope. Who says New York yogis get to have all the fun?

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Yoga in Union Square

Last week I took Lucien to swim camp. Now, “swim camp” when you’re two involves getting into the water with your parent or caregiver and practicing the most basic skills like kicking and blowing bubbles into the water. I wasn’t exactly dropping him off for sleep away camp. But, on the first day, my guy was terrified of getting in the water, even though we swim together in one of the public outdoor pools in Vancouver. He refused to go in. Lucien’s fear and resistance reminded me of how I feel when I’m in yoga class and it’s time for backbends, specifically Urdhva Danurasana. Give me a chair backbend or an Ustrasana and I’m happy, but when it comes time for wheel, I have a hard time not heading for a bathroom break. But when, despite my urge to flee, I force myself to stay and work through the tightness in my upper back and shoulders and the voice in my head saying “No! I’m scared. I don’t want to do that pose!” I end up feeling a sense of freedom and elation that only come from breaking through a mental or physical block. Back at the swimming pool, it was seriously touch-and-go for a few minutes (major crying and “No, I am NOT a fish!” on Lucien’s part, and some serious cajoling–um, make that supportive encouragement–on mine).  Eventually we made it into the water. As you can imagine, Lucien loved it once he was in. The water felt great on a hot day, and the songs and games his teacher used to encourage comfort and familiarity with the water worked like a charm.  By Friday morning, the fifth and last class of the “camp” session, Lucien refused to get out of the water! All in all a huge success.   Sometimes, you have to force yourself to stretch. Which pose makes you say “No, I’m scared!”?     Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Swim Camp

In a recent Anatomy of Yoga class with Leslie Kaminoff, we watched a video that I’ll never forget. And hopefully, neither will you. And, trust me, this all has a heck of a lot to do with your yoga practice! It features anatomist Gil Hedley explaining The Fuzz. You can watch it yourself, but be aware that it shows him working with a cadaver. Yet it’s such an important piece of knowledge that I’d like to define this incredible concept for you, and you can choose to view it or not and still take it forward into your daily life. Each night while we sleep, or any time we’re still for long periods, like sitting in a car on a long road trip, our body begins to build collagen fibers. They look a little like cotton candy, and are just as sticky, causing friction between what should be smoothly sliding muscle surfaces. The end result is the stiffness you might feel in the morning getting out of bed or standing up after watching a three-hour movie. Now, this is usually no big deal for those of us with a consistent movement practice. We feel creaky, we do yoga, we’re good. But if you don’t lubricate your joints and move your muscles to break up the fuzz regularly enough, it begins to knit together. Over time, the normal, subtle stiffness becomes limited movement, and even pain as the spider-webbed, bound body tries to move against resistance. Instead of confronting the fuzz, to avoid discomfort, many people simply move less. It becomes a vicious cycle that we often chock up to aging, but really is a cumulative, and mostly avoidable, buildup of fuzz. Now, that’s not to say that all physical slowdown is due to the fuzz, and if we simply stretch more, we will never feel the effects of age. But there is much more we can do to keep our bodies–and therefore our minds–as open, vital, and free as possible. This parallels the yoga teaching about samskaras , the mental and emotional patterns that make up our conditioning. Samskara is a neutral word, indicating simply the actions we take that lead to certain results, but our habits can lead to either constructive or destructive outcomes, depending on our goals. The yogi seeks to strengthen those positive habits that maintain the full range of spiritual motion, and, importantly, dissolve the ones that have become diminishing and threaten to hold us back from reaching our potential of living from love, light, and joy. It’s exciting to see science finding that the same lessons apply to our actual body as well. In fact, I see the two as interconnected, since continual mental and emotional stress, for example, leads almost unerringly to muscle tension, which is a direct physical manifestation of the samskara of anxiety or fear. This is the mind-body connection the yogis have known about for centuries, and though sometimes yoga philosophy can get pretty obtuse, much of it can be translated into the real world as simply as you want to make it. That’s nice to know when you’re looking for tools you can apply today, right this moment, that can help you release what doesn’t serve you, and keep, even amplify, the things that do. Yoga doesn’t have to be confusing. It’s the art of living in balance, and taking actions that fuel your happiness, whatever that means for you. From there, you’ll be inspired to offer some of that goodness to the world through your creative self-expression, and with a burning desire to help those who are still suffering. This is the road map the samskaras offer us: What kind of a life are you carving out through your choices? Is it shaping up as you’d like? If not, then start chipping away at another way of being until it more closely resembles your heart. The next time you’re on the mat, or doing a few Sun Salutes just out of bed, you are not only solidifying healthy habits, you’re creating the potential for new ones to take root in your life in so many ways. Here’s a great all-in-one pose for dissolving restrictive samskaras, and, with them, the fuzz. Do it in the morning just after you get out of bed, and you’ll greet your whole day with more resiliency, flexibility, and freedom from all sorts of fuzz. Core Pose: Low Lunge with Cat/Cow Variation Come into a Low Lunge position with your right foot forward. Your front knee is stacked over the heel, not out in front of it, to avoid knee pressure. The back knee stretches comfortably behind the hip, not directly under it. The front foot and back knee are hip-distance, or about two fists-width apart. Keep your hands on the floor, framing your front foot at first. Take a moment to back off the hips, since you don’t want to sink too far into this pose. This can cause you to overstretch the connective tissue. Instead, lift out of the pose a bit until you can ground the foot and knee, draw in the low belly, and bring your torso upright, hands onto the knee or thigh. You should now feel a stretch in the center of your muscles, not in the back hip crease and front sitting bone only. Your legs are also working to maintain the buoyancy of the pose. Inhale, carve your tailbone long, and arch your spine. Keep the back of your neck long, and lift the chest sky-high. As you do this move, pull your shoulders back and slide your shoulder blades closer. Exhale and round your back. Remember to keep the length in your lower back and roll more through the upper back and shoulder area. Gently lower your chin for a mindful neck stretch. This pose is meant to lift through the back of your heart and spread the shoulder blades wider apart than it is to press out your lower back curve. So although you will activate the low belly fully on your exhalation, lift it in and up towards the chest, rather than squeezing it back towards the spine only. Repeat the spinal motion with your breath for 5-10 rounds, then return to a Down Dog or Child’s Pose, and repeat on the left side.

Original post: 
Fuzz Buster

In a recent Anatomy of Yoga class with Leslie Kaminoff, we watched a video that I’ll never forget. And hopefully, neither will you. And, trust me, this all has a heck of a lot to do with your yoga practice! It features anatomist Gil Hedley explaining The Fuzz. You can watch it yourself, but be aware that it shows him working with a cadaver. Yet it’s such an important piece of knowledge that I’d like to define this incredible concept for you, and you can choose to view it or not and still take it forward into your daily life. Each night while we sleep, or any time we’re still for long periods, like sitting in a car on a long road trip, our body begins to build collagen fibers. They look a little like cotton candy, and are just as sticky, causing friction between what should be smoothly sliding muscle surfaces. The end result is the stiffness you might feel in the morning getting out of bed or standing up after watching a three-hour movie. Now, this is usually no big deal for those of us with a consistent movement practice. We feel creaky, we do yoga, we’re good. But if you don’t lubricate your joints and move your muscles to break up the fuzz regularly enough, it begins to knit together. Over time, the normal, subtle stiffness becomes limited movement, and even pain as the spider-webbed, bound body tries to move against resistance. Instead of confronting the fuzz, to avoid discomfort, many people simply move less. It becomes a vicious cycle that we often chock up to aging, but really is a cumulative, and mostly avoidable, buildup of fuzz. Now, that’s not to say that all physical slowdown is due to the fuzz, and if we simply stretch more, we will never feel the effects of age. But there is much more we can do to keep our bodies–and therefore our minds–as open, vital, and free as possible. This parallels the yoga teaching about samskaras , the mental and emotional patterns that make up our conditioning. Samskara is a neutral word, indicating simply the actions we take that lead to certain results, but our habits can lead to either constructive or destructive outcomes, depending on our goals. The yogi seeks to strengthen those positive habits that maintain the full range of spiritual motion, and, importantly, dissolve the ones that have become diminishing and threaten to hold us back from reaching our potential of living from love, light, and joy. It’s exciting to see science finding that the same lessons apply to our actual body as well. In fact, I see the two as interconnected, since continual mental and emotional stress, for example, leads almost unerringly to muscle tension, which is a direct physical manifestation of the samskara of anxiety or fear. This is the mind-body connection the yogis have known about for centuries, and though sometimes yoga philosophy can get pretty obtuse, much of it can be translated into the real world as simply as you want to make it. That’s nice to know when you’re looking for tools you can apply today, right this moment, that can help you release what doesn’t serve you, and keep, even amplify, the things that do. Yoga doesn’t have to be confusing. It’s the art of living in balance, and taking actions that fuel your happiness, whatever that means for you. From there, you’ll be inspired to offer some of that goodness to the world through your creative self-expression, and with a burning desire to help those who are still suffering. This is the road map the samskaras offer us: What kind of a life are you carving out through your choices? Is it shaping up as you’d like? If not, then start chipping away at another way of being until it more closely resembles your heart. The next time you’re on the mat, or doing a few Sun Salutes just out of bed, you are not only solidifying healthy habits, you’re creating the potential for new ones to take root in your life in so many ways. Here’s a great all-in-one pose for dissolving restrictive samskaras, and, with them, the fuzz. Do it in the morning just after you get out of bed, and you’ll greet your whole day with more resiliency, flexibility, and freedom from all sorts of fuzz. Core Pose: Low Lunge with Cat/Cow Variation Come into a Low Lunge position with your right foot forward. Your front knee is stacked over the heel, not out in front of it, to avoid knee pressure. The back knee stretches comfortably behind the hip, not directly under it. The front foot and back knee are hip-distance, or about two fists-width apart. Keep your hands on the floor, framing your front foot at first. Take a moment to back off the hips, since you don’t want to sink too far into this pose. This can cause you to overstretch the connective tissue. Instead, lift out of the pose a bit until you can ground the foot and knee, draw in the low belly, and bring your torso upright, hands onto the knee or thigh. You should now feel a stretch in the center of your muscles, not in the back hip crease and front sitting bone only. Your legs are also working to maintain the buoyancy of the pose. Inhale, carve your tailbone long, and arch your spine. Keep the back of your neck long, and lift the chest sky-high. As you do this move, pull your shoulders back and slide your shoulder blades closer. Exhale and round your back. Remember to keep the length in your lower back and roll more through the upper back and shoulder area. Gently lower your chin for a mindful neck stretch. This pose is meant to lift through the back of your heart and spread the shoulder blades wider apart than it is to press out your lower back curve. So although you will activate the low belly fully on your exhalation, lift it in and up towards the chest, rather than squeezing it back towards the spine only. Repeat the spinal motion with your breath for 5-10 rounds, then return to a Down Dog or Child’s Pose, and repeat on the left side.

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Fuzz Buster

testing top five tuesday

Excerpt from:
Testing Top Five Tuesday

You know your child is a yogi in training when: 1. He knows what a neti pot is and can explain how to use it and why. 2. She sings along to Krisha Das and Wah! 3. Not only can he do cobbler’s pose, he calls the pose by its Sanskrit name and prefers if you do, too. 4. When he wears his Ganesh T-shirt, he wants to “sing the song about Ganesh.” 5. He is MUCH more excited about the Babar yoga book than Toy Story 3. 6. Favorite foods include: avocado, peaches, quinoa pasta, steel cut  oatmeal, kale, and hemp milk. 7. The stuffed animals in your house play yoga rather than war. 8. He drinks chamomile tea in a sippy cup. 9. She gets really, really happy when she hears Mama’s off to yoga class. 10. He — see photo above — does a chair back bend off his high chair in the morning just because. How do you know your child is a yogi? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Ten Ways You Know Your Child is a Yogi

Although I’m a yogi living in beautiful British Columbia, on stressed out hectic days, it doesn’t take much for me to veer into my frazzled New Yorker mode. But lately, thanks to the (finally) beautiful Vancouver summer weather, the aftereffects of my recent yoga retreat, my reduced work load – no university writing classes this summer to teach, no short turn around freelance assignments – I’m feeling much more mellow than usual.  My to do list no longer feels so pressing or urgent, nor does the laundry pile.  Because our morning day care only runs during the school year, Lucien is home for the summer and I’m in 24/7 mom mode. In some ways it’s easier having him home and on a more flexible schedule with no rush out the door in the morning. We can swim down by the beach or go to the playground or library, all to our hearts’ content. Even the usual challenges of mothering feel easier these days. If Lucien skips his afternoon nap, then we go outside in the sunshine and play.  If my babysitter’s alarm clock fails to go off on the one morning I have a few hours slotted for writing, then Lucien and I hang out on the front stoop for an unexpected unscheduled hour of just being together.  If my husband goes on a four day long weekend trip to Sweden for work, well then I’ll tame my inner cheapskate (or try to) and hire aforementioned beloved babysitter so that I can go to a Saturday afternoon yoga class and a Sunday morning movie, too.  Feeling this way is worth it.  My relaxation is having an effect on all of us.  When I feel calm and centered, Neil’s less stressed (despite his crazy work deadlines), and Lucien seems happier and more easygoing, too.  He sings around the house all day long.  When I’m anxious and overworked  – thinking back to the days when I was frantically juggling teaching, meeting a book deadline and caring for a nursing baby – everyone felt that, too.  My new goal for this coming year is to see if I can be in the “real” world (balancing work and motherhood) but keep an easier, lighter yogi-summery attitude.   Yoga is a gentle reminder to come back to this calm center. Please someone, next winter when it’s cold and rainy and I have a writing deadline to meet and a virus is going around, remind me to take a deep breath and remember this summertime mellow-as-can-be feeling with the kitchen door open and the sunshine coming in. Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Summertime Zen

I just did something so major I have to write it down to believe it. I’m relocating from New York City where I’ve lived and taught yoga for nearly a decade, to Austin, Texas. I’ve decided to relocate so that I can focus exclusively on my health, yoga, travel, and teaching for what I’m calling my yogi artist’s retreat year. After that, I’ll see where I am. The requirements of my burgeoning yoga career are intense, and living in a place like New York City doesn’t make things easy. For example, it took me 4 hours to drive 11 miles to the airport the other day, only to miss my flight. Total cost: $1,600. Austin has a shuttle that goes from my new apartment to the airport in 10 minutes. Total cost: 50 cents. I kid you not. Now, don’t get me wrong. Just like the T-shirts say, I (heart) New York. That’s why I’ve lived there for so long. But it’s time for a change, and specifically, I’m interested in what will happen to my yoga trajectory when I steep in it fully for a good period of time. This will be a Dharma Immersion, if you will. At first, I was torn about whether or not to make such a radical move. So I practiced what I teach. I put fears and judgments aside and thought about what would serve my ultimate goals the best. Right now, I require ease of travel; a location that is equidistant to both coasts and the flyover states; an affordable apartment with enough space for me to film my YouTube and training videos; and a community that values health, good food, and good yoga. A creative environment and a lack of traditional winter weather is just icing on the cake.   For these reasons and more, Austin was an obvious choice for me. The cool thing is, once I chose it, I was surrounded by so many universal green lights that I have to believe the signs are pointing me on the road I’m meant to take now. Before I was a yogi, I would have shut myself down before I ever began this journey. I probably would never have left the safety of the Midwest to try my luck in the Big Apple, or taken any of the risks that have brought me to where I am now. Yoga teaches us how to step out of our own way, remove the veils of uncertainty, and quiet the voices that tell us we’re insane to do what we are being called toward. If we can turn down the volume of our fears, it’s possible to hear that still, powerful whisper of our satya , or truth; that core voice that can move us toward transformation. We do this through cultivating a regular asana practice so our limiting patterns don’t build up and slow us down. We learn to sit in meditation and listen intently until we hear only our inner guide and not the confusing cacophony that surrounds it. We implement our lessons off the mat, do our best to be brave, and lead by example into our next incarnation of who we want to be. Most of all, when grounding is called for, we ground, and when flying beckons, we find out how wide our wingspan really is. The yogi is a shapeshifter, an energetic alchemist who uses the raw materials of experience, relationship, self-knowledge, and prana (life force) to create magic out of what others see as a static reality. Is it the perfect choice for me to take a year in Austin? Perhaps not. Staying in the city has its benefits, too. But we can always go back to what we know. So why not try going forward? Yes, it takes a big leap of faith sometimes. But we yogis have that in spades, y’all. So what is your dharma calling you to do next? Core Pose: “First Eye” Goddess This asana is one I teach and do whenever I want to envision my next move. It stimulates the forehead center, the seat of our intuition, and expands perspective away from the constriction of fear. This is why I call it the First Eye. It’s a primary tool of perception, your mind’s eye, and keeping it wide open will serve you well as you navigate your next steps along your path. Sit on your mat. Bring both feet together, knees open wide. With a long spine, tilt your sacrum and top hip crests forward as you bring your elbows onto the floor or two yoga blocks. Place your thumbs inside your eyebrows, just above your nose. Allow your forehead to release towards the thumbs even as you maintain the open hips and spinal alignment of the rest of the pose. Breathe here for 1-2 minutes, and then come into knees-together Child’s Pose for a few breaths to counterbalance the asana.  

