Sun Ray Yoga

Tools for Balance

Balance, like love, is far more verb than noun, a moving target, a flow, a dynamic series of choices made in each moment. It's something we try to find, know we need, and it means different things to different people. Life tends to knock us off balance, stress us out, we get overwhelmed. It's the "little" things. A sleepless night, too much sugar, not enough exercise.

I checked in with my collegue Liz Campbell this past week, to see what she and Ayurveda could teach me about having steadier energy, better stamina, and still be relaxed and enjoying life. This is how I currently define healthy balance in all that I am and do, and healthy balance enables me to be more loving. Liz is a registered nurse, a yoga teacher and Ayurvedic lifestyle coach who's been at the studio a year now and we are most fortunate to have her! Her first training was in Anusara yoga and then expanded into Ayurvedic yoga, and she is a graduate of the Ayurvedic Institute.

Ayurveda originated in India and yoga practice is one of it's powerful tools. It is a study of life and form of medicine, focusing on preventive care and empowering, proactive approaches to maintaining wellness. Exercise, food, sleep and routine are addressed in balancing the particular combination of life energies with which one is born. "As a nurse I saw a lot of people with the same chronic, vague pain symptoms where there was no diagnosis to be made. Ayurveda addresses the way disease develops and is an eloquent way to treat these modern-day symptoms before they become major problems," says Liz. There are three doshas, or constitutions, each person has in a variety of combinations: Vata, governing movement; Pitta, governing transformation; and Kapha, governing stability. This is the Ayurvedic basis for thinking about balance in many aspects of life and living.

I provided Liz with information about personal and family health history, my goals and health and wellness challenges. We further discussed the principles of Ayurveda that are helpful to know, and she gave me some simple, centering yoga practices and simple eating habits to try for a week. They were easy, and I want to do them because it feels great! We then followed up a few days later and she gave me a detailed printed report and further recommendations with lists of food to eat and routines that are helpful. It wasn't surprising to have a few of my own instincts confirmed, including things to not do or eat, and it's very helpful to put them into a larger context, like Ayurveda. When I feel off balance, I have specific, doable tools I need to find it again fast.

Liz is available for private yoga sessions and Ayurvedic lifestyle coaching at the studio. She teaches two classes a week and we alternate on Saturdays. Her classes incorporate Ayurvedic principles and approaches and are a great way to get started. I highly recommend her classes and services! She can be reached at 334/202-2305 or email eacampbell54@gmail.com.   Namaste.

 

    

 

Yoga Lessons

I teach this great core strengthening and awareness practice, an amalgam of techniques learned over the years from wonderful teachers, layered with things my body teaches me in the practicing. This latest lesson is a real doozie. It began with an incredible new sense that my core was fully present, integrated and strong in a way that created a feeling something like wearing spanx, that's the only way I know to describe it, just really energized and firm. The support for all the poses from the core as a result was amazing. Now, this is a very good thing and I joked about how even the ego gets a win! (That's the spanx part.) Ego heard that, went crazy and took over, as in, "Let's see what this can really do, can I get really lean and ripped around the middle? If I work hard enough, will it just get better and better?" Like a football player doing two-a-days, like I was back in the gym, 28 instead of 48, like I didn't know better.

We did the full-on practice in every class. (For the record, I always strongly encourage students to take a break when they need it, and we stretch thoroughly during and after. I don't have any students who were in class with me during this time who didn't have at least a day or two to recover, when I was teaching this once or twice a day. Even with getting up to check form and make adjustments, it was too much.) I was feeling good, and thought by about the 5th class that week I needed a break. It was too late. I was injured in a way I didn't know you could be injured. Deep, deep in the core. I did go to the doctor to be sure nothing else was going on, because my insides just did not feel right, my back hurt again when it had felt so very good and free for so long, my belly was heavy in a way I hadn't experienced before. So I'm healing. Learning.

