Category Archives: Health

Practice is not about being perfect. It’s about being you.

Posted on May 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

matKathy Cooper Yoga Mats via Pinterest

I’ve uncovered a new offence that I’m capable of. I’m calling it creation-envy. What occurs for me when I hear of a great idea or turn of phrase is that I find myself wishing I’d thought of it or said it first.

Occasionally, I’ll hear another yoga teacher say something in class that is so perfectly verbalised that I just have to ‘borrow’ it. I think that Jon Kabat-Zinn of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine speaks like an angel on his meditation recordings, and his words drop right into my heart, completely bypassing my head.

Today I came across an excerpt from a book called Teaching People, Not Poses: 12 Principles for Teaching Yoga With Integrity. The author, Jay Fields, sums up the way I aspire to teach so succinctly and well that I wished I’d written the book.

Interestingly, Jay says that other people than yoga teachers are finding her book useful. Well, why wouldn’t they? Yoga students would think words like these are reassuring:

Practice is not about being perfect. It’s about being yourself. It’s about getting past your lines of defense to find the soft, chewy, sweet center.

Almost as much as I love teaching and practising yoga, I love inspiring students to do home practice.

My spirit soars when I hear that someone has become turned on enough to buy a yoga mat, remembered the postures they’ve learned in class, and even begun to bend the practices so that they make a good fit for their individual lifestyle.

Some people are discouraged from doing home practice because they feel they don’t know enough. But even knowing a little and applying it is helpful because the truth is that there will be never be an end to learning more about yoga.

If you don’t have a deep groove of yoga practice established as yet, just be kind to yourself, and keep coming back to your mat when you can.

It helps to remember the magic moments that yoga practice creates, whether you’re in classes or at home. When you tap into these experiences, you become more and more enrolled in doing practice – even when you’ve been doing it for years.

If you are a somewhat diffident practitioner or a beginner, we’ve created the YogaAnywhere practice sets to provide a basic, but structured guide on how to do 10 or 20 initial poses, plus suggestions and encouragement along the way. They were created to inspire people to get started – and to keep going. You’ll never know where you’ll end up :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://yogadork.com/news/for-teachers/teaching-people-not-poses-by-jay-fields/

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Posted in Health, mindfulness meditation, Wisdom, writing, Yoga practice, Yoga teaching 

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“Good at Any Age”

Posted on May 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

 

Tao Porchon-Lynch at 94

Tao Porchon-Lynch at 94

I hope you will allow me a little whinge. I’ve been keeping it to myself for a while but I think it’s about time now to vent a bit.

This is my complaint: I’m tired of the media image of yoga that shows youngish, pretty women (and sometimes attractive youthful men) doing advanced poses in designer clothing.

There. It’s out. Now you know that I can be a judgmental person.

Actually, now that I’m freely expressing, I just realised that it’s not that I resent the young people looking good on Yoga Journal calendars, magazine covers and YouTube videos; it’s just that I find older folks (like me) are underrepresented in the media. I crave seeing images of people of advanced age – and I know there are a lot of them out there – doing yoga.

One benefit of representing aged people in yoga media is that it would give more old folks the space to take up yoga. They might realise that yoga really is for everyone, and they would get the opportunity to experience improvements in all the areas in which yoga excels: flexibility, strength, posture, mental balance and relaxation, to name a few.

For those who are long-term practitioners (like me), our practice would demonstrate how well yoga contributes to health and well-being when it is made a life-long companion. And, I imagine this would be encouraging to young and old alike.

Maybe things are shifting. The Boomer Yogis are making their presence felt. Ultimately though, we know yoga isn’t about photos and film. It’s an individual, inward journey that reveals our true nature.

Still, it’s inspiring words and beautiful images in our culture that often get people onto their mats or meditation cushions, so let’s just get everyone there.

 

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Posted in Health, Wisdom, Yoga practice, Yoga teaching 

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Mother’s Day on Kangaroo Island

Posted on May 14, 2013 | 1 Comment

We’ve just celebrated Mother’s Day this last Sunday, and I believe it was for me one of the most satisfying I’ve experienced.

