Living Yoga

In the following video from Ted Talks author Dan Gilbert, who wrote Stumbling Upon Happiness, talks about true happiness versus synthetic happiness and if there really is a difference. He also talks about how it can be helpful to your happiness to spend time in prison and get kicked out of the Beatles!

I found that Gilbert’s synthetic happiness can really be applied to yoga practice. Many times I find myself and my clients striving to achieve some certain unknown thing or picture with their practice, while missing out on the true joy of the practice in the present moment. This video helped me remember to love what I have because it’s what I’m gettin’! Enjoy.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

Last Saturday I was somehow talked into running the Holiday 4-Mile race in Central Park. It was twenty-seven degrees.  I’m little, from California and can’t stand weather under sixty degrees.  The friend that dragged me into it is a big guy from Canada.  He was Mr. Cheerful and ready to race.  I was grumpy to say the least.

Donning two pairs of workout pants, a turtleneck, two shirts, two pairs of socks, a hat and gloves I braved the cold and ran sluggishly one step at a time with nearly five thousand others to a finish line with free bagels.  In the end I felt pretty good and managed to break out in a sweat under all the layers.  It wasn’t my best time ever but today I added the race number to the small collection I have on my wall and thought about how proud I am to have those race numbers.

Then I got to thinking about how ten years ago I never imagined I would ever run longer than one minute or even join a gym.  Those were things I wished I could do but didn’t do anything about.  It didn’t all happen at once but since then I adopted a vegan diet, joined a gym, began practicing yoga, took up running, ran a few races, became a yoga instructor, became a spinning instructor and now have my own podcast and blog about yoga and exercise.  When I think about how much my life has changed as a result of making healthier meal choices and first putting that yoga video tape in my VCR I’m astounded.  A couple of small actions back in 2001 led me into a whole new direction for my life and career.

So whether it’s going for a run in the cold or beginning a new healthy habit in your life, staying focused on one step at a time by breaking goals or tasks down into small actions will bring you to your finish line.  The best part about it is that you’ll find a lot of unexpected, pleasant surprises come to you as well.

And free bagels at the end!

I’ve mentioned several times in my blogs how much meditation has changed my life, yet it’s very hard for me to describe the benefits to someone else.  Luckily, an awesome video came up on my You Tube subscriptions about it this week that perhaps does it more justice.

Yogatic host Esther Ekhart does a beautiful job of describing meditation, misconceptions about it, and how to benefit from it over the holidays in this video.  Please follow the link to see the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVvxMM8UJ8U

For more great videos and articles by this Irish yoga instructor, check out http://www.yogatic.com/

It’s starting to get really cold here in NYC.  Really freakin’ cold as a matter of fact and it’s important to know how to deal with working out in the winter months. Between November and February I usually pull three different muscles doing silly things like turning my body to reach for my ipod in spin class or demonstrating a wheel pose in a class without being warmed up.  Hopefully you can do as I say, not as I do.

-    Stay hydrated by drinking lots of water and juice.  Just because it’s freezing doesn’t mean you aren’t thirsty and the dry cold can still dehydrate you.

-    Warm up well. If you’re running or walking outdoors, stretch AFTER your workout.  If you’re doing yoga (indoors!) do many Sun Salutations to get your body heated before going into deeper stretches.  For any exercise, allow yourself a longer warm up period than you would during the warmer months.

-    Eat a little more & accept a normal amount of weight gain.  It’s natural for the body to gain some weight in the winter to stay warm.  As long as it’s in a comfortable range for your body (for me that would be 5 to 8 lbs.) then it’s okay, don’t fight it.

-    Try something new. It’s easy to fall into a winter rut but I find that changing it up by taking a different fitness class or running a different route keeps life interesting.

-    If you pull a muscle, rest it. I’ve become an expert at recovering from muscle pulls and the only exercise that helps you recover from it is REST, until it is 100% healed.

Stay active and keep stretching this season safely!

Thanks abc.net.au for the photo.

People that come to my yoga classes are always keeping me up to date on the latest yoga-related products. Good thing because I wouldn’t have heard of Yoga Toes if it weren’t for someone bringing it up in class. Yoga Toes?

It seems to be some kind of plastic device that spreads the toes out into a stretch similar to the way the toes are stretched in one of my favorite poses, screaming toe pose.

Thanks fitsugar.com for the photo.

I can’t really judge the product without trying it first, but if you’re a regular yoga practitioner you can get the same effect and release years of foot tension by adding the screaming toe pose stretch into your routine. I make my classes do it all the time while they give me nasty looks. And before you make excuses for not doing the exercise, it’s simple to do at home while watching television.

And afterwards you can put on your Yoga Toes to paint your nails.