As an experienced teacher who makes a living doing this, I am grateful for and humbled by the lessons. They will make me a better teacher, a much better teacher. I go to the first and second limbs of yoga, the ethical principles known as the yamas and niyamas, to practice integrating my mind with this experience. The first is Ahimsa, non-violence. Causing injury to oneself in any way is violence. This idea of being peaceful, accepting and compassionate begins with the self, it must begin with the self. (It's curious that we have no word in our language that is the opposite of violence which captures the full intention of this other that in its "non" form.) I was not content with the beautiful results I was getting (Santosa, contentment), and wanted more (Aparigraha, abstention from greed, another "non!"). I certainly have been schooled in the truth of yoga and practice (Satya, truthfulness) and right now am telling my truth. I've been given a humbling opportunity to study my thinking and choices. (Svadhyaya, self-study; Isvara Pranidhana; surrender, humility) I pray that in the future I will be able to live and teach with more Sauca, cleanliness of the impurities of ego, and Brahmacarya, purity of intention. That I will never again try to steal from yoga (Asteya; yet another "non," non-stealing) anything remotely like an egoic need for my body to be something other than it is, and recommit to my practice (Tapas, deep commitment to practice) in a more humble and spiritual way.

So, I have been abundantly blessed with a literally visceral perspective on this thing called yoga, the power of it, the fact that it is cell-level, soul-level stuff, beyond exercise in any conventional sense. We will continue to do this core practice, it is even more valuable than we knew. Consciousess is the rich and abundant purpose and intent of a genuine, authentic yoga practice that goes to it's roots.  Namaste

Sun Rays - Jannah Bailey

Sun Ray students are the light of my life and in many ways are my reason to exist. They inspire me with their commitment and passion. I want to tell you about these sun rays, the work they do and how they play, and also how yoga balances and enhances their busy and productive lives.

She is one blond-haired, green-eyed ray of sunshine. Every time she walks into the studio things just get lighter and brighter. You'd never to know it to be in her energy field that Jannah Bailey, day in and day out for 10 years now, deals with the heaviest and ugliest aspects of our being human. Jannah is the director of Child Protect, a non-profit organization providing services to children suffering sexual and physical abuse and also neglect.

"I just had my 10th anniversary as director of Child Protect on April 2, the longest anyone has served in this position," she says with her usual cheerfulness and confidence. In those years she has gotten a handle on the negative chaos that was the nature of the organization when she started, and figured out what it takes for her and her staff to manage and provide the best quality care for these children. They provide a child-friendly environment and work to make a stronger case for investigators and prosecutors.  Child Protect provides a forensic interview, counseling and family advocacy. 

"We've gone from serving 150 to over 600 children per year," says Jannah, but she attributes that to heightened social awareness that increases the likelihood that these crimes against children are reported. The statistics are astounding; one in every four girls and one in every seven boys are abused before their 18th birthday.

She gets asked a lot how she handles it, and attributes her capacity to serve in this way to her faith in Christ and a commitment to love unconditionally. "There's no way I could do this without my faith and my certainty that my purpose is to be the hands and feet of Jesus for these children in this situation. I love these children so much. They have to have that from us, because otherwise what we see are people and families who are broken and hopeless, living in the worst kind of chaos." Jannah says that when things get bad, when it's a really terrible day, invariably a child will come in and remind a tired heart of the importance of their work. "One day a child came in, around 9 years old, and he said, 'I just know that God lives here because all of you are angels.' That was no coincidence," she says.

Jannah is clear that "anyone who works here has to have a strong sense of balance, and a spiritual life." And she says that practicing yoga has helped provide that balance and made her faith even stronger. "The breathing really helps me stay calm in dealing with such difficult subjects. Yoga is so different from regular exercise; the focus is different. It's about being a whole person and not just what you look like. It's one of the things I do just for me. You have to be balanced mentally, physically and spiritually and yoga brings that together in a way that's very positive. I wish everyone could experience that."  

