We have come to be danced

Stumbled upon the poem "We Have Come to be Danced" by Jewel Matheison on Stumbleupon.

I was going to type it all out but found this video.

Enjoy.

benefits of early morning yoga

Number 5 is my favorite.  :)

Photo found here

"Take hold..."

“Take hold of your own life.
See that the whole existence is celebrating.
These trees are not serious, these birds are not serious.
The rivers and the oceans are wild,
and everywhere there is fun,
everywhere there is joy and delight.
Watch existence,
listen to the existence and become part of it.”
― Osho

another short morning sequence

This morning I found this cool online meditation timer. It's simple and, best of all, free.

My personal practice has fallen by the wayside of late. But this morning, instead of saying "screw it" to doing something good for myself because I have places to be and things to do, I said "screw it" to those places and things & took a few moments for myself. I mean, shoot! I am worth a few moments of my day. Aren't you?

And I fit a very nice simple practice into about 10-15 minutes w/the help of the online timer. It chimes a start, midway and ending tone. The midway chime is very helpful because I tend to lose track of time and either end up lopsided or running very very late into my day.

And man, did that short sequence of stretches feel gOOOOD.

So, I will share that sequence with you.

Mountain
Bring hands to low back, interlace fingers, stretch arms down the spine.
Release the hands bring arms overhead.
Fold forward.
Jacknife 3x
Step back into low lunge.
Exhale into arda hanumanasana
Inhale - low crescent lunge
repeat 3 x
High lunge
forward fold
Mountain
Repeat on other side

Mountain
forward fold
plank - 5 breaths
cobra - 5 breaths
downward dog - 5 breaths
forward fold
Mountain

Raise arms overhead interlace fingers, palms turn up & pinkies turn away. Stretch up from soles of feet to palms of hands. Keeping shoulders away from the ears. 3 - 5 breaths
standing crescent moon to one side.
Switch the hands so the opposite index finger is in front.
Repeat.

Tree - 3 - 5 breaths on both sides

Qi gong twist - dragon slithers up the column ( I practice this a bit differently than described here. But the link provides sufficient instruction)
4 x - holding on the last for 3 - 5 breaths.

2 minutes of tantric power breath

2 minutes meditation.

Aaaaaaaahhhh. That's better.

Yum-delicious Yellow Springs

A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to spend a couple of days in the sweet little town of Yellow Springs Ohio and attend a workshop w/ Angela Farmer & Victor van Kooten. And finally, I have a minute to talk about it.

Yellow Springs was a fascinating place to me. Granted, I do not get out much so I am easily impressed w/places outside my neighborhood. But Yellow Springs seems to be a small bastion of art and liberalism. An oasis for free thinkers in a mostly conservative area of a mostly conservative state. (Don't let the fact that Ohio voted blue in the past 2 elections fool you.).

During the breaks I was able to explore this place a little bit. After the workshop, I tended to go back to my motel and crash. Tuning into your inner body can be quite exhausting.

I stayed at The Springs Motel, a very cute and colorful 1950's styled motel that sits about 5 minutes outside of downtown.  Loved this place! The new owner, Kat, is incredibly accommodating and makes a killer spiced tea.

And it's so freaking adorable!

The room I had was one of their larger rooms, but it was pretty tiny by most hotel standards. However, I did not feel claustrophobic or boxed in like I usually feel in a motel. The decor was homey and had personality. And most importantly, the place was very very quiet. Some of the rooms are dog friendly as well.   Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of the room.

 This lovely reminder to respect was hung beside the door. 

I definitely recommend staying here. 

Yellow Springs is a very small town of about 4,000 people. There are plenty of places to hike and bike including the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve (which sounds de-lovely but does not allow pets) and the Little Miami Scenic Trail. There are bike rental places in town too if you don't want to bring your own. 

Downtown is a gathering of art stores and eateries. The coolest thing about this town is that it seems that every restaurant has vegetarian options - & not just a grilled cheese and french fries. Ha Ha's Pizza offers a tofu calzone. ( This tasted better the second day than the first & I don't know that I would order it again.). & there was an ice cream place .... can't remember the name ..... but they have vegan ice cream.

Yep. Just as the sign says - all flavors available in vegan. They also had a very delicious sounding veggie quesadilla that I didn't get. 

Should've written down the name of the place but it's right next door to here. 

Yeah. That's right! Indian food cooked in a beat up trailer in a parking lot. Goddess bless Yellow Springs. 

So this one guy cooks all the food to order and from scratch. The wait time can be extreme. There were quite a few people in front of me. So, I just ordered soup and nan. Freaking delicious and just enough. I had the feeling some of the people in front of me were put off by the wait time, but it's really part of the experience and well worth it to enjoy some tasty Indian cooking. 

