Living Yoga

After you’ve fully digested your Thanksgiving dinner, firm your booty and stretch out with this Extended Side Angle pose.

It’s that time of year to focus on giving thanks because we get a day off of work, see our loved (or not so loved) ones, and fill our bellies with a huge meal on a holiday entitled Thanks - Giving.  How can we not think about giving thanks?  It is even said to have a positive effect on our health.

I started giving thanks about a year and a half ago in my journal.  I end each journal entry with a list called “Good Things” and write down the first things that pop into my head that I’m grateful for.  Having a wonderful & supportive family, I live in the greatest city in the world, I have a beautiful and healthy body, I love teaching yoga, there is an increasing audience for Get Exercised, I have the freedom to pursue my dreams, the people I associate with are positive and healthy…once I get started this can go on and on.  Now you know my journal secret.  Sigh.

But somehow it works.  Since I began doing the “Good Things” list my life became fuller.  People began smiling, chatting with me, complimenting me.  I noticed how much I love my job and feel fortunate to make a living doing it.  Family and friends call unexpectedly, or I take note when they do.  Pick one thing each day to be thankful for. Like a bag of chips, bet you can’t pick just one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you The Alieness Gisela Giardino for the photo.

Last week I had a private yoga lesson with an instructor far more experienced than I, so when she asked me if there was anything I wanted to work on specifically I didn’t hesitate to request help with inversions.

Inversions are any upside down pose: headstand, handstand, forearm stand, or any variation thereof.  They have always been my weakness as a practitioner and as an instructor mainly because of my own fear of turning my world upside down.  If you’re not used to doing them, it’s scary, and I find that my personal fears suddenly become overwhelming when I’m upside down.  But last week I had the instructor and room all to myself and we discovered something that was presenting a real challenge for me in inversions aside from my mind, the shape of my spine.

I’ve always had an exaggerated curve in the lower part of my spine above my rear, this is called having a Lordotic spine.

Thanks www.physioworld.co.uk/Help&Advice.htm for the photo.

If you have an overly Lordotic curve in the spine you have to consciously keep your abdominals engaged to draw the naval in and find the length in the lower back.  Easy!  Until I go upside down in an inversion and gravity is pulling me down the other way.  Suddenly it’s not so easy and that curve in the spine goes back to it’s “banana back” routine.

My instructor said it’s okay though.  That is where most people begin with their inversion practice especially when we’re kicking up to a wall to practice handstand or forearm stand.  She instructed me to keep practicing inversions and tucking my seat in to find the length in my lower back while I’m upside down.  It will become more natural in time.

It was a relief to know that it wasn’t only my fear that made inversions challenging and that there is something tangible for me to work on in practice.  I know that discovering what I can do to increase my strength in baby steps will take me far in my yoga and life practice.  Upside down or not.

Last Saturday morning after an unexpectedly stressful Friday evening, I practiced yoga at a studio in New Jersey.  Up until that point every yoga class, aside from weekend retreats during my teacher training, had been in New York City where yoga studios are as prominent as Starbucks.  So I did have a little…attitude isn’t the right word…skepticism about what I would get out of an intermediate level yoga class in the suburbs.

The first thing that struck me was how huge the studio was!  It was narrow but very long and fit about thirty people easily, with lots of space between our mats. That was a plus.  It was also warm but not hot, another plus.  Oh and the people were friendly!  Not that the people aren’t friendly in New York, but it was definitely lacking that competitive, go-getter, city vibe.

The instructor looked like she was having fun as she guided us through some vinyasa flow sequencing that I hadn’t done before where we switched from Warrior One facing the front and turned Warrior Two to face behind and then Reverse Warrior back to the front again.  It kept me on my toes, knowing that I had to pay attention.  And then she took us into some arm balances, which weren’t new to me but because I had been so thoroughly warmed up from the funky vinyasa flow, I got into them with more ease than I ever have before.  She also showed us a variation of a hip stretch that isn’t quite a Pigeon Pose and thought to myself, I have to do this in my classes.

My favorite part was at the end of the asana practice, she gave us the option of either taking a Savasana or remaining seated in meditation.  I chose to stay in a seated meditation.  It was the perfect way to end my practice.  My body felt strong and flexible and my mind felt at peace.

Going out of my comfort zone and being open to having new experiences led me to have a great yoga practice in an unexpected place and reminded me that I can always learn something new in a class.  Even in New Jersey.

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

A fun exercise for opening up those tight muscles behind the shoulder blades and building upper body strength.  Find a wall and do the L Shaped Handstand.

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.