However, over the past few years, I have been tuning my own nature into the cycles of my Beloved Moon and the stars, and in doing so I have witnessed a shift.
This time of the year is one of the most important times of the year actually. And what I’m about to say applies to my lovelies who live in the Northern Hemisphere. Although intention setting of this sort can take place no matter what Hemisphere you reside.
It’s dark. It’s quiet. It’s a time to go inward. It’s time to bundle up and get cozy. To cherish what is in your “home” and in your heart. Time to sit and observe your life as you are experiencing it right now.
When we do venture out of our “den” at this time of the year, we mingle, we gather, we share food and drink, we bundle up and stand in awe at holiday lights. We share time with family and friends and dive into the recesses of our hearts and love.
But do not be fooled by this outward extravagance. I’m witnessing so many people getting “burned out” by holiday parties and obligatory gatherings. The Solstice and winter season is not about “getting ready for the holidays” and shopping until you drop.
This time, the Winter Solstice, is the darkest night of the year. It’s about planting your deepest seeds of your most heart-felt intentions. It’s about going inward, observing your life and restoring your truth so it can sprout and grow in the coming year. Every Winter Solstice I have planted seeds of intentions and they have manifested one way or another, bringing me to the “other side” of my existence.
I am feeling this big time. You see, some of you know this but, in my own personal life lately, I have been experiencing tumultuous waves of truth telling, live your life, stop the bullshit, kind of “weather” and I’m ready to listen up. I want to soar into this New Year with such clarity that it cuts through any illusion I have created for myself.
Because the truth is, we all get snagged in illusion and patterns. But our work is to detangle ourselves and move forward with grace, ease and laser sharp focus in every area of our life.
So because of this – the next two weeks are dedicated to my life, my focus, my time and my intentions. I am going to teach class as normal and I’m going to bring it, big time. However, I am not going to bring weekly themes for the next two weeks. No, I’m staying off social media because quite frankly, in this moment, I’m over it.
The next two weeks is about setting your seed intentions. Especially tomorrow, December 21, 2015. Be clear, be concise and be honest. And in the following weeks until December 31, 2015 be as silent as possible. Go inward. Be still. Meditate. Practice. Love yourself.
Listen for your Yes and take nothing less than Yes. Nothing.
My social media outlets will be recycled; for fun and for remembering. But mostly, so I needn’t dig deep to come up with something new and appropriate for just 10 simple days.
WHY?
Because I want to spend time alone. Because I want to spend time with my children. Because I want to leave my phone at home. Because I don’t want to get on social media honestly. And to be perfectly transparent … I would hope you didn’t either.
Take a break already. I am.
My lovely assistant and guru Gillian is going to schedule Oms for you, my schedule and anything fun that is happening, and then she’s going to take a break too. So we both can be fresh with our Yes for the New Year.
I want to hear my Yes so loud and clear that it rings in my ears when I’m sleeping. So that when anything besides my Yes comes to me, I don’t even notice it.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
That is all. I hope to see you in class. And if I don’t I will see you soon I am sure. Many blessings of clarity, love, and yes.
By Dana Damara
“My passion on the mat is proper alignment, powerful breath and effortless flow so you feel that off your mat. Your practice becomes sacred space where you arrive to find more meaning, depth, authenticity and integrity in your life." - Dana Damara: mother, author, yoga instructor, speaker and yogini.
Click here to download or stream one of Dana's YogaDownload classes!
I drank lots of tea and water. I ate soup and bought Riiiiiiiiiicola’s.
On Monday, it was even worse.
I started lathering up with oils.
I became more discerning about my tea choices. Lemon Ginger wasn’t doing the job. I went back to the store and bought more tea.
I attempted to teach classes and got a lot of homeopathic remedy recommendations from students. I was desperate.
Health is your natural state
I believe one of the main reasons I prioritize living healthy is because I despise being sick.
I would never consider myself a “sickly child.” I got strep throat one too many times growing up, but as I recall it happened about once a year. I typically remember getting a cold in the fall and in the spring. I also remember that being “normal.”
There was one year in particular in high school where I just could not get rid of a sore throat for months. But beyond high school, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I got sick throughout college up to the present day.
All of this to illustrate the point that I kind of feel lost when I get sick. I forget what to do. What I need to have around. What’s going to help me get rid of the ick as fast as possible.
This is why I found myself researching the Internet on Monday morning. I pulled out all my Ayurveda books. I shuffled through my tea shelf — yes I have an entire shelf dedicated to tea. I referenced my encyclopedia of essential oils.
I admit, this post is just as much for you as it is for me to remember what to do and what to have on hand to heal holistically.
So without further ado, here are my top choices based on personal experience and my own research.
Hot tea
Ginger, Lemon Ginger, Echinacea, my special “be well” blend My favorite brands are Yogi Tea and Traditional Medicinals. You can find a limited selection of these brands in most grocery stores and a much wider selection in natural foods stores like Whole Foods.
Ginger is most well known for helping to relieve digestive issues and tummy upset, but it’s also a fabulous immune booster and is always my first go-to when I feel a little off.
Echinacea is the superstar in my holistic healing regimen. I swear if I spend a couple days drinking a ton of that tea, I’ll feel better way sooner that I would have without it. It might just be mental, but there is some research that shows it helps boost your immune response. There’s also fascinating research about the placebo effect and how sometimes thinking something is helping you even if it’s a placebo can benefit you just as much if not more then actually taking what you think you’re taking. So there’s that too.
Essential oils
Oregano, OnGuard, Melaleuca, Frankincense, Breathe First, I’ll start by saying I use DoTerra oils. I do not sell them and I’m not interested in selling them. I like DoTerra because the oils are easy to use, packaged well, mostly easily accessible, and I love the blends.
At the first most subtle signs of “eh” I’ve got OnGuard on my feet. OnGuard is a blend of Wild Orange Peel, Clove Bud, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Leaf, and Rosemary Leaf. I use this oil throughout the year and it’s got it’s own special place on the bedside table. I mix in Frankincense now and then to bolster my immune support and because I like the smell.
When things really go south, I whip out the Oregano. Make sure if you use Oregano you dilute it first, as it’s quite strong. I put this on the bottom of my feet as well. Unfortunately, it makes you smell like pizza, so be ready to smell up your bedroom right before you go to sleep. You can find oil of oregano at most natural foods stores in different forms as well (tablets, drops, etc.).
Based on my research this time around, I learned that you can use Melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil) to combat sore throats as well, so I diluted this one and put it on my neck.
As my cold progresses to it’s cough stage, I’ve got Breathe handy to rub over my chest and help with the phlegm. The Breathe blend consists of Laurel Leaf, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Lemon, Ravensara Leaf (I don’t know what that is either), and Cardamom.
I apply my oils multiple times a day throughout the day.
Water
You can (almost) never drink enough water and this is especially true when you’re not feeling well. Water helps you stay hydrated so that your cells can more efficiently fight the invading infection and makes you pee every 10 minutes which aids your body in getting rid of those pesky toxins.
Rest
This is the one I’m particularly bad at. Rest means different things for different people. While I’ve continued to work during this bout of illness, I’ve made conscious choices to rest more. When I’m teaching I’m not nearly as mobile as I normally am. In fact, I sit at the front and that’s about it. When I’m home, I’ve tried to forget about work as much as I’m able to so that I can get some house things done, which, yes, are technically still on the to-do list but are easy targets because once they’re done they give me such a great feeling of accomplishment!
I did a restorative yoga practice at home. I skipped a class I was going to take. I’m taking it easy. And I made myself some kitchari, an Ayurvedic inspired rice and mung bean stew of sorts that is thought to be the most easily digested meal you could eat. I consider it comfort food, but if you’re like my mom and sister, you might call it bland. I think that’s the point and why it’s so easy to digest.
Sleep
Sleep has always been extremely important in my life. Now more then ever I’m ensuring that I get my 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Early to bed and early to rise…or wake up whenever I wake up if I have the luxury of a free morning. Sleep helps your body fully rest so that you can move into repair mode. I need all the focus to be on getting rid of whatever it is that’s trespassing.
What’s your favorite holistic healing tip? Let me know over on the Facebook page! I’ll try anything :)
Namaste.
By Ashley Josephine
I started practicing yoga to stay in shape and release stress. What I learned was how to love my life. How to have faith. How to find your community of people who support you and love you unconditionally. How to get back control. Today, it is my mission to help busy Type-A overachiever women like me gain back control of their lives, live pain-free, and love the life they want to live through yoga lifestyle practices. Visit www.ashleyjosephine.com to get free yoga lifestyle tips to help live healthier, happier, and pain-free.