While you're waiting for your Indian food, you can check out one of the many artsy shops in Yellow Springs. Too many to name or describe. I am not a big shopper, more of just looking arounder. And I tend to get overwhelmed easily when in an area with a bunch of cool stuff to buy.  So.... I didn't go into too many places. 

The coolest thing to me about the town is the number of people who have dogs. Loved this. Dogs dogs everywhere. Hanging out with their owners in front of coffee shops. Milling about the streets. And it appears that many of the stores allow dogs. 

In fact, I complimented the gentle nature of a woman's black lab. She indignantly told me about just being kicked out of the glass store. I watched as the lab's tail swished side to side & thought about the horror of taking my own waggy butted lab mix into a glass store.  I asked her why she asked to leave. "Because he has a cat in there. My dog would never hurt the cat." Hahaha.  I love this place. 

The workshop was good and interesting and all that. I will write more about it at a later time. 

Louis C.K's speaks yogic truth (in a haha funny kind of way)

playlist

I haven't really been into making too many playlists lately. Often I just pick a song and let "Genius" do the work. But I threw one together the other day that I ended up enjoying quite a bit.

So, I figured I would share with you.

Om Shanti Om
-Deva Premal - Mantras for Precarious Times

She Walks in Beauty
Lisa La Rue -Awakening the Spirit

Still in Time
Dj Drez - 4 am Plum Mood

Chigumbo
Ben Leinbach - Yoga Trance Dance

The Story of Our Land
Mental Physix - V Elements Festival Compilation

Oh My Foolish Mind
Krishna Kaur - One Creator

Walk Away
Tom Waits - Dead Man Walking

The Krishna Waltz
Krishna Das - One Track Heart

Sing to the Mountain

Elephant Revival - Elephant Revival

Japanese Temple Bowl

Steven Halpern - In the Om Zone

Peaceful Pathway

Lifescapes - Yoga Flow

Peace & Love

Mishka - Above the Bones

 

By Moonlight

Gary Stroutsos - Oasis

Om

Jane Winther - Mantra

And that's about it. Let me know what you think. 

Peace

my take on lululemon

Saddened but not surprised by the latest lululemon nonsense. It seems that they feel that money from  average sized women is not good enough for them.

I can honestly and with great pride say that I have never shopped at Lululemon. I can barely remember how to spell the name, have no idea what the proper pronunciation is, and was not aware that there was a store in my area until a few months ago. I just really really have no interest whatsoever.

To be honest part of my non-interest may be because I think it's ridiculous to spend so much money on clothes & would feel the same even if  I had that kind of money to spend. $98.00 for a pair of pants? 50.00 for a tank top? Really?

The company has been around since 1998. I seem to remember a couple of people sporting their gear around that time, but I think that I really wasn't aware of what they did until the whole ann rand thing. Not that one has to be liberal or conservative to practice yoga. But  consider that the ideas of unity & harmony and opening your heart to unconditional love are pretty common themes in the practice. And then there is that whole ahimsa thing.... I mean....I wouldn't call Atlas Shrugged yogic reading. But that's just me.

Then recently there was that see through yoga pants thing. I don't know. I think stuff like this makes a mockery of yoga. But that's what we do in our western culture - we make mockery of things.  Goddess forbid we start to go to deep.

I recently met a gentle man from India. I could not help but ask him if he practiced yoga. He said "sometimes I sit and breathe. And, you know, that is yoga. It is different here." Yes. It is different here.

I guess the real reason I am disturbed by this latest foolishness is because yoga is an inclusive practice. Anyone, any size, any capability can have a yoga practice. And through that practice  that beautiful inner energetic self is awakened.  When that Self is awakened, When Awareness is roused, we realize that it doesn't matter what you wear to your mat. One's inner beauty, inner brightness begins to shine. And we begin to gain acceptance of our bodies. We begin to appreciate ourselves. Not that we don't work towards self improvement, towards better physical health, but we begin to walk there with more gratitude for ourselves.

As Christina Sell says in her book, Yoga From the Inside Out, "When we accept our bodies and lives in present moment just as they are, we complete the ritual exchange of prasad. Acceptance is the way we open the gift we have been given, use it to its fullest potential and say "thank you."

However, when the major cool kid yoga clothes supplier begins to exclude those of a certain body type, the practice of yoga is debased, in my opinion. There are already enough people out there who are hesitant to start the journey because they feel that they would "look foolish." Do we really need to support a company that is basically saying to them, "yes, we think you would look foolish too. So much in fact that we are not going to allow you to shop in our overpriced pretentious store."

I don't think we need to support this at all. I know I don't.