April is the month for child abuse awareness. Please join us in offering practice, prayers and mediation for the healing of everyone who suffers from abuse.  

 

Cycles and Seasons

I'm one of those people who tend toward a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as being a bit blue due to the lower levels of sunlight during this time of year with the shorter days. Just love the ironic and accurate acronym, because SAD is definitely the feeling. It's especially weird because I am a night person. Go figure. Not enough charge during the day for the batteries perhaps. Having contemplated this for a little while, I have some thoughts to share and am conducting an experiment.

Mankind has lived the vast majority of our time on this planet with fire as the only light source after the sun goes down. It's been a nanosecond we've been living with all this electricity, and there are still plenty of places in the world where human life remains directed by the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun, aka, the seasons. In our current culture, we fully expect to operate and produce with equal fervor in every part of the year, and we've even created light pollution. Light pollution? What a concept. I've read where it screws up the migration patterns of certain birds, they can't get their instinctual bearings by the stars because they can't see the stars for the lights. That must make them SAD too.

Aside from the wisdom of the Sabbath and taking one day a week to rest,(and how many of us truly and consistently do even that?), it's failing to notice that Nature herself is in savasana during this time of year in our part of the world, and failing to honor our body's need, by association with Nature, to rejuvenate. Let the leaves of the past year drop away and new green growth germinate while we reflect and rest more, allow what sun does shine to get through to the ground of our being. We do have this luxury not having to worry so much about our food supplies and staying warm until Spring, so let's appreciate the blessings of our technology while remaining mindful of it's effects.

The experiment is very simple. Take longer savasana, don't expect so much of myself right now, and my New Year's goals and, yes, resolutions are considered a process of change and growth with the seasons, rather than demanding and expecting instant and permanent change. (As if...) Think I'll go into Sabbath mode today, and lately I haven't felt SAD at all.

Namaste

Why Do Yoga?

Why do yoga? The answer to that question is as personal as your practice. When you've been "doing it," much less making a living with it, as long as I have you can quickly tell people what's good about it, the standard lines. But, remembering the importance of questions, this one bears revisiting periodically, to go beyond the surface to more meaningful reasons that will keep your practice energized and alive with possibility! My friend Carrie recommended a documentary film this week that fires up this question for those of us who "do yoga," and I am enthusiastically passing on the recommendation to you.

Here's the Netflix description of Enlighten Up!

"Armed with the belief that yoga can positively transform anyone's life, documentarian Kate Churchill tracks journalist Nick Rosen's investigation into the ancient discipline, which launches the yoga cynic on a journey halfway around the world. Searching for the true meaning of yoga, Rosen meets a variety of yogis, devotees and gurus who espouse widely different views on the purpose and significance of the age-old practice."

 

In the end, the most satisfying thing to me about this story is how often, when we really look, what we find is far more interesting and profound than anything we could have imagined or expected. There is a moment in the film where you literally see this man transform before your eyes. It is awesome, and he's not in a pose or otherwise meditating, he's not even talking about yoga.

Why I do yoga? Being a difficult child, you know the kind, really bright, sensitive and naturally creative, born running at full throttle, I accumulated an amazing amount of muscular tension just trying to contain it all. At age 18 I was haunted by the failure of being the only cheerleader in high school who couldn't perform a full split. Flexibility was what I needed, and with the purchase of the book Yoga Moves by Alan Finger was on my way to a full split!

Now almost 30 years later the split never happened, however I continue on my way into a mission in life, focusing and developing the bright, sensitive and naturally creative world of my Self. Yoga provides my classroom as a teacher, stage as an artist, path of service, vehicle to explore everything I learned to fear. I contemplate the possibility that some of us are born with shorter, tighter ligaments that were meant to sprint, not split. Or, are there even more old tension demons in my hip joints in need of liberation? Nah, they're gone, and that after all was the true point, far more satisfying to the spirit, if not the ego, than any split.