My hips have been a source of constant inquiry. I grew up skateboarding and playing ice hockey, so you can imagine that I’ve had my work cut out for me when it comes to creating more range of movement. For years, my singular focus was to open my hips. Now, a little older and a little wiser, I have a more balanced approach to my hips that also includes plenty of strengthening work.
When I started creating online anatomy programs with Paul Roache, MD, I built them for three people: me, myself, and I. I needed to build a program that would help me understand the body in a more refined, yet simplified way.
Now, I’m creating these Illustrated Guides to Yoga and Anatomy for the students in my trainings—and, for you. If you’re interested in understanding your body and creating more sustainability in your practice, then we’re on the same page. And if you want to train with me more formally, join me for my teacher training in San Francisco launching February 15, 2016. You can take the entire training or come for individual modules. (Details here.)
This Illustrated Guide to Yoga and Your Hips, Part 1 focuses on the joint structure and ligaments. I know it’s not as sexy as the musculature, but the structure tells us a very interesting story if we’re patient enough to listen. It tells us the story of the body’s complementary demands of strength, stability, and flexibility. Unlike the relatively unstable ball and socket joint in your shoulders, the hip-joint is extremely strong due to the nature of the socket and the reinforcement it receives from the ligaments and muscles. Plus, if you understand your hip’s structure, you’ll have a much easier time understanding your muscles.
Now, let’s look at a quick, simple glossary so that you are on point with your terms:
Coxal Joint: This is the anatomical term used to describe the hip joint.
Head of femur: The rounded top of your thighbone that fits into your pelvis. This is the “ball” in the “ball and socket” of your hip.
Acetabulum: The dish-like part of your pelvis that the head of the femur fits into. This is the “socket” in the” ball and socket” of your hip.
Labrum: Fibrocartilaginous tissue that encircles the inside of the acetabulum. The labrum helps the head of your femur sit more deeply into the acetabulum, helps absorb shock, and helps form a seal for the fluid inside the hip joint. It’s made of the same tissue that the meniscus in your knee is made of and provides similar functions.
Ischiofemoral ligament: Located on the back of the hip joint, this ligament connects the ischium to the femur. This ligament helps limit excessive extension and adduction (internal rotation).
Iliofemoral ligament: Running from the front of the pelvis to the femur, this is the strongest ligament in the body. Its’ primary role is to limit excessive extension in your hips.
Pubofemoral ligament: Also running from the front of the pelvis to the femur, this ligament limits excessive extension and abduction (external rotation).
The Front of Your Hips This simple, clean rendering shows the ball and socket with the ligaments and muscles removed. The head of the femur is colored silver so that you can easily see the nature of the ball and socket joint.
The Back of Your Hips Another image that shows the ball and socket without the muscles or ligaments. This view is from the back.
The Center of your Hip Joint with the Femur Pulled Away This illustration shows the interior of the ball and socket. You can see how the head of the femur plugs into the acetabulum and is encircled by the labrum. It reminds us that the hip joint is a full, 360 degree circle and that we want to create strength and flexibility in the entire circumference. This illustration will help you understand how the muscles are laid out in Part 2 of this series!
Your Acetabulum and Labrum If you’re familiar with what the meniscus looks like, you’ll see that the labrum is almost visually identical. If you’re not, I’ll be creating a guide to yoga and your knees soon! Notice how the labrum is a horseshoe-shaped to cushion the femur and allow it to glide more smoothly in the socket.
Ligaments on the Front of Your Hip The ligaments on the front of your hip are strong, powerful tissues that limit excessive hip extension and abduction. This means that these ligaments—if excessively tight—may have a limiting effect on hip extension your backbends or anything that requires your legs to be separated far apart, like Baddha Konasana.
Ligament on the Back of Your Hip The Ischiofemoral ligament, which runs from your ischium to your femur, reinforces the back side of your hip joint. It limits excessive internal rotation.
I hope this illustrated guide gives you insight into your hips and helps you teach your students with greater confidence and clarity. We’ll look at the hip muscles in Part 2 and “best practices” for your hips in Part 3 (coming soon).
In case you missed them, here’s The Illustrated Guide Yoga and Your Core, Part 1 & Part 2.
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By Jason Crandell
Jason Crandell and Andrea Ferretti are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is the former executive editor of Yoga Journal and is now creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized teacher known for his precise, empowering, down-to-earth approach to vinyasa yoga. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 3. To read their blog or to learn more about Jason's upcoming teacher trainings, please visit their web site www.jasonyoga.com
1. Lowers Blood Sugar Levels: Diabetes is becoming an increasingly common lifestyle issue, and its effects can be life-threatening. Yoga can not only prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, but also help control spiking blood sugar levels in people already suffering from diabetes. Along with a proper diet, yoga can prove to be extremely helpful in controlling diabetes. Asanas like pranayama are a great solution for lowering blood sugar. You can practice it in any weather, and it does not require additional equipment.
2. Improves Mental Health: An integral part of yoga is meditation. It requires you to calm your mind and focus on a particular thing. Yoga not only helps you increase your concentration skills but also works on your temperament. Meditation also helps better your memory, and lowers stress and anxiety. After you have finished your yoga routine for the day, it is likely to make you feel refreshed and invigorated. You will definitely feel more energized to take on more tasks.
3. Facilitates Weight Loss: Even though yoga does not require any other equipment, it facilitates weight loss. The notion is to use your body to effectively help you lose the pounds you have gained. Yoga helps you tone your muscles while simultaneously losing stored fats. There are various types of yoga you can practice, depending on your flexibility. Most often, for optimum weight loss, people practice Bikram yoga that requires a higher level of flexibility and stamina.
4. Improves Immunity: Yoga also boosts your immunity and helps you maintain good health. The breathing techniques implicit in pranayama keep your respiratory tract and lungs in good shape. They also increase the mechanical efficiency of your lungs and their elasticity. Various other postures help soothe joint and muscle aches, and reduce stiffness and soreness. Yoga also facilitates increased blood circulation that energizes vital organs and improves their efficiency.
5. Reduces Risks Of Heart Diseases: Yoga not only helps tone your body but also helps lower the Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) count. The breathing techniques and postures allow your vital organs to function at their optimum. It also ensures increased metabolism that contributes to reducing the bad cholesterol count in your blood. When LDL is lowered, it simultaneously increases the count of High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) in the blood that keeps your heart healthy.
Practicing yoga is a healthy lifestyle choice you can incorporate. It will help you discipline your mind and body without any side effects. It is also believed to increase life expectancy since all your health issues will be resolved. Now that you know the reasons behind the world taking note of yoga, you should take it up too.
By Vineetha Reddy
Being a regular practitioner and adviser of everything related to health, fitness and yoga, I have also begun to write and contribute to this knowledge ecosystem on sites like YogaDownload.com. I strongly believe that the organic food you find in your pantry provide the best benefits for good health.
To be perfectly transparent, I had been doing a lot of talking. And I thought that whatever I was saying was important. But I’m not quite sure that everyone else thought it was. And then at one point, I heard myself say, out loud, “I wonder if they are even listening to me.”
And that thought woke me up.
Was I talking just to talk? Was I really listening to what was being offered up? Was I allowing space for Divine to come in and make sense of everything? Was I speaking from my heart? And for goodness sake, what was keeping me from using my voice?
You see, something to remember here that’s pretty important: the throat chakra isn’t just about talking, expressing and getting your voice out there. It’s about listening … really listening. And not just listening to say something in response, but listening from the depth of your heart.
The other thing is that the throat chakra is usually the chakra that gets bottle necked more than most. There’s this mystical theme around the throat chakra that’s pretty interesting. It’s constantly receiving information from the third eye. And well, sometimes the third eye is a bit gray. Additionally, the heart also links into the throat and the information there gets a bit murky for whatever reason as well.
The throat takes on all of this … all of it.
So for those of you who have been telling me to feel better and wondering why I’ve had this sore throat for so long and why in the heck it hasn’t gone away, I’m going to tell you. First, thank you so much for your concern. You needn’t be concerned though. I’ve had some deep healing happening over here and I am grateful!
You see … over the last 12 weeks I decided to dig deep, just like my horoscope, my angels and my intuition told me to do. And you know, when you dig deep, you can’t really change your mind. So in this process I noticed that I was being offered many opportunities to stand up for myself, in a big way. This has always been my work – to stand up for myself, I know it and I laugh now when it still comes up.