Original post:
Moving Forward

Sting just started out for a summer tour, and, unfortunately, the only buzz we keep hearing is about this mysterious scandalous tantra stuff. Allow Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, to explain themselves in Yoga Journal ’s exclusive interview . Stephanie Syman, author of The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America , also plans to set the tantric-yoga record straight once and for all in her Wall Street Journal blog: “Traditionally, Tantra refers to a loose and varied collection of practices detailed in the Tantras (Indic texts). Some of its most salient features are secrecy and worship of the female principle. The feature that has most intrigued and shocked observers–both Indian and Western–is that Tantra enjoins the aspirant to either visualize sex or engage in acts of ritual intercourse. The purpose of this conjugation, often depicted as the union of Siva and Shakti, is to reach Samadhi, a blissful state of consciousness devoid of any sense of personal identity. Succeed, and not only do you turn your mind into a “point of awareness,” as Ram Dass once put it, you obtain special powers (siddhis). You could say that we’re all Tantrics now since the most popular form of yoga today, Hatha Yoga, has been a central feature of Tantric practice, and its creators were affiliated with Tantric sects. But as with most cultural imports, our assimilation of Tantra has involved equal parts interpretation and invention. No wonder. Tantric practice is no quick route to sexual gratification. It’s traditionally demanding, complicated, highly formalized, and at times, tedious. And only some types of Tantrics (known as “left-handed”) engage in ritual sex at all. Tantra then presents a paradox: it can involve sex and yet its prerequisites mitigate the pleasure. And while you may enhance sexual performance via Tantric practices, the goal is not to get good at sex, the goal is to alter your consciousness so radically that embodied existence is no longer relevant.” Still curious? Read Todd Jones’ The Truth About Tantra. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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Truly Tantric

Two fantastic things occurred over the last 24 hours. 1. We experienced an earthquake yesterday. Very exciting. It lasted 26 seconds. The dog growled for a few seconds, and the antennae on the TV shook for a full minute. In fact, the quake shook much of the province, which was wonderful, because it led to phone calls with my mother in Ottawa and my sister in Toronto. It’s the kind of thing everyone wants to talk about.  2. I tried naked yoga this morning. My goal was to last longer than 26 seconds. There is no doubt I was shaken more by the naked yoga than the quake. If you haven’t tried it, if your dad is British, say, and you’re uneasy in short sleeves, if you wear flannel clown pants to bed every night and peel your socks off during the middle of the night as you become unbearably hot–if you do all of that–well, we can talk. (If this isn’t you and you’re the type who goes naked to the movies, you have no idea what I’m talking about. In my next life I’ll be just like you.) The first 26 seconds are spent dismayed by the complex surface of my thighs, which look as though they have undergone several earthquakes of their own. Then I forget about them, perhaps because it is hotter this morning than it’s been all summer, and as humid as cottage cheese. My first forward bend makes me sweat. I make it to 40 minutes, naked. I put my clown pants back on for seated postures, to avoid rug burn, I say to myself. I conclude that this naked thing is no big deal. And then something unexpected happens. I move off the rug and onto the wood floor for Savasana. And, oh, oh, oh, the floor is as cool as ice cream on my poached back, so cool that I take my clown pants off again for the last couple of minutes. I press my low back into the floor and when I relax it makes a deep, suction-y, rumbling, farting sound that is the best thing I have EVER heard during my practice.  A soft, funny earthquake of my very own. I am CERTAIN you have things to teach me about your naked (or not) home practice. My ears are quaking. Thanks to earthquakes, to cool floors, and to you for the conversation. Join Kristin at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at http://kristinshepherd.ca

Continued here: 
An Earth Moving Experience

As our nation turns to backyards, barbecues, burgers, bright colors and explosions in the sky, it seems appropriate to celebrate independence in a personal way as well. Perhaps with some yoga? Independence. Freedom. Liberation. Moksha. Most cultures take time to celebrate a form of letting go and feeling open and alive to possibility, and it seems the height of summer is the perfect time for this expression. Your pores are open and warmed by the sun, encouraging your body to release, the days are long and, in most places, the weather is inviting.  What do we, in this modern day, need to do to disentangle ourselves from our oppressors?  What are our oppressions anyway, and why do we feel tangled in the first place? Yoga can help answer all of the above. I woke up with Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” in my head: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.” This will be my mantra in practice this weekend. Any obstacle I perceive has been placed there by me, and I can also choose to remove it. My morning yoga practice, of course, will be my revolution. Today I celebrate independence from the mind stuff, vritti .  I will not allow myself to be worried about the extra traffic caused on a Friday before a holiday weekend…or the longer lines at the grocery store, or the wait at the bank or how crowded it will be at the park and the beach. These things are fun and they are choices. I will enjoy my liberation with breath, movement, and maybe a little reggae. How will you liberate yourself this weekend? Check out the accidental yogist if you’re in SoCal and looking for studios that are celebrating their independence. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

Originally posted here: 
Independence Day

In the midst of wedding season, it seems like a good time to think about what we are committing to when we gaze longingly at our mat or wish we had more time for Namaskar-ing at sunset. In chapter five of the Bhagavad Gita : “The resolute in yoga surrender and gain perfect peace; the irresolute, attached to results, are bound by everything they do.” So, we’ve got to resolutely let go? Sounds tricky. Even if we can conceptualize this, how is it applied and how do we live this truth on and off the mat? Susan Piver at the Huffington Post seems to have hit it right on the yoga toes. Not sure if she does asana on a mat, but she certainly sounds like a yogi in this reflective blog written on her twelfth wedding anniversary. “It’s just now, 12 years later, that I’m finding out what, apparently, I said yes to. I said yes to the unfolding, impenetrable arc of uncertainty. I guess I thought that finding love was an endpoint, that some kind of search was over and I would find home. We would leap over the threshold together into whatever we imagined our ideal cottage to be. But really we stepped through a crazy looking glass. It seems that I committed to a lifetime of delight and sadness, inseparable from each other. Every time I look into my dear one’s eyes and feel how deeply we’re connected, the moment disappears before I can actually hold it–and I have to watch that happen. It’s excruciating. It’s much easier to do this with your thoughts when you’re meditating than with the feeling you get from his breath on your shoulder as you fall asleep. But now I get that I have to repeat this until the end of my life, and that somehow this is love’s road. I didn’t really understand that love does not arise, abide, or dissolve in connection with any particular feeling. It has almost nothing to do with feeling. (Nor does it seem to be a gesture, a commitment to stay, becoming best friends, or anything else I might have thought.) Love has become a container in which we live. Through time, riding mysterious waves of passion, aggression, and ignorance (and boredom), I think we began to live within love itself. At least I did. E ach time I have opened up, extended myself, accepted what was being offered to me, stepped beyond my comfort zone to embrace him, the structure has been reinforced. I no longer have any idea if I love my husband or not. I can’t imagine what the feelings I have for him could be called. I’ve even given up trying to love him. Our relationship is what gives us love, not the other way around. This is how it is. And if you’re looking for a crucible in which to heat compassion, this is a really good one. Someone once told me that compassion is the ability to hold love and pain together in the same moment. So at least we’re learning something, which is what I tell myself. When you find your true love, there is something inside that simply and inexplicably says hello to him. Yes to him. Of course to him. Certainly. Obviously it’s you. There is no choice. I do.” Are you ready to commit or re-commit to your practice?  What poses do you use to remind yourself to commit to surrender? I like Ardha Chandrasana for this balance. Whether you’re getting married this summer, attending a commitment ceremony or finaly ready to take the leap with yoga, this article on celebrating with meaning may help get you in the mood. Erin Chalfant is a writer, yoga teacher and the Web Editor at Yoga Journal.

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I do Yoga

What’s with the naked theme? I write a blog about loving home practice, and you, some of you, write in that you love naked yoga. I write a blog about favorite poses, and you write in about naked yoga. I write a blog about meditation or chanting or acting, for goodness sake, and some of you (is it the same people? The Naked Yoga Alliance? I don’t know!) write back that you love naked yoga. Billy Connolly, the marvelous Scottish comedian, writes that he loves an ordinary love life with his wife. A meat-and-potatoes kind of lover, he is.  He’s all about comfort. It takes some self-assuredness to admit that. I feel that way about yoga. I love yoga in my flannel pajama bottoms. I start with two t-shirts and peel one off as I warm up. Sometimes I start in socks. This naked thing? I don’t know. It’d be like grocery shopping while naked, or bowling while naked, neither of which is ever going to happen, so don’t feel you should write in about those. Besides, where I live, anyone in a canoe can see me unless I downward dog in the dark.   All right, all right! I’ll try it. I’ll try it in the dark (by the park, for a lark, with a shark. I’m going all Dr. Seuss in my nervousness.). I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the conversation, I think. Kristin Shepherd lives in North Bay, Ontario. She is a chiropractor, workshop facilitator, actor, writer, and parent of two grown children and a perpetually infantile dog.  Check her out, fully clothed, at kristinshepherd.ca or on Facebook at Dr. Kristin Shepherd. 

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Why Naked Yoga?

Lucien and I made a trip to the naturopath a couple of weeks ago. Being in a doctor’s office for two hours with a two year old was quite a challenge, but it was worth it. (At my urging, Neil went a few days later.) Within days we’d each changed our diet pretty dramatically (no dairy for Lucien, no sugar for Neil, a liquid iron supplement for me, and much more protein for all of us) and added a regimen of pro-biotics, protein smoothies, and the like to our run of the mill multi-vitamins. We felt better almost immediately. In addition to the dietary changes and supplements, the naturopath (Kristen Brown at the Crossroads Center in Vancouver) suggested that one of the reasons we kept getting sick, as I described a couple of weeks ago, might be that we were all doing too much. Neil needed more sleep, she said. And my system seemed depleted from a three year period that included an IVF cycle, a pregnancy and c section, and two plus years of breastfeeding–all while writing a book, teaching classes, and providing most of Lucien’s daytime childcare. Not to mention moving to a new country. (Although props to Canada for making it possible for us to afford to see the naturopath; the visits will be reimbursed by our health insurance at an incredible 80%.) Was my body trying to tell me something?  Have I been doing too much?  Have we all been? On the drive home, I thought of the David Sedaris essay “On the Kookaburra” where he discusses the idea of the four burners. Think of your life as being like a stove top, says one of the people he encounters on a trip to Australia, where each burner represents a key component: family, friends, health, and work. In order to be successful, the theory goes, you need to turn one of the burners off, and in order to be really successful, you can only have two burners on. Trying to do too much means you’ll suffer in all areas.   The word success is an interesting one. To the yogi, success can, of course, mean fulfillment and inner peace, as much as worldly accomplishment. Either way, I think there’s something to this theory and I’m having a hard time deciding which one–or two–of the burners I’m willing to turn off, even temporarily. Do we all need to readjust our stove tops? Do I? And how to go about making the choice of which burners to turn off, even for a time?  Or is it better–more yogic–to keep all the burners on a moderate flame?   Which burners do you have on high?  Which are you willing to shut off?  And does anyone know where I can get a seriously discounted Viking range with six burners, which would solve the problem completely? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.  

Originally posted here:
The Four Burners

New York Yogis are truly the toughest, most dedicated yogis around. Thousands of mats covered the streets in Times Square and shut down the city center in order to salute the sun  and share a concrete-penetrating AUM! Check it out: Images courtesy of Lem Lattimer.

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Solstice Celebration!

I love yoga because of its solitary nature. An early morning coffee, my lovely man and dog still in bed, me shuffling to the living room in pajama pants and a t-shirt. Darkness in winter, green grass and blue lake in front of me in summer. This is good, good, good. The other side of this is that I often have elaborate get-togethers during my practice. This morning was like this. My daughter is in China. I miss her beautiful face. So, during Warrior II, I reach my fingertips forward and back and imagine my arms growing, circling the world until I can hold her face with both hands. In seated forward bends, I think of one of my best friends, Riesa, who lives on the other side of the country. She taught me some of my favorite forward bends ten years ago. I miss her voice today. My mom shows up when I’m trying to open my hips. I suspect we’d both love to be more flexible with each other. And at the end of my practice, when the time comes to offer the fruits of practice to someone who might benefit (we do this in class, sometimes), I send my love and thanks to Nancy, a theater friend who passed away recently. She was still here when I came back to yoga 8 or 9 months ago. I got into the habit of sending her strength and courage and just kept on after she passed away. My hope is she’s out there somewhere, happy to receive the love. Who knew home practice could be such a gathering place? It also makes me wonder who you’re with when you practice.  I’d love to hear. Thanks to yoga for uniting us all, and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd practices yoga, theatre, public speaking, writing, and chiropractic in North Bay, Ontario. Contact her at kristinshepherd.ca and at Dr. Kristin Shepherd on Facebook.

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Union

I used to think asana practice required a yoga mat, sweats-or maybe even “yoga clothes”-a quiet indoor space, and time. (Lots of it.) Lately, Lucien has been teaching me that none of these are necessary. Thanks to my two year old, I’m starting to realize-after more than ten years of consistent practice-that yoga can be practiced in spurts, a pose here and a pose there.  Yesterday we were in the backyard gathering vegetables from our garden for dinner. I noticed that both Lucien and I were in Malasana pose as we clipped and gathered the kale and spinach. Later that evening during Lucien’s bath, my husband Neil and I were amazed to see Lucien sitting in Virasana for twenty minutes straight while he played with his rubber duck and wooden boat.  This morning, when Neil and Lucien came to wake me up, Lucien put one hand on a laundry hamper temporarily stashed in the bedroom, and stretched the opposite side leg onto the bed, inadvertently coming into a beautiful Utthita Hasta Padangustasana. (He’s a natural.)  I’ve decided to take a lesson from Lucien and add a pose here or there into my daily activities-a shoulder stretch while I’m at my desk working, a triangle pose while hanging out with Lucien in the kitchen. The other day Lucien skipped his nap-a bummer for me since I’d been going all day. He wasn’t sleepy, but I needed a break. While Lucien played on the floor in the living room with his trains, I laid down next to him in a bare-bones Savasana.  It was just a minute or two or three, and I was in my jeans, but you know what? It was bliss. What poses do you mix into your day?  What has your child taught you about yoga lately? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

Excerpt from:
Malasana in the Garden

I’ve been away from yoga class for almost two weeks. Granted, I’ve done lots of practice in hotels, other people’s basements, and on the deck of a cottage in beautiful morning sun, but jeepers, I miss class. This morning someone asked me if I have a dog. “Do you like yoga?” I replied. “No,” she said.  “What does that have to do with a dog?” “Nothing at all.  It’s just the only thing I can think of right now.” I have lots of these conversations when I’ve been away from class. I miss my teachers, who are kind and excellent at what they do, and funny while they’re at it. I miss the other students, most of whom are strangers to me, all of whom love what I love and are therefore friends of a kind. I miss the sound of people breathing in unison. I miss the gorgeous, quiet yoga music they play during Savasana. I miss that dopey feeling that comes from a fully relaxed body and mind. And I miss chanting om together at the end.   You forget how lovely all of this is until you’ve been away for a little while. What would you miss if you missed two weeks? Thanks to my home studio for being there tomorrow (I’m so excited!), and thanks to you for the conversation. Kristin Shepherd practices yoga, theatre, public speaking, writing, and chiropractic in North Bay, Ontario. Contact her at kristinshepherd.ca and at Dr. Kristin Shepherd on Facebook.

