Yoga, On and Off the Mat
Yoga On & Off the Mat
Try Yoga This Holiday Season
The contrast is startling. First, it’s Thursday, a day for giving thanks — for relaxing with loved ones and filling plates with local harvest. Then it’s Friday, “Black Friday,” a day when shoppers rush against each other and the clock to fill their carts with marked-down merchandise and check off page-long wish lists.
In Missoula, on the Friday following Thanksgiving, 40 eager shoppers slept outside Best Buy and endured 0-degree C temperatures to cash in on early-bird specials. After one eager shopper missed out on a screaming deal — 60 Toshiba laptops were priced at $229 — he surmised that other, more successful shoppers would hop on eBay and resell the laptops for $1,000, thus robbing his kids “of a good education.”
Likewise, the spirit of Thanksgiving seems to have been robbed — in less than a day, we go from grace and gratitude to pushing and purchasing.
From light to “black,” we enter the holiday season.
Yikes.
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Yoga Under the Big Sky
Ski Season Yoga
The holiday season rapidly approaches - and with it comes ski season. Since I moved to Montana earlier this year, I'm in a place where the arrival of winter is a much-anticipated event. Excitement builds as the temperature drops. I share the enthusiasm as I monitor the mountain snowfall and get my skis tuned up for opening day (or shortly thereafter – Big Sky opened this past Saturday). I've also changed my yoga practice, incorporating poses that will help develop the strength and flexibility needed on the slopes. The question to ask yourself as you get your skis ready: is your equipment in better shape than your body? Good news - you can get your body and mind ready for the slopes with some simple yoga moves. [more]
Yoga On & Off the Mat
Being Grateful for ThanksgivingThanksgiving is my favorite holiday. A full day dedicated to gratitude -- someone had their thinking cap on when they declared this emotion worthy of its own day! Twenty-four sweet hours to celebrate family, friends and food. Twenty-four hours to feel grateful for the blessings and hardships that shape our lives and build our spirits. Twenty-four hours to notice how gratitude affects our bodies, minds and relationships.
Thanksgiving also lends an excellent excuse to begin (or revive) a gratitude ritual.
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Yoga Under the Big Sky
Trying to Be Yogic While Rock Climbing
This fall has offered up quite a few challenges to my yogic equilibrium. In addition to the usual juggling of 2 year old/family responsibilities/managing two businesses, I was constantly checking the often-unpredictable Montana weather ("where you can have 4 seasons in one day") in anticipation of the Athleta photo shoot. I was recently selected to be the yoga "athlete" for this amazing women's athletic apparel company, and they came to Big Sky to do part of the spring 2008 catalog photo shoot. After a shaky start with cloudy cold weather, we woke up to 4 inches of snow on the second day! Beautiful, but definitely not springlike. I tried to quell my anxiety with pranayama exercises (yogic breathing). But one thing that is always guaranteed here is a quick change in the weather - the first snowfall of the year melted that afternoon, and the next few days showcased the clear mountain air and scenery I'd been boasting about. [more]
Yoga On & Off the Mat
Divine Connections: Astrology and YogaYoga and astrology are both ancient traditions practiced popularly across the globe. Yoga — sometimes called a philosophy, sometimes a science — offers several paths toward Enlightenment (samahdi), the Universal Consciousness. Astrology — sometimes called an art, sometimes a science — is concerned with how celestial bodies (stars, planets, constellations) affect human beings. Yoga is Bhakti , Hatha, Jnana, and among others Purna. Astrology is Vedic, Chinese, Western or Evolutionary. And in their different forms, yoga and astrology each offer insight into the nature of suffering as well as ways to see (and live) beyond it.
Most interesting, however, is how these traditions — as Missoula astrologer Deb Clow so succinctly puts it — “are doing work shoulder to shoulder.”
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Yoga Under the Big Sky
Yoga and Versatility
I’d like to kick off the theme of my second monthly column with my yoga philosophy. My hope is that this will set the stage for future columns inspired by my personal practice and yoga experiences, and introduce who I am as a yogini.
When I opened a yoga studio in Washington DC five years ago, one of my main goals was to offer yoga to as many people as possible. I believe that every body can do some form of yoga, and I’ve got years of teaching experiences to prove it – I have taught highly-trained athletes, seniors who didn’t get out of their chairs, and everyone in between.
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Yoga On & Off the Mat
Observing the MoonEvery month, twice a month, Ashtanga Vinyasa yogis celebrate moon holidays. On the full and new moon, Ashtangis don’t engage in their regular asana practice. Or at least they’re not supposed to, though I know many yogis who roll out their mats rather than rest anyway.
Abstaining from one’s asana practice during the full and new moon, however, is a tradition for good reason. It is a time to take rest and pay attention to how personal rhythms interact with universal rhythms. It is a time, in our busy lives, to slow down — to even rethink those cultural and individual tendencies to push, pull and generally plain ol’ produce despite natural cycles urging otherwise.
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Yoga Under the Big Sky
Yoga on Horseback
Author's note: I will be writing two yoga columns each month; the first, “Montana musings,” will merge my new experiences here (as a recently-relocated east coaster) and my reflections on yoga. The second monthly column will focus on a yoga topic inspired my own practice.
My main teacher the last few months has been a horse named Belle. This very new experience of horses (while learning to ride and have a horse was a childhood dream, before now I've only ever been on horseback a handful of times) has been like holding a mirror up to reflect some of my not-so-positive habitual patterns; for example, I asked my instructor Annie how long it usually takes on average to catch a horse. Catching your horse is the first thing you have to do before anything else can happen, and there have been a few times where I wasn't sure I was going to accomplish this seemingly simple first step! (note that horses are not like dogs, they don't come when you call them.) Annie responded, "horses don't have a schedule." OK, I get it; but I kept coming back to what she said repeatedly and reflecting on how I could apply this simple statement about horses to my life.
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Yoga On & Off the Mat
Be Like A Corpse In SavasanaSavasana (corpse pose) signals the death of our asana practice. Lying on our back, we relax our body and mind to disengage and detach. Symbolically, we die. In actuality, we say goodbye — goodbye engaged body; goodbye engaged breath; goodbye asana practice; and, finally, goodbye judgment and attachment to body, breath and posture.
Be careful, however, that “goodbye” is not “goodnight” (as the intonation might suggest). Savasana is a time to relax, not sleep; in fact, falling asleep misses the mark, and misses an opportunity to truly rest.
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Yoga On & Off the Mat
Back Pain the Sarno WayLike millions of Americans, I’ve suffered through bouts of back pain during my adult life.
Also like millions of Americans, I’ve looked to yoga for relief. I’ve tried asanas and sequences to strengthen postural muscles along my spine; I’ve practiced poses to build core muscles; I’ve lengthened my hamstrings and opened my hips. Sometimes this helps, sometimes it doesn’t.
One method that has worked more often than it hasn’t, though, is another mindbody practice -- what I call the Sarno Way.
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