But this one was big.
Needless to say, I was asked to stand up for something that rocked me to my core. It brought me back to my own childhood and uprooted ancient fears. And honestly my squeaky voice was that of my inner child who never stood up for herself. Who never spoke up and was now being asked to change ancestral patterns for her children.
It was very surreal and challenging to watch my body take on such old emotions. It was potent to understand what was going on. It was even more powerful to be forced to be silent and listen. The reality was I could not talk. I had to listen.
I had to listen to what was being said. I listened to what my children were asking. I listened intently to Spirit.
And in that time, I re-membered how to listen without waiting to respondI re-membered to listen with my heart and not my ego. I re-membered what it felt like to stand up for what I thought to be true and right and just. And I did it from an empowered, graceful, compassionate, no bullshit kind of way.
But I couldn’t have done that in deep truth and freedom if I hadn’t listened for the love. The love took over in all my thoughts, in all my dealings and I had to listen for it because my voice escaped me. There was no room (or voice) to discuss this with anyone else, there was only my thoughts, my heart and my ability to listen.
My voice is still a bit raspy. The tears still come and go honestly. My heart still hurts a bit, but I’ll tell you what. I learned and remembered how powerful listening is. How potent it is to be still and listen to my heart. And how valuable and essential it is to listen to the wisdom of your own intuitive knowledge.
“My passion on the mat is proper alignment, powerful breath and effortless flow so you feel that off your mat. Your practice becomes sacred space where you arrive to find more meaning, depth, authenticity and integrity in your life."
- Dana Damara: mother, author, yoga instructor, speaker and yogini. Visit DanaDamara.com for more inspiration from Dana.
In my mid-twenties all of that changed, when, seemingly overnight, I put on enough weight that my cholesterol skyrocketed and I could not zip up my Banana Republic flat front pants. Ever since then I’ve been experimenting, trying to figure out which foods make me feel healthy and well without feeling whacko and deprived around food.
It’s a constant work in progress since we are constantly evolving (read: aging) human beings.
Snacking never made sense to me until I worked with a nutritionist a few years ago. Until then, I didn’t plan for it. So I either ate mindlessly and — whoopsie! — the whole bag of pretzels was gone. Or I tried to be austere but those baby carrots just didn’t satiate me. I really still wanted a Frappucino.
This very specific bit of advice I got from my nutritionist colleague, Karyn Duggan, turned it around for me — are you ready? It’s very simple:
“The ideal snack (like any healthy meal) consists of lean protein, healthy fat, and fiber-rich carbohydrate.”
Bam. That’s it. You simply have to remember the acronym, P, F, C and you will compose a healthy, satiating snack. In a blog post that I worked on with Duggan for One Medical Group, she explains why:
“When you eat a snack with each of these components–P, F, and C–your body makes use of each appropriately, slowly converting small amounts of the food into sugar to give you the energy you need. Conversely, in the absence of PFC your body tends to convert the food to sugar more rapidly. As this sugar surges into your bloodstream, it triggers the release of insulin from your pancreas, which in turn causes your sugar level to crash precipitously shortly thereafter. These swings in blood sugar are exactly what you’re trying to avoid.”
Here are some of my favorite P, F, C snacks. Keep in mind that whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are all considered complex, fiber-rich carbohydrates. So, thumbs up on those:
Dates with Goat Cheese & Pecans Yogurt with Berries & Nuts Lemon Hummus with Cucumbers on Whole Wheat Toast Farmer’s Cheese and Fig Tartine Choco-Banana Almond Butter Smoothie Cashew Chia Pudding with Berries Chili Avocado Toast
The number of combos are endless. Duggan has a list of her favorite snacks over on the One Medical Group blog.
By Andrea Ferretti
Andrea Ferretti and Jason Crandell are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is the former executive editor of Yoga Journal and is now creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized teacher known for his precise, empowering, down-to-earth approach to vinyasa yoga. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 3. To read their blog or to learn more about Jason's upcoming teacher trainings, please visit their web site www.jasonyoga.com
This was tall order, indeed. You see my hubbie knows how to bake, like Julia Childs knows how to bake (okay, maybe that is a stretch, but the guy knows what’s up).
When we first started dating he showed up to my house with a gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free fruit tart! I actually asked him where he bought it because it looked way too perfect! His culinary skills definitely added an extra bonus to his good looks and charm.
When I shared with him my mission he wasn’t afraid to blurt out, “those aren’t going to taste very good!”
Adam and I love to cook together but we often times have very different perspectives on what we consider to be “good food.”
He’s a once-in-awhile-gluten-eater and I’m a never-touch-the-stuff-eater.
So I decided that if he will eat these scones so will the skeptics among you!
I used my persuasive powers to convince him to join my seemingly hopeless mission of creating something tasty and healthy and thus the “Scone Extravaganza” began.
I kid you not when I say that we laughed, we cried, we argued and we danced to the Jackson 5 in the kitchen and then…the delicious and healthy Mini Blueberry Chia Scone was born!
While I’m kidding when I say that scone almost ended our marriage, creating this recipe was an indeed a labor of love. It was an all weekend event, a roller coaster ride of emotions. I also have to thank my loving and patient husband for spending all weekend long concocting this recipe with me.
Now, the only caveat to this recipe is that you can’t have the full expectation that you will experience the fluffiness or sugary decadence of a real scone – just like a raw brownie is different than a “normal” brownie (Adam made me say that). But, this healthy alternative is still sure to make your taste buds celebrate and have a dance party in your mouth.
I hope you enjoy these yummy treats as much as we do! They are great for kids too (according to Jules and her boys).
With gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, grain-free, sugar-free, blood, sweat and tears,
and Adam too!
Mini Blueberry Chia Scones
Yield: 20-25 small scones
Ingredients:
¾ cup coconut flour ¾ cup almond meal 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp sea salt ¼ cup Chia seeds, separated ¾ cup water 1 ripe banana 2 TBS coconut oil 1 TBS vanilla 1 cup almond milk 5-6 large dates (more if you like it sweeter) 1 cup frozen blueberries
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine Chia seeds and water to soak for 20 min. Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl- coconut flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Blend wet ingredients in a blender or food processor (or Vitamix if you have one)- coconut oil, banana, ½ soaked Chia seeds, almond milk, vanilla, dates. Combine the wet ingredients and dry ingredients until evenly mixed. Add remainder of whole Chia seeds to the mixture. Using a spatula gently fold in blueberries. Using a small cookie scoop drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake until scones are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store scones in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Jo Schaalman and Julie Peláez are co-authors of the book The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body, and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life. Together they've lead thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They've been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show.
To learn more about “Jo and Jules” and to download a free e-cookbook for a sampling of the delicious food served up on the Conscious Cleanse, please visit their website.
Conscious Cleanse Detox Flow - Jo Schaalman
Heart Opening Forrest Yoga Flow - Jo Schaalman
Traditional Hot Yoga - Julie Peláez
I have been observing groups of people for most of my adult life. And there are times, maybe a particular day or period, when life renders itself with an aftertaste. Everyone is reacting or responding to it differently, but there is a common something just underneath the surface of what’s happening that is universally sensed. Perhaps it’s an astrology thing or string theory, I don’t know. But you can see it more readily expressed in children and dogs. Most often, it goes undiscerned. However, of late, it feels impossible to deny a pervading forlornness.
Violence, geopolitics, and commercialization siphoning through the white noise of social media can sometimes undermine a sense of self and well-being.
Usually, I’m a political junkie of sorts. I get off on the absurdity and theater of it all. But recently, I don’t have much of a taste for it. In fact, I can’t really take it in. And it’s curious that, for the last few months, my writing has largely concerned itself with big-picture issues facing the “yoga industry.” I remember this time last year, I was saying to myself that I wanted to get away from that and write more “from my heart.” However, experiencing my second daughter as she developed from a wave of energy into a little human walking around, with the back-drop of a world in crisis, has left me feeling vulnerable and protective.
Perhaps it’s just the holidays and I’m projecting and reading too much into things. My own situation is largely stable. But there is an unusual number of people in my immediate sphere who find themselves in the midst of trials and transitions. And those faces in class who usually express an amount of certitude, now are showing signs of wavering. As though, were I to break through the walls of social etiquette and hug them with all my might, we would just break down and sob.
More than anything, I need to feel that I’m OK.
Regardless of the many different motivations and inspirations that bring people to yoga, underlying it all is the basic desire to feel that we are OK. That the pain is not so much that we can’t see how our lives have meaning. That the difficulties are worth the trouble. Perhaps even to experience some moments of joy and love in the midst. These are humble wishes that come by way of simple means, not elaborate posturing.