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Missing Class

Hi guys, I hope you haven’t been feeling left out of my outfit picks, because this week is all about the men! I know many of us, ladies included, often fall back on the standard black and white palette, but don’t be afraid of a little color. It radiates such great energy. I also know you certainly don’t need a hat in yoga class, but this one by Prana was so cool I couldn’t resist. Overall I was impressed with Prana’s men’s collection. Nice basic pieces with a few suprises thrown in. I also adore Toms shoes for men and the ladies, great style and a great cause. the details: Impact Sleeveless shirt by Prana $32.00 Ultra Shorts by Patagonia $55.00 Straw Fedora by Prana $32.00 Paper Tote Bag by Peasants and Travelers $88.00 Grey Heezen/Burlap Men’s Stitchouts shoes by Toms $58.00 Revolution Natural Sticky Mat $90.00

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Wish I was Wearing: Dude Duds

Students often come up to me after my Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga workshops and tell me how surprised they were about what they learned. Many of them didn’t expect the kind of information they got during a class they walked into thinking was going to just target their abs for two hours. That’s because I teach that the core is more than just the abdominals. Abs are an integral part of yoga, or any movement form, to be sure. They help stabilize and mobilize most everything we do, on or off the mat. However, they are only one aspect of what gives us the power to be strong and resilient in our practices and in our lives. Whenever I teach core work, I always interplay the abdominal actions with their muscular counterparts, such as the erector muscles along the spine, which help keep the abs in check. I also discuss and work with the diaphragm to make sure we’re able to keep our core resilient enough to enjoy the freedom of the breath. Anatomy and yoga experts like Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains , and my mentor Leslie Kaminoff, author of Yoga Anatomy , tell us that the abdominals link up and communicate with other muscles in fluid lines that run from the feet to the head.  I love to see students’ faces light up when they find out they have a “core” body running close to the skeleton that they can access to amplify the effectiveness of any pose. But there’s more. In addition the holistic nature of the abs (for example, what you do with your rectus abdominis muscle affects the whole front line of your body) this root area contains so much latent energy waiting to be accessed. It also harbors our most personal fears, the very resistance that often blocks us from realizing our inner truth. Making a core connection might begin with working and releasing the more obvious outer body, but the yogi learns to sense the more subtle world within–whether this is the quietly powerful core myofascial line, the still space between the thoughts, the unwavering heart at center, or the soulful state of being aligned with who you really are.   All of this awareness leads us straight to one place: satya , or the practice of honesty. In my experience, being true to yourself comes from developing a consistent relationship with your inner nature of goodness, clarity, and peace. When you can tap into this part of you, an ocean of energy and wisdom opens. Once you find your way to the deep water inside, you can always return, even as you express what you’ve found out into your world. Your satya will always be there, offering a sometimes-surprising perspective that can truly rock your world from the core. CORE POSE : Eagle Curl Here’s one of my signature Core Poses to target your abs that also lets you practice being uber-honestly you. It’s hip and shoulder opener even as you work your rectus abdominis (the six-pack) and transversus abdominis (the girdle that wraps from sides to front of the torso) muscles.  The bound arms and legs means that you can’t rely on them as much for support, so the movement of this posture has to come almost entirely from the abs. Come onto your back. Wrap your left arm over your right at the elbow, and your right leg over your left leg at the knee, as in Garudasana (Eagle Pose). Both legs are lifted with your left knee stacked over the hip joint. Inhale with your shoulders and head on the floor. Exhale and firm your belly to curl your shoulders and head up, so just the tips of your shoulderblades remain on the floor. Don’t move your knees closer to your arms, but do try to touch your left elbow to them. Do 5-15 repetitions of this pose then lie flat on your back with legs long and arms overhead. Take a few belly-stretching breaths. Note: If this variation is too intense on your neck, place your fingertips into the back of your head and do the pose this way. Be mindful not to yank yourself into the pose with your arm strength, but use the abdominals to initiate the movement.      

Excerpt from: 
The Whole Core

Photo: Rows of lettuce and greens growing in our vegetable garden. Growing up, I struggled with my weight. I used food for comfort and companionship, taking bowls of potato chips and pistachio nuts to my room where I’d hide out from my unhappy home–eating, reading, and dreaming of my escape.  Throughout my teens and early twenties, I bounced between “good” periods of eating relatively well and exercising moderately and “bad” phases when I’d eat bagels and cream cheese for dinner, and then again for desert.  As you’d imagine, my weight went up and down–I was sometimes thin, often chubby, and occasionally undeniably overweight. When I was 29, I did some serious soul-searching, turned my life around, and lost the excess weight once and for all.   As I chronicle in my book (see below for info.), yoga and yoga philosophy helped me dig my way out of depression, and change my relationship with food.   I’m 38 now and, thankfully, food is no longer a struggle for me.  I eat when I’m hungry, favoring whole grains and lentils and vegetables and fruits, with the occasional splurge on pizza or a chocolate croissant.  The suburban girl who didn’t eat or know much about vegetables is now a gardening mom, growing carrots and kale and lettuce and spinach in the backyard.  Having struggled with food and body image issues, I’m committed to helping my son Lucien develop a healthy relationship to food.  That’s easier said than done. Lucien is a relatively adventurous eater, trying tortillas and pakoras when we’re out, chomping on cooked carrots and brown rice and beans and tofu slices at home.  A snack for Lucien is a brown rice cake and cheese, not a bag of chips or cookies.  So far, so good, right?  But life with Mommy is one thing, and then there’s the “real” world.  A child at morning daycare celebrates a birthday by bringing in cupcakes with enough sugar to make Lucien skip his afternoon nap; a friend comes over with a packaged and processed snack Lucien has never seen before, but desperately wants to try.  I don’t want him to be afraid of food, or think of certain foods as forbidden.  But at the same time I believe his diet is a crucial component of his physical and emotional health. Those whole grains and veggies and dairy and lentils are his daily vitamins–literally.   Things will get more complicated, I know, when he gets a little older.  He doesn’t yet know about McDonalds, hasn’t tried candy, or heard about soda.  My plan? To keep the fridge, pantry (and garden) stocked with healthy food, and show him how yummy it can be to eat like mommy and daddy.  I’ll keep you posted, and I’d love to hear how you’re coping with feeding your toddlers a yogic diet. Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

Original post:
Enlightened Eating for Toddlers

For the rest of my life, when the subject of PopTarts comes up, I’ll either have to tell shifty-eyed lies or I’ll have to tell the truth. I’ll start with the truth right now. I’ve been away all week at a theatre festival.  This means hotel beds, hotel roommates, late nights, and crazy food–meat or soy balls covered in sweet sauces, served on toothpicks that really add up on your plate. More cheese and crackers than you’ve eaten in your life, and the kinds of sweet squares we all serve at weddings, funerals, board meetings–you know these things. Day One. I begin the week like an angel.  An hour of yoga at 5:30 am in the hotel gym.  I grab a corner of the room, squeeze myself between two treadmills and a wall-to-wall mirror, and do my best on a concrete floor covered in stained indoor-outdoor carpet.  It isn’t class, but it’s okay. Day Two. At 5:30 am, I do 45 minutes of yoga, which is pretty great given four hours of sleep and a really puffy face. (Is it the salt?  The meat/soyballs?)  It’s no fun staring at a bloated version of your own face in a mirror the size of Canada.  And all those people thumping on treadmills, jeez.  Not to mention CNN on the TV. Om. Day Three.   At 5:15 am, because my roommate is snoring and I can’t sleep anyway, I do 30 minutes of yoga in the hallway outside my room on the 10th floor of the hotel.  The carpet is thicker here, and I’m not up to the social thing with the weightlifters, the runners, and the mirror. My face is the puffiest yet.  I’ve been eating sauce balls at midnight for three days.  Why don’t I stop eating them?  I have no idea. This was a good morning of yoga.  I prepare for a wee Savasana at the end.  I lie down. Suddenly a man emerges–naked–from the room across the hall to retrieve his newspaper from the floor outside his door.   He yells.  I yell.  Then he screams: “I’m sorry!” and flees back into his room. I am too rattled for Savasana.    Day Four. I don’t do any yoga this morning. Instead, I sit in the hallway at 5am and read bad news from the newspaper outside my door.  I open and eat the first PopTart of my life.  (It was in a goodie bag we were given on arrival.  I laughed at the absurdity of PopTarts then.  I’m not laughing now.)  It is not my finest moment.  Not my finest day. Day Five.  At Home. Here’s the lesson for me: I’m human.  I do well on some days, and some days I forget everything I’ve learned about yoga, decent food, and kindness to myself. I can hardly wait for class tomorrow. What reminds you to get back to your practice? Thanks to PopTarts, naked men, and meat/soyballs, which help me understand, again, how beautiful yoga is. And thanks to you for the conversation.

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PopTart Yoga

Photo: Trying to be productive at the University of British Columbia library. I’m sitting in the library on campus with a thermometer in my mouth and a stack of tissues on my desk, feeling entirely unenlightened.   My husband Neil is out of town for work, and I’m sick–can hardly get out of bed sick–for the second time this month, and the sixth or seventh time (at least) since September.   Before having a baby, I’d heard from friends about the dreaded string of colds and flu that a little one can bring home from preschool or daycare.   But Neil and I thought that wouldn’t be us, not with our good eating habits, early to bed early-to-rise schedules, and healthy lifestyles.   Hah!   Lucien goes to a wonderful morning daycare program on campus four mornings a week where his teachers are not only loving and caring, but diligent about washing hands.   Yet no amount of hand washing or hand sanitizing has stopped Lucien from coming home with minor nose drips–which, when we adults get them, turn into raging fevers and coughs and congestion.   Neil had walking pneumonia earlier this year, and I had H1N1 back in the fall, and then the regular flu a couple months ago.   Even a run of the mill fever and sore throat like I have now makes my normal life seem all of a sudden unmanageable–especially with Neil away.   What’s a yogi to do?   I’ve tried vitamins, immune-system building asana sequences, but nothing seems to be enough to fend off the viruses.   What’s strange, too, is that I feel great in between illnesses. Then all of a sudden I feel the tell-tale scratchy throat, sneezes, and the shivers that come with fever.   Sleeping fitfully last night, it was all I could do to make breakfast, pack a lunch, and get Lucien ready for the drive to campus this morning.   Thank goodness our babysitter can come over this afternoon so I can sleep off my fever, b ut I’m determined to figure out how we can get and stay healthy–or at least healthier–from now on.   How do you stay healthy with young children in the house? Ideas and suggestions, please? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer   (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Sick of Being Sick

Spoiler alert: This post is for viewers who have already seen the series finale of LOST.  Did you see last night’s Lost finale ? Help me out here, fellow yogis. Having struggled (largely in vain) to follow all the abstruse clues and connections throughout the show’s six-year history, I was tempted–in the end–to draw a very simple conclusion. Here it is: The characters on the island were there to burn off their karma and get liberated–not just from the island, but from the wheel of incarnation altogether. Forget good and evil, black smoke and white smoke, polar bears and logoed sharks, the Dharma Initiative and the “others,” and all those other distractions. In the end, they were simple window dressing. The real story for these characters was–as it always is–internal. They were waking up, realizing interconnection, and learning that the self is eternal, transcending time and place and circumstance. (That dance we saw between the truth of “none of this matters” and “all of this matters”–pure Tantra.) By the time they gathered in that chapel at the end–did you get a glimpse of that groovy stained glass window with the Om symbol?–they were beyond the cycle of birth and death. (”There is no ‘now’ here,” Jack’s dead father, Christian explained.) They were not just drenched in the white light of the island’s heart, but rather completely enlightened. Do you agree? Have an alternative theory? Share your thoughts: What the heck WAS that all about; sounds like yoga to me, but what do you think?

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Finding Yoga in LOST Finale

We’ve talked a lot about helping provide access to yoga for under-served and at-risk youth. But there’s another population equally in need of yoga’s healing and meditative benefits: the elderly. Physically and economically challenged seniors often can’t swing $15 a class–or keep up with the vigorous vinyasa flow. Frank Iszak knows this. The 78-year-old yoga teacher and founder of Silver Age Yoga in San Diego has made it his life’s mission to get grannies and grandpas on the mat. He goes to them (in senior centers, libraries, and churches), keeps it simple, and tailors his classes to help offset some of their common health issues: osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, weight gain, and poor circulation. Best of all, his classes are totally free! Iszak, who escaped to the U.S. from forced labor camp in communist Hungary in 1958, lives for seva, tirelessly working to improve the lives of others. “Our basic goal is to make their lives better–for whatever years they have left on planet Earth,” he says of his students. Sangha, too, is an important part of the Silver Age formula: Lonely seniors get a chance to connect physically, mentally, and spiritually with a community focused on feeling better in the world. Want to support Iszak’s work? You can donate to Silver Age, a 501(c) (3) organization , directly. Or, better yet, you can sign up for one of Iszak’s online teacher trainings and get busy bringing yoga to the seniors in your hometown.

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Good Old Yoga

Lucien is two and a half.  He loves: Mommy, Daddy, Salem (our dog), his music teacher, the ukulele, Cat Stevens, Bob Marley, the playground, the library, art class, the backyard, playing pretend with his stuffed animal bear, and, yes, yoga.   While he was decidedly not a fan of mommy-and-baby yoga class as an infant, and hasn’t really liked the couple of toddler yoga classes I’ve taken him to either, he does love to “do” yoga at home.   I know that technically young children aren’t supposed to–or at least, don’t need to–practice yoga, so I haven’t tried to teach him asana.  But just from living in a house where mommy and daddy love yoga, he’s picked it up. He’ll go into my yoga space and stand on a wooden block, arms outstretched.  Or, more often, he’ll sit in Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose) and say “this pose is called cobbler’s pose.” He loves to stand at a wall and do tree pose, and somehow he knows instinctively to do both sides! When he’s upset, I often sing him the invocation to Patanjali and he sometimes asks for it:  “Mommy will sing the yoga song?”  Along with the Beatles and Dan Zanes, we listen to Wah! and Krishna Das, and a couple of times he’s picked up his ukulele and started singing his version of Hare Krishna.  He pulls my yoga books out from the bookcase and pages through them, looking at the photos and asking questions about the poses. “This pose is called?” he says. (It’s ridiculously cute.)  More important, when he cries or gets frustrated or overwhelmed, I ask him to take a breath with me.  We’ll count “one Mississippi, two Mississippi” when waiting for an overdue bus in the rain, or om together to try and calm down.   Believe me, there are plenty of times when Lucien sees me not listening to my own yogic advice.  I forget to breath, I get frustrated, I check my email rather than focusing in on the time we’re spending together.  But I hope the times he does see me “doing” yoga–remembering to be present, practicing asana, attempting to live consciously, will stay with him when he’s older.   Will Lucien end up being a yogi?  We’ll have to wait and see.  But for now, when Lucien, without prompting, sits down and pretends to meditate (closing his eyes “like Momma” for a few seconds), I am grateful to have these teachings in our lives.   How do you share yoga with your children? Jessica Berger Gross is the author of enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle Pointer   (Skyhorse), she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two-year-old son.

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Yogi in Training

We love Donna De Lory . The former pop princess–sidekick to Madonna, no less–has refashioned herself as a cooing, crooning kirtan chanteuse. Her sweet, ethereal renditions of “Om Namah Shivaya,” “Hare Krishna,” and “Aham Prema” leave you feeling that’s she’s an instrument through which flows the very breath of god. Tune into her good vibes on albums “The Lover and the Beloved” and “Sanctuary” . Better yet, catch her in person this summer at Lilith Fair , Wanderlust , or Bhakti Fest. Until then, tide yourself over with a music download, just for YJ Buzz Blogistas.

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Sonic Sanctuary

“Hold that for 5 breaths.” If you’re new to yoga, I’d like to give you some great advice: never believe this. It’s not going to be 5 breaths. It’s going to be about 27 breaths. It’ll go like this: The teacher starts out well enough: that’s one breath (then an adjustment to someone’s left hip and some encouraging advice), that’s two (if you just hold your shoulder back a little…ahhhh, that’s good), and that’s three already (I’m at twelve!), that’s four (and if you’d like a challenge, now, if you’d like to go a little deeper, try this) that’s four and a half–and now with a slight smile the teacher somehow manages to count: that’s five. It’s twenty-seven breaths for me. At first, I laughed at this. Then I resented it. Once I said out loud, “That isn’t three, it’s seventeen!” Today I see it a bit differently. Today I understand that it’ll take years, maybe five years for my shoulders to open. Maybe it’ll take seventeen years for my hips to open enough to do a full lotus. It’s more than that. Maybe it’ll take 27,000 breaths for me to relax into a pose without pushing and straining and achieving the whole time. Maybe it’ll take 270,000 breaths to enjoy the time I’ve been given in each pose and beyond: in each relationship, in each mouthful of food, in each hour at work, in whatever I’m learning today. You get the picture. It’s the new math. I wonder what you’re learning in your 27 breaths. I’d love to hear. Thanks to Rob and Cristina for yoga math (Bring it on!), and thanks to you for the conversation.