There's so much more...the ongoing, healing transformation in my thinking processes first and foremost. That's a theme we'll explore all year, especially in class, yoga and the mind. That unifying body, mind and spirit, making whole thing that yoga means begins in the mind, with making each choice. The highest aspiration is to live yoga, by whatever name you want to call it, not just do it.  

Namaste

Meditation

Over the holidays I had the privilege of giving a talk on meditation to residents of LifeTech, an alternative sentencing program for women, located in Wetumpka, AL. My husband Curt is a probation officer there and works once a month on the weekends, so I hope this will be the first of many opportunities. This is an excerpt from notes made after the presentation based on our discussion.

 

The choices and decisions that create our lives are made in a split second, yet are the result of what we have come to believe over time, what we say to ourselves every day, what we have learned.  The quality of those choices and decisions can be positively affected the more we really know ourselves and cultivate the ability to respond (response-ability) in the manner we would prefer, rather than in a manner that creates any measure of regret or personal cost. A primary and ancient way of cultivating this ability, of knowing ourselves and learning deeply from our experiences and mistakes is meditation.

 

It is said that prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening to God. It requires that we be physically still and silent in order to become mentally still and silent so that we can hear that still, small voice of love and wisdom. Our mind tends to run and wander and go on and on, referred to in Zen as “monkey mind.”

 

Mental energy, thought, is not contained by the body. When we think about the past our minds are literally in the past, even though our bodies can only be in the present moment. When we think about the future our mind is in the future. Our minds can imagine and day dream and make stuff up. And our thoughts are repetitive. As many as 90% of the thoughts we have today we had yesterday and will have tomorrow and days and days after that. It takes practice and a strong yet gentle intention to quiet the mind through meditation.

 

The work of meditation is to focus the mind and mental energy. You will continue to have thoughts. It takes years and years of practice to become completely quiet so be patient with yourself and with your mind. Remember that just being more relaxed generally brings immediate benefits that continue to develop. Begin with the breath, from deep in the diaphragm at the base of the rib cage. Focus on exhale so that the lungs are made empty. You have to empty the lungs in order to fill them.  There is also a metaphor here for emptying the mind. The longer and deeper the breath the more the nervous system will respond by relaxing. The more the body relaxes the more the mind will relax. Relax the shoulders, the throat, the jaw at the hinge, the forehead. Let the breath be deeper and slower the more you relax, as long as it feels natural.

 

In the time and language of Jesus, people didn’t have different words for breath, wind, air, atmosphere. Breath was the very same thing as Holy Spirit. So when you breathe, breathe as Jesus did, understanding that breath is life and the love of God.

 

Breathe in that love and whatever else you need; confidence, faith, patience, and breathe away anything that’s negative or that doesn’t serve you. Let go of whatever does not serve you, including thoughts, beliefs, negative ways you see yourself or your situation, and do this over and over and over again. Notice what you think, the words and sentences that go through your mind and consciously, courageously, change the language to put things in the positive, in a way that will serve you. For example, “I am my own worst enemy” becomes “I am my own best friend.” 

 

 

Please take a moment, take a deep breath, and if inclined say a prayer for or otherwise send positive, loving energy to the women of LifeTech.

 

Namaste

 

Holy Days

Holidays is short for holy days. Days that are deemed sacred and spiritual. Days that observe and celebrate religious beliefs, principles and practices. What we personally consider holy and sacred, and what truly functions in this way, identifies and develops our higher states of human being and functioning, puts us in the center of peace, love and compassion. I almost forgot joy. We talk about getting the "holiday spirit," and attend events and parties and family gatherings intended to make us feel wonderful about everything, blessed and looking forward with optimism and faith.

So, why do we tend to get so stressed and tired of it all? For those of you who really love the holidays, whose families don't have much dysfunction, who can't wait to shop and cook and party and wrap and decorate and travel, God bless you and send the rest of us some of that! You have got something figured out.

