Kripalu - Yoga Therapy Intensive

If you are considering a trip to Kripalu, either to study or for a holiday, I highly recommend it.  The grounds are beautiful, the food delicious & nutritious, people friendly and diverse(!), yoga classes safe and creative.  You can apply for a scholarship to study there if it is beyond your current means. I went for the Yoga Therapy Intensive, a week long study with Yoga Therapists: Judith Hanson Lasater, Gary Kraftsow, Mukunda Stiles, Nischala Joy Devi, and Larry Payne - among others.  We looked at using yoga to work with trauma, transforming pain, evaluating musculoskeletal imbalances, aruyedic yoga therapy, prime of life yoga, yoga for anxiety, shoulders, hips, sacrum, and low back issues.  It was a lot to absorb and will take time to integrate - but some gems were immediate "If a pose feels safe for your body you'll be able to take a full comfortable breath.  Breath is your gage."  "Provide inquiries to your students so they can explore and become experts on themselves." "When opening the heart; open the front, the back, the sides, the skylight of the heart, and the basement of the heart."

meditation

"Meditation is not about feeling a certain way.  It's about feeling the way you feel.  It's not about making the mind empty or still, although stillness does deepen in meditation and can be cultivated.  Above all, meditation is about letting the mind be as it is and knowing something about how it is in this moment.  It's not about getting somewhere else, but about allowing yourself to be where you already are."
Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Senior's Yoga

I spent this past weekend doing a wonderful Senior's Yoga Teacher Training with Monica Cordes (www.yogaforseniors.ca).  We talked about honouring the aging process by offering classes geared specifically to senior's needs.  Which of course may mean offering several different classes given that seniors can be anywhere from 55-105 and have a wide variety of abilities and challenges.  Breath, alignment, movement, meditation and visualizations are all valuable tools in increasing our quality of life.  Benefits are improved breathing, increased energy, improved digestion, increased mental clarity, easing pain, calming the nervous system, releasing chronic tension, balancing blood pressure & blood sugar, improving balance, and promoting restful sleep.  It was inspiring to hear about the other teacher's experiences: a 103 year old practicing yoga in their wheelchair during a chair class,  a student with advanced alzheimers accessing a joyful memory of time spent with her friends during a beach visualization.  "Our bones are dynamic, constantly changing tissues, connected minute-by-minute to our entire mind-body system.  Every morsel we eat, every move we make, and every thought we have affects our bones."  S.Brown, Yoga for Healthy Bones

spring, time of new opportunities

Today I practiced to jazz.  I have never done this before, and am doing so thanks to a generous, and talented student (www.oridagan.com) who brought me one of his cd's when he discovered I like to accompany the movement portion of my yoga with music.  I found a new twist in an old series, tried some unfamiliar pranayama, and found my mind exploring places that don't often come up in my home practice.  Try something outside of your habitual routine and you might be surprised at what you find.

mix tape for the mat

I love to make mixes to practice by, here is one of my favs:

• On the Dub-ble - DJ Krush
• Chakra Bangra - Loonaloop
• Could You Be Loved - Damian, Stephen & Ziggy Marley
• Teri Toor - DJ Rekha
• High Low - Zap Mama & Michael Franti
• Equal Rights - The Heptones
• Makka Root - Roots Underground
• Om Numah Shivaya - Apache Indian
• Shocking Dub - Linton Kwesi Johnson
• Flip Ya Lid - Nightmares on Wax
• Black Mountain Side - Led Zeppelin
• Aurora - Bjork
• Dance Me to the End of Love - Leonard Cohen
• Om Shanti - Daphne Tse & Matt Pszonak

Sunshine In February

After a mild winter beach stroll soaking up the golden rays I can appreciate why there is a whole series of poses dedicated to the sun, in fact many versions of this.  We spend months of short dark days curling the body in on itself, energy slow and subdued.  When the sun returns we want to lift our faces towards it, roll back our shoulders stretching ourselves towards the sun.  This feeling reminds me of a plant lifting itself up as close to the sunny window as it can (heliotropism), or a cat in the spring rolling & purring blissfully in a patch of sunlight.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm thinking about the connection between our palms and heart.  There are energy centers in our palms that correspond with our heart chakra.  Think about the way you express yourself with your hands - reaching out to comfort a friend, illustrating your emotions with your hands when talking, or throwing up a "talk to the hand" block.  Think of all the healing practices that involve the use of hands.  One of my favorite practices (learned from my teacher Felicia) is to lay back with my arms resting wide open, palms facing up and visualizing my inhale coming in through my palms, moving up my arms, and flowing into my heart.  When I exhale I send my heart breath throughout the rest of my body, or to any parts that need extra support and love that day.  If you're visual  you can imagine this moving breath and energy being a beautiful emerald green (colour of the heart chakra) or whatever colour or image comes to you naturally.  The reverse is to send that energy from the heart, down the arms and out through your hands creating something beautiful.