Living Yoga

Last week I was teaching my beginners the basics of a tripod headstand and because I can only be honest to my students, I admitted that inversions still scare me.  Even though I know what needs to be done to get into them, I still prefer to practice and teach them at the wall.  Some instructors are known for only teaching them away from the wall; the theory being that if you’re not able to do it in the middle of the room, you shouldn’t be attempting it.  I get that.  But that’s not me.  I like knowing the wall is behind me while my mind and body build up the strength to do it comfortably.

After the class where I made my confession, a yogini with a beautiful practice, came up to me and also confessed that inversions scare her.  So much that she doesn’t want to practice them at all, and she asked my advice.  I couldn’t believe she asked my advice when I just confessed I have the same fear!  Ask and you shall receive.

I told her to always practice inversions at the wall, to begin with those she’s most comfortable with first to build confidence in them, to keep practicing at home where there isn’t the class pressure, to ask instructors for help whenever she can and to practice other things in yoga or life in general that make her uncomfortable even if they seem unrelated to inversions.  I believe that the practice of yoga parallels life; difficulties and successes during practice tend to mirror those in other places in your life.  All we can do is celebrate the joys and grow from the difficulties.

After giving this yogini my advice, a bell seemed to go off in her mind and she admitted that she has a problem letting go of control and she knows that an inversion practice will force her to let go of some of that control.  That’s an epiphany better than nailing a headstand!  She knows what’s behind that fear and can work on it little by little.

Since my teacher training back in 2004 I’ve believed that my own inversion fear is connected to a specific, deeper fear I have in other areas of my life.  It comes and goes, sometimes my inversions are solid; sometimes I avoid them altogether.  Like life, every practice is different but I’m always getting stronger and moving forward.

When fears come up during yoga, don’t avoid them.  Face them.  Use a wall if you need to, take your time and keep practicing.  I do.

Namaste.

Whether you’re traveling, shopping, spending time with extended family or all of the above, the holiday season offers many unwanted opportunities to ramp up the stress factor.  Luckily, if you’re reading this you most likely practice yoga and have many breathing techniques to help turn stresses into moments of peace.

Yogic breathing, or pranayama, has been shown to decrease stress thus increasing metabolism.  Most pranayama exercises are done with nostril breathing only, allowing the lungs to fully take in the most amount of oxygen, contradictory to what we’re traditionally taught in the fitness arena where we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.  I’ve done both types of breathing during exercise and I have far more energy and endurance while I’m doing nostril breathing.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be exercising to practice pranayama, it can be done sitting comfortably.  My favorite calming breath exercises are:

Ocean Breathing – Also called Ujjayi Breath, or Darth Vader breathing but not in an evil way.  This is where you feel a soft whispering at the back of the throat as you inhale and exhale.  It is the basis of all other breath work in yoga.

Alternate Nostril Breathing – This relaxing breath exercise is done by alternating the breath in and out through one nostril at a time, it balances the nasal passages and calms the mind.

Three Part Breath – This awesome exercise increases your lung capacity focusing on how the body physically expands as the breath moves through your throat, chest and abdomen.

Click on the links for more details on how to do each exercise.  Here’s to a stress-free holiday and a peaceful 2009!

If you’re traveling this holiday season and are going to be sitting for a long period of time, put down that magazine and do some yoga!

Soundtells.com has a great series of free videos that demonstrates some yoga sequences that can be done in a chair including this Cat Stretch video that’s great for the back.

Ehow.com lists some great exercises you can do on a plane that not only pass the time but might get you attention as well.  Like flexing your gluteus muscles!

For a gentle and more thoughtful yoga practice while in transit, check out the tips from this article on airplane yoga by Amy Marie Orozco.

Enjoy healthy and safe travels this holiday season!

Intense Side Angle or Parsvottonasana is my favorite hamstring stretch because it works whether you’re flexible or not.  Have fun and hopefully you’ll find it as agreeable as I did!

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.

I took a break from my usual yoga routine to get my heart pumping and aggression out with a little cardio kickboxing.

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.