Living Yoga

Last week I was teaching a class at an office in Manhattan to a group of about twenty women ranging in their early 20’s to late 40’s when I realized exactly why I love teaching the Crow Pose more than anything else. Because how you get into your Crow is how you get into your life. Okay, I’ll explain.

Crow Pose is an arm balance that looks crazy harder than it actually is…

Thank you, yogadownload.com for the awesome crow photo.

Very often I can get people into this pose in their first yoga class, others are still trying to come into after months of classes. It’s not a matter of arm strength, it’s a bit about hip flexibility (getting your knees onto the backs of the arms), and most definitely it’s a pose about taking the chance to go forward, possibly falling flat on your face, to find balance.

Back to the class at the office last week…when I showed them the Crow there were a lot of oooh’s and ahhh’s and doubtful faces. I demonstrated the step-by-step set up and every one of them was in the perfect position to balance in the pose, and every one of them held back and didn’t go forward that extra inch to stay balanced. They doubted, were tentative and didn’t get into it. I heard the excuses, “My arms aren’t strong enough,” “I weigh too much.” All nonsense. The lady who said she weighed too much was about my size!

When practicing the Crow, just notice how you feel and your reasons for why you think you aren’t able to do it. Is this your attitude in other areas of your life? Are you afraid of taking risks to shine? My advice for your first Crow, put a pillow or blanket out in front of you and GO FOR IT. If you fall on your face into the pillow, so what?

Below is my original video on the Crow Pose.

Okay, this is a tough exercise for me but sometimes it’s great to go just a little bit out of the comfort zone.  Build your core and balance strength with this exercise.

Picture this: you’re sleeping soundly in your warm bed on a chilly night, maybe even dreaming of something pleasant and all of a sudden in the dream you feel the need to go to the bathroom.  In the dream you rush to find a bathroom and for some reason your legs can’t move fast enough to get to one, you gotta go now!  You wake up and realize you really have to go, the clock says 3:39 as usual.  You do your business and snuggle back into bed.  And nothing.  Where did the sleep go?  It’s gone and you’re wide awake and the alarm goes off in two hours.

This frustrating situation happens to me all the time and I’ve learned to deal with it by using it as time to meditate.  Here’s an exercise you can do:

-    Stay lying down in bed in a comfortable position and listen to your breath.

-    Begin counting in your head slowly from 100 back down to 1.  If your mind wanders and you forget the number, go back to 100 and start over again.

Chances are you’ll be asleep before you get to 1 and the act of counting the numbers brings you into the present moment keeping your mind from obsessing.

Sweet dreams.

When I decided to become vegan I decided that I must be able to indulge in sweets or it just wouldn’t last and many yogi’s and yogini’s are vegan as well. So I did some research (meaning Google) and found us some healthy and vegan Halloween candy. Yes!

In New York City it isn’t hard to find a dark chocolate bar but can I get healthy Halloween candy in bite sizes that I can feel good about giving to innocent children (don’t even think about egging my house) at the door?

Yes, thanks to Natural Candy Store.com that has candies in vegan, kosher, organic, gluten-free, and allergen-free varieties. Woohoo!

Also, did you know that the Original Peanut Chews is a vegan candy? And they’re available in miniatures, too!

This Friday, if you’re a vegan and giving out candy or just sneaking some from the candy bowl you don’t have to feel guilty about the ingredients inside. Happy Halloween!

After you’ve been practicing yoga for a while, random thoughts may flicker into your mind about taking a teacher training to become an instructor.  Oh, but then the doubting part of your mind starts to argue and reason with you about why you shouldn’t do it.

“You can’t even do a headstand.”

“You won’t make as much money teaching as you do now.”

“You don’t even know enough about yoga to tell other people what to do in a class.”

All of these thoughts have popped into my mind (and most other teachers I know) at some point.  The only requirement that you should seriously take into consider to become a yoga instructor (or most things in life) is to be sure that you LOVE it.  You love practicing it so much that you love talking about it and want to share it with others.  In a teacher training program you learn how to talk someone into a headstand, you have the option of teaching part time for your enjoyment and not the income, and you’ll never know enough about yoga and the best way to learn more is by teaching it.

Check out the Yoga Alliance website for accredited schools in your area and you may want to consider getting a Yoga Passbook if you’re in a large city and want to sample many studio classes before deciding on the program perfect for you.

If becoming an instructor is a thought that’s presented itself in your mind, then go with it and just do it!  You can thank me later by giving me a class when you’re teaching.  ☺

On Wednesday I talked about body image, how it’s all in the mind and why manipulation techniques to lose weight (ie, diet, binge exercising, surgery) will never work for long-term weight loss, beauty, health and happiness.

Here are six steps you can do now to love your body:

1)    Accept that your body is the perfect weight right now. It knows exactly what weight you should be given the food you consume, how many calories you burn, genetics, medications you’re taking, etc. Trust your body.  If those other factors don’t change, neither can your weight.

2)    Every day notice something on your body that is hot, sexy, and beautiful. Your eyebrows, your skin, your neck, your waistline, anything.  Think about it all day.  You may even notice other people checking out that body part.  Each day pick something new and repeat the process.  You’ll start to love your body.