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New Math

This week I’m in Los Angeles for meetings with two TV networks to discuss a show idea. We’ll see what comes out of it–could be something or nothing. This is my week of practicing no expectations, and it’s hard not to “what-if” the situation to death, let me tell you! In the midst of preparing my show proposal, I got an email from a Facebook friend, Scott. He asked if I could reach out to someone he knew who had been following my videos online and might need a word of support. I told him it would be my pleasure, and started a sweet and rewarding correspondence with his friend. In gratitude for my help, Scott asked if I needed any graphic design work done–a logo, something for my website, whatever. I realized that my dowdy Word document proposal could use a little makeover to get ready for these meetings. So I asked Scott if he could take a look and add some flair. He not only designed an amazing logo, he added touches all over the proposal, including a front and back cover. Basically, he took my pumpkin and turned it into a chariot, something I never could have done on my own. The amazing thing is, he asked for nothing in return. When I asked what I could do to repay him, he said, “No way. I just know how it is, to want to chase a dream–a destiny–and to be able to get assistance makes the experience even more transforming.” Then he said one of the most noble things I’ve ever heard: “It would go against my beliefs if I was able to help you and did not.” Wow. Double wow.  Of course, this selflessness made me want to give back to him even more strongly. We each have something to give: a skill, assistance, a door that only we can open for another. When we do this without thought of reward, it becomes seva , or selfless service, according to the yogic path. Now, some people believe that if they help one person, they’ll have to help everyone. That’s only true if you’re not willing to set boundaries or are not sensitive to when your help is truly moving someone forward. It’s responsible to say no when doing so would be a drain to you or not a healthy support mechanism for the person. But none of us can do it all alone–and there are times when to refuse help is just plain energetically greedy. This ends up manifesting more lack for everyone involved, and the karmic wheel continues to turn.  The yogi learns to know the difference. If we consciously and freely offer seva at pivotal moments, we not only gain the energy of awareness and freedom in our own lives, we do one better. We help to change the world by letting in more goodness and more light. If we would all remove roadblocks for one other, while still focusing on our own life’s work, think of how much farther and faster we could go. Core Action: What could you do to make a clear road ahead for someone you know?  Core Pose: Malasana Twist This is a fantastic posture that gives you the benefits of a twist, low-back releaser, and hip opener all in one. It will free more energy for you to give–out, or in, as you wish!  Enjoy. Come into Malasana (Garland Pose) with feet wide and toes turned out the same direction as your knees.  Place your right elbow inside the right knee, and revolve your chest to the left as you stretch your left arm into the air. Lengthen through your spine as you breathe to release out your side and back body.  Hold for 5-10 breaths then switch to the other side. End with a forward fold in Malasana. Reach your arms in front of you, resting palms on the floor, and relax for a few breaths in this neutral posture.  

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Paying it Forward

It’s 7:30 in the morning, and my phone rings.  It’s my sister sounding like an undercover cop on surveillance: whispery voice, hand cupped over the phone, shifty eyes. “I really love yoga,” she says. “You have no idea how much I love yoga right now.” She’s a new yoga junkie. It happens. We arrive here from other sports, other pastimes, other loves, and we fall into yoga like matter into black holes. I’ll bet you’ve had these hushed conversations.  “What about running?” I asked a yoga friend when he first fell. “I dunno,” he said. “I don’t want to run as much. It doesn’t help my yoga.” This, from marathon runner to marathon runner. “I’m supposed to ride tomorrow, and all I want to do is go to yoga,” my sister continues. “I know,” I say. “I know the feeling.” “I can jump through to a seated position,” she says. “Learned that last night.”  “Oh yeah,” I say, knowingly. “That’s good.” “And I’m starting to get that thing about lifting my heart without sticking my front ribs out. You have no idea how good that is.” “Oh yeah?” I say. “Oh yeah,” she confirms. “And another thing: did I mention that my knees don’t hurt when I’m walking to work, now? Did I mention that?” Yeah, you did, but that’s okay. “You have no idea how good that is,” she persists. I don’t want to scare anybody, but this is the way you begin to talk to the people you love. You can go on running, cycling, and all the rest of it. No one’s going to stop you, but you might love this yoga thing more than you thought. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Thanks to yoga for the inspiration, and thanks to you for the conversation.

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Yoga Junkie

Are you a Kundalini chant lover? Think you might be? You can find out for sure if you sign up for this year’s Spirit Fest Kundalini Yoga & Music Festival, September 17 to 19 in High View, WV. The festival promises three days of “blissing out” to the best of Kundalini chant, and has the line-up to back up the claim. Snatam, Gurmukh, GuruGanesh Singh, Mirbai Ceiba, Nirinjan Kaur, Sada Sat Kaur, Sat Kartar, Gurunam Singh, and Satkirin Kaur Khalsa–Kundalini chant superstars, each and every one–are on the bill. You can expect lots of singing, sunrise Sadhana, group meditation, and exquisite vegetarian fare; you can hope to be thoroughly uplifted and transported by the experience. Why are we telling you about this now? So you can sign up early and save some money, of course. Since the event is happening at the Timber Ridge Camp a range of accommodations (and prices) is available–you can camp in a tent, sleep in a dorm, or reserve a private room with a private bath. Children are welcome (so plan accordingly). –Hillari Dowdle

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Sat Nam Sing-a-Long

I know what you’re thinking… harem pants, really? Really! I love them and I know you can pull them off.  I also adore this yoga mat bag-finally a bag large enough to fit my yoga mat, towel, and whatever else I need to pack in there. the details: Carry All Yoga Bag, Prana Seamless Carefree Cami, Be Present Harem Pant, Athleta Inspire Bracelet, Fossil Harmony Yoga Mat, Jade Yoga   eQua Yoga Towel, Manduka   Tree Garden Curtain, Urban Outfitters   –Ali Zeigler

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Wish I was Wearing: Tangerine Threads

On Mother’s Day, I spent the morning at a workshop about the breath and spine taught by my mentor, Leslie Kaminoff. I thought it a fitting tribute to the feminine energy to hear about removing obstacles to our foundational balance, which is a very yin (feminine) journey; not one of pushing or over-striving, but of gentleness, introspection, and nurturing.   This is something my Type A side resisted for years.   When I first began studying with Leslie at the Breathing Project in New York City, I wasn’t interested in a deeper practice of pranayama. I just wanted to know what was the optimal way to breathe in yoga. Ujjayi? No Ujjayi? From the belly? With the bandhas? Which bandhas? Through the nose, the mouth, belly or chest? And how?   Like a master instructor would, he spent the next few months handing my questions right back to me without answering them definitively.   In fact, he actively tried to get me to experience my own breath in all its different forms, and let it be my ultimate teacher.   It was maddening.   However, once I learned to quiet my mind and stop controlling my breath, and allowed it to speak to me instead of always the other way around, I had my answer: There is no one perfect way to breathe in yoga.   In fact, there are innumerable ways to approach the breath. We can stop and start it, hold or release it, and send it where we want it to go. We can also do nothing at all, and simply let ourselves breathe.   When yogis don’t really understand pranayama, we tend to default to doing one breath–usually Ujjayi– in all poses. But a one-breath-fits-all approach is lacking. Deciding which breathing method you need comes down to this: “What do I want from this moment, and how can the breath support me to achieve it?” So, before the breath, even, we cultivate an inner attention. Svadhaya , or a process of inner inquiry must occur. Otherwise, it’s solely a respiration practice, which gives benefits, but is not the all-levels union of yoga.   From there, we learn to either do something ( tapas ) or surrender to what is ( ishvara pranidhana ), and in making the conscious choice, reflected in the quality of the breath, we actually can create more inner freedom instead of less.   Leslie always speaks of yoga as a process by which we remove obstacles to our true nature, like Patanjali’s parable of the farmer who must only open a dam to let the water flow and nourish his fields. We can do this every time we seek out a tight muscle and stretch it, or shift a belief that doesn’t serve our higher purpose to one that does. And you know what? I never thought I’d say it, but the art of pranayama has become quite interesting to me.   Breathing has become one way I practice the deep soul relaxation and loving kindness inherent in ahimsa (nonharming)–in this case, not causing myself injury. My pranayama protects me from dumping more anxiety, more “go-go-go,” more needing to know, more, well… more onto my plate. It’s a moving meditation where I can soften, listen intently, and just be taught for a while instead of always needing to be the teacher.   I’m curious–what has your breath had to teach you lately?   Core Pose: Tadasana (or Tadasana Samasthithi) with Breath of Freedom   I pay homage to Leslie Kaminoff by sharing one of his techniques that provides another perspective on high chest breathing. We’re often told in yoga that breathing into the upper chest causes anxiety. This is not necessarily true. Breathing short, fast, and into a limited portion of the lungs? Maybe so. But accessing the upper lobes of the lungs can actually bring you more space and relaxation, as the muscles of the neck and shoulders release from the inside out.   Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with feet sitting bone-distance apart. Ground your feet and lift long through the crown of the head.   Arms can lift and lower gently with the breath or remain at your sides.   Imagine you have two nostrils at the center of your shoulders just behind the center of each collarbone, and if you pressed down, you could contact the top of your lungs.   As you inhale and exhale, let the air flow through these areas, filling the lungs at their highest point and releasing it again through the shoulders.   Notice how this naturally causes your lower abdominals to lift and support the spine. For contrast, try taking a big belly-expanding breath and push out your navel. You’ll likely experience a drop of spinal support and ability to breathe.   Maintain the first pranayama and enjoy for 1 minute. Then begin your practice with a more spacious chest and heart center.   

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Learning to Breathe

I stare at my feet at the beginning of each class. We hang for a bit before we chant ohmm and get peaceful. It’s while we’re hanging that I look at them. I love my body. After ohmm, we spend a few minutes contemplating how we’re standing on our feet. Our teacher tells us to put our first toe down, then our fifth toe, and then try to lift the middle toes. I can’t do this. My middle toes head off toward the big toe–gripping the floor like drowning swimmers hanging to the side of a lifeboat for their lives.  So far, I am unable to convince them that we’re on dry land. Relax, I say to them. Ohmm, for God’s sake. I love my body. My right foot is in a brace. It’s a long story, but I’ll be in that brace for a while longer. It means I don’t hop anywhere on my mat. I shuffle. Underneath the brace my right lateral malleolus (the outside ankle bump) looks like Mr. Potato Head. I’ll paint eyes on it for Halloween. I love my body. The truth is that there are perhaps ten things about my feet that aren’t gorgeous and that don’t behave in the manner in which I’d prefer. And here’s the thing. I could easily say the same about my hips (What do you mean, open? Open my hips?), my arms (My elbows won’t turn that way unless I break them.), my hamstrings, which are shorter than short, even my face, which has completely relaxed about four times in my life. And on and on. Today, hanging over my feet, it occurred to me that love is a decision. Things are beautiful or not, loose or not, strong or not, potato-heady or not. So what. Love is a decision. I love my body. Thanks to yoga for helping me love me, and thanks to you for the conversation. –Kristin Shepherd

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I am a Beauty

I have a confession to make: I splurged big time on this Stewart + Brown dress a few weeks ago after seeing it on one of my favorite blogs.I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it and I thought I might end up sending it back, but it is the most comfortable dress I’ve ever owned. I was sold the moment I took it out of it’s package. Instead of a chemical smell you sometimes experience with new clothing, it smells like fresh cut wood. The fabric is amazing and the dress itself is one of those styles that’s pretty much flattering on everyone. Now If I could only splurge on the rest of this outfit to go with it. the details: Eva Smock Waits Dress, Stewart + Brown RGB nail polish in Haze (Contains no Formaldehyde, no Toluene) Poetry Mid Calf Boots, Qupid (Vegan) Ashley Watson Kestrel Purse, Beklina  (Made with recycled, reclaimed leather) Stella Sheer Eau de Toilette Spray, Stella McCartney

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Organic Outfit

I’m getting ready to go to Toronto to see my kids. My sister has lightly suggested we go to one of her yoga classes while I’m there. I’m nervous. I’ve been at my home studio for about seven months. It’s all I know. What if Sun Salutations are different in Toronto? What if I’m dying half way through the class, and I have to spend 45 minutes in Child’s Pose? What if my pants won’t stay up and my shirt won’t stay down? (Granted, this happens in every one of my own classes, but it’s different in a room I know.) Argh, it’s like starting all over. Holy Mackerel, the phone rings. It’s my sister: she says she just finished the toughest yoga class of her life. Her hair gel poured into her eyes, she was sweating so hard. A little ominous, perhaps? Ok, slow down, maybe try some yoga. I walk into my home studio and a woman puts her mat down beside me and says, “I’m new, and I’m nervous–is there anything I should know?” I almost cry. In this second I realize I’ve been at this yoga business for a few months, and that feels good. I am absurdly happy to welcome her and to assure her that she’ll be fine. I am a welcome-wagon maniac. I spent the first two months of yoga avoiding eye contact, too worried about my pants, my shirt, and my uncooperative body to let myself relax into things. I am shocked to see it can be done differently. So, this weekend I’ll try to go in this foreign studio as an aspiring yogi: breathing, present, willing to play with others. And I will humbly do Child’s Pose the entire time if I have to. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks to yoga for the lesson, and thanks to you for the conversation.

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Home Sweet Yoga

Photo caption: New mommy kale, tofu and rice When I got pregnant, I’d been studying yoga for more than a decade. I vowed to have a yogic pregnancy and birth experience. I attended prenatal yoga class faithfully. At nine months pregnant I was doing headstands and chair shoulder stands. I imagined my labor would be like a very intense weekend yoga workshop–really hard, but something I’d get through with breathing and the proper motivation. Afterward I’d leave the hospital with my baby, feeling like myself again in no time, ready to practice yoga at home while my son napped.  Could I have been any more naive? Of course, plenty of women do have wonderful baby-in-the-bathtub births, but my labor lasted for more than 24 hours, included an antibiotic drip from the beginning, and it was so excruciatingly painful that I couldn’t say no to the epidural. At the last minute, I had to have an emergency c-section. Recovering in the hospital, my baby spent 48 hours in the NICU, resulting in major problems with my milk supply.  And one day after returning home with my son Lucien I had to be rushed to the ER because of massive swelling in my legs. When I finally got set up at home I couldn’t feel sensation in my midsection, and my postpartum doula had to practically stage an intervention to get me to stop taking Percocet.  For the first six weeks, every ounce of my energy went to nursing Lucien, recovering from the surgery, and trying to grab some sleep when I could. I didn’t unroll my yoga mat once–and to be honest, given how much pain I was in, and how insanely tired I was, I didn’t really see how I was going to anytime soon. Looking back on it now, the most important step I took during those first few weeks was totally re-conceiving my idea of a yoga practice. Although I’d studied yoga philosophy, asana had always been at the core of my practice. As a new mom, I came to think about practice more broadly, in terms of self-care. Since I was breastfeeding, the most yogic thing I could do for my baby and me was to take several minutes three times a day to eat a healthy meal.  If I couldn’t sleep for more than a couple hours at a time, at least I could get energy from good food.  On mornings when my doula came over, she’d prepare me a protein packed salad with a sliced hard-boiled egg and chick peas. In the evenings, my husband Neil often made me a bowl of sauteed kale, baked tofu, and brown rice.  It wasn’t the same as a downward dog, but it was a start. Are you a new mom hoping to rediscover your yoga practice?  Are you feeling guilty because you haven’t gotten back onto your mat or dusted off your meditation cushion?  Why not start simply, by asking your partner or best friend or mom to make you a special, healthy lunch or dinner? Take a few minutes to eat in peace and quiet, away from your baby.  Definitely don’t nurse while you’re eating! Savor the prana from the food on your plate, and relish the loving way it was prepared for you. Know that with this small step you’re on the (long) road to recovering your yoga practice. Share your favorite new yoga mom meals here!

