Living Yoga

To prepare for the weekend I decided to give you some more food for thought from The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi, which is a feminine interpretation of the ancient Sutras and one of my new favorite books on yoga philosophy.

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day activities, responsibilities, emotional highs and lows of life and forget how to just be.  I hope the following Sutras will serve as inspiration to help you get back to a calm place if you’re feeling stressed.

Note: I chose to only put some of the Sutras from the chapter in and isn’t the entire section in the book.

“To preserve openness of heart and calmness of mind, nurture these attitudes:

Kindness to those who are happy
Compassion for those who are less fortunate
Honor for those whose embody noble qualities
Equanimity to those whose actions oppose your values.

Or engage the focus on an inspiring object.

Or reflect on a peaceful feeling from an experience, a dream, or deep sleep.

Or dedicate yourself to anything that elevates and embraces your heart.”

Have a beautiful weekend.

Just a friendly reminder from my bad self to keep up with your Dolphin Dives, Butt Firmers, Pigeon Stretches, Screaming Toe Poses, & Corpse Poses.

In my yoga classes, a common complaint I get about knee pain is in Pigeon Pose, which looks like this:

It’s an awesome hip opening stretch that is unique to yoga, but if you’re hips don’t have much flexibility yet then the knee will be forced to bend in an unnatural way to make this shape.  To avoid knee pain, come up out of the pose a bit, if necessary place a folded blanked under the butt cheek of your front leg, and flex the front foot before coming into the stretch.

If this standard Pigeon still hurts your knees, then do the stretch lying down on your back (see below).  Cross one ankle over the opposite thigh, grab the back of that thigh and bring the shin closer to your body.  Again, keep the feet flexed engaging your muscles to protect the knee.

Thanks to yoga-ology.com for the photo.

The Pigeon is a great stretch but it isn’t worth hurting your knees.  Listen to your body and gradually allow your hips to open to get into the pose.

What can I say? I think healthy, defined muscles look sexy on a woman. However, I’m a heterosexual female not considering you for a date and I’m not the divorced hunk next door with the power tool whose eye you’re looking to catch. Understandably most women want to be toned without looking muscular because from a genetic, biological standpoint (even if it isn’t politically correct) the female body is designed to attract a strong mate, then produce and raise healthy babies to pass on our genes to many future generations to come. Sigh.

However, women still should either train with light weights or practice some weight bearing exercise (pilates, step class, dance, running or let me think…yoga) at least three times a week to keep from losing muscle mass, gaining fat and putting excess pressure on the bones and joints.  Weight training also helps to develop strong bones. If exercising is something you generally don’t enjoy, try different dance and movement classes to find an activity that you truly enjoy just for the sake of it. The toned body is just a bonus!

And don’t worry, you will not develop huge, masculine muscles by lifting some weights.
These women train full time and go on strict high-protein diets before competition to look like this.

Thanks to five.tv for this photo.
Stay toned, have fun, enjoy life and your arms will more likely look like this.

Thanks to sheknows.com for the photo.

I’ve been getting some requests lately from Get Exercised viewers for tips on the Scorpion Pose, which is an advanced arm balance with a back bend.  It takes a lot of core and upper body strength and it’s a pose I’ve yet to master.  However I did get some great tips from this video by Howcast, see below.  In a few weeks I may tackle this on my podcast.

Please proceed in this pose with caution, be warmed up and use a wall if uncertain about your balance.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m on a quest to stay irresistibly beautiful and sexy for the rest of my life (and you be should too!) and have been reading lately about the qualities that make a person beautiful.  By coincidence many of these qualities are what we strive to achieve in a yoga practice and lately I’ve been working on being non-judgmental.

In yoga we aim to let go of judgment about our thoughts and our practice, but in terms of being a beautiful person I want to take this a step further.  I say it’s great to judge but only in a positive sense.  Praise yourself and others (sincerely, no faking) about good qualities.  Openly complimenting others draws attention to those same qualities in you.  If you badmouth or gossip about others, it also draws negative attention towards you.