Yoga practice has played many roles in my life. I have been able to identify deeply held patterns in myself, enabling me to feel that I know who I am more. Sometimes I have even been able to make important changes to those patterns that have set me on a better trajectory and led to a life more of my choosing. But none of this is possible until I can feel that I am OK. Without that baseline, all the discovering and exploring and hours of practice can easily be for naught. The glimmers of benefit end up overshadowed by backlashes and unintended consequences.
Thus, my emphasis on something slower and simpler. This is not only serving me in my practice as a way to cultivate a baseline of knowing myself as the whole being I am, but also reflects a broader need to counter the side-effects of technologies and mores that have imperceptibly become so ingrained in my life. It doesn’t matter what I can do or how fast I can do it, whether from my phone or with my body, if I can’t feel OK inside myself first. Letting my digital screens be a way to distract and sedate me needs to be countered with the immediacy and intimacy of giving and receiving in my own system. The act of participating in my own breath and body, without imposition and in a nurturing manner, makes my fear more manageable.
Fortunately, life is so much larger than despair.
When things begin to weigh too heavily on me, I remind myself how much larger life is than suffering. For every murder there are a million orgasms. For every starving child there are a billion more laughing with joy. For every act of harm there are infinite acts of kindness. For every person who is huddled in despair there is another who would gladly provide love and support. Eventually, my mind has no choice but to succumb to a wonder and immensity that is beyond my ability to fully comprehend.
Despite it all, I’m OK. Pain and suffering makes this no less true. And I wish to propose that the same could be said for anyone reading this. There is no tragedy so great as to erase the miracle of our birth or the majesty of our lives. May we know this warmth and hold it dear.
By J. Brown
J. Brown is a yoga teacher, writer and founder of Abhyasa Yoga Center in Brooklyn, NY. His writing has been featured in Yoga Therapy Today, the International Journal of Yoga Therapy, and across the yoga blogosphere. Visit his website at jbrownyoga.com
Over the past couple of days, I’ve helped my parents with the move. We’ve spent a good deal of time in the new house, and I’ve noticed that the new house felt like home almost immediately.
That’s because, as we’ve all heard many time before, home is where the heart is. Turns out, the heart doesn’t care much about stuff, walls, or structures. As long as the people you love are with you it’s home. It helps to have your stuff make things feel familiar, but that’s just a perk :).
This whole process of moving from my childhood home has brought to the forefront the practice of non-attachment. Non-attachment is a very important part of yogic living off the mat.
Why non-attachment is so important in yoga
In yoga sutra 1.12, Patanjali spells out how to quiet the mind, which is the first step in achieving progress on the yoga path (albeit not an easy first step). In case you weren’t aware, the Yoga Sutras are one of the seminal texts outlining how yoga works.
Abhyasa-vairagyabhyam tan-nirodhah My own combination of English translations of this Sanskrit phrase looks like this:
The five types of mental activity can be settled through practice and non-attachment. We can talk about the five types of mental activity another day.
Abhyasa means practice. Vairagya means non-attachment.
What is non-attachment?
Non-attachment is being okay with the natural flow of life. It’s not getting caught up in the details, the stuff, the extraneous, the complex. It’s about letting things go that don’t matter.
It’s both an absence of desire and aversion. It’s about letting things be as they are without getting caught up in mental patterns or assigning emotional stories to things.
It’s not that you go through life without caring. It’s that you choose to care about what really matters. Non-attachment is about living in the present moment rather then the past.
When we hold on to things and refuse to let them go we create barriers in our mind. Since it’s moving day over here, you could think of every attachment as a cellular moving box in your brain. Every thing you choose to hold on to has to be packed away in a little box.
As you attach to more and more things, you start to fill up the crawlspace and basement of your brain. In our house, the basement was called the “Republic of Clutter” and it was a running joke that it was always waging war on the house. The house always lost.
If you continue to stay attached to things, you start to fill up your entire house-brain until there is no room left. If you don’t let things go, soon there will be no room left to let new things in. You’ll be stuck in a life of boxes filled to the brim with your attachments and you’ll be unable to live free of clutter.
How to let go of your brain boxes
When your brain is cluttered the only way to get clear is to do some serious letting go. Unfortunately, letting go of mind-stuff is a lot harder then letting go of stuff-stuff. It takes some serious internal work to truly burn through all the attachments we store over the course of a lifetime. The process is not quite as simple as taking the boxes to Goodwill.
The process for letting go of mind-stuff is meditation.
The good news is, Patanjali didn’t say we have to master non-attachment. We just have to practice.
Make some room for the new and the now
Seeing as I’ve moved 7 times in my life in the past 10 years, I’ve gotten some practice with the whole moving thing. I think that’s why moving from my childhood home isn’t that big a deal to me.
Yes, there are so many memories in that home. Yes, it’s where I grew up. Yes, I’ll miss the landscaping and the little waterfall in the backyard. But, by being open to letting go, I get to enjoy the beauty of the new house.
In the new house, there is a sun-room and the way the light shines in is beautiful. In the new house, there is a patch of woods in the backyard that deer run through on a daily basis. In the new house, there are heating lamps on the bathroom ceilings. All things I’ll eventually need to let go of, but right now, I’m enjoying the present situation very much.
You can find beauty everywhere around you if you know where to look. You can also choose to be bitter and hold on to too many boxes of attachments and block the light from shining through that’s right in front of you.
You get to choose.
When you choose to practice non-attachment, you let in the light. When you let in the light, you step onto a path toward freedom.
But... if you are ever in a position where you feel guilt or regret after eating, I can tell you right now, that is NOT normal.
What IS our normal state, is one where we are at ease, steady + joyful. Not bloated, embarrassed or in a food coma where our brains can’t function properly. So, what are some of the signs of an unhealthy overeating experience? -You overeat in response to a build up of anxiety, fear, tension or stress -You overeat to nurture, soothe, comfort or nourish yourself or your unmet needs -You overeat to take your mind off of what is going on around you + to “numb” yourself out Why am I telling you this? Because all 3 of these unhealthy thought patterns are 100% reversible. Shifting your mindset IS possible + if you follow these easy steps, you will watch the overeating decrease over time:
Identify the Breaking Point
That moment where you feel like a tea kettle about to boil, where the anxiety + stress has built up to a degree where you feel like you will burst if you don’t reach for a donut or another bite...identify it. Then, immediately take an action that will help you release + redirect those intense feelings of fear, anxiety or tension/stress. Run out your front door if you have to + take a walk around the block. If you play an instrument, take it out + immediately start playing it. Get on the phone + call a friend. Whatever will take your focus + energy AWAY from the “breaking point” feelings is what you need to do for yourself in that moment. Practice Nurturing Yourself + Meeting Your Own Needs We are doing a great disservice to ourselves + to those around us when we don’t deem ourselves worthy of our own self care + soothing. Identify what your needs are: Is it more sleep? More alone time? More exercise? More social time?, Etc.? Then, commit to meeting those needs 1-3 times a week to start. Make this a weekly habit that it integrates into your lifestyle + over time, you will feel nourished, healthy + whole. Allow Your Feelings To Be What They Are Please consider the fact that any time that you are judging, criticizing or suppressing your own, authentic feelings that you are actually rejecting yourself. You are in a way saying: “What I am feeling is wrong” or “Why can’t I be different?” or “I don’t love you when you act like this”. And sadly, the way we treat ourselves teaches others how to treat us also. So practice seeing yourself through the eyes of compassion + allowing your feelings to be what they are. Don’t complicate this process by needing to know what they mean or why you are feeling the way you do. How about you just start by letting them be there in the first place? Shifting our relationship with food involves liberating ourselves from self limiting beliefs + having the courage the step boldly in a direction that champions our well being.
By Alba Creales
Using the science of yoga which teaches us that the outer expression of our bodies is merely an indicator of the internal self, Alba will customize a program for you that includes refining or beginning your asana practice (the physical practice of yoga) and traditional coaching in addition to any number of yogic tools like chanting, meditating or reading sacred texts. Alba uses Skype, emails + phone calls to support her growing client base all around the world. To find out more about Alba, visit albacreales.com.
Now this is a toughie, and we might have a tie for first place, but topping the charts is our favorite morning beverage of choice – hot water with lemon.