This is also a time to look around the world and remember those less fortunate. I love it when I hear, like I did this week, that people are giving donations to charity instead of presents, or braved the jungle that is Toys-R-Us for gifts for the family their church group adopted who otherwise wouldn't "have a Christmas." I know a lot of us do these things. This is truly the Holy Day Spirit, and now I know what to do for my mother, the woman who has everything, who has also worked hard on the Hospice board in her area of Florida.

These days are when the yogic principles of in-the-moment mindfulness, deep breath relaxation and mental focus can really come in handy. The observances of non-violence (ahimsa) in our words and thoughts, especially in traffic, and contentment (santosa) with what we have come to mind. Especially when I get one more thing I don't want and can't use from an aunt I haven't seen in 10 years...at least it isn't ugly. Hey, maybe somebody else could use it and would be delighted to have it!

Happy Holy Days!

Namaste

How We Got Here...

Last week Elena shared in her blog her experience in our class, and mentioned that it was the only Iyengar-based (pronounced eye-EN-gar) class she had run into so far in her Asanas Across America project. I wanted to share this week the briefest of explanations of what that means, and especially what it means to my students.

Sri T. Krishnamacharya is the father of modern yoga and teacher to those who brought yoga to the west. His three most famous students are B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabi Jois, and Indra Devi. Pattabi Jois is the guru (master teacher) of Astanga Yoga, which is the vinyasa or "power yoga" style, and Indra Devi was the first woman allowed to enter an ashram and to teach yoga. Iyengar yoga is based on alignment principles and is known for its use of props, depth and precision. (Interesting to note that Mr. Iyengar is now in his 90s, Mr. Jois passed this year at 93, Ms. Devi lived to be 102, and Mr. Krishnamacharya lived to be 100.)

My primary teachers are Betty Larsen and John Charping. Betty is a certified Iyengar teacher. Their primary teacher is Ramanand Patel, whose teacher is Mr. Iyengar. To become an Iyengar certified teacher is one of the most rigorous, meticulous and arduous programs of yoga study in the world, one which many elect not to take, yet the source of yogic undertanding is honored by teachers saying their style is "Iyengar-based"  or influenced. In addition to study with Mr. Patel, I've also studied with Patricia Sullivan, John Friend (creator of Anusara Yoga) and Rodney Yee, all of whom are heavily influenced by the Iyengar style, from which they have developed their own approaches.

I am grateful daily for the incredible way I was trained by John and Betty. For years they owned and operated the Yoga Room in Nashville and then developed the Southern Institute for Yoga Instructors from which I graduated in January, 2002 after 13 months of study. Once a month we would travel to Nashville for an intensive 20-hour weekend, bringing along all our research and writing projects. Between Betty being certified in Iyengar and both John and Betty being college-level teachers, we were getting a Master's Degree in yoga. We had to complete 500 hours of study and document 500 hours of personal practice (including before we began the course) in order to graduate.

Massage study also influences my teaching, particularly Craniosacral Therapy (CST). Massage gives me literally deeper anatomy and physiology understanding and CST is such an elegantly subtle and sensitive practice that it gives me ongoing perspective on where body meets spirit and emotions. My own healing journey includes body-based psychotherapy and emotional release, and yoga is well known to be a gateway to this kind of self-knowledge, awareness and healing, as well as just feeling good and producing results physically.

So, we are doing so much more than exercising when we practice. So much more! And I know I ask a lot of my students in terms of exploring the finer points of poses and alignment as I understand them. It takes a lot of patience, persistence and practice, but I think you'll agree that the safety factor, the experience of the practice and those epiphanies and personal growth are well worth the effort!

Namaste

Agreements

Hold center. Ask intelligent questions. Honor process. Good mantras! With a little patience, miracles can happen and I've had one this past week! Those questions regarding family drama I've been holding center with have wrought answers and brand new ways of thinking and BELIEVING that have allowed me to release anger and frustration, offer loving support, and revealed habits and patterns that I can and want to change. Hallelujah!