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The Yoga in Tofu

Yesterday one of my students told me that another teacher called her out in class, saying, “You’re trying too hard.” This puzzled her. She didn’t think she was overdoing it, but then again, maybe the teacher saw something she didn’t. Perhaps she was running over herself and maybe she wasn’t, but it’s an interesting concept. When does striving toward a goal become stressful and when does it create transformation? This is why we say that to practice yoga is to walk the razor’s edge. There’s a fine line between too much sthira (effort) and too much suhka (ease), and the more we come to the mat, the more intimately we get to know it. The balance inherent within these two polarities, the “field,” as Rumi would say, where growth meets freedom, is known as santosha , or contentment, one of the niyamas of the yogic path. Niyama means observance, or something that you do that helps you line up with your inherent equilibrium. But this can mean saying No to something (straining to do a handstand when you’re not ready) as often as it asks you to say Yes. As yogis, we learn the art of knowing when to take action, and, importantly, when not to, in order to achieve a consistent state that is without aggravation or inertia; not moving too fast or lagging behind. So, how can we tell when we’re trying just hard enough in yoga, and in life? After all, neither our dreams nor our handstands are gonna just create themselves. As a teacher, the first thing I look at is your breath. It’s a pretty good gauge to let me know when you go off the rails.  If you can’t breathe slowly and deeply, or you sound more like Darth Vader than a smooth ocean wave, it’s time for Child’s Pose. I’m also checking out your alignment, specifically the foundation and core connection. If you’re in that same handstand, but your back is arching and your elbows are bent and wavering, then you’re not really in a handstand at all. You’re in a misaligned and compressive backbend that the wall is preventing from going into full (and injury-prone) expression. It’s not getting you where you want to go, which is to balance without the wall someday, with firm support from your arms and abdominals. What actually happens when we try too hard is that we simultaneously fall into the mire of inertia. We shoot ourselves in the proverbial foot because by overworking, we actually lock ourselves out of the possibility to access deeper muscles, deeper wisdom, and inner strength. We give ourselves over to ego, the anxious mind, the hyperactive body–anything external that we think can get us “there” faster. And instead of moving forward, we collapse. The first step in dissolving these non-santosha states is to be here–to pay full attention to how you feel. If you’re anxious, or numbed out, you might be trying too hard or not enough.   Once you notice the places in your life where you want control or that cause you to stress out, you can practice releasing a bit to allow the inner you to shine. This is why in class I often say you must back off in order to go farther. Then, when you’ve taken it down a notch, you can take it back up again, only this time, using the strength that serves you, in alignment, to express your most powerful center. This is when santosha arises organically. In the end, my student decided she wasn’t working too hard, but she did promise herself that she’d keep an eye out for when she was.  I’ve seen her take Child’s Pose more often, and I smile when she does, because I know she’s focused on playing the razor’s edge. And that’s the practice. CORE POSE: Core Handstand, what else? This asana is a microcosm for your practice of remaining in santosha. Remember, all the benefits–strong arms, open shoulders, core strength, courage, balance and detoxification–are available to you in every moment when you remain in alignment. Getting up to the wall is an added bonus–not something to rush into. Step 1: Stand a few feet from and facing a wall, and place your hands on the ground in front of you, fingers wide and shoulder-distance apart. Then bend one leg while the foot grounds firmly and directly under the sitting bone. Lift your other leg, maintaining level hips. Press out actively through the lifted heel. Step 2: Take small hops to help push the standing leg off the ground. At the same time, press down through your hands, lift your navel toward the sky, and begin to lengthen your top leg. You don’t want your low back to overarch here and tip the seat and legs behind you, as this will cause you to lose core strength and power.   To reconnect to the lower abdominals, bend the standing leg as it leaves the earth and draw your knee into your chest. Also, exhaling as you hop will firm your core muscles and prevent your spine from compressing or wavering as you lift. Step 3: Once you can hover in the knee-to-chest variation, keep all the stability you’ve created in the arms, torso and pelvis, and lengthen the bent bottom leg to meet the top one! Note: If at any time, your breath gets ragged, or your arms or spine begin to move out of alignment, you’ve crossed the razor’s edge, and it’s time to back off to re-find your balance.      

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Playing the Razor’s Edge

Our star blogger Sadie Nardini has been blogging with Yoga Journal since February. As we add more bloggers to our Yoga Diary line-up we thought it was best to give Sadie her own blog home as well. You will still be able to find her posts on Yoga Diary but if you want all Sadie, all the time, you can tune into her new blog home of Core Values . To read more about Sadie check out her introduction .

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Introducing Sadie Nardini’s New Home

All the news over the last two weeks has been that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss. Really? Don’t tell that to Detroit resident Larry Sherman, who credits yoga for his incredible 365 pound weight loss. Rather than trying out for the Biggest Loser or signing himself up for gastric-bypass surgery, CNN reports ,Sherman checked out a class at the Yoga Shelter in West Bloomfield. There, he was moved by the connection he made with instructor Lisa Paskel–who, he says, was able to look past the fat man and see the beautiful internal soul within him. Feeling accepted–loved, even–Sherman kept on coming to class, and as he did, the weight began to drop away. Was it a simple matter of burn away fat? Of course not. Yoga works on levels that transcend the mechanical calories-in/calories-out model. As he practiced more, Sherman’s self image began to change–and as it did, so did his relationship with food. He began to make better choices, to feel encouraged by his increasing energy, to grow out of his emotional and psychological need for the fat suit. “I had to change my mind!” he says now. “It wasn’t about my body.” His transformation took about three and a half years–and he looks great. (See for yourself, and read more about Sherman’s story at yogafixes.com . ) Yoga works for weight loss. Believe it.

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Yoga Works for Weight Loss

this today: Welcome to Yoga Journal’s Wish I Was Wearing Wednesday! Every Wednesday designer and yogini Alexandra Zeigler will share her favorite yoga outfits or eco-friendly streetwear looks. Here’s what Ali has to say about this week’s outfit: Nothing says spring like petal pink. Actually, I’ve never been much of a pink girl, but I’m coming around to it, especially when I’m dying for spring to bloom. Hopefully it will soon be time to bust out our yoga shorts! By the way, how much do you love the 100% organic cosmetic bag by Sukie? It’s so cute I’d use it to stash my wallet, keys, and cell phone on my way to class. Check out their other adorable designs too at the link below. (And check out Ali’s blog for more design and craft inspiration.) the details: Seamless Anjali Cami, Athleta Fusion Short, Athleta Organic Cotton Cosmetic Bag, Sukie Vegan Babylon Flat, Olsen Haus (available at Vickery )  Heart photograph via Blow Bigger Bubbles

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Wish I Was Wearing

This weekend, I’m leading a three-day Core Strength Immersion in New York City. After writing my post about respecting limitations while still seeking transformation, I decided to make a public statement, not only to the 60 students in the room, but all the future yogis who will watch the Immersion (it’s being filmed): Let your poses be imperfect. That’s right; I’ve hit a tipping point in my teaching where I am becoming much more interested in what a student can do to be more honestly themself in a pose, and I care much less how straight they can get their front leg in Triangle. For an instructor who doubles as an anatomy geek, it may seem unusual to hear me say this, yet nothing could be more my style. Symmetry, or perfection as we sometimes think of it (the “perfect” body, relationship, or handstand), is what you get in a office building, with its level surfaces and, straight lines. Balance, on the other hand, is what nature does, and it’s wild and free, yet comes to find its own equilibrium after all. Think of a river, which meanders here and there but ultimately reaches its source.   In your yoga poses, and your life–have you been remaining sensitive to your state of balance, or straining for symmetry? If it’s the latter, this may help give you perspective: There is not one thing in the human body that runs in a straight line. Our bones, blood, and breath all move in a spiral motion. Our nerves, spine, brain, joints, GItract? Not linear either. Yet so often, we strive to attain linear poses that our bodies are not made to reach. We want to be in alignment in a way that’s healthy and balanced, but it’s easy to let symmetry-seeking creep into the process. The end result can be a hardening of the outer body, layering on more and more  tension as we try to grip and force ourselves into pre-conceived geometry. Instead, there is a way of balancing this sthira (strength) with sukha (ease). A way to allow our spinning, waving, spiraling selves to soften enough to find the true edge, dissolve areas of tension, and still move forward into what is our unique optimal alignment. I speak from experience, because I used to be militant about doing every pose “right.” In my quest for the perfect body on and off the mat, I developed an eating disorder as well as a ton of yoga-related repetitive stress injuries. Along the way, I did reach my goal of handstand without the wall. What I did not attain, however, was any sort of happiness or joy. Therefore, in my opinion, I wasn’t practicing yoga at all, but dukha , or suffering. A focus on perfection will always circle back to the big D. Later in life and yoga, I got so sick (literally) of forcing myself into a box, that I began to seek out studios and teachers who advocated mindful, individual adaptation over form. I noticed that most of these teachers were over 40, many of them much older. Their physical asanas were very different than mine, yet the message is so freeing: Take this practice, poses, lessons and all, and make it yours, without apology or regret. Approaching 40 myself, I can tell you that a relaxation occurs after a certain amount of time struggling and failing to reach absolute symmetry. You see it in the attitudes of certain grandparents, and it shows up in the practices of longtime yogis.  The amazing thing is, once I let go of my quest for the unattainable, many of the poses, like the hovering jump-forward that I could never before master, became available to me. Yoga, ultimately is a path of personal transformation, not perfection. Reclaiming this aspect of your practice gets you into direct connection with your core, and asks that you express your truth to the world in the way that’s best for you. When we remember that our growth and spiritual awakening happens only to the extent we can get present, get close to our inner nature, and take actions from integrity–none of which have a thing to do with a false ideal of perfection–life becomes wildly, strangely, perfect after all. Core Pose: CAT/COW VARIATIONS Sometimes, I feel like anything not on the the mat is forbidden territory–or “hot lava,” as we called it in my childhood. Yet venturing outside the rectangle can be just what you need to find pockets of tension, and then move and breathe to release them. Come onto your hands and knees. Take a few arches and curls of the spine, then begin to move creatively as you listen to the cues of your body. Move your head, your arms, and even legs to serve your goals of equalizing support and freedom. Spend a few minutes in this pose, adventuring in your own way!

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A Better Balance

Photo by David Lauridsen for The New York Times Did you see the story about Demi Moore in Sunday’s New York Times Arts & Leisure section? It was a stylish, if perfunctory, update on her career. (She’s back! She’s better than ever! But now she’s playing the mother!) But what drew our eye was this aside, in which writer Jennifer Steinhauer explains a fallow period in Moore’s career, a time in which the actress disappeared from the Hollywood radar to focus solely on family: “It was not that she retired, as was widely reported, she was just resting, a career Savasana.” End of sentence. No long-winded explanation–or short-winded one, for that matter–was offered. This surely is a cultural turning point–we have reached such a level of yoga saturation that Savasana has become a common-usage term, in need of no definition, no parenthetical aside, no translation–even in a mass-market newspaper of record. Will the moment be memorialized by Ben Zimmer in an upcoming On Language column? We can only hope so!

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Corpse Bride

Last weekend at the Yoga Journal Conference was a whirlwind, and a whole lot of fun. Since I wasn’t teaching until Sunday, I had the opportunity to take some classes. I studied with Gary Kraftsow, Desirée Rumbaugh, Seane Corn, and Leslie Kaminoff. I was in the audience for Deepak Chopra’s evening talk, and I listened in for bits of talks from Matthew Sanford, Beryl Bender Birch, and Rodney Yee. I narrowly missed Julie Gudmestad and Bo Forbes, but I’m hot on their trails, too. Over the years, I’ve studied with just about every well-known yoga teacher there is, and many others. What strikes me is that although we share the same title–yoga instructor–we can be so different in just about every way: personality, poses, focus, knowledge, opinions, and communication style. Yet this weekend, the core message was the same from everyone: Find balance, live in balance, and take actions from balance. I heard it again and again, in every conceivable way. I was fortunate to have conversations with the people who put on the conference, and this parity was also part of their vision of creating a community offering where people could be equally exposed to the healing benefits of yoga, no matter what teacher they resonated with the most. It did my heart good to hear this. I’ve seen pockets of separation in the yoga world, stemming from a “my style, your style” mentality. It’s the reason why I specifically didn’t want to create a style of yoga, but rather a “take” on yoga that anyone could use, whether they’re an Ashtanga yogi or a Kundalini practitioner. The thing is, there are many doorways into your true nature, all that lead to your inner teacher in the lifelong process yogis know as svadhyaya , or self-study. If you can honor that the guru you seek is so often the Self, then you are less likely to dismiss teachers that don’t work for you or revere the ones who do. (You also won’t hang on to blame, anger, and resentment in relationships of any kind.) You can thank your teachers for the fact that, whether you choose to embrace their ideals or not, they have helped you remember who you are–and who you aren’t. In this way, they have all been instrumental to your growth and transformation. This view can bring more sukha , or ease and freedom in everything you do. Yoga can be frustrating, because the lessons from different teachers are sometimes contradictory, and there can seem to be no clear “right” way to do it. But that’s also the wonderful thing about this path. It’s yours alone.  The practice asks you to gather information and listen to your instructors, but then ultimately to turn inward and claim the personal style of yoga that you need at that moment, and to keep the channels of inner communication open for a lifetime. Yoga is a journey that always, and unerringly, leads back to you. That is both its greatest challenge and its most fabulous gift. Core Question: Are you able to thank your teachers; ones you liked, and ones, well, not so much, for helping you realize who you will and won’t be? Tell us about your experience! Core Pose: Utkatasana Twist (Chair Pose), variation This twist will help you turn inward as you remain grounded, centered and balanced–all good tools for your inner teacher practice. Stand with knees bent and feet and knees pressing together. Inhale your arms up, keeping your spine long. Spin your chest to the left as you place your right elbow onto your left knee. Roll your left shoulder back and engage your obliques to help balance the work of the arms with core strength. This twist has a twist: Look down instead of up for a sweet stretch of the neck and shoulder. Remain here for 5-10 breaths then move into a gentle forward fold. Return to Chair Pose and repeat on the other side.

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Thanking All Your Teachers

Time to do your home practice but not feeling it today? Pop in Yoga Revolution Volume One –a compilation CD that features songs from “yoga music” superstars like Donna DeLory, Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Miten, and Snatam Kaur as well as from genre benders like Sheryl Crow, Angelique Kidjo, Sarah McLachlan, and Peter Gabriel. The collection is uplifting and energizing–perfect for vinyasa flow. And since proceeds from the sale help provide access to yoga for underserved kids around the country, you can feel good about making an investment in this aural upgrade. BONUS : Fun to listen to off the mat, too, Yoga Revolution Volume One is the perfect tunage to see you through even the nastiest traffic snarl. Ponder the message behind Ziggy Marley’s “Love is My Religion” (it’s track 11), and you just might find yourself hitting the repeat button instead of the horn. (Buy it at amazon.com , for $14.99.) What’s your favorite yoga music?