3)    Bone up on your fashion and learn how to dress in a way that flatters those beautiful body parts and your natural shape. If I owned a gym baggy t-shirts would be prohibited.  Anybody attempting to enter in a baggy shirt would be fined.  Besides you can’t work out comfortably in overly loose clothing and it’s dangerous if you’re using equipment.

4)    Feed your body the best quality, highly nutritious and most energy producing foods. It’s not about cutting out anything, but incorporating new foods.  Notice which foods make you glow and feel energetic, and add more into your diet.  Notice how more beautiful body parts start to appear when you feed your body well.   Try many different kinds of food, think variety.

5)    Add some fun movement in your life. The way I see it, exercising and fitness should be fun because it’s all about how it makes you feel.  If a spin class doesn’t make you feel good, try pilates.  If you’re someone who loves being social, take salsa dancing classes.  If you love to feel more powerful with strength, take boxing classes.  When you’ve done all the steps above, you will naturally begin to feel like you want to move.

6)    Lastly, and this can be a tough one, surround yourself with positive, supportive people. As mentioned by Susan Jeffers in “Feel the Fear…and Do It Anyway,” sometimes when we make positive changes in our lives, loved ones find it difficult to accept it perhaps out of fear that they may lose us.  This has happened in my life many times.  However, if you make a change that’s better for you and your health, those that truly love you will come to support you.  How can they not when they see how healthy and happy you are?  If there are people that prefer the unhealthy, less happy version of you consider whether they should have a place in your life.

There you have it, no diets, no deprivation, but lots of love and acceptance.  And sexiness and hotness.  Have fun with these tips and enjoy your beautiful body!

Stretch the inner thighs and hips, firm the booty and legs with a Warrior Two exercise.  Woohoo!

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about women and body image.  I see women with beautiful athletic bodies express the desire to look thinner, women with beautiful hourglass figures hide them under baggy, dark clothing and women with beautiful lean bodies resort to surgery to add curves.  Working in fitness, I see this everyday (it’s hard to hide fake breasts while lying down in Svasana).  As a yoga practitioner and instructor, I personally believe that all body types are sexy and I’ve come to the conclusion that body type or a person’s weight has nothing to do with how happy that person is.  And I’ve also realized this important fact:

Fat people get laid and thin people get dumped.  Thin people get laid and fat people get dumped.

Therefore health and happiness is not about how your body looks, it’s about how you feel.  So if it’s not about how you look externally then diets, binge exercising and other forms of manipulation to force your body to lose weight won’t work as demonstrated by countless fad diets and exercise gadgets that have come and gone over the years.  In my opinion, those forms of weight loss are abuse on your body because it’s a way of  “tricking” your body temporarily.  However, your body is so much smarter than that.  Not only does the weight come back but it adds some extras to be ready for the next fight.  It becomes a losing battle because the body is so intelligent and will win every time.  Your body knows exactly the weight you should be at now given your diet, lifestyle and genetics and that cannot be changed.

So how can one begin to lose weight and have more energy without diets?  Don’t fight your body, love it now. Learn to love everything you can about it now and you’ll begin to treat it with the respect it deserves by consuming only high quality food as fuel, dressing to show how proud you are of your assets and exercising to add a little fun and movement in your routine.

On Friday I’ll give you six steps that I think are crucial to loving your body.  To be continued…

This video was sent to me on my Facebook profile.  It’s a movie trailer for a film available on DVD entitled “Y Yoga Movie” and the producer’s description is:

Filmmaker Arthur Klein examines the philosophy and reality of yoga in this compelling documentary. After becoming a devotee in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, Klein traveled the world to explore how yoga has affected others.

I found this trailer very inspiring to bring yoga to as many people as I can, check it out:

“I’ve finally come to accept that I need a little yoga in my life,” says one of my regular spin class attendees.  She was always the athletic type playing tennis, running, taking fitness classes, stopping in between everything to do some push ups, always on the go.  Not to mention that she’s always traveling for her job as a flight attendant.  She builds muscle easily and likes to stay active but in time she lost a lot of flexibility and her back started to bother her.  She always thought of yoga as too slow but has now incorporated yoga into her regular fitness routine and feels better for it.

Many folks are put off by yoga’s less athletic reputation to other forms of exercise (although they should go to an ashtanga class before adopting that point of view) and I’m the last person that would tell anyone to only do yoga.  I see yoga as a way to balance your workouts and open your body and breath up to 1) participate in an activity that you never thought you’d be able to do, like running, or 2) to enhance your ability in your current sport.  Cross training with yoga will stretch the muscles your sport tightens and keep you active on your days off to avoid overuse muscle injuries.

No one explains this better than John Douillard in his book Body, Mind and Sport.  It was the book that inspired me to get back into yoga while I was running and eventually led me to become a yoga instructor and I can’t recommend it enough.  He explains that there is an athlete in all of us and are naturally gifted in certain sports depending on our body and mental type, which he goes into in detail.  Douillard also encourages yoga as cross training and to use the Ujjayi breathing during all exercise (which is contradictory to what most would suggest yet I’ve tried it and it works beautifully).

If you currently find yourself unsatisfied or bored in your workouts, then try mixing it up with some yoga.  If you’re unsatisfied with your current yoga classes, try a different style or a different instructor.  Or if you’re like the super fit flight attendant and you’re worried that yoga is not your speed, think of it as a day off from your regular routine to find the balance in your body.  Your muscles will thank you.