A few weeks ago I blogged about my banana lower back, which is also called having an overly lordotic spine, and how it makes inversions difficult for me. Since that was brought to my attention I’ve been working on it but also noticed that it creeps up in other postures; warrior poses, lunges, even just standing up. This is a common problem and somehow, doing core strengthening only seems to me to be one half of the solution. So in addition to strengthening the core, I recommend focusing on lengthening the lower back.

The great thing about lengthening the lower back is that it can be done during yoga, running, walking, or sitting at a desk. Focusing on the length brings the tailbone downward and the navel back in towards the spine. I’m already sitting up a little taller just doing this simple action as I type. My chest/heart also broadened and my shoulders dropped. My abdominals are engaged and there is less tension in my lower back.

If you tend to have a banana/overly lordotic back, when you exercise try bringing your awareness to creating more space and length in your lower back. This awareness combined with a balanced fitness program including overall stretching will help you decrease back tension and increase overall body strength.

Lately I’ve been meditating daily (actually got the idea for this blog while meditating, go figure) and I started thinking about various hand mudras.  A mudra, simply put, is a hand position.  They are sometimes used in yoga poses (like tree pose) but are more often used in meditation.   I thought there were only about two or three mudras.  Health & Yoga.com lists nine, and they all have different benefits depending on which fingers are joined.

Here are the three I plan to try right away:

Gyan Mudra – Believed to be uplifting and help with mental clarity.

Prana Mudra – Thought to bring energy into the body and help the eyes (I’m hoping this helps with my poor eyesight.)

Prithvi Mudra – According to Health & Yoga, “Makes body sturdy. One experiences happiness.”  What else can a girl ask for?

I will try using some of these mudras during meditation and who knows, maybe I will begin to see some of these effects.  For more mudras and their benefits, visit http://www.healthandyoga.com/HTML/meditation/mudras.html

Recently I had the experience of really getting pissed off during a yoga class that I was taking.  Not because of anything that happened but because we were working on hip openers and my hips have been really tight lately.  I was the one that requested hip openers and it turned out that working on them really, really pissed me off.  I almost left the class but decided to stick it out to see what good would come out of it.  I’m glad I did because I had some of my most solid handstand and forearm stand practice, balancing in them longer than I ever had before.  The determination and strength that made stretching uncomfortable for me that day was an asset for inversions.  I also nailed an arm balance I hadn’t done before.  And thought of three blog ideas for this week.  And when it was time to let go of the practice in Savasana at the end, I felt very relaxed and warm.

If your practice is bringing up difficult feelings, I encourage you to go with the flow and stay until the end.  Notice what is strong about your practice in that moment and forget about what isn’t working.  In the end, you’ll find that a practice that pushes your buttons makes you stronger physically and emotionally.

Have a beautiful weekend.

Thank you nirvanaisnow.com for the photo.

If you’re taking yoga classes and have yet to buy your own mat, then you now have a great holiday gift idea for yourself. Think about how many people use the community mats provided at yoga studios and gyms, how many people drip their sweat on them, sneeze and cough on them, and then roll them up to put them back in storage. Now go wash your hands and face thoroughly and take some Vitamin C. I’ll wait.

Back? Okay, it’s time to look for some hot and sturdy yoga mats. Yoga.com has a great selection and some really cool looking styles (yes, that matters to me). If you’re unsure how dedicated you’ll be to a yoga practice in 2009 and saving money is a priority for you, Matsmatsmats.com has some basic mats at very affordable prices.

If you like having the prettiest mat in the room (yes, that matters to me sometimes) then Gaiam.com might be right for you with their beautifully designed mats.

From Gaiam.com

Buy a mat as a gift for yourself to symbolize your commitment to your healthy body, mind and spirit. If that doesn’t convince you then reread the first paragraph.

Happy shopping!

A Chaturanga looks cool and hot.  It’s what made yoga into power yoga.  It builds strength in the shoulders, biceps, triceps and forearms.  Not to mention it builds core strength.  However, if you’re doing them incorrectly it can do more damage than good.

When lowering into a proper Chaturanga the arms should be close to a ninety-degree angle with the elbows next to the rib cage.

From yogajournal.com

Sometimes after doing vinyasa flow after vinyasa flow and the arms become tired, it’s common to let the shoulders sink lower than the elbows putting more stress on the shoulders and rotator cuffs possibly leading to injuries.  If the arms become too fatigued to continue keeping proper alignment, then it’s very important to go back to lowering the knees, chest and chin to the floor during the vinyasa flow.

Thank you, yoga.about.com

It’s also fine to rest in downward dog or child’s pose in a class.  The class environment can sometimes breed a competitive air and the feeling that if you don’t do everything everybody else does then you aren’t really doing it.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  Just being there is the practice of yoga and not every Chaturanga is necessary.

Listen to your body, respect it and stay healthy.