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Lend an Ear

I left Brooklyn and arrived in Vancouver yesterday, to teach a weekend Core Strength Immersion. In five days, I’ll fly to Toronto for the Yoga Conference. I’m not a fan of being away from home for long periods of time, but the smell of freshly cut grass (lawns! How quaint!), the view of the Vancouver mountains, the cherry blossoms,and the fireplace in my hotel room have almost made up for it. No matter where I travel, the students meeting me on the mat all have one thing in common: they’re trying to make a change. Whether it’s learning something new, improving their strength and flexibility, accessing more of their inherent centeredness or a combination of these, no one I’ve met shows up to a yoga intensive with a burning desire to stay exactly the same. After all–shift happens. We’re all in constant state of flux, from our cells and thoughts, to our outer environments and relationships. Your experience is as transient as a hobo on a country railcar. The question is–in what direction do you want that train to roll? If you allow life, and the external opinions, requests, and demands of others take you where it wants to go, you’ll spend a lifetime getting steamrolled from the outside. Enough of that, and your heart will feel as flat as a pancake. If you want to fill your mind, body and spirit with the goodness of inspiration and transformation, you’ve got to do one thing for certain: Get to work. Remember: intention without action is just a beautiful pipe dream. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali offers clue about how to change things according to your intentions. It begins with ishvara pranidhana. This word literally means “love of God,” but like so many other concepts in the yoga teachings, it has alternate meanings. Ishvara pranidhana can also mean “to take your highest action.” Have you noticed that in any moment when you’re called to make a choice –Do I go to yoga class or skip it? Should I yell at my partner or take a time out? Should I take the job I hate for more money or the one I love for less?–there is usually one that will serve your highest good, and one that will, well…not so much? When you take action that helps you express who you most want to be in the present, it will keep you on the road toward goals you want to reach later. I’m certain of this, because it’s taken me from a dysfunctional practice and stressful life to inner strength and outer abundance. It will work for you too–but you have to work it. Yoga is not a spectator sport. It asks for your full and unflinching participation. It can be scary, constantly facing down the unknown, but if you can go there–whether by hugging your thighs more in that Crow Pose, taking a deep breath when you want to say something hurtful, or choosing the high road in a situation where your habits and fears conspire to make the low one an attractive option–all your hard work will absolutely pay off. In fact, the beauty of yoga is that it pays its dividends instantly, with a rush of prana, or empowerment, and the personal satisfaction of becoming more of yourself in the moments that you focus, intend…and try. This is the offer of Kriya Yoga, the yoga of action, and it’s something that we can practice both on and off our mats. After some ginger-green tea (instead of my old nemesis: coffee!), I’m off to teach this afternoon with a group of teachers, most of whom I’ve never met. I will take my own advice, and instead of holding back, I’ll fully share from my spirit, which is always a vulnerable process. I’ll let you know what happened in my next post! Namaste, Sadie Core Question: What actions can you take, this week, to start making your intentions a reality? What has held you back before this? Core Pose: Earth to Sky Triangle Here’s a pose I use to teach my students the power of conscious action as they build Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). It can help you access deeper core strength and maintain a safe stretching point by building the posture from the ground up: Step 1: Come into a Utthita Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose) and place your bottom fingertips beside the outer foot. (Beginners: Bring your forearm on your knee.) Draw your navel in and up towards your chest as you lengthen the tailbone. Now lift your free arm to the sky. Wrap your top arm around your back in a half bind, and press the hand into your back ribs or palm into the thigh. Roll your top shoulder open, then look down to stretch the neck and shoulder. Step 2: Keep everything you’ve created, but begin to move your front hip crease back and ground into the big toe mound to straighten your leg (Beginners: Place the bottom hand on the thigh, shin, or ankle). If you lose your core connection, bend the knee slightly and play the edge of integration and expression here. Step 3: Unfurl your top, bound arm into full Triangle Pose. Now you’ve removed the obstacles (tight shoulders, compressed hip joints, a stiff neck) to your pose, let the freedom of your energy move through your entire body with each breath.

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You Better Work!

On Saturday, Seane Corn came to teach at my home studio: YogaWorks in SoHo, NYC. I’ve taken one workshop with her before and really enjoyed it. Plus, we see each other around on the conference circuit. So, since she was right in my ‘hood, I decided to enroll in her weekend classes on vinyasa sequencing. When I arrived on my mat, multiple people, some of them my regular students, came up to me with baffled looks on their faces. “Why are you here?” someone said, as if I had nothing left to learn. My answer was the same as it always is at moments like this: “I know what I know. I want to find out what I don’t know yet!” And I learned a lot, or as Seane might say, I remembered more of what I already know in her daylong sessions. I’m proud to show my students that my role as a teacher doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped being a student. Knowledge is fluid and always evolving, just like I am, and my teaching will mature and shift as I do. I refuse to hide my process of studentship for fear that my students will think I’m less of a teacher. I’m confident in my abilities and my unique perspectives on yoga, so I rest in my truth, and let others think what they will. It reminded me to remind you that life gets so much easier when you stop seeking approval from those around you and instead focus on accessing your deepest truth, or satya. If you lose your center the moment someone else has an unfavorable opinion of you, you’ll become everything for everyone, but very little of yourself. When I began teaching yoga, I would change the way I taught based on every student’s critique. In one month, it led me to teach faster, teach slower, talk less, talk more, make it easier, make it harder, and on and on. It was maddening, and my truth was lost in the quest to please everyone. Nowadays, I come into a workshop, speak my truth (which is not the only truth), give them a million percent of what my spirit is directing me to offer, and then I go home. Most people love it, a few think it’s pretty good, and there’s almost always one who can’t stand me.   And you know what? That’s OK. It used to bother me for days if I got negative feedback from someone. But as I teach more, I see that will always be the case, no matter how I change my message. So I stick to my core. Finally, I’ve learned to go into any classroom with one intention: I’m not here to cater…I’m here to teach. In your life, you can spend all your time and energy shape shifting to accommodate everyone’s needs or you can focus on living from your center. This is the exact moment when taking it personally transforms into the practice of giving it personally… …and you need no one’s stamp of approval but your own to do that. Core Question: Have you ever over-compromised your truth to please those around you? What happened when you decided to be fully yourself? Core Pose : Crossed Navasana with Fists of Fire This is one of my signature Core Poses. It’s meant to draw you out of your head and down into your center. Come into a cross-legged position like Sukhasana (Easy Pose). Place one foot in front of the other. Inhale, roll forward as you reach up, and lift the hips a few inches off the mat. Exhale, roll onto your sitting bones, engage the navel and low back in and up as you lift knees and feet higher. Repeat 5 to 10 times, then end in a forward fold from Easy Pose.

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Living Your Truth

California Pacific Medical Center is honoring one of our beloved yoga teachers. CPMC’s Institute for Health & Healing  has selected Matthew Sanford as the recipient of its Pioneer in Integrative Medicine Yoga Journal conference in Boston this April. Congrats, Matthew!

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Congrats to Matt!

I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers” right now, and boy, does that guy ever know how to change a worldview. Each time I finish one of his books, my perception of life shifts. This time around the book reminded me that everything we come into contact with–whether it’s a relationship, a challenging situation, or even a yoga pose–gives us the opportunity to choose how we want to look at it, and how we’d like to use the energy of it (constructively or destructively) to meet our goals. Gladwell calls this the ability to “customize” our surroundings to meet our needs. In this paradigm, we never again have to be the victim of someone’s choices; instead we become the master of our own design. In order to make this leap, especially when an experience is dragging us down–a bad breakup, for example–we must remember one thing: truth is relative. I kept ‘truth” lowercase on purpose, because the little “t” signifies the things we think, do, and see. In yoga, we call Truth with a capital T “Satya.” Satya is our foundational nature, our birthright of light, love, and inner goodness. When we rest in Satya, we are already that which we seek to become. Our happiness begins to exist independent of external circumstances. Everyday issues lose their power to easily dim the brightness inside us. To access the big “T,” we must remember that we exist in a state of inherent equilibrium–our cells, our breath, our bones, and muscles are all naturally built to balance stability with mobility. For example, in our yoga poses we push past our point of equilibrium, then at some point the body is going to “go polar,” toward too much strength (which will create tension), or too much freedom (which can lead to injury). Life is like this, too. Go polar with how you view it (”I can’t attract money…I’m terrible at relationships…there’s too much competition…that will never work…you did this to me…”), and you’ll be stuck in the diminished worldview of the little “t.” Try to remember, as you look around from day to day, to widen your perspective. Do this by remembering that love and opportunity and capability do surround you, no matter how restricted the options may seem in the moment. They’re not. Practice broadening your view of the world and your place in it, by realizing that much of your truth is relative, or changeable, by you, at any time.   Then, change it to something that empowers you and suits you better. You’ll return to your original Satya-state, and polarity will dissolve back into the clarity and ultimate abundance of true center. And that rocks. Core Tip: Today, walk around as the rock star you really are, and see what a difference it makes! Let us know what happens, and how you’ve changed your truth to serve your goals. Inspire us! Core Pose: Breath of Freedom Lunge In your High Lunge, keep your tailbone and side waist long, reach your arms back, palms facing outward, and breathe. Sweep away old, limiting stories, and invite in all the truth that aligns with your greatest Truth. Be you fully for 5 to 10 breaths here.

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Remembering Truth

Two yogis walk into a bar . . .  No, it’s not the beginning of a joke. It was my last Saturday night! I’d just finished two visiting workshops in Boston, and I was ravenously hungry. I’d meant to grab a power lunch between classes, but I was enjoying questions from the students so much that time slipped away. My friend and fantastic teacher Ame Wren invited me to join her for a post-class meal. Nestled into velvet chairs, with ivories tickling in the background, Ame and I began a conversation about yoga, teaching, life, love, and each other. It was rewarding, inspiring, and somehow made the already yummy food taste even better. As we spoke, I noticed two young women sitting at the table next to us. One was complaining to the other about the no-good man in her life. From what I could gather, the list of no-goodies went something like this: “He doesn’t love me. He disrespects me. He’s out all night. He lies to me. I’m miserable with him . . . but I love him. What am I going to do?” Then the other woman would say something in response, and the litany of complaints would begin all over again. This maddening audio loop went on for a good two hours. Luckily, I was able to draw in and focus on Ame, but every time I checked back with the ladies, it was the exact same story. No resolution, just more words. In yoga we say “repetition is magic,” but we must also learn the difference between a constructive action and a destructive one lies in the type of repetition we choose. A circular repetition means that you say you want change, yet you do the same thing over and over again, only to end up in the same place as when you began. An example of this is doing gentle yoga classes, yet expecting big gains in strength and endurance. A linear repetition means that, though you repeat certain behaviors, they are ones that move you forward toward an outcome. For example, holding your poses a little longer each week and then expecting more strength and endurance. Think of the difference in power and purpose between a bog and a river. It gets even better when within the quest for more linear repetition in your life, you can cultivate tapas and dedicate your energy towards something that serves you to reach the goals you set for yourself. Tapas, often understood as just plain “heat,” as in a vigorous asana practice, also translates as the “fires of transformation.” Linear habits partnered with tapas direct our energy towards those repetitive thoughts, words and actions which light our fire, inspire us to live with passion, and keep us shining bright from the inside out. After Ame and I left dinner, and I walked home in the brisk Boston night, I felt more invigorated and alive. I wondered, though, how the other women were feeling. If it was anything like I’d experienced after similar conversations, perhaps drained, and certainly not more vibrant. An old yogic saying goes, “Save your breath to cool your porridge.” I wished those girls had spoken about the guy for 10 minutes, and then spent the rest of their energy on enjoying the food, the night, and each other. After all, life is to be lived, and tapas–like a great meal–is to be lit into at any possible opportunity. Core Question: Where in your life could you move from circular to linear habits? What lights your fire? How can you bring more passion into your days? Core Posture: A great pose for stoking the fires of transformation: Core Plank: From Down Dog, split one leg into the air, and on the exhale, sweep the knee into your chest, and draw shoulders over wrists. As you press your hands into the earth, round your hips and back sky high to build arm and core strength. Repeat this move 3-5 times before stepping forward to your standing poses. If it’s too challenging, back it off by doing Core Plank on hands and knees.

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Going in Circles

If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing – Zimbabwean Proverb We have been here in Uganda for close to two weeks now and I am in utter bliss!  Throughout this entire trip, each time we make our way to our destination, we are greeted by profoundly joyful songs and dances.  The 20 women chosen to become staff at the Birthing Center created a welcome birthing tunnel of sorts and as each of us danced our way through the greeting lines we were sung to and strung with copious necklaces made of the paper beads that are such a strong part of the commerce and sustainability of this place.  Then as we gathered in the straw thatched round “community house” where community meetings are held and decisions made, we were treated to songs in Swahili and English with each woman introducing herself by singing her name and as the dancing began some of us were plucked out into the center to tie around our waist the fur covered bustle that is made to enhance our behind and shakes like a giant lions tail.  And we in turn sang back …a song we had sung together in yoga that morning…a reminder to be present to the gifts around us…”see through my eyes, sing through my voice, open my heart, to the beauty of the world.”  As we arrived in the Shanti Uganda village for a bonfire and feast under the stars, another procession by the women and children playing plastic water jugs for drums and smiling as they welcomed us into the dance.  Then I brought out my own drum, at first playing with the children as they gathered around and then finally gathering the whole village into a snakelike spiral dance that erupted into applause and celebration.  Later that evening, as I sat by the fire, I tried my own hand at the water container drum and sang with the 15 or so local children, improvising and exchanging nonverbal melody lines in the universal language of sound.  At the New Hope School, a more formal line of boys and girls comprised a chorus that sang a well rehearsed welcome song in English and that stuck in our heads for days “for our God is good and allowed you to come… we are happy to see you today!”  And finally at the Building Tomorrow site, the unforgettable sight of 150 children gathered to meet us and all taking turns at playing whatever rhythm I banged out on the drum right back to me – most with an amazing and natural sense of timing and rhythm.  That same number of kids following Seane and Nikki as they contorted their bodies into the funniest of yoga poses and remembered long sequences of dance moves as led by Victoria (who is now “reinspired” to bring dance to children).  Every day in so many ways, we were surrounded by this unselfconscious expression of the life force and joy of using our bodies and voices as instruments of beauty.  As a musician and teacher I have dedicated my life to helping others find their own voice and feel safe and empowered enough to give it form…and I come up against the fear, self consciousness and perfectionism that keeps all of that truth and beauty stifled and silent.  I have worked to release those critical voices inside of myself and to help others to truly appreciate the joy that comes from creating art in each moment.  I am not talking about the Art that we buy and sell and which must be packaged and sold to the over saturated ears of western culture but the sheer joy of allowing sound and movement to come through us.  The sheer sensuality and aliveness that lies at the heart of each of us…an innocent and childlike voice, a voice that can express the full range of our human experience without thought to how it sounds and with only a willingness toward how it feels.  This, in my opinion is our birthright and this is what brings us closer to our own divinity and this is how I wish to celebrate life in all its glorious complexity and this is what I love.  I will never forget sitting on the red earth of Africa, surrounded with laughing children as we sang song after song into the starry skies together.  More real, more alive and more truly grounded than ever before.  My hope is that every child (and every child inside every adult) can find their own song and know the freedom that can come from allowing that song to be sung – into the beauty of the world.  

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Freedom Song by Suzanne Sterling

Today was my last day with the kids at the Building Tomorrow school construction site. There was a mixture of work and hands on quality time with the children. We brought many activities to engage with them. There was drumming, jump roping, stickers, balloons, bubbles, coloring, singing and many hugs and pictures. It was overwhelming emotionally. I spent about an hour putting stickers on all of the kids and at one point “we are the world” came on the radio…I sang the words to them…”We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones who make a brighter day so let’s start giving. There’s a choice we’re making…we’re saving our own lives. It’s true we make a brighter day, just you and me”. Does everyone remember how it felt to watch that video when it came out? All different singers uniting for a beautiful cause. It was so inspiring, so full of love and life and hope. I just LIVED that video today. It was ME singing those words to these children in Africa. And it was absolutely surreal. This whole experience has been a gift from God. It has opened my eyes, my heart, and has deepened my willingness to connect with myself and others. Thank you to all of you who have participated in my journey. You have effected the lives of so, so many people on a level you will never fully know. God bless you all…

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We are the World by Jennifer Silvestri

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” Dom Helder Camara Only half of Uganda’s children finish primary school. Less than half of those children go on to secondary school, and less than half of those go on to university. I see those statistics and begin to feel hopeless. This week, I saw a rural village in Uganda come together to build a school and I felt nothing but hope. We arrived at the Building Tomorrow work site and were greeted by parents, grandparents, community leaders and, as always, plenty of children who instead of being in school, were showing up to build a school. There were songs, speeches, handshakes, and hugs. Then we all grabbed hoes and we got to work. We spent the next three days side by side in the scorching heat and in the pouring rain. We shared stories, sweat, songs, and laughter and, brick by brick, we built a school that will educate over 400 children each year. These children are not just statistics anymore. They have names and personalities; they have joyful hearts and eager minds…and now, they will have a school. I have never met a child in the U.S. who has built his or her own school. I have decorated my children’s classrooms back home, but I have yet to meet a parent there who has laid the foundation or dug the latrine. As I watched mothers with babies strapped to their backs swinging hoes and young giggling girls balancing bricks on their heads, I knew I was witnessing something more than just a construction site. This was a dream site. This community wasn’t there to build walls with us; they were there to build a dream. A dream that will grow day by day, brick by brick. A dream that will, hopefully, extend beyond those very walls and that small plot of land. A dream that could very well someday change the statistical landscape of Uganda. I feel honored to have lifted a hoe, laid a brick, and shared the dream. We are heading back to the Building Tomorrow work site today. My muscles, physical and emotional, are tired and sore. Like any muscle that has been overworked, my heart is beginning to show signs of fatigue. I wonder how far I can stretch it. I worry that my reach isn’t far enough. I want to hold this pose as long as I can, but I know there are other postures that are just as important. I have children at home who need me too. They have warm beds, clean clothes, plenty of food, and wonderful schools, but they need their mother as much as any of the children here. They are part of the reason I am here. I want them to have dreams, I want them to know they can make a difference, I want them to witness their world up close—even the parts of it that aren’t easy to look at. Our hearts can become weak and lazy if we don’t use them enough. I will keep stretching mine as far as I can while I am here with the children of Uganda. Then I will return home and wrap it around my own children. It takes a village to raise a child. African Proverb Today it took a village to raise a school. I was happy to be a small part of that village. We drove an hour out of Kampala to a rural community where the children either do not attend school or have to walk a great distance each day to do so. We were greeted by a group of perhaps 100 community members. We took turns making bricks, hauling bricks, and laying them down one by one. We worked side by side with children, parents, and grandparents. We watched a wall go up brick by brick, a wall that will one day be part of a school that will serve some 400 children. Today I felt like I was making a difference. I may be just one person, but I am part of a village, a world village.

