Living Yoga

I’m in the constant process of learning to face my own fears and this helps me to become more aware of how the people around me hide behind their fears, too.  Lately I’ve heard various friends say they’re too scared to try a yoga class, not ready to do a yoga teacher training, or they don’t want to invite people they know to their classes yet because they only just begun teaching and aren’t ready.  I’ve come to this realization:

You are never ready until you just do it already.

And if my little bit of wisdom there isn’t enough, here are some of my favorite quotes from http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_fear.html

Enjoy & have a fearless weekend!

People living deeply have no fear of death. ~Anais Nin

Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear. ~Cheri Huber

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are. ~Don Miquel Ruiz

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. ~H. Jackson Browne

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. ~Marcus Aurelius

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. ~Rosa Parks

I’ve mentioned before how much my mental state and life has changed by meditating daily and can’t say enough about it.  I highly recommend trying it and you can begin with as little as five minutes a day.  To me, meditation is just as important as physical exercise.

Check out http://home.att.net/~meditation/MeditationHandbook.html for information, basics and techniques on beginning a meditation practice.

Also, check out the Meditation Station for 108 meditation techniques!

These links should get you started on your path to inner peace.  Gotta go meditate now.

Thank you www.gelisy.com/meditation.htm for the photo and more info on meditation.

If you’re expecting there’s no need to shelve your yoga practice and if you’ve never tried it, what a perfect time to begin!  Practicing yoga during pregnancy is a great way to prepare the body for labor with hip opening poses and deep breathing.  There are specific guidelines for moms-to-be and I highly recommend finding a prenatal yoga class if you’re new to yoga completely.  But if you have a regular practice and don’t have prenatal available to you, you can go to a beginner class and make some modifications.

These may be obvious tips, but I’ve had to remind pregnant women about these things in my classes:

-    Avoid lying down on your abdomen once you have a “bump.”  No on the stomach poses or chaturanga to upward dog.

-    Avoid closed spinal twists that twist towards the opposite leg.  Keep your twists on the open side, so in a regular class, you’ll most likely twist in the opposite direction of everyone else.

-    Keep the legs/feet wider apart in forward bends either on the floor or standing to avoid compressing your abdomen.  For example, during Sun Salutations your feet will be wider than hip width and you’ll step right back to downward dog with a wide stance.

-    Standing balances should be done next to a wall for comfort. Your balance will be off, especially in the later months, so be safe and have a wall within reach in case you tip forward.

-    No inversions except for legs-up-the-wall pose.  Really, no going upside down because the blood will flow AWAY from the womb.

-    Take more breaks than everyone else if you’re taking a regular yoga class.  Sit back on your heels in child’s pose and breathe to cool down.  It’s important to keep the womb and baby cooler even if you’re used to working out harder.

-    Avoid any heating breath exercises, for example, Breath of Fire or any kind of breath retention exercise.  Cooling breath exercises are great like Lion’s Breath.

-    Avoid deep backbending. A bridge pose is okay but deeper back bends like wheel pose and upward dog should generally be avoided.

And listen to your body.  If something doesn’t feel right while you’re pregnant, then it’s better to be safe than sorry.  Take this time to relax into a gentle, hip-opening yoga practice for a healthy mom and baby.

I wish a dollar could be deposited into my retirement account for every time someone said to me something that sounds close to this, “You know, I really have been wanting to try yoga but am just too scared to take a class.” It’s frustrating for me to hear now, who knows how many yoga classes and a teacher training later, but I do remember feeling that way myself in the beginning.

Good thing there are countless DVDs available so you can get the feel for yoga on your own before hitting a class with thirty students packed in a room. So here are a few beginner yoga DVDs that, although I haven’t seen them and can’t vouch for them personally, got overwhelmingly great reviews on Amazon.com.

Oh, and these covers don’t actually have beginner yoginis on them, so don’t freak out if your poses don’t look like theirs.

Yoga Journal’s: Beginning Yoga Step by Step Session 1-3 (3 DVD Set)

Yoga For Beginners (2006)

Just in case you thought you could say, “I’m just too big to do yoga. All those yoga people are thin.” Try the next DVD…

Yoga: Just My Size With Megan Garcia (2005)

I wish everybody would take yoga so they could get a deeper understanding and awareness of their breathing when exercising.  Of course, if it just isn’t your thing and you don’t want to, I can’t make you.  But if you aren’t going to take yoga and you’re one of those people I see panting and heaving while doing any form of cardio exercise, then please learn more about proper breathing technique so you can allow your body to relax and become stronger.  Putting unnecessary stress on the body by pushing so hard that you’re out of breath is counterproductive.  Exercise should feel good.

And your life should feel good.  This weekend, take a breath.  Whether you’re running, watching a flick at home or going out for drinks with the girls, take a deep breath and enjoy the moment in a weekend free of stress.

Thanks stottpilates.com for the photo.