The recipe is simple. We start with a 32 oz. mason jar of warm filtered water and then squeeze in the juice of ½ lemon. This has become a meditative morning ritual for us and as we sip on our drink we recall 10 things in our life that we’re grateful for. While the health benefits of this drink are numerous, the mindfulness that comes with our ritual is invaluable to our overall health and wellbeing.
During this holiday season, it’s easy to get off track and feel as if you’ve fallen off the proverbial wagon (all of our cleansers know that we don’t believe in those old fashion wagons anyway☺), so we like to stay positive, focus on the healthy choices and follow simple daily practices that keep us glowing.
Add this to your morning routine to feel your best. It’s painless, easy and takes less than 1 minute to make. We’ve all got that kind of time!
What healthy practices are you adding to your daily routine to keep you feeling your best this holiday season? Share with us in the comment section below. Remember your most vibrant health is not about getting it right or following rules to a “T”.
With tart lemon squeezes,
6 Splendid Reasons to Drink Hot Lemon Water
In addition to practicing compassionately and kindly towards yourself and your edges, you can also work on strengthening your hamstrings and along with them your tendons. This may prevent tearing this vulnerable connection point of the hamstring muscles to the sitting bone as well as provide healing if you have a history of pain.
These three exercises will deliberately and specifically provide contraction and strengthening to the hamstring muscles, and along with them probably a bit of glutes due to the extension of the hip. They are all essentially the same exercise of pressing through the leg with a bent knee, but in different orientations to gravity for a slightly difference experience.
Slip these poses occasionally in to a weekly cycle of practice and see how you feel.
All Fours Leg Press
Start in all fours like cat cow, but make sure your belly isn’t dropping and your front ribs are contained. Keeping the action in the leg and out of the lower back is key to making sure you get maximum strengthening.
Bend and restraighten the leg several times creating a bit of resistance. Pulse the leg up and down in small ways.
Dancer pose variation
Dancer Pose is a really nice and gratifying pose. This one is just sort of hard…but good! Basically, do dancer pose without holding the foot and restricting the backbend and movement in the spine so we can focus mostly on the bending of the knee and slight pressing up of heel.
Bridge Variation
Click here to watch the video
Try this before you do your bridge pose or upward-facing bow pose to get the hamstrings charged up.
Further Reading
These are some resources that have influenced me if you want to dive deeper:
By Adam Hocke
Adam has been practicing vinyasa flow yoga since 1999 and has trained extensively with Jason Crandell. He offers precise, strong, and accessible classes to physically awaken the body and develop mindfulness both on and off the mat. His teaching is down-to-earth and direct, exploring traditional practices from a modern perspective. A native of South Florida, Adam spent ten years in New York City before becoming a Londoner. He teaches studio classes, workshops and courses throughout London, and retreats across the globe. As a writer, Adam contributes regularly to magazines and web publications on yoga. Visit Adam at adamhocke.com
I still couldn’t sit with karma just being a “do-gooder”. It got me thinking a lot about karma and what it means besides that. I had to ask first off, when you “do” that right action, what’s your thought behind it? Are you doing it to get noticed? To make sure your karmic debt is in the green? Are you doing it because you want people to think you are a yogi? What’s your reasoning behind this karmic action? Is there one?
When you “do” something for someone else, it needs to be for no reason at all. It needs to be … just to be. That is all. If there is any agenda or wanting from this action, it’s not karmic action. It’s ego intention.
And honestly, it’s not even your actions that start the whole ball of karma wax moving. It’s actually your thoughts. When you think a thought, immediately the transmitters in your brain speak to your chakras and you can feel expanded or contracted in one thought and one breath. So it all starts with your thoughts and your thoughts never lie. Ever. How you choose to act on and manifest those thoughts is a much bigger topic.
But the main thing to remember is: you are karmically creating your path just with your thoughts. It’s not just what you do, it’s what you are thinking. Truly. So what are you thinking? Is it aligned with your thoughts? Make sure … because if not, there could be a bit of a mix up in what messages you are sending to the Universe.
And then another thought came to me. Your karma is not just something you pay forward in order to be in right action. It is also the integrity with which you clean up what is behind you.
And I completely believe this.
I’m not sure if our “negative karmic debt” negates the positive “paying it forward” random acts of kindness, however I do know that there is a balance between the two that has to happen. AND I believe it is happening in more moments than we realize.
Noticing those piles of unresolved business is the first step in cleaning up your karma. The second step is recognizing it as your “work” and it will always be there.
As long as we are alive, we have karma.
We come in with it, we leave with it. Hopefully we leave with less than we came in with but again, that’s another story. It doesn’t really matter how many coffees you buy for the people behind you; what matters is how clean is your side of the street when you get in line to get those coffees.
One bit of insight as you move through your karmic action, intention and debt. Tune into compassion along this journey, with yourself that is. If we really do create our life with our thoughts, a lot of those thoughts are unconscious. But when we awaken to that knowledge, as well as the accepting of our “debt”, our only job is to clean up our karma with love, grace and responsibility.
Anywho, within the last few weeks, I’ve seen private clients complaining of knee pain, met friends with bad knees, and even started suffering knee discomfort myself. So, I had to figure it out.
Why it’s hard to do yoga for knee pain
Our knees are tricky, complex structures that are influenced from a wide variety of our daily activities. Your feet and hips have huge sway over the health of your knees.
For example, if you carry more weight on the inside or the outside edge of your foot when you walk, then this will affect how your knee tracks over your foot.
Have you ever seen somebody who has shoes that warp to match their weight distribution patterns? I remember having a teacher in high school who carried so much weight in the outside edges of his feet that his shoes actually changed shape and hung over the outside edge of the sole.
Most yoga poses involve some kind of knee use, and the more therapeutic or gentle poses often have people on their hands and knees, which can be insufferable for someone experiencing knee pain.
Train your happy, healthy knees
Knee pain is annoying. It affects almost everything we do since we use our knee joint to walk, sit, and stand.
Today, I’m sharing with you a new video with 4 exercises you can do to help prevent future knee issues, maintain the health of your knees,and even rehabilitate knee pain.
Healthy knees depend on healthy use of muscles in your feet, calves, hamstrings, quads, and hips. The exercises today include both weight and non-weight bearing exercises and are great for helping you isolate different muscles in your body.
Even if you aren’t experiencing any knee problems right now, I love the way the third exercise pumps blood into my legs and makes me feel.
Here’s to happy, healthy knees!
Click here to watch Ashley's video to alleviate knee pain!
Thank your eyes, for viewing YogaDownload anywhere
Seeing beauty, joy and kindness from this special pair.
To your communication for letting you breathe originality,
The throat chakra that makes your thoughts a reality.
Open Your Heart to Gratitude, to new experiences, compassion.
A Great Full Heart to help you love more, with passion.
Your core that stabilizes, twists and detoxes,
Enhancing your power to break out of our boxes.
Your incredible spine that stands you upright,
Your long and strong back for hugging so tight.
Traveling down to your hands that grip, wave and soothe,
Sending love to your Wrists, Shoulders and Neck – it’s the truth.
Your hips that carry a lot of sensation,
Giving your emotions creative narration.
Your root that sends you down Earthly bound,
Giving you that important connection to ground.
Hugging those legs, the strongest muscles in you’ve got,
For strutting and running and lifting a lot.
Applaud those inversions that help your hardworking feet.
And sigh it out for savasana that is ever so sweet!
Your body can do so many wonderful things,
Now give it some yoga to help it grow wings.
Pumpkins boast the antioxidant, beta-carotene because of their orange color, which has been shown to play a role in cancer prevention and glowing skin (say goodbye to those unsightly blemishes). According to the National Institute of Health, food sources of beta-carotene are even more effective than supplements. So grab yourself a spoon and enjoy!
Do you have a pumpkin recipe you’d like us to makeover? Please post on our facebook page or in the comments section below and we’ll wave our magic Conscious Cleanse veggie wand to make it healthy and delicious for you.
With sweet pumpkin goodness,
I bought two sweet pumpkin pie specific pumpkins at my natural grocery store. These pumpkins will be much smaller than your typical carving or decorative pumpkins.
Creamy Pumpkin Sage Soup
Yield: 8 servings
2 pumpkin pie pumpkins or 5 cups canned pumpkin 1 TB. coconut oil ¾ cup shallots, diced 3 garlic cloves, chopped 4 cups organic vegetable broth 1 TB. fresh sage, chopped Sea salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Using a sharp knife, cut the pumpkins in half. Scoop out seeds and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 1-1/2 hours until pumpkin edges are slightly brown. Using a large metal spoon, scoop cooked pumpkin flesh into a bowl.