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Building Tomorrow by Amanda Steurmer

Today was a “rest day” for us to personally reflect on the happenings of the trip thus far and to prepare ourselves for our final three days of intense work.  We had a 2-hour long yoga practice in the morning, and Seane gave us a lot to think about.  In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, she brought into question how we’ve been showing up and expressing love in our own lives, before and during our experiences in Uganda.  How will we carry our new ideas of authentic love back to our everyday lives?  What do we need to accept about our past in order to truly let go and love bigger?  A lot of people had an emotional release.  It took me a while to get there, but eventually, with the help of the Beatles playing in the background, I did.  I realized that I’m still holding onto a lot of the sadness of 2009–the death of several loved ones.  The fear of death itself.  I’m always making acute adjustments in my perspective so that I can better handle this fear, but it keeps showing up again and again in the faces of the women and children I meet here in Uganda.  Despite their contagious joy, my sadness lingers. The women and children here do not latch onto their traumas and circumstances.  They are constantly releasing emotions through passionate song and dance.  Perhaps the men are so aggressive because they do not engage in these traditions.  Most Ugandan men are addicted to alcohol, drugs, sexual abuse or power.  They are acting out because, like most Americans, they are not moving the negative energy out of their bodies naturally.  I can certainly relate to their struggles, and am so grateful for the support systems in my life that encourage the release of tension in my heart and in my hips every day. I found out last night that I am the youngest woman on this trip.  I am the baby.  There are several life lessons that I have yet to experience, and I must remain patient with myself.  I cannot be so critical and hard on myself.  I must love myself and trust in my deepest truths to continue to love and serve others effectively.  I think this will be my mantra for the decade. Today, I sat and took the time to remember all of the great loves of my life.  My very first valentines–Mom, Dad, and Grammy.  The crushes, the necessary heartbreaks.  My beautiful companion, Christopher.  And especially, today, all of the 23 women here with me in Uganda, sharing an experience that will bind us together in love forever.  You are all my valentines and I thank Spirit for this incredible opportunity to serve.

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Valentines Day by Megan Ridge

There are hard facts of life here in Uganda. You can find depressing statistics about the incidence of rape, the HIV percentages or the challenge of educating girls.  All have so much effect on what it means to be a women here…but its really not so different at home in North America. Maybe that’s why it was so hard to write this because in all of the women we meet I see my mother and my sister and myself.   There are equally positive statistics to quote about the number of women in government in Uganda and the ways the government is trying to get more girls into post secondary schools and all of the work that the people we meet are doing.   I met with a journalist friend here who is writing about the gay community in Kampala and the proposed new bill. He is looking to write a story on a lesbian who has been raped. I think he was expecting me to be shocked to find out that that is what happens to ‘cure’ lesbianism here. But the rape story has been told over and over and over to us in so many ways that I wasn’t shocked. I just added it to the list of the how’s and the why’s it can be difficult to be a woman. And then we were at a birth. I lack the words to describe the power and the beauty of that experience. This 17 year old girl, who was alone with her sister, who is now a mother has quite a job in front of her.  That baby girl might have the odds against her but I have to be hopeful for her future.   Mothers, sisters, daughters, women get to be all of those. I will get to be all of those. At 32 years old, I did not arrive in Uganda a girl but I feel like I am leaving a woman. I had dinner at a womans house named Bubeera last night.  She lived in a 6′x8′ room with her 10 year old daughter. (her 3 sons hours away with their grandmother). We sat on the floor and ate by lantern light/cell phone flashlight.   She is HIV+.  She is alone and raising her child. She is very very lucky.   Bubeera was chosen out of 600 applicants to be part of Shanti Uganda’s  www.shantiuganda.org <http://www.shantiuganda.org>  income generating group.  They make jewellery out of paper beads which they also make.  This group brought 26 women together chosen for their dire circumstances (to qualify you have to be HIV+, widowed or raising children/grandchildren on your own) and they are taught how to make the jewellery, run a business, and manage money.  They have a self elected leader and full control over all of their profits.  The money they make is used to pay for their homes, send their children/grandchildren to school and to buy better more nutritious food.  Better food improves their health which makes it easier to deal with HIV. So, Bubeera is lucky.   Lucky that she now has some control of her life.  Lucky that she now has some choices.  Her daughter is lucky too…as now she has a chance at going to school. Pardon my over simplification but education is the key to poverty.   They say you educate a woman and you educate a village/nation.  I think you give a girl access to education and you give a girl access to choice.

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Women in Uganda by Davian Den Otter

“Souls don’t have races or sexes or religions. They are beyond artificial divisions.”  Beliefs separate, loving thoughts unite us.  Today started off with intrigue, curiosity, excitement and ended with joy, yet sorrow.  The orphanage was built first with a vision, then came the passion, then it took strength to reach out and New Hope School and Orphanage was born.  The man who started it was Godfrey in 1997.  He started New Hope on his own.  The kids are street kids – some have no mothers, some have no fathers, some have neither.  Most of the children are HIV+.  New Hope provides a safe environment to educate, learn and thrive.  In order to do so it takes visitors like us, OTM, to raise money and support these children so they have clean water, food, shelter, and education.  OTM has helped this year by creating a water filtration system, supplying mattresses, and school supplies.  Upon arrival we were greeted with song in our native language from the children that made my heart dance with joy:   It’s a long, long way from oh Canada to Uganda Passing over mountains and sandy rivers But our God is good who has allowed you to come We are happy to see you today   All day long we were engaged in activities with the children.  We played with frisbees, jump roped, read books, parachute games, and engaged in playful yoga postures.  Leaving the games on our way back to join others, one of the children grabbed my hand.  It made me realize how the children crave any sort of human contact, love, or affection of any kind. During the course of the day many pictures were taken of these beautiful children.  At one point I turned to show the children their picture through my camera lens.  They giggled with excitement at their own reflection.  I realized right then, how much we take for granted – some of these children might have never seen a reflection of themselves before.  We left a mural on their school wall so dreams and the magic will and can continue.  Leaving the school was hard for most of us. A feeling of sadness loomed when asked when will we return? The children of New Hope are thriving for love, support and just a hug. I hope I can go back and give each of them a hug.  I hope that other volunteers continue to build on this wonderful foundation.  It became apparent to me that a sponsorship program is needed at New Hope in order for these children to continue on this positive path of learning and growing, feeling safe and loved.  I am so humbled and honored to be part of these children’s lives.

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New Hope by Carrie Herscovici

I made a brick this morning!  There is a contraption (I hesitate to call it a machine because it requires so much manual labor) that you put dirt into and then put all of your weight into pulling down a lever to compact the dirt into a brick.  Totally awesome.  I also helped with interior design of the birth center.  We molded extra mud into the walls to create the shape of branches, flowers and leaves.  This was a challenging project but a lot fun.  After two days of work I love the fact that I have very dirty fingers and toes! As we were leaving the birth center for the last time, we rounded the corner in our enormous bus and out from behind the bushes came all of the men that were working at the site with us over the past 2 days.  They completely surprised us– rushing out into the open, screaming wildly, waving and smiling as a farewell to us all.  It is difficult for me to describe why this was so emotional for the entire group  We worked with these men intensely for two days, sharing stories and information about our cultures.  They are the exception to the stereotypical, male Ugandan– these men were thoughtful, kind, understanding, generous and supportive.  Natalie is so fortunate to have them on board for her dream project, and it was so moving to see their appreciation for our presence in those last moments.   Before we left Kasana, we went to Natalie’s home for lunch and enjoyed, yet again, the traditional Ugandan meal.  That’s our fifth time eating Thanksgiving in 3 days.  I’m all starched out, but am very grateful for the local hospitality.  They don’t eat like this every day, but insist that we do as their guests.  After lunch, we opened several of the bags full of donations for Natalie to see.  We finally got to see the magnitude of what we collected.  Natalie says the birth center will be up and running even sooner now that she has nearly all of the supplies they need to operate. Sarah, Heather, Amanda and Davian (plus Seane and Suzanne) stayed behind to help deliver another baby at the current birth center as we road back to the Sheraton Kampala.  We were blessed to hear about this healthy birth later in the evening during group processing.  We found out that today is Amanda’s son’s birthday.  She gave birth to her first child twelve years ago today.  She said, “12 years ago I became a mama and I helped someone else become a mama today.”  That really struck me.  I feel special to be one of the 24 women in the room to hear that lovely realization. I have mixed feelings about returning to Kampala.  I am very aware of how lucky I am to now have amenities like bottled water, air conditioning, regular toilets, and a comfortable queen sized bed.  I am also constantly thinking of our new friends that don’t have these things.  I lived for a few days in the Kasana volunteer house, and even there we had fair showers and working toilets.  Most people in the village are walking miles for water and going to the bathroom in small cement holes.  As a guest in their village, I was in no way roughing it, but now I just feel positively spoiled.  I can understand a little more clearly now why people have incredible difficulty transitioning back into their normal lives after visiting a third world country.  There’s no turning back from what we’ve witnessed and experienced here, and in many ways I’m compelled to live among these people despite the constant struggle of their lives.  The love I feel is so intoxicating it’s easy to forget the daily hardships they endure. Each night we take about an hour to check in as a group to make sure everyone is feeling fine and supported.  It’s also been a nice opportunity for me to remember some of the things I’ve forgotten.  So much happens in a day, it’s difficult to remember all of it.  There’s just one last thing I’d like to share… Yesterday, when a group of us were taking a break from work, an old woman slowly walked towards us to sit in the shade.  The woman did not speak English, but Natalie told us that the woman is ninety years old and walks to the birth site every Wednesday to help.  She had hurt her leg.  The woman sat and spoke softly to Jen, one of the participants, for several minutes in a language that none of us understood.  Minutes later, she slowly stood to make her trek back home.  We said goodbye. Ninety years old.  How will we show up when we reach her age?  What will we be willing to do for our community and our children?  She is way past the ability to conceive, so she is clearly coming to this site each week to see a project thrive that will support her granddaughters and great-granddaughters.  She is an example of love at it’s finest.  I am in awe.  May the Universe forever bless the great women of Uganda in all their strength and magnificent beauty.

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Shanti Uganda Day Three by Megan Ridge

If you missed last year’s Wanderlust Festival, this year you’ll have a second opportunity to enjoy a weekend of yoga and music in Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe, CA from July 29 – August 1, 2010. This year’s yoga line-up includes Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste, Doug Swenson, Duncan Wong, Elena Brower, and Schuyler Grant, according to a press release. Musicians will be Moby, Bassnectar, Brazilian Girls, and Pretty Lights. Tickets go on sale today at wanderlustfestival.com . This mini-documentary about last year’s Wanderlust Festival explores the interaction between yoga and music. Sometimes it’s a magical combination! Does it make you want to go to this year’s festival?

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Wanderlust Festival Line-Up Annouced

It’s just after Valentines Day, and I got two bouquets of flowers. One from my husband, and one from Sadie Nardini. That’s me.   While at the flower store, ordering a nice bunch of orchids to honor the longest-term relationship I’ve ever had&mdash;with myself, I noticed that many people were more focused on what to get or do for their significant others, or what they were getting done for them, than how to celebrate their own selves. In fact, out of the 20 or so other people who were there, not one of them were wrapping up blooms from them, to them. When they found out I was, it was like a kitten had popped out of my jacket pocket. Ohmigosh–Thats SO cute!, they said, eyes wide with the sheer quaintness of it all.   It struck me then, how weighted we can get towards our external offerings and relationships. It’s more rare indeed to see someone taking themselves out for dinner, and choosing the nice restaurant over the quick fix, or taking the time to appreciate themselves with a love letter, a kind remark or even the simple beauty of flowers.   I’d like to see this trend reverse. I began turning it around personally a few years back when I realized I was speaking to, feeding and loving myself abysmally. If I was dating me, I would have been well on the road to a break-up or a breakdown.   It’s the same with yoga. When I say I teach Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga, people usually point to their bellies and say, “Yeah, I need some of that!” or “My roommate does Pilates!”   As we progress in our practice here in the West, I see many students and teachers are beginning to get so outer-body strong that they have begun to freeze themselves out of the deeper power that lies in their internal core. I was one of them, until my too-tight abs and back muscles began compressing my spine and causing me pain. I knew I had to find some length, and let go of my ego-driven tendency to want to get into the advanced poses at all costs. It’s easy to get externally-focused, and use the outer body too strongly in the asanas, which can harden it into tension or put added strain on the joints, instead of using our outer selves in balance to support a much more profound inner strength.   It’s not serving us to practice with a focus on our external bodies only if we want our yoga practice to be a balance of Sthira-Sukha, or stability and mobility. There are a whole lot of things the core is, and one thing its not: just the abdominal muscles. Your spine and pelvis, taking in Prana (life energy), your inward attention, and the muscles that support your skeleton all comprise my idea of the deeper core connection we can each make happen more profoundly in yoga and in our lives.   In my teaching, I focus on our Deep Core Line, or the series of muscles that line your legs, pelvis, spine and skull, and I invite students to release any death grip on the poses, and instead focus on a softer strength at the level of the superficial body (Think Rodney Yee’s abs vs. the cover of Muscle Magazine) in order to access the support at true center.   This experience of diving inside has a bunch of happy side effects, including empowerment, self-centering, and the ability to rock your Handstand much sooner than if you try to just power into it.   In my view, the abdominal muscles should serve the underlying structural strength, not the other way around. When you can move your poses from the outside in, some of the pockets of tension found at the legs, hips and lower back, shoulders and neck will start to dissolve as your inner takes over for the outer, and they both begin to move back into harmony.   Best of all, when you move from center as your practice on the mat, you’ll begin to experience vijnana-maya-kosha, a state of all-pervading recognition that who you are is strong, capable, and worth nourishing on all levels. And one day, I’ll be in the flower store, peering into the case to see what Sadie might like best of all, and someone will say “pardon”, and reach past me to grab their favorite tulips.   I’m betting it will be you.   Core Questions: Where are you on the journey to cultivate your inner relationship as much as your outer ones? And how do you practice this in your yoga poses? Do you think it’s harder to give in than give out?   Core Pose: To try moving from your inner body: Next time you’re doing handstand preparations, no matter how low or high you’re hopping now, keep your top leg straight but bend your bottom knee into your chest as you lightly jump. As you kick, pretend you have a golden egg at the pit of your belly, which you’ll squeeze around as you exhale. This will bypass the tendency of your lower back to arch and take the pelvis out of alignment. It will activate your low belly and still let you practice pulling the stacked hips up with the squeeze of your deeper pelvic muscles.

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What’s Your Core Strength?