Obama’s historic win last Tuesday reminded me of my teacher training. A little over four years ago I was in the midst of my yoga teacher training when George W. Bush won his second presidential election. As a woman born and raised in a diverse California city, now living in NYC, an artist, actress, vegan, moderately feminist, and a yogini…there should be no doubt that I’m absolutely liberal. Most of us in that training were, too, and in a deep funk after learning that we’d have Bush and could expect war in Iraq for another four years. I was having a really hard time accepting it and wanted all the votes in the too-close-to-call red states recounted.

Our senior yoga instructor at the time, who had at least 20 years of yoga practice under her belt, was discussing with us how the practice of yoga has helped her to let go. Letting go as in not getting stressed about situations that are out of her control and continuing to live her life as she is meant to. She said, (and I’m going to seriously misquote her on this because I don’t remember her exact words but it was to the effect of) “For example, this President we have now. It is what it is. There is some higher force that guided him into office and there is some reason that he is to be our President right now. And it’s important to just accept that.”

On November 4th, 2008, as I was watching Obama’s first speech and shedding tears of joy I remembered what she said. And she was so right. Bush’s disappointing (for many) second win, the war, and the economic downturn inspired so many Americans to become passionate about voting in 2008, to elect a president that will make a positive change and to embrace the first African American president. Had John Kerry won in 2004, things would have turned out very differently last week and there was a positive conclusion to Bush’s eight years in the White House.

Whether you’re a yogini or not, sometimes all we can do is have faith that when something doesn’t go as planned and it is out of our control, to let go and accept that it is what it is. Trust that there will be and seek a positive result in the end that is ever guiding us towards peace. Namaste.

Thanks to libertyfilmfestival.com for the photo.

If you’re looking for a way to browse all the many yoga podcasts, both video and voice, available without having to search key words or navigate through recommended videos then look no more! Podcast.com makes viewing super easy by putting all yoga related podcasts available on one page at:

yoga.podcast.com

See which podcast have released recent episodes or just click on any title to see all episodes available and to subscribe. I had no idea there were so many yoga podcasts out there on such a wide variety of topics. And if you have a podcast, you can submit it directly to them as well.

Videos are a great way to begin a yoga practice if you’re shy about attending classes, that’s how I began. So check it out!

Namaste and enjoy!

Just a little nugget from The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi to take with you into your weekend.

Sutra II.14 says:

“Karma bears fruits according to the type and quality of the seed planted, and the care given to its growth.”

This weekend, no matter what your plans, give each moment quality and care & may each seed you plant bear beautiful fruit.  Namaste.

At one of the gyms I teach at I have to walk past all the cardio machines to get to the group fitness studio and I cringe every time someone is pushing themselves on a treadmill, elliptical or stair climber with horrible posture.  Shoulder’s slumped forward, head hanging down, scrunched forward on a treadmill so the elbows can rest on the front!  Noooo!  Okay…being a yoga instructor I’m a bit anal about this but over time bad posture during exercise can put more stress on the body, and we want our exercise to alleviate stress.

The biggest concern for me is not how it looks, but that the body isn’t open for the organs to function fully.  The heart and lungs should be able to do what they need to do at all times, but especially during exercise.  In addition, bad posture during cardio exercise that involves the same movement over and over again can compound into knee, hip & back injuries.

Key good posture points to watch out for while exercising:

-    Spine is long, no slouching or leaning forward.
-    Shoulders are relaxed.
-    Feet are parallel with toes pointing forward.
-    Chest (heart & lungs) is open.
-    Face is relaxed.

These tips will make your workouts more comfortable, strong and healthy for a long time.  Enjoy!

Thanks to myfitnesshut.blogspot.com for the photo.

As mentioned in the blog on boosting brain power yesterday, meditation is one important factor in keeping our minds healthy by relieving stress.  Although it was something I had to force myself to do in the beginning, meditation has become a part of my health & fitness routine and I usually sit comfortably with my eyes closed from 15 to 30 minutes daily.  I’ve meditated every day in the last year and a half (some days as little as 5 minutes) and the effect on my well-being has been tremendous.  It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced for themselves and I’m not sure I understand it fully myself, but I credit daily meditation to making me more confident, creative, loving, beautiful, outgoing, friendly, humorous, daring, positive, and generally happy.

A few weeks ago I took a seminar on acting success that included listening to meditation CD’s that used binaural beat technology thought to induce relaxation and a meditative state.  A fellow attendee later sent out a link to a site that has a FREE binaural beat generator either for download or to use right on your computer with headphones.  Score!  Free is good and I began using it everyday.  I find that I sit longer in my meditation than without the binaural beats, but very often I’m on the verge of sleep nodding in my chair.  It is very relaxing and not to be listened to while driving or operating equipment.

No matter what technique, CD or visualization you use to meditate, I believe that if you’re consistent in practicing you’ll begin to feel the positive results in your life.  And if you don’t think you’re doing it correctly, hang in there.  According to the book Yoga As Medicine, studies have shown that people still get benefits from a meditation practice even if they feel they’re doing it incorrectly.

After all, meditation is really nothing to stress about. ☺

For more information on binaural beats and the FREE download, visit:

http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/