First of all, I was on Kangaroo Island, spending 4 days in the company of 6 other women who are known for their wisdom, spunkiness and joie de vie. Our ages range from 40′s to late 70′s, so there are grandmothers and grandmothers-to-be in the mix.

Secondly, we women like to set up meaningful rituals, and on this Mother’s Day occasion, sitting around after dinner, we each shared about our mothers. I learned a lot about my friends from how they described their mothers’ lives. For instance, the freedoms we now enjoy were not something to be taken for granted in the last generation. Our mothers did battle for them.

Another thing I saw as I talked about my own mother was how much more compassion and appreciation I have for her from my vantage point of 67 years than I ever did when she was alive. (She died relatively young – just 53.)

Last of all, our Mother’s Day ritual was all the more poignant because, for the first time, we had a young man along on our annual women’s retreat. He’s a handsome 19-year old, who has been experiencing difficulties in his life, for which his mother felt a strong intervention was necessary.

Richard was invited to our table to speak about his mother (seated next to him), which he did with great love and admiration. I could imagine he was speaking on behalf of all sons and daughters anywhere who might speak lovingly of  their mothers.

We asked Richard to sit with us a little longer when he finished to let each of us address the best in him and say the possibilities we saw in him. He listened carefully to our short speeches and did so with dignity and grace. Can you imagine yourself as a teenager hearing and letting in the well-cured love of a host of women you’d known for years and respected. Only a special young person would have the capacity for this sort of  experience.

I think Richard will now go back into his life having been positively contributed to by us. Hopefully he knows  what a gift his presence and receptivity  has been to us. After all, it’s what mothers live for.

Richard

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Posted in community, Healing, Wisdom

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Good Yoga Practice: Time Out for Renewal

Posted on May 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

girlfriends

One of the beautiful things about living in the country and being ‘semi-retired’ is that I have ample time to connect with people.

Sitting down with a cuppa to chat with a friend and not having time constraints – the conversation can go in unexpected directions. Instead of handling business or talking about what one of you needs from the other, you can just let content emerge organically, if you will.

Tomorrow I’m flying to South Australia, then to magnificent Kangaroo Island, to meet up with six dear women friends. We will have three uninterrupted days of telling our stories, bush walking, eating and drinking. We’ll probably do some morning yoga and meditation, also, but sleeping-in is encouraged.

Women can get so busy. I’m not saying men don’t rush around too, but women will often fill every waking moment of every day, with must-do stuff, and then end up having trouble sleeping.

So, I’m looking forward to our annual girlfriends’ reunion because each year I come home having had my mind soothed, body relaxed and heart filled.

If you are not yet semi- or fully retired as yet, and find that your busy life impacts your sleep, you may find this post helpful: Perchance to dream.

Pinterest image: Visit decipheringcait.blogspot.com.au

 

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Posted in Healing, Health, Nature, Yoga practice

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Yoga for a Strong Immune System (and flu shots for insurance)

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

flu shot

zaraillustrates.tumblr.com via Pinterest

Monday I saw my doctor for a flu shot. I know inoculations are not universally sought after, but I’ve been getting the shots for the last few years and have not succumbed to the flu at all.

This year I was swayed to get my shot early by news that in Queensland there have been twice as many confirmed influenza reports as the average of the last 5 years.

It may be that I wouldn’t have gotten the flu anyway as I think my immune system is fairly healthy.

If you want to build your immunity in a completely yogic way, here’s a sequence that comes from B.K.S Iyengar, who, coincidentally was born during the 1918 influenza pandemic. This practice obviously takes some commitment to make time for a morning and an evening practice, and also requires some experience with inversions and longer timings of poses. For those who can’t stay for the specified durations, they may want to use the help of props.