Namaste.

take out the trash

http://picantno.garagka.info/inspirational-yoga-quotes.html

"why follow your passion is bad career advice"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/sustainable-career_n_3618480.html

"According to Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, the lack of sustainability in the American workplace is a result of our current male-defined model of success.

"Right now, the two metrics of success that drive the American workplace are money and power, but by themselves, they make a two-legged stool -- fine for balancing on for a short time, but after a while, you're headed for a fall," she wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal blog post. "And guided by this limited definition of success, more and more 'successful' people are falling.""

_____ 

what's up with the dog thing?

I understand that my business card may be confusing. 

Is it yoga? Is it dog training? 

Whaaaaat? 

& if you aren't a dog person, it may even be a little off putting. 

But this cartoon begins to explain the reasoning behind my decision to put "Laughing Dog Yoga" on my business card. 

credited to www.georgiatoons.com

A short stretch for after gardening

After working in my yard for the better part of the day yesterday, i needed to stretch out a bit.

On a whim, i decided to record some of my after gardening practice.

Something i did on a "whim" ended up being quite a project, but i have a somewhat better understanding of my computer's audio and video programs - kind of.

Anyway, this is basically just me practicing. There are a lot of silent spaces because.... well, i was practicing. And the whole thing can best be described as "organic." lol.

But, here ya go.

Namaste

We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.

~Alan Watts

Photo found at http://www.nataraj.tk/home/Nataraj

more reasons to practice

thanks to Hearts Expanding

Created by Danielle at http://www.designbydanielle.wordpress.com

Yoga and Weight loss

People frequently ask if yoga can help with weight loss.

Well..... yes. Yes it can. But not in the way one might think.

The practice of yoga, like weight loss, is a journey.

This article found at Elephant Journal is an interesting one. 

I especially like her reminder about our words. I rarely get colds. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I also think it has something to do with the fact that I never say that I feel as though I am "catching" a cold or "coming down" with something. The cold is trying to catch me. For some reason, once i changed my  verbage i felt more empowered to be proactive when those little germs started circling and can usually head them off at the pass. (Sometimes they still sneak up on me though).

Also, when I became a non-smoker, i was doing just that ..... becoming. Not quitting, or giving up. Becoming.

Becoming

Work Toward Emptiness

To find balance

O.k. I must admit that walking the middle path can be quite frustrating at times. Most of the time. Pretty much all of the time.

The middle path is the one between your spirituality and the rest. It is the act of being "in the world but not with the world." It is the balancing act between the muggle world and the magical.

Of course the key is to meld the 2. To carry yourself strong and peacefully moving from the quiet wisdom of the center & speaking the truth of the greater Self.

But, truth be told, it is hard to hold the balance. It is hard to stay away from the drama of daily work life. And floating in yoga all day is just not in my cards at the present.  So... i must walk the middle path.

Lately this has been difficult to say the least. & i find that i have been experiencing  crazy new sensations. Panic attacks and gastrointestinal disturbances. Yeah. I'm laying it out here. These sensations are simply new & are usually most severe before and during my work day & then later in the evening before bed.  I have always been a go with the flow kind of person. Maybe too much flowing not enough standing up for myself? Or possibly the internal resistance to surrendering to the insane weirdness of the most modern day workplaces. I really don't know.

I do know this - my personal practice, no matter how minimal, is becoming more & more dear to me. The challenge, truthfully is finding the time & letting go of the idea that there is "not enough time."

Yesterday morning, the struggle to maintain my breath and calm the racing of my heart as i prepared for work helped me to step on my mat. My time? 10 maybe 15 minutes. My practice? A (for me on that day) short series of strong standing postures that helped me to ground and find my center. My meditation was a Qigong style qi  energy movement meditation.

Remember - practice safely & mindfully. And check with your doctor before venturing into any exercise program.

Hold each posture for about 7 - 10 breaths or whatever helps your mind to quiet.

tadasana (mountain)
vrksasana  (tree)
virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2)
viparita virabhadrasana ( reverse warrior)
parsvottanasana ( pyramid pose)
virabhadrasana 1-( warrior 1)
prayer twist
crescent warrior
standing split
Tadasana (mountain)
Repeat on other side

Tadasana with arms overhead opening into a backbend.
rolling into a squat
sukhasana

meditation
Make the akash mudra.
Place left hand at the second chakra
Right hand chest level
Relax the eyes, settle into the breath
move the qi from the bottom hand to top and top hand to bottom.


Namaste

a simple sequence for the back and shoulders

Here is a simple restful warmup sequence that i find helpful to ease an achy back and cranky shoulders.

Let me know what you think. Feel free to leave comments.


Remember - practice safely & mindfully. And check with your doctor before venturing into any exercise program.

Peace.


