Yoga students give me their light.

“He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.”-Confucious

Daya Yoga, Ridgewood

The Zen of Running

I am trying to run. Actually I do run. But I am trying to run...well? Meaning I am trying to run and enjoy it and not hate it so much! In the past I have never really run for more than 3 miles so I decided to make a running "schedule" about a month ago and have stuck to it pretty well! Last week I finally got to my 4 miles -breaking 3 was a big deal. Since then I have only done it 2 other times but I'm slowly but surely working on it. Kim Kardashian has been extremely helpful in this as I watch Keeping up with the Kardashians while on the treadmill -Kardashian Dash if you will. My goal is an hour or 6 miles...but to be able to handle it every day at some point.

This whole running thing is a big mental challenge for me. First of all I get mentally obsessed -which was the reason for not being able to break 3 miles -I get bored and then convince myself I'm tired, my ankle feels weird, my legs hurt too much, I might get shin splints, etc. I keep looking at the time on the treadmill and 1 or 2 minutes is just torturous! HOW DO PEOPLE STAY ON A TREADMILL FOR AN HOUR?! Also when do your legs stop feeling so friggin sore? So that is the second part of the mental challenge -I'm not even running but I am thinking about my calves being tight and sore -when does it stop? Should I rest tomorrow or do a short run? If I do too many short runs will that make it hard to do 4 miles again? What is this stupid conversation I am having with myself about running all about? Why don't I just stop the conversation and run instead? Yes -good idea.

OK so besides Kim Kardashian, I also have Yoga -duh. So I can't do alternate nostril breathing while running, but I started using the mantra -Om nama shivaya along with the Chakras and there I am feeling all light, mentally letting go of my weird running conversation that goes no where, and just getting it done instead. Thank you, yoga and thank you, Kim. Stay tuned for progress on my running!

Kardashian dashing

Y'all need to read this book!

Healing through your ears!

I know you don't think this looks likes healing...but it is!!! Auricular Acupuncture is the SHIZZZ yo.

If you want to try some FREE auricular acupuncture come to Pacific College on Monday June 24th and July 1 from 6-8pm, 5th floor.

Liberation!

See me on the Jai Blog!

Playfulness part II: movement

Next time you're in a Yoga class let go of your ideas of shapes and poses. Feel your joints and limbs, shake them out, rotate them. How often do we take the time to notice our joints? Notice if you're crunching them or jamming them, see if you can make space in them, make your limbs feel longer. Make space in your body and breath into those spaces. Our joint spaces are a common place for things to get "stuck". If we can pay attention to giving them some love and space we can have happier joints and be less achy!

In downward dog, lift one leg and rotate your hip, knee and ankle. Feel how all 3 joints relate to one another. In cat/cow asana you can rotate your hips and your shoulders, move your body in circular motions. In side angle pose feel the top arm reach up and over and then rotate the whole arm making circles around your face. Try one of these!

Everything is new

We often look to gain experience, gain status, gain labels, gain money, gain love. Gain is such a common theme but we forget to look at things with new points of view and live in our present moment. This can allow us to be more playful in life and therefore able to discover new abilities and experiences. Newness is hard to come by -as each day passes we further ourselves away from our true nature and forget playfulness.

last day at Ananda

Offerings at Ananda Ashram

Expanding your consciousness

Going inward and getting in touch and in balance with ourselves is a common meditation practice. Expanding your consciousness is the next step. Notice your relationships with your surroundings. Can you harmonize your energy to expand into the room you're meditating in? And then expand out to the neighborhood, city, state and country? Can you expand your consciousness to encompass the entire Earth? Can you expand to the galaxy and out to the universe? This is not an easy practice so don't feel discouraged if it causes anxiety for you, even. Can you get your energy still and steady so that it does not cause you anxiety? It's difficult to encompass more than you, but being able to connect to nature can create better healing and balancing in your body.

Imagine a magnetic field that is just 3 inches around your body. Feel the white light that surrounds you and expand it out to the sides of the room. Feel how your body is held in this space and the surface that hold the space in. Feel your seat on the ground and feel your crown being held up. Feel expansion.

Progress

Nothing beats seeing the progress in your Yoga practice. Sometimes you hate your yoga, until its over and THEN you feel great. Or you don't feel like you're progressing fast enough, you still can't touch your toes, "everyone else" can do jump forwards or your scorpion is still 5 years in the making. All of these things come with time. Although its great for us to set goals that we want to reach its also important to remember that yoga is not based on a reward system. The practice itself is the purpose and if you will, the reward. Being consistent in the practice and being present with it is when we can really start to reap the benefits of Yoga. We can't win at Yoga but we can allow it to let us feel awesome.