I am reminded of one of my all time favorite books. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Luiz is my go-to source of wisdom with any kind of conflict, especially with myself. The agreements are: 1. be impeccable with your word; 2. don't take anything personally; 3. don't make assumptions; 4. always do your best. Numbers 2 & 3 are doozies and I have yet to find any circumstance where applying one or all of these agreements doesn't produce amazing results in handling it.

Let's take these agreements onto the mat. Being impeccable with your word means awareness of the way we talk to ourselves. Words are powerfully loaded with the energy of meaning, galvanizing beliefs into the cell structure and creating self-fulfilling perceptions. "I'm a clutz." "I'm so stiff and tight." How do these words feel just reading them? God won't argue with us about these things either. We're allowed to use words and thoughts any way we choose. "I'm finding my center and balance." "I'm relaxing and releasing tension." Does reading those words make you take a deep breath?

Don't take anything personally. Anything that causes an ego reaction is taking it personally. This includes praise and such also, this is how the Emperor ended up naked on the street. In class we might take it as a negative reflection on ourselves when someone else has a "perfect" pose, or feel better when we think we're doing it "right." The only thing personal is the practice and how we think about and approach it, our, preferably conscious, intention. So what if someone calls you a clutz?

Don't make assumptions. We assume, based on a few bumps and bruises (OK maybe a lot of them), and the fact that we've "heard it all our lives," that we are a clutz, hopelessly destined to a lifetime of bumps and bruises. Is this really true?  What are other possibilities? We assume, because we spend a lot of time in a stressful job or at the computer for hours a day that we're stiff and tight as a matter of fact rather than circumstance, when there are things we can do to move the energy through. We assume we have to have labels and explanations for everything, especially our selves and those things we first label "problems." Is it a problem or an opportunity?  In the clutz example, first the words, then taking it personally, then assuming that is the only possible reality.  

Always do your best. That's really all we can do anyway. Are we doing our best when we push our edge too far, or defer to the lazy bones in our body? Again it's being aware and consciously applying an intuitive standard. What is our "best?" How do we know and define that? This is helpful also when things fall short, because most of the time we really are doing the best we can. And this agreement invites better where we can create it, especially when applying the first three agreements.

Let's do our best to have a truly great week!

Namaste

Questions

There sure were a lot of questions last week. Upon noticing that I realize how big a fan I've become of questions. They used to make me a bit crazy because the answer was so...dramatically...important, and for most of my life I somehow managed on a lot of answers I just made up rather than honoring process and being patient for truth. It made things harder than they had to be. (Applicable to this current family drama too, by the way. Geesh!) 

Holding center with and among questions allows for possibility. Perhaps there is even more than one "right" answer, perhaps infinite possibilities! Questions were at the center of Leonardo Da Vinci's genius, I'm a big fan of his also. He is famous in part for being a "whole brain" thinker, meaning he could operate in both logic and abstraction, math and art in ways that made him way ahead of his time. He even embodied and helped birth a new archetype; the Reniassance Man. Questions and curiosity kept moving him into new ideas and capacities.

Amazing results come from the conscious quality of questions. Within the question is the body and direction of an answer, epiphany or revelation. In yoga, "Am I doing this right?" is an utterly meaningless question, yet our egos are often anxious about that answer. Far more powerful, productive questions might be, "Where am I feeling stretch or strength or ease?" How can the pose move deeper into my body?" (That is intentional, you could also ask, "How can I move my body deeper into the pose?" There is a qualitative difference between the two questions in how we relate to poses, AND to our bodies!) "What happens if I move the breath into this tightness in my shoulders?"

In terms of the big questions, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke offers this: "I beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing it, live your way in the answer..." From the refrigerator magnet a fellow student gave me in yoga school.

May your questions be pure genius!

Namaste