Lie on your back. Bend the knees and line the heels up w/ the hips.
Place your hands on the hip bones. Let the back surrender to the floor, the shoulder blades sink with heaviness.
Breathe.
Inhale deeply filling the belly. Exhale relaxing the spine.
Notice the movement of the body, the gentle rocking of the pelvis with the breath.
And deepen the breath.
As you inhale, the belly inflates, the lower back arches as the pelvis tilts towards the back of the body.
As you exhale the lower back rests into the floor as the pelvis tilts towards the front to the body and the tailbone lifts ever so slightly.
Be here. Coordinating movement with breath. Pausing at the top of the inhalation and at the bottom of the exhalation.
Stay with this movement as long as you wish.

When you are ready, move back to the starting point.
Separate the feet a bit more than hip width apart. Let the arms fall away from the body.
 Begin to slowly move the knees from side to side. There is no goal of getting a knee to the floor. Simply relax into the  feeling of the hips beginning to open.
Again, let the breath guide the movement.
Stay with this movement as long as you wish

Bring yourself back to the starting point - knees bent and heels in line w/the hips.
Place the hands, palms down, on the floor beside the hips.
As you inhale, press evenly into the feet and begin to peel the spine off the floor inhaling up just a little bit vertebrae by vertebrae. Then exhaling down the same way.
As you feel comfortable, you can roll up a little higher working up to the shoulder blades.
Allow your breath to guide this movement 6 - 8 times

Lifting the spine with the inhalation again, this time lifting the arms and bringing them to rest beside the ears.
Exhale - roll the spine to the floor and bring the hands beside the hips.
Repeat this motion 3 x.

Again, peel the back off the floor & bring the arms beside the ears with the inhalation. With the exhalation move the spine to the floor and the hands beside the hips. This time, at the bottom of the exhalation, bring the knees into the chest then roll the chest & chin up towards the knees. Take a breath here. Follow the inhalation back into bridge posture - lifted spine and arms beside the ears.
Repeat 3x

Once more lift up through the back and bring the arms up beside the ears.
Then hold the posture.
Press down evenly through the insides and outsides of the feet. The thighs should be parallel with one another.
Lift up through the fronts of the thighs and the pelvis, moving the chest towards the chin. Keep the neck natural.
Stay here in this variation of setu bandha sarvangasana bridge posture  for 5 breaths.
Slowly lower down.

Drop the hands away from the body just a little bit. Spread the feet a little wider than the hips and rock the knees side to side.

Draw the knees back to center line the heels with hips. Reach the arms up towards the ceiling. Bend the right arm and hold it right above the chest then bend the left arm and place it on top of the left (think of making a "basket" with your arms.) Keep the arms connected as you drop the left elbow towards the floor and the knees to the right. Hold here for about 5 deep breaths.
Then move back to center. Switch the arms and repeat - dropping the right elbow towards the floor and the knees to the left. And hold here.

Pull back to center. Release the arms. Roll the body to right as though you are rolling over in bed. Mindfully lift yourself  and come into simple sitting, sukhasana. Bring the hands to the knees and rotate the body 3x in one direction & 3x in the other.

Come back into the quiet of  sukhasana. From here you can continue on with your practice or sit quietly for few minutes then continue on with your day.


Namaste

Stress & you

I found this article on Huffington Post. I think it's worth a gander. In my opinion, it's another reminder of why a regular yoga practice is so important. If yoga is really not your thing, try Qi gong, tai chi, tensegrity, walking mindfully, laughter or whatever will bring your body & mind together in a compassionate mindful way. No time for movement? Then simply try sitting and breathing for 5 minutes.

If we don't learn how to manage our stress, our stress will manage us. Stress has been linked to a horde of conditions including Alzheimer's. This is what the aforementioned articles says about the hippocampus and its function:

"This is a crucial area of the brain that helps with memory -- it doesn't actually store all the memories, but decides where you will store what. "It's the director of the orchestra," Sood says. But when excessive cortisol (a stress hormone) is in your system, it can kill the hippocampus nerve cells, causing memory problems (that's why you can never find your keys when you're perpetually frazzled). The good news is that you can get those nerve cells back. What works? Meditation, relaxation, a generally healthy lifestyle and cultivation of compassion, gratitude, forgiveness and acceptance."


"The good news is that your can get those nerve cells back." 

The good news is that we don't have to be victims of our hectic lifestyles. 

I Tell You

I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. 

Deep inside your center is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there. 

There is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough. 

~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

(found in "Yoga For Depression" by Amy Weintraub)

Feeling stressed at work?

The 10 things you’ll do once you start yoga (that have nothing to do with yoga). ~ Lee Anne Finfinger

The 10 things you’ll do once you start yoga (that have nothing to do with yoga). ~ Lee Anne Finfinger