Morning practice:

  1. Uttanasana – 5 min.
  2. Adho Mukha Svanasana – 5 min
  3. Prasarita Padotanasana – 3 min
  4. Sirsansana – 5 min
  5. Viparita Dandasana (on chair) – 5 min
  6. Sarvangasana – 10 min
  7. Halasana – 5 min
  8. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – 5 min
  9. Viparita Karani – 5 min
  10. Savasana with Viloma/Ujjayi pranayama – 10 min

Evening practice: 

  1. Sirsasana – 10 min
  2. Sarvangasana – 10 min
  3. Halasana – 5 min
  4. Setu Bandhasana – 10 min
  5. Savasana with Viloma/Ujjayi pranayama – 10 min

 

 

 

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Posted in Healing, Health, Immunity, Yoga practice, yoga sequence

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Yoga: When the Phone is Ringing, It Helps You Connect

Posted on April 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

Rehab

Judy is in a rehabilitation centre at the moment ‘finding her legs’, as she is 15 days out from double hip replacement surgery. She is a veteran yogi and also trained as a yoga teacher, and probably has about 35 years of Iyengar yoga under her belt.

Judy’s doing another kind of training now with the physiotherapists at Hunters Hill Private Hospital. These stalwart practitioners run the residential patients through their paces and are both caring and strict – tough love, you could call it.

I was in the same facility as Judy over 3 years ago, and I noticed how much difficulty the majority of patients had doing their exercise routines. It wasn’t simply the problem of learning to walk again with a new knee or hip. It was more basic than that. Many of these people couldn’t connect with their bodies to make them do what was expected of them.

Imagine the phone is ringing and not being able to find it to answer. The physios would give the patient an instruction and he or she couldn’t understand or might misunderstand what was required – making re-training the muscles a long and tiring process. Some people gave the routines only a half-hearted attempt, just to please the physios, and their exercises became less effective.

Sometimes we take for granted the benefits we get from yoga: an upright posture which helps us to breathe properly; attention to breath which helps create optimum energy; and, a sensitive awareness that lets us connect the mind with the breath and the body.

When we are well we may not fully appreciate our good health, and that’s human nature. It’s when we are coming back from illness, injury or surgery that we can take advance of the investment we’ve made in our regular yoga practice.

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Posted in anatomy, Healing, Health, Hip Surgery, Yoga practice, Yoga Therapy

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Cutting Back Those Tiny Twinges

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

How do you know what yoga to practice, or, if you’re teaching, how do you know what to teach?

One answer is: read your body. Another is – read the seasons.

At the moment we’ve been doing autumn gardening – cutting back vegetation and hauling full wheelbarrows across our property to compost. This has taken a toll on my back and hips, and I’ve experienced tiny twinges of sciatic pain.

I knew that early treatment with the right sequence of poses would sort me out and so it has. I’ve taught my students the same sequence this week, as in this perfect weather, everyone has been out doing their seasonal pruning, as well.

Here are some of the poses from the sequence. Use a block held between the thighs to help internally rotate them, and to widen the sitting bones:

Tadasana – Mountain pose

Urdhva Hastasana – Tadasana with arms overhead Urdhva Hastasana

Baddha Hastasana – Tadasana with hands interlocked, arms overhead

Paschima Baddha Hastasana – Tadasana with arms folded behind back

Adho Mukha Svanasana – Down-ward facing dog pose

Uttanasana – Forward fold pose

Other helpful poses are:

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana – Standing leg stretches

Supta Padangusthasana – Floor leg stretches Supta Padangustasana A

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Posted in gardening, Healing, Health, Yoga practice, Yoga teaching , Yoga Therapy

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How Elders Thrive and Not Just Survive

Posted on April 18, 2013 | 1 Comment
Shedders - 9/06

Shedders – 9/06

Ten years ago, almost to the date, we six seniors held a meeting with flip chart and textas with the intention of generating a vision of another way of doing retirement and old age. Let’s face it – prospects of living in retirement villages or moving to the country sans old friends are less than appealing.

So, today is a very auspicious anniversary because our dream has been realised.

Not that we are old yet. Oldish. Still under 70-years.

Over a decade, we bought a property, built a house to accommodate three couples, and retired from the city and the jobs we had at the time. And, embarked on new lives.

One of us,  Heather, wrote a book about our experience called Shedders. She subtitled it How Six Urban Revolutionaries Rewrote the Manual on Retirement. Partly she was fulfilling her dream of being a published author.

At the moment we have two Sydney-siders staying with us who are part of a group just starting out inventing their vision of what ‘co-housing’ could look like for them. There are any number of people who have read Heather’s book and been inspired to think about and manifest living communally.