As I was standing outside the birthing center of the local birthing clinic listening to one of the midwives describe a typical day, Sally, our trip coordinator, began to beckon me into the delivery room. She says; ‘there’s a baby coming.’ I enter a dingy, approximately 10 x 12 room with two old examination tables covered in what looks like white plastic garbage bags. Two Ugandan women, experiencing intense labor pain, were being treated by an midwife. Sarah, a member of the OTM group who is a Doula, was giving a woman who was clearly full term breathing instructions as she shared her “Emergen -C” infused water. No water was available for patients. Sarah introduced me to Margaret, who spoke little English and seemed disgusted and confused about why I was there. Drawing closer to Margaret, the repulsive stench coming from her body nearly knocked me out. It had clearly been a long, long time since soap and water had touched her. Another contraction began and Margaret reached out for me. Fearing that I might faint from the funk, I took a step back. Then I closed my eyes, said a prayer, and took a deep cleansing breath. A sister was asking for help, the funk didn’t matter. I held out my hand. Margaret swiftly pulled her whole face between my breast. When an examination determined that she was only 8 centimeters dilated, Margaret was told to get off the table and go outside. Reluctantly and only with help from Sarah and I, she got off the table and went to an area in back of the clinic. There we met Margaret’s sister. On all fours in the grass, Margaret indicated that she needed to defecate and did–right there on the grass. Margaret’s sister gathered banana leaves to clean her and Sarah handed me her scarf for wetting to wipe Margaret’s face as there were no towels. Margaret, still on all fours in the grass, writhed and cried. Sarah and I, insisting that Margaret was near delivery, coaxed the attendants to re-examine her. They now agreed that it was time. I held Margaret closely as Sarah continued her coaching work. Struggling to position her on the garbage bags, Sally held one leg, as I held the other, and together, we scooted Margaret in position. For an instant, I wonder how in the world I got here–in a hot room overwhelmed with the stank of body oder, defecation, urine and blood, assisting a woman who is most likely HIV-positive in childbirth. I silently thank God, we open her legs a little wider on the stirrup-less table, and see the emergence of the baby’s head. After two more big pushes, we joyfully witness Margaret’s baby boy enter the world, exercising great lungs, weighing in at 3 kilometers. Margaret sees her baby boy and smiles big. As the child is taken away, Margaret smiles at me, lays my hands on her belly and indicates for me to rub. When the nurses return their attention to Margaret, I continued to massage and jump as the placenta is released. Margaret smiled big again. Sally, Sarah and I joyously celebrated Margaret and her beautiful baby boy, recognizing that even with all the inadequacies, they were both very lucky. Most woman in Uganda’s villages deliver their babies in a bush. The death rate of woman and children in childbirth is insanely tragic. When I inquired about Margaret and the baby the next day, I was told that she was gone. Mothers in Uganda spend hours, not days recouping after childbirth. Though, I’ll most likely never see her again, I am grateful beyond words for the deep connection I experienced with this sister on the path. Truly grateful beyond words.

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An Unexpected Miracle by Nikki Myers

Big breath . . . sigh . . . from the moment this journey has begun, information, people, projects, landscapes, laughter, songs, and tears have been rushing at us a mile a minute and at this point it feels like a hurricane in my head, thoughts and emotions are blowing past, over, around, and through me every couple of seconds. I just keep saying to myself breath. Inhale the thick African air. Inhale the sounds and flavors deeply. Inhale the smiles and sincerity. Inhale the hope, pride, and optimism. Hold, drop the shoulders. Exhale. Exhale my fear. Exhale the grief. Exhale the guilt. Exhale the repression. Exhale the anger and frustration. Let it go . . . and let the most honest and joyful smile of a dancing child dressed in rags embrace you. Tule omu, we are one.

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Breathing by Galadriel Rael

It’s day 2 of the experience and I am exhausted. I actually left the group in the middle of the day today because I was completely wiped out, emotionally and physically. Day 2. We started the day with our yoga practice. The practice felt good in my body. I felt strong and grounded and enjoyed the movement after days of travel and all of that stagnancy on the plane. By the time we got to Savasana, however, something had shifted. Normally, savasana takes me to a deeply calm state. However, today all I felt was anxiety. It just popped up out of what seemed like nowhere. What the hell was going on? I assumed that my jet lag and sleep deprivation was catching up with me although that was my rational brain saying that. My emotional brain was freaking out because I just couldn’t have anxiety then! I had so much energy yesterday for our first day and our visit to the slums. I was surprisingly inspired and joyful after that experience. So, here I was this morning at 9 am feeling anxious and not ready for anything today and judging myself for it. Not helpful, of course. Last night in our group processing Seane spoke of how we could expect all sorts of emotional things to come us for us during the 2 weeks and how we should talk about them, be present for them and express them however we needed to, even if it’s some ugly stuff coming up. We have to take care of ourselves so we don’t hold onto it and let it shut us down or close us off. It’s a lot to take in here and we need to acknowledge it and own it for ourselves. So, that was last night, it all made sense. And here I am at 9 am pissed off at myself for getting anxious. So, I decided, after I got off the mat, to just be open to how I was feeling, breathe through it and move on with the day. We started the day at Pace, learning about this incredible organization that serves the Ugandan community. Pace’s mission is to use their programs to improve the health of vulnerable Ugandans and promote sustained behavior changes. Part of what they do is create and distribute HIV prevention and care packages that include a safe drinking water system, condoms, mosquito nets and antibiotics. A lot of what kills people with HIV are the opportunistic disease that take hold of their vulnerable bodies and destroy their immune systems. So protecting from malaria, TB, and other diseases in important for those with HIV to remain healthy. They are saving thousands of lives a year through this program. We took a tour of the warehouse and saw their operation. They are no machines doing the packing and processing. It is a dedicated group of workers who care about what they are doing and put their hearts and hands into creating these products for people. I thought about the woman whose family I met and spent time with yesterday, Abalo Betty. She and her entire family have AIDS. The people in the slums don’t have access to many of these preventive AIDS programs and don’t have the means go out and seek it for themselves. There is just so much help needed in this country. It was great to see that Pace is making a positive difference in people’s lives although they are aware that there is much more work to be done as well. After my experience at Pace, my emotional and physical state were not much better than this morning, actually a bit worse. I was exhasuted, sad and starting to feel physically ill. So, although there was more on our schedule for today, I have learned through the guidance of Seane and Suzanne that if I don’t take care of myself, I’m not of much good and sustainable use to anyone else. So, I listened to my inner guidance and decided to take the rest of the day off to rest, rejuvenate, and ground myself so that I can go out and be of service tomorrow in the best shape I can be in. There was a reason I was anxious this morning even if I’m not exactly sure what it was yet. But I trust that my body was trying to tell me something. Maybe it was trying to tell me to take care of myself, listen closely to my body, and just accept, not judge, what is going on with me. Well, that’s what I learned anyway. If I’m not taking care of myself, how can I do any good here for anyone else? And onto a new day…

Originally posted here:
Self Care by Heather Snyder

Some people thought it was a stretch that yogis have started including their dogs in some classes. But now animal lovers have even found a way to share the practice with their barn-dwelling four legged friends. That’s right! Yoga for horses! Tucson yogi Gloria Hester uses her expertise in yoga, horses, and Hanna Somatics to help heal injured horses, reports the Tucson Citizen . While the yoga Hester teaches to horses is not the same kind of asana-focused yoga you’d see in a yoga studio, it has helped at least a few horses deal with pain. “If yoga is a practice of consciousness, (and I believe it is), then in that sense, the horse is definitely practicing ‘yoga’ in the truest sense of the word,” Hester told The Citizen . The article doesn’t really explain the method and how it works, but it does sound like a neat idea. Do you think horses are really capable of practicing consciousness? Have you ever tried yoga or alternative healing methods with any of your pets?

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Horse Stance?

It’s incredible. We are once again on an airplane, flying to Uganda from all parts of the United States and Canada, in preparation for what will be a life changing two-week adventure into the heart of sacred service. Just like last year, when our SEVA Challenge took us to Cambodia, we put out a call to the yoga community to raise significant funds. We asked that people use their creativity to find new ways to motivate their local communities. And once again many yogis rallied, creating auctions, donation classes, selling products, holding arts events, yogathons, and more. Keep in mind, this was no ordinary year. Seva Challenge participants faced a stressed economy and a harrowing fiscal environment. But the participants pushed themselves beyond perceived limits: 21 women raised at least $20,000 each due to the support of hundreds of yogis. Collectively, we raised $574,000.   As a result, we will soon be arriving in Uganda. Together with Shanti Uganda, we will build an eco-birthing center for women with HIV/AIDS. We will also help support the education and training of the midwives and nurses there in hopes of creating a place for women–who might otherwise die in unassisted childbirth–to have a loving and safe environment to bring their babies into the world. We will be collaborating with Building Tomorrow and, along side the members of a local community, building a school for 150 to 400 children, brick by brick. We will be learning about the specifics of HIV/AIDS prevention, education, and the latest advances in treatment from YouthAids. We will visit the offices of Invisible Children to hear about the 350,000 child soldiers abducted in Uganda as well as the stories of how some of those children are being lovingly rehabilitated and reunited with their long lost families.   We believe that, as sacred activists, our task is to practice love and compassion, even as we work for change. Even when we encounter children and families who are without the basics needed for survival and who face the devastating long-term effects of AIDS, we are charged with the task of staying present in our breath and in our bodies. We are asking ourselves to witness honestly and profoundly what is happening in this community, using all the tools that we have acquired in our yoga practice on the mat. We will witness honestly and profoundly what is happening in this community, using all the tools that we have acquired in our yoga practice on the mat. We will simply show up and be willing to respectfully connect to every woman, man, and child that we meet. By connecting to each other and to all that we encounter with fierce compassion and strong hearts, we will be changed. There is no doubt.   We are profoundly grateful to be a part of this growing community. We are thankful for the vibrant creativity, leadership, and love that has been called into action in such a powerful way at a time when it is so crucial to our global evolution and awakening. We look forward to sharing our stories and inspirations with you over the next two weeks.   With Love, Seane Corn and Suzanne Sterling

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About the Seva Challenge and Bare Witness Tour

If you’ve ever flipped through an issue of Yoga Journal , and thought, “I wish someone would read this to me so I could get on my mat and practice along,” you’re going to be really excited about our newest feature. LiveMag will be your destination for multimedia versions of your favorite magazine columns and features. In the first edition (which corresponds to the March 2010 issue of the magazine), you can practice along with the video versions of the popular Home Practice and Master Class columns and watch a demo of a few of the Sun Salutation variations highlighted in the feature story “Shine on Me.” Give it a try, and make sure to comment below and let us know what you think! By the way, the new issue of Yoga Journal will be out on newsstands February 16.

Originally posted here:
Yoga Journal: It’s Alive!

Submitted by Sofi Dillof Today was my first day in Uganda and we went to visit the Acholi slums located outside the Kampala, the capital of Uganda. We had brought with us lots of clothing and supplies from home to give out to the families living there. Like so many other times in my life that I have faced the new and unknown, the experience I had there was much different than I had imagined it would be. The first thing that struck me was the strong sense of community that I felt there. It was truly inspiring. We gathered with many of the women in a meeting house of sorts which was no more than a large dark cement structure with some make shift wooden benches. There they welcomed us with a song that was filled with so much joy and gratitude that I felt my heart open up and soak it in like a sponge or like a thirsty dessert animal who had stumbled upon a cool stream and was drinking in the life affirming water. This was not the vibration of sadness and despair that I had imagined would be so palpable in the slums that I wouldn’t be able to breath. We answered their song with our own rendition of Amazing Grace. I had never offered a song as a gift before but it felt like such an honest exchange of loving vibration. It was powerful to say the least. The second part of the day involved splitting up on our own and going to visit the homes of two families and delivering to them what we had brought. This part was challenging for me. For starters, where as most of the other members of my group were paired with two women (one from each house hold), I ended up two men. At the first house, and I use the term ‘house’ lightly as it was no more than a two room shack which housed 6 family member, no english was spoken. Luckily, the four children with who lived there were of the ages 2-6 and I was equipped with a bottle of bubble’s … need I say more? The second house, however was a very different scene. Nine boys (who were a mix of brothers and cousin) lived there along with 1 baby girl and a Mom and Dad. The house was, again, only two rooms and I can’t fathom where they all slept. I didn’t ask because I was afraid it would be somehow embarrassing for them. The father spoke only a little english but explained how his brother was gone and that he had taken in his 3 nephews. He was working to support all 10 kids and when he couldn’t think of the english words to express his situation I offered some help. “Hard”, I said to him. He looked me in the eyes and said, in a deeply burden ridden voice, “Hard”. Then there was a silence that lasted for so long that I felt my whole body contract with uncomfortableness. No one was speaking. The teen age boys (ages 13 – 18) had the same vibe as my teenage step son and his friends – totally great kids but probably were being forced to be home and hang out with their parents and me when all they really wanted to do was to go out and hang with their friends. At least this is what I imagined. The scene felt tense. I felt stupid just sitting there but couldn’t think on anything to say. We all just sat there. Time seemed to drag on forever. When the father explained that the boys new english very well but were just to shy to say anything I looked at them and told them that I was feeling shy do. They smiled and though I could have imagined it, I can almost swear that we all shared a big group exhalation. I felt my muscles loosen, my breath began to flow again. We had found our common ground. They were nervous and I was nervous and it was okay. At first I felt disappointed in myself that I had frozen up in their home but now I feel okay about it. It’s where I was at the time and I am just so happy that my heart allowed me to be vulnerable enough to express what I was feeling to them. They say a smile is a language that we all share but so are songs, tears, hardships and even moments of shyness. Whatever it may be that allows us to connect is Sacred and today, in a place where I had imagined that I would feel so different and separate from those whom I would be meeting, I had a taste of that first hand.

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That which allows us to connect is Sacred: My day spent at the Acholi slums

Long time yoga blogger, YogaDawg, announced yesterday that he is calling it quits to pursue his passion for painting. For years his blog, My Itchy Third Eye , and website, YogaDawg.com , have provided us with hilarious yoga satire that  reminded us not to take our yoga too seriously. We’ll miss you, YogaDawg! You are a true ARTIST in every way.

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So Long, YogaDawg!

Today, The New York Times City Room blog posted that Bryn Chrisman, a vinyasa flow yoga teacher in New York City, will be responding to readers’ questions “about her path to yoga, her current job, her practice, kirtan and other matters of interest.” I think anything like this that gives yoga teachers exposure and lets them explain their story is great. But when I scrolled down to look at the questions that were asked I was a little surprised to see questions seeking answers to serious medical questions (how to lower high blood pressure?), spiritual guidance, and how much meditation practice is required to be “be a good yoga practitioner.” (Check the City Room blog again on Wednesday to see her answers to some of these questions.) I’m sure Ms. Chrisman is very knowledgeable–but surely she doesn’t have the answers to all of those questions! Who does!? It just makes me wonder, why is there such a big misconception out there out there that all yoga teachers are experts in all things medical and spiritual? Do you trust your teacher enough to ask him for medical advice? Where do you draw the line?

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Ask a Yoga Teacher

Today, The New York Times City Room blog posted that Bryn Chrisman, a vinyasa flow yoga teacher in New York City, will be responding to readers’ questions “about her path to yoga, her current job, her practice, kirtan and other matters of interest.” I think anything like this that gives yoga teachers exposure and lets them explain their story is great. But when I scrolled down to look at the questions that were asked I was a little surprised to see questions seeking answers to serious medical questions (how to lower high blood pressure?), spiritual guidance, and how much meditation practice is required to be “be a good yoga practitioner.” (Check the City Room blog again on Wednesday to see her answers to some of these questions.) I’m sure Ms. Chrisman is very knowledgeable–but surely she doesn’t have the answers to all of those questions! Who does!? It just makes me wonder, why is there such a big misconception out there out there that all yoga teachers are experts in all things medical and spiritual? Do you trust your teacher enough to ask him for medical advice? Where do you draw the line?

See the original post:
Ask a Yoga Teacher

I was so exhausted from all the inspiration this weekend that I almost skipped the group savasana led by David Swenson.  For some reason, just as I was turning to exit the revolving door of the Hyatt onto the San Francisco streets, my feet veered right and I made my way to one last class. I am glad I slithered down the stairs to the giant ballroom and wearily let my mat unroll one last time.  David’s southern accent and light humor soothed a room packed with tired yogis one last time, allowing us to share in a communal renewing of shared breath, soaking in the bombardment of knowledge, subtly rearranging our bodies, and finally reawakening us to a deep sense of peace.  My body is tired, but my spirit is renewed. 

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Ah, savasana