Most importantly, talk to your self only how you would want to be talked to by others.  You would be offended by insults from others, so it’s not okay to do it to your self either.
The old adage holds true, if you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say it at all.

And let your true beauty glow from within.

Thanks to cherryearnshaw.blogspot.com/ for the photo.

This is a breath exercise my mom taught me when I was a child to help with a sore throat, only I didn’t know it was yoga then.

Very often beginner yogis and yoginis think that it’s normal for yoga to be painful.  So not normal and not okay.  I don’t believe that ANY form of exercise should be painful.  What you should be feeling in yoga is the act of stretching but not pain.  To clarify the difference, I’ve included the definitions below from dictionary.com that I feel are most appropriate in terms of exercise.

Stretch (verb):

-    to draw out or extend (oneself, a body, limbs, wings, etc.) to the full length or extent (often fol. by out): to stretch oneself out on the ground.
-    to hold out, reach forth, or extend (one’s arm, head, etc.).
-    to recline at full length (usually fol. by out): to stretch out on a couch.
-    to stretch oneself by extending the limbs and lengthening the muscles to the utmost: to stretch and yawn.

Pain (noun):

-    physical suffering or distress, as due to injury, illness, etc.
-    a distressing sensation in a particular part of the body: a back pain.
-    to cause physical pain to; hurt.

The definitions of stretching sound quite pleasant, pain…not so much.  The practice of yoga is meant to be pleasant and if you ever feel pain during practice, stop what you’re doing and inform the instructor.

Here’s to a pain free practice!

Thanks to bbc.co.uk for the photo.

I’ll be the first to admit that yoga classes at a studio don’t come cheap and with the rising cost of just about everything, I’m here to help you continue your yoga practice without breaking the bank.  There are several ways you can get discounted or even FREE classes.

Sales – Only buy when your favorite studio has a seasonal sale, summer is usually the most discounted as that is the slowest season for indoor fitness.  This usually comes in forms of unlimited classes for a period of time.  Do the math and see if it’s worth it for how often you come to class.  If you practically live there, buy a package.

Karma Yoga – Many studios offer free classes in exchange for volunteer work (or karma yoga) at the studio.  If you’re a professional specializing in a service they need (website design, marketing, accounting, law) maybe you can strike a deal with your local studio in exchange for services as well.

Yoga Passbook – Yoga (and other fitness) passbooks are available in New York, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  It costs $75 to receive a book of free yoga coupons good for one year.  It’s a great way to scout studios if you’re looking into teacher training.   It’s available at http://www.health-fitness.org/passbook.html

Summer Yoga in the Park – Check out your local park listings, many yoga studios offer free yoga in local parks during the summer as advertising for their business.

Free Podcasts Online – Do a search on “yoga” in the iTunes podcast store, many free yoga videos are available for download.  A lot of them are just as good as any DVD you’d pay for, so check it out!

With all of these options you can no longer say “I don’t have the money to take yoga classes” as an excuse.  Have fun getting your bod fit while saving money!  Thank me later.

One of my favorite back bends, Camel Pose, used to be my least favorite pose when I first began my yoga practice.  My back was very tight and I held a lot of tension in my shoulders, which gave me a feeling of anxiety when I first attempted the posture.  This anxious feeling is very normal when you begin practicing.  The best advice I can give is…keep practicing until that anxiety goes away.

To come into Camel Pose, kneel on the floor with your knees hip width apart and bring your hands to your lower back.  As you inhale, imagine your spine lengthening upwards and start to bend backward as you open your heart out, as in this photo from hillarysyogapractice.wordpress.com.

If you’d like to go deeper and your back is more open, you can reach down for your heels.  Only do this if you can keep your hips over your knees, like in this beautiful demonstration from yogajournal.com.

Camel Pose is wonderful for strengthening the back muscles and stretching the entire front body and this is one of my favorite poses to do in the morning.  I highly recommend practicing the Camel to deepen your back bends.

Although, I’m not sure how this pose looks like a camel.  Anybody know?