It’s not for everyone. But I guess you could say I’m a tribal person and I’m thriving on living this way. However, even the introverts in our group have total freedom to be alone and private when they want.

Each of us Shedders is going ahead in different ways (forwardment, if you will) than we did when we were working in the city and raising families.

As a long-time yoga practitioner, I find there’s something yogic about what we are doing in this stage of our lives. We are supporting each other in what our individual dharmas are – what we can achieve with our accumulated wisdom and experience. And, there’s more chance of us being successful and satisfied because of the strength of the group.

“I believe that the community – in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures – is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms.
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

 

 

 

 

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Posted in city life, community, Health, Wisdom

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Remedial Yoga in a Holistic Context

Posted on April 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

ViparitaKarani

In this morning’s yoga class there were six students: one with a pinched neck nerve, one with a strained rotator cuff, one with dodgy knees, one with an arthritic ankle and elbow tendonitis, one with a sore back, and one ‘normal’ (at least for the time being).

In looking at a group ‘remedially’, I saw a collection of ailments. Looking through the holistic lens of yoga, I saw students who are totally fit to practice yoga according to their ability.

For my money, I believe everyone should adapt yoga according to their individual needs and constitution. The teacher who uses this approach has more demands on her than if she were conducting a class where everyone is doing the same routine. It takes skill, knowledge and intuition to teach to individuals, and probably is best done in one-to-one sessions.

Not all can afford private lessons, so we teachers do our best to skill up so we can accommodate and give value to the students in public classes.

Here’s a few things that I’ve found helpful for teaching to individuals even in a mixed class:

  1. Student information. Have a complete, up-to-date form on each student.
  2. Attendance sheets. In a comment column, make any notes that will help you remember current injuries/conditions with which the student presents.
  3. Teamwork. Have a circle of practitioners you are acquainted with who you might suggest to the student if they need an interdisciplinary approach to a problem, i.e. doctors, acupuncturists, masseurs, physiotherapists. Some students may need a thorough assessment plus images.
  4. Professional development. Yoga teachers need to keep learning. If you are going to teach remedially you need to be qualified to do this. Practice what you learn on yourself first so the new knowledge has been consolidated before instructing others.
  5. Be inclusive. Students don’t like to be singled out in class for special treatment. Nevertheless, with sensitivity and diplomacy (and sometimes humour), you can allow the student to still feel part of the group.
  6. Yoga ethics. Practice these yoga ideals to keep yourself on the straight and narrow: ahimsa (non-injury), satya (truthfulness, brahmacharya (continence), samtosa (contentedness), isvara pranidhana (devotion)

When we teachers are mindful of the aim of yoga – the harmonious development of the whole person, that is body, mind and spirit – we are most likely teaching to our highest level of ability.

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Posted in Healing, Health, Philosophy, Wisdom, Yoga practice, Yoga teaching , Yoga Therapy

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What’s the Invisible Ingredient That Yoga Schools Offer?

Posted on April 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

 

I think yoga schools miss the crucial bit of information in their advertising that explains why yoga class attendance can be so enticing. It’s not because of building a body beautiful. And not because all stresses will be dissolved in the arms of savasana (yoga relaxation) at the end of each class. And, it’s not even because any annoying ailments or injuries with which you arrived will miraculously be cured by doing yoga postures.

The thing that is so enrolling about good yoga schools is invisible, in a way. It happens over time, but doesn’t even take that long.

It makes you feel good about yourself, the school, the teachers, and yoga.

You encounter it in other domains in your life, potentially many of them. And, this special thing gives meaning, purpose, and direction.

I was thinking about this special thing as I was teaching my class yesterday evening in the Yoga Shed, as I watched people chatting at the beginning of the session, setting up their mat-stations.

I was thinking about it as I (apparently) lost control of the group at various junctions when amusing comments were made – some by myself, some by others – demonstrating the importance of levity in yoga teaching.

I especially noticed it at the end of the class, when people slowly, peacefully roused themselves from savasana, then sat with hands in namaste and connected in the spirit of good will, silently.

Of course the thing I’m talking about is community and being a yoga family.

 

 

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Posted in community, Health, pleasure, Yoga teaching 

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