In a large pot over medium heat, sauté coconut oil and shallots for 4-5 minutes until tender. Stir in garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in pumpkin flesh, vegetable broth, sage, salt and pepper, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer covered for 15 minutes. In a blender, and working in batches of no more 2 cups, purée soup. Return soup to the pot, and heat through. Season with additional sea salt and pepper as needed. Sprinkle with sage. Enjoy!
Jo Schaalman is the co-founder of the Conscious Cleanse and a yoga instructor at the Yoga Pod located in Boulder, CO. She is passionate about working with people to find their best health. The Conscious Cleanse is a 14-day program designed to guide health-seekers on a supportive journey of deep healing and whole body cleansing. The results have the power to ignite an entirely new level of health for participants – one of vibrancy and longevity. The Conscious Cleanse will be published as a book by Alpha Penguin and made available at all major bookstores and online retailers in Fall 2012.
Check out Jo's awesome Forrest Yoga classes available for download or stream that you can take anywhere!
This is a pretty typical conversation between me and my body. It’s a casual chat in gratitude for all the parts that keep me going how I’m going. I just recently hit a point where I can feel my body getting older. Until this, it was all fun and games and “oh, I can get a new ACL if this one blows out.” But I’m realizing that this is really truly the only body I’ll get to occupy in this lifetime. I should take care of her. The more I learn about anatomy and humans, the more impressed I am with the physical human design. How do my kidneys even know what vitamins and minerals I need? How does my blood know how to clot? How am I able to fight off a flu? I’m very impressed, body. Nice work. I’m also sometimes terrified that my body will forget how to do these basic functions. “Hey heart, you know to keep beating even when I’m sleeping, right?” With the intention of balancing out my awe and fear of my own body’s capacities, I show it gratitude. I thank my kidneys for filtering out the sometimes less than optimal fuel I offer. I give respect to my feet for carrying me around all day. I send mad props to my lungs for letting me manipulate my breath during a pranayama practice, and then they go back to breathing quietly without my attention, like it’s no big deal. I talk to my body because I care for it greatly. Sometimes I think it’s funny that my soul is trapped in this fleshy, carbon-based, fat-filled meat container. But for whatever reason, this meat container is mine, and mine alone. And I love every freckle, wrinkle, and scar. I love the lines that form near my eyes when I smile. I love that my hands can scratch a dog’s belly. I love that my feet will let my brain tell them to keep going, long after they’ve tired. I love that my arms are weirdly too short for my torso, like a T-Rex. I love that just touching my skin to someone else’s can help them heal. I love that my muscles respond to my activities by creating micro tears that grow into stronger muscle. I love that my skin will take permanent ink to remind me of important moments in my life. I love that I have eyebrows, even if I don’t understand why they’re there. I love that my spine moves in so many directions, even if it doesn’t look like the healthy spines in anatomy books. And even if my body doesn’t look how someone else thinks it should look, I’m really grateful for all the things it lets me do in this lifetime. I know this body is temporary, like everything else, and that’s okay. I will love her as much as I can in the time we have together.
Katrina Kopeck is a yoga instructor, writer, food enthusiast and dog hugger in Boulder, Colorado. She loves all puppies, most books and a great deal of music. She teaches yoga at the Boulder Veterans Center and public classes at Core Power Yoga. Find her full schedule and connect at www.katrinakopeckyoga.com. Photo: Nickolai Kashirin
Click here for inspirational yoga classes that allow you to talk to and LOVE your body!
I first discovered yoga during fertility treatments when my doctor wanted me to slow down and “take it easy” from usual exercise routines. So I gave it a try. It turned out to be just what I needed then and during many other times along my mommy path the last five years. I’ve come to practice and study on a regular basis, at home in the early kid-less morning hours and a Thursday evening class each week. Yoga has played a key role in loving and accepting my body, even the twin skin I carry (what the hell is twin skin? Read this). Throughout my teens and early twenties I had the tendency to mistreat my body with a low calorie diet and a rigorous workout regimen. It wasn’t until the age of 26 that I started practicing yoga on a regular basis and came to embrace my body for all it was. My practice carried through my pregnancies. My babies rolling inside me as I eased my mind and body through the flow of breath and movement. My OB encouraged my practice and said it would provide grounding for an easy delivery. Her prediction proved true as I was able to have all three babies quickly and naturally. I believe yoga was a big part of that. Postpartum, yoga poses healed my body, strengthened my limbs for the caring of a newborn and gave my mind peaceful refuge from long nights and early mornings of being a mommy. Having this release has always kept my mind and heart in balance. Being in balance allows for my interactions with my kids to be loving and calm even faced with a shitty Wednesday or epic meltdowns. Being a mommy of three, I am an easy target for tension headaches. As my husband can attest, these headaches make me somewhat of a psycho. For me these headaches start at my back and radiate through my neck into my head. I can’t even think straight. As I’ve researched it turns out that we all carry our stress in our hips. When I started working on the release and yoga poses to work the hips, the headaches eased away and so did bitchy mommy. During yoga, the strength I feel in each of my muscles and through my mind radiates through my whole being leaving me humming for days afterward. My personality is always on overdrive, always needs to be kept busy. This hum brings me back to earth and allows me to live more slowly and fully with my family. If you’re a worn out, stressed out, psychotic mommy and you’ve never tried yoga or have only slightly dabbled, I encourage you to give it a full hearted whirl. It doesn’t matter your shape, size, age or class anyone can do it. Even my husband will hit the mat with me sometimes (maybe for hidden agenda reasons but he does anyhow).
Brooke Halperin is mommy, wife, woman and blogger of The Funny In Mommy. Finding the humor and gratitude in the not so glamorous moments.
Be sure to check out our selection of mommy yoga classes you can download or stream anytime!
If you wrote a story about your life, would you play the hero or the victim? It’s true that we don’t always have control over negative circumstances. These situations are especially frustrating, as there’s not always an explicit lesson to be learned. However, even though you can’t always be in control of your circumstances, you can always be in control of how you respond to them. No one but you is responsible for your happiness or sadness. Victims become whatever happens to them. Heroes are what they choose to become. Empower yourself by becoming the author of your life story. Rather than trying to fix your past, which cannot be changed, use your experiences to build a brighter future. Become the type of hero you would want to read about. Adopt an attitude of gratitude. It’s easy to get caught up in one aspect of your life that isn’t going well. When this happens, look at your life like a pizza pie. You wouldn’t eat flour, yeast, or salt by themselves. But when you add them together and bake them into a crust, you create something truly delicious that’s equipped to receive boundless, desirable toppings. Similarly, while there may be a component in your life that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, life as a whole can still be great. Take stock of all the ingredients in your life you’re grateful to have and remind yourself not to take them for granted. Family, friends, good health, financial security, passions, and self-worth are all key ingredients in the recipe to a rich, satisfying life. Believe that when life takes one thing away, it’s creating space for you to receive something bigger and better. The trade-off likely won’t be immediate, nor will it necessarily feel the same. For example, material items, technology, and even jobs are relatively replaceable, but relationships and loved ones are not. Being resilient doesn’t mean forcing yourself to try to fill that void; it means finding peace with today and having faith in tomorrow. Generally speaking, good things happen to good people. When bad things happen to good people, they view them as opportunities for growth and potential for better things to come. And when all else fails, remember that tough times don’t last; tough people do.
By Kayla Mantegazza
Kayla Mantegazza is the author of a blog called "Yoganna Love This" who works as a program management professional at a corporate health engagement company. Her degree is in Health Behavior Science with a background in diabetes management, weight management, and bariatric surgical interventions. She is an active member of the National Wellness Institute, the National Business Group on Health, and the Obesity Action Coalition.
Visit her blog at YogannaLoveThis for more inspiration!
I don’t want to admit the halo of gray hair encroaching on my roots. I don’t want to have to get mammograms and get sun spots removed. I don’t want to wear both readers and progressive lenses for driving. I have three daughters ages 13, 10, and 2 - the youngest, a huge surprise born in my advanced maternal years. I don’t want to admit my complete and utter exhaustion running a household with issues concerning both Tampax and Pull-Ups at the same time.
I have spent the greater part of 2015 trying to identify my “calling.” Apparently, I’m looking for a direct hit to the bulls-eye so that I can somehow leave a greater impact on this earth! I admit that this constant striving and inevitably comparing sometimes with others, can get exhausting. There are many things I am embracing about turning 40. I know myself and I like myself. I care less about trying to please others to have them like me more and feel more grounded and authentic in trying to be the very best version of me. I think that’s all that the world can ask of each of us. I have taught thousands of yoga classes over the past 12 years, and every January I encourage my students to write a sankalpa statement, which translates to “divinely inspired intention.” I wanted to highlight my sankalpa statement for the next 40 years.
Have Courage. Did anyone else ball their eyes out at Disney’s latest rendition of Cinderella? It’s one of my favs! This brave young woman was tested and ridiculed and stayed so deeply true to herself (and to her deceased mother’s advice to “Have Courage, and Be Kind”). Marianne Williamson writes, “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” I feel like applauding every time I read that quote. I am the biggest cheerleader to everyone else’s dreams and have a history of shrinking when it comes to acknowledging my gifts and the power of my light. I can tell you that it’s freeing to identify with your God-given gifts - because it makes you appreciate and not compete with the beautiful gifts that others have. It’s like lighting a candle from another flame. You don’t reduce the light by sharing it, you multiply it. In my next forty years, I may not land my “calling” per se, but I do plan to show up and burn brightly being me, and will continue to encourage others to do the same.
Be Kind. This is Part II of the Cinderella story. Cinderella recognized that the evil ways of her step-mother and step-sisters were merely a reflection of their own unhappiness, and enabled her to have empathy and to extend forgiveness to them in the end. We can spin over the assumption that people in our lives should know the impact of their unloving actions; however, we all know what they say about assuming.... I teach hundreds of students each week and have learned from watching people’s emotional reactions on the mat and having conversations before and after class that everyone is coming from somewhere. “Do not judge a book by it’s cover “ is an understatement. I’ve seen heavy set women float effortlessly into handstand and muscle men shake in plank. I’ve experienced a woman weeping on her mat for an entire class and a not-so-gentle man yell out in a raging fit that my music was too loud. I’ve learned that I can’t assume anything, but I can be kind. We’ve grown up around different dinner tables, experienced different cultures and traditions, formed opinions from influences on our paths and have thoughts reflecting our own story. In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz writes, “We make the assumption that everyone sees life the way we do. We assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, judge the way we judge...” This is what gets us in trouble. The very definition of kindness to “being gentle and considerate.” Everyone is coming from somewhere. Be kind.
Love One Another. Childs pose is usually where I find my gravity again. My life can feel like a spinning top, and the act of bowing my head, turning to the present moment, and lifting my palms upward helps me remember the many blessings in my life. When we live in gratitude, things like competition with others, critical gossip, “poor me” syndrome, and insecurity fade away. Melody Beattie wrote, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” In other words, we get our heads out of our butts and are free to love one another. Gratitude allows us to break free from the bondage of worldly judgement and cultivate a true love-interest in others - wherever they may be in life. This freedom allows us to love our neighbor regardless of the diversity in our opinions, backgrounds and choices. In my next 40 years, I want to live authentically and gratefully and hope that you would know my God by the way I love.
When preparing one year for my New Year’s Resolution (or sankalpa) yoga class, I found this beautiful translation of the Sanskrit chant, Om Namah Shivaya. It said, “Salutations to the person I am becoming.” With grace and mercy in the forefront, cheers to the humans we are becoming on and off the mat! Cheers to 40!
By Kristin Magill Gibowicz
Kristin started practicing yoga after a doctor told her she should expect a second back surgery on her lumbar spine. An outdoor enthusiast and a young mom, she refused to accept the diagnosis. She stepped into CorePower Yoga and committed to practicing to see if she’d see any improvements in her condition. With a consistent practice, yoga healed her by strengthening her core physically, giving her body awareness, and reducing stress in her mind and body. Kristin started teaching yoga in 2003 and knowing that 80% of Americans suffer from back problems, felt moved to learn everything she could about the anatomy, breathing techniques to reduce stress and how to transform other’s lives through teaching yoga. “Power yoga brings this exhilarating, cardiovascular yoga practice to “everyday Joes” like me. My goal as a teacher is to share my passion and improve the quality of people’s lives. In each class I hope to help liberate my students both mentally and physically, and leave them in a better place.”
Click here to download or stream one of Kristin's YogaDownload classes!
But my whole cancer experience has reset my priorities, which means that my time on the mat is now nonnegotiable. And so, I’ve been spending a lot of time feeling all the great things that my body can do and these are the things I want to focus on.
Before I begin my thank you note, I’m going to apologize formy past transgressions. In part because, despite what my writing might portray, I want you to know, dear readers, that I’m really not all hearts and flowers all the time. And also, by acknowledging the crappy stuff I’ve done to my body, I’m hoping that I can let it go (and my cells can, too) forever.
Dear Bod, Ahem. Where do I begin? It seems like I have to begin loooong ago, back in my late teens and early twenties since that seems to be when my poorest choices were made. So here goes: Sorry about all those French fries (although the jury’s still out, I feel twinges of guilt for those high school McDonald’s runs). Sorry for drinking alcohol. Like ever. I’ve never been a big drinker, but that doesn’t seem to matter with the type of breast cancer I had. Sorry for bumming cigarettes at college parties and for my (past) love of cakes, cookies, ice cream, and cannolis. Do I need to atone for that tanning booth experiment that one time? Let’s just say it was the 80s and we were pulling out all the stops for prom. And we didn’t know any better.
In spite of all that—through fat times and thin times, good hair days and bad, you’ve continued to be there for me. So, I thought I’d thank you, publicly. Here goes:
Thank you to my heart for beating and reminding me that I’m alive
Thank you to my belly for moving up and down when I breathe in Savasana
Thanks to my toes for feeling the sand squoosh beneath them
Thanks to my face for feeling the sun shine on it
Thanks to my arms for being so great at hugging
Thanks to my legs for running and skipping and hopping
Thanks to my hips for wiggling and having dance parties with my two year old
Thanks to my vocal chords for making it possible to sing
Thanks to my ears for being able to hear music
Thanks to my wrinkles. If I’m being really honest, I have to admit I don’t like looking at you. But, you remind me that I’ve lived and and that I have gained some wisdom since the tanning booth incident.
Thanks to my blood and lymph and all of those other elements that come together and make sure that my body keeps on keepin’ on each day
Thanks to my musculo-skeletal system for firing up so that I can do yoga and feel what it means to be embodied
Thanks to my taste buds for giving me so much pleasure
Thanks to my brain for being able to process all of this. Sometimes you are too clever for your own good and you make things far too complicated. But all in all, I’m impressed by your hard work.
And finally, a big shout out to my eyebrows. Because, have you seen my eyebrows? I just really love the shape of my eyebrows.
Thank you. Thank you. Just thank you.
Zeal’s Bomber Broccoli Slaw is a great salad that you can make ahead of time because it keeps really well all week.
As we embark on another supported Conscious Cleanse I’m reminded of the importance of having a plan and a handful of cleanse staples at the ready when hunger strikes. Zeal’s Bomber Broccoli Slaw is definitely one that I’m adding to my staples list.
For other cleanse staples ideas, be sure to check out 5 Staples for a Successful Cleanse here.
Happy cleansing everyone! Be sure to leave us a comment below and let me know if you’ll be bookmarking this yummy slaw for your Thanksgiving dinner. I know I am!
With love and Fall salads,
Zeal’s Bomber Broccoli Slaw
Yield: 4-6 servings
Ingredients for Slaw:
2 heads broccoli, stems shredded, tops chopped into small pieces ½ head red cabbage, shredded 2 carrots, peeled and shredded 6 radishes, sliced Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste ½ cup sliced almonds, for garnish
Ingredients for Tahini Dressing:
1 cup water 1 cup tahini ¾ cups freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped ½ bunch parsley, chopped Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions: To make the salad combine broccoli, cabbage, carrots and radishes in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
To make the dressing, combine water, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, sea salt and pepper in a mini-food processor or high-speed blender until well incorporated.
Pour half of the dressing onto the slaw and mix with a spoon until well combined. Add more dressing until creamy and the consistency is to your liking. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours to allow flavors to develop. Before serving, garnish with sliced almonds.
I traveled to India in 1998. I spent three months there. I did not go to study or stay in an ashram. I went with no plan. Just a backpack, a Let’s Go travel guide, and the hope that somewhere along the journey I might gain insight enough to decide whether or not to continue Yoga as a life path or seek another direction for my livelihood. I had only one condition: stay off of the tourist track. And I definitely learned something important about Yoga from my time in India. Things I could never have learned from my previous two years of practice and training in New York City.
Aspects of yoga seemed to pervade the culture of India, in stark contrast to Yoga’s obscure status back home in the US. I remember a conversation with a rare English-speaking local and the realization that many of my friends in NY who were attending Kirtan regularly and, on some level considered themselves devotees of Kali, would never be permitted in the Kali temple in India. No amount of chanting or sari and bindi-wearing can get around the fact of one’s birth or the view commonly held in India that one cannot convert to Hinduism. I also remember how many times I sought out the local teacher of a small village only to discover a string of frauds and touts, capitalizing on the naivete of tourists.
There is a renewed and legitimate debate happening over whether or not westerners have a right to take ownership of yoga in the ways that we have.
Even among westerners, there is a feeling that something is not right about a twenty-something blond girl with a large Instagram following saying “Namaste” to promote her lifestyle brand. Then, you have folks like David Gordon White and other scholars who, in response to all the hype and co-opting, are uncovering untold truths about the history of yoga that have previously been shrouded in lore and mystery. Throw in the rampant commercialization and use of yoga as a marketing demographic across the globe and we end up with a whole lot of questions and sour grapes.
I’m having conversations with talented yoga teachers who are questioning whether to abandon teaching altogether. They are feeling like they don’t fit into what “yoga” has become. They are even embarrassed to tell people that they are yoga teachers because they don’t want to be associated with what people think of yoga teachers outside inner yoga circles. I am also being confronted with a storm of comments on Facebook calling into question my associations and accusing me of being part of an imperialist takeover of Yoga’s indigenous roots.
Truth is, yoga was first marketed and sold to the west by the same venerated teachers that are now cited as the only vestiges of authentic tradition.
The use of yoga to promote or sell things is nothing new. Mr. Iyengar had students perform on Martha Stewart to promote his book sales. Mr. Pattabhi Jois travelled around the world conducting large-scale yoga events, same as the yoga celebrities of today. These guys were selling yoga just as much as they were practicing and teaching it. Granted, they were of Indian descent. Maybe that gives them more of a right to monetize yoga. But is it really that different? Or are we merely experiencing the results of macro changes in technology and economics?
I was taught that in order for my yoga to be authentic it needs to adapt to my individual needs and be specific to my cultural background. But perhaps there is a point where the practice is taken so far away from its origins that it ceases to be true to what it is. When does something become true to you but not to where you got it from? Unless, of course, you are of the view that the intention is for it to be true to the individual and not to any particular teacher, tradition or ideal.
Krishnamacharya did what he had to do to make a way for himself and his family. This takes nothing away from the gifts he has given to countless human beings.
Regardless of where we might land on the cultural appropriation and commercialization of yoga, there are people across the world who, by themselves and gathering in small and big groups, are doing breathing and moving exercises. They are doing this not as merely a form of fitness, but as a vital part of their self-care. The experiences they are having are genuinely helpful. These practices are often pivotal in people making changes in themselves and their lives that are deeply meaningful and important.
Another remembrance from my time in India is that some things are universal and transcend cultures. The gesture of placing my hands together in prayer at my chest, sometimes referred to as “Namaste”, was like an express-pass to shared humanity. I’ve found this true in other parts of the world I have traveled to as well. Simple and undeniable is the thread of wonder that runs through all beings. No amount of capitalism or appropriation can touch the warmth and love we know in our hearts.
So I get it, well not the third one he is simply a fellow I will never understand. But here’s the thing, you know your players need yoga to balance out all the strength, agility and endurance training you are putting them through in pre-season conditioning. And frankly, if you are being completely honest, you could use some mat time yourself.
So here's what I’m going to do. I am going to give you three poses you can teach players all by yourself. I promise they will be easy, no snapped tendons or sprained ligaments, just three simple poses that will benefit your players and not intrude into your already overloaded practice schedule. Pretty nice of me, right? Well, I’m a giver.
FIRST POSE- Hero’s Pose set. If you are averse to using yoga names, please feel free to call it ankle extension and flexion series, I don’t care (but you should really work on these hang ups, I feel they are holding you back). While you are going over scheduling, or just chatting after practice, have your players take off their shoes, kneel down and sit on their heels with their toes un-tucked.
You may find they really struggle with this, so suggest they fold up a towel, sweatshirt or jacket on top their shoes and place the shoe lump under their tailbones to take some of the weight off their ankles. Be sure their toes are tracking backwards and not to either side. And just make them sit there.
Three to five minutes would be ideal, but they will probably start chirping at you after about 30 seconds, so make good choices and build them up slowly.
After the toes un-tucked version, have them tuck their toes and sit on their heels, this is a far more intense pose as it opens up the soles of very tight and probably tired feet. Two to three minutes would be great, but you are probably only going to get to the 30 second mark before you have a full scale mutiny on your hands.
Don’t force them to stay in this pose if they have an active case of plantar fascitis, as you really can do some damage, so again, make good choices. Hero’s pose is great to loosen up tight ankles and feet. It can help avoid shin splints and plantar fascitis (inflammation in the sole of the foot).
SECOND POSE-Reclined Figure 4. After Hero’s pose, your players may or may not be speaking to you anymore, but after this next pose you will be (dare I say ) their hero.
Have them lie on their backs with bent knees, feet on the ground. Place one ankle on the top of the other knee, similar to how you sit in a chair with loosely crossed legs. Raise the foot on the floor, maintaining a right angle in the leg. Reach through the triangle that is created by the legs and grasp the back of the thigh and draw the leg towards the chest.
Have them hold this pose for 60-90 seconds on each side. Reclined Figure 4 is a fantastic pose to release the low back, hip, glutes and, to a lesser degree, the hip flexors and hamstrings.
THIRD POSE- Legs Up Wall. Now this one may be a little tricky if you are outside and it may take a little prior planning, but it may also get you nominated for coach of the year.
Have your players lie down near something they can put their legs up on. Ideally a wall, hence the name. If that is not available other things that work which may be available include, vehicles, goal posts, buildings, concession stands, bleachers, get creative.
Tell them to wriggle in and try to get your backside as close to the wall as possible. The closer the glutes are to the wall, the hamstring stretch will be more intense. Don’t go crazy, find the edge of your resistance and stay there, this should feel good.
If you absolutely have no support structures, you can use some sort of strap. Sure a yoga strap would be awesome, and if you had hired me I would have brought them, but lets not quibble about that now. Other things that work include, neckties, jump ropes, tube socks tied together, you get the jist.
If using a strap have your players lie on their backs, extend their legs up in the air, soles of the feet to the sky. Wrap the strap around the soles of the feet and pull down to help stabilize the pose. Let them stay here 3-5 minutes.
Legs up a wall is great to deal with that feeling of heaviness that comes from lymph drainage in the lower body after long periods of running. Your players will roll out with fresh legs, ready to go.
Hopefully this will help you and your team take your performance to the next level. If not, give me a call and we will see what we can do. Good Talk.
By Tara Kestner
Previously published on Next Level Yoga's Blog
Tara Kestner is a registered yoga instructor who specializes in working with athletes of all levels. She designs programs based on specific sport requirements and challenges. Utilizing the principle that strength plus flexibility equals power, her classes give athletes the tools they need to enhance their performance. Tara is the owner of Next Level Yoga, Ltd., in Toledo, Ohio.
1. Lycra: Tight, stretchy football attire is the original yoga pant.
2. Starpower: What do Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Ray Lewis, and Shiva Rea all have in common? They hit the mat to enhance their stamina, strength, flexibility and mental clarity.
3. Teachers: guidance through challenges, holds, gains, and whenever possible, avoiding the tendency to rush. Sound familiar?
4. Presence: On the field and on the mat, we have to silence all doubt, spectators, and distractions. Going from play-to-play, detaching ourselves from fumbles and projections to see clearly. It’s no fantasy.
5. Breath and Balance: The QB takes that deep breath before throwing that game-winning pass. The wide receiver uses his core to stay in bounds. There’s fluidity in the practice of getting oxygen through the body, calming the nervous system and powering from the center.
6. Going Beyond Limits: What’s stopping you from achieving that first down? Are the linemen in your mind blocking your progress? The breakthrough isn’t always in the end zone – sometimes it’s at the line of scrimmage.
7. Touchdowns: No penalty for excessively celebrating the body’s achievements with final relaxation, Detroit Lion’s breath, and laughter –give some applause to the magnificent body, mind and spirit!
Are you ready for some football yoga? Our new Yoga for Football Players and other additions are designed to rev up your inner-athlete-attitude and support your mental and physical performance. We are all champiOMs.
Yoga is an ideal supplement to any sport! Be sure to check out our other Yoga for Athletes classes!