Nourishing Ourselves

Another installment on the blessings of a meditative mindset...

Last week I led a retreat on Long Island on the beautiful grounds of Planting Fields Arboretum.  The picture above is just a tiny slice of life from their main greenhouse.  Before we gathered in the room I'd set up for our yokibics movement and meditation program, we opened our day in the greenhouse, quietly moving through the different rooms, observing the blooming orchids, the shedding dahlias, the thorny and majestic cactus...feeling the humidity and breathing in the smells that surrounded us.  We participated with conscious awareness in the knowledge that our retreat had begun in the simplest of ways, and it could be nothing special without our full participation and awareness.

It was grand!

Lately I've been noticing more and more of what isn't so grand - weird expressions of "guilt" about being able to stop and smell the roses, as if we are stealing time from more important endeavors - as if we need to do it in secret.  This seems to be combining with an increased amount of pressure from the outside world to get going lickety split! 

I wonder when the pendulum swung so definitively in this direction that it feels normal to be stressed?

I especially love to watch the folks who play the "green light game" as if their lives depended on it.  You know the ones.  You're in your car stopped at a light and your attention wanders out the window for just a moment as you take a breath and look around.  The light turns green and as you bring your gaze back and begin the action to accelerate ... BEEEEEEEPPPPPP!!

Not quick enough apparently.  

Perhaps we need more coffee.  And 5-hour energy drinks. And don't forget the Pepsid...

For those of us at Planting Fields, each one described a feeling of deep satisfaction through the simple act of receiving fully what was already there. 

Once out in daily life, we continue to have the opportunity to nourish ourselves every day through what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell - for nourishment truly is the issue at hand.

One of my favorite topics for illustrating this is to consider the experience of conscious eating.  

In order to get a feel for conscious eating, try the following exercise as you imagine yourself sitting down to a delicious meal...

Relax your body. Unclench and unwind your legs, arms, belly, jaw, neck, back and face.

Deepen your breath… 

When you slow your breath you slow down time.  The meal in front of you is here for you to savor and enjoy.  

Notice if you feel rushed, “starved”, or ready to get going.  Focus instead on your readiness to nourish your body, mind and spirit.  Only your mind says “hurry now and eat…”

You need not have a lot of time; merely the sensation that you have all the time you need.  Slow your inhale, and enjoy this pause in your day. 

Exhale, and let go of all the thoughts and stresses you brought into this moment. …  If there is some aggravation you need to release, do it now before your meal. 

Focus your attention on the ease, family, and friendship surrounding this meal.  It doesn’t matter if you are alone or with others.  You are the favored guest! 

Center on what pleases you. Treat yourself well.  Allow yourself to generate a feeling of appreciation…relax even more deeply.

Lastly, feel your connection to the food you are going to eat, and acknowledge the nutritive value of your meal.

Take another deep breath, and smile.

Approach the nourishing moments in front of you with this frame of reference and you will be well on your way to a happier, more loving, more self-fulfilled you.

How can you find more roses in your day??

Meditate Schmeditate!

That's what I often hear when people who are so, so busy start to talk about their priorities.

Meditate?? Are you kidding? Who has time for that?!

I have a different take.  I think meditation is the biggest, grandest, most effective and efficient time saver in the Universe.

No joke.

All my life I've made use of the opportunity to create and teach what most inspires me - and at this point the inspiration list is pretty long!  Sometimes a great teacher can trigger a need in me to simply explore new territory and exchange results.  Sometimes a world event - like the recent oil spill - informs my choice of a workshop topic or audio program as I relate to the deep societal call to find our power amidst disempowering events.  Then there are other times when the simplicity of a fabulous piece of music inspires an entire block of new Yokibics moves and ways to co-create with the bodymind energy we have all been graced with.

Always and ever though, does one single concept come round and round as the motherlode of all teachings for me, as the quality of life gained from the experience is literally beyond explanation. Meditate.

It's one of those "you've gotta experience this one for yourself" kinds of things.

Part of the Eight-limbed tree of Yoga, meditation and it's pre-cursor concentration are called  Dharana and Dhyana, with epic volumes devoted to their care and practice.

I remembering hearing Marianne Williamson speak on the subject and she smilingly ticked off all sorts of examples where "meditate" was the prescribed balm.  The seeker goes to the top of the mountain to hear the word of God.  God says "meditate." The student goes to the guru to ask the meaning of life. The guru says "meditate." The anguish of a mother who, while mourning the loss of her child goes to her spiritual guide to ask why life contains such sorrow, and the guide after consoling her says "meditate."

My own exerience informs me every single day why the answer "meditate" is so very powerful. Primarily meditation is a PROCESS rather than a fixed answer that can change and vanish as life evolves - and life is a process of ever moving and unfolding moments in a wave we can ride successfully or get trounced by.

Last week a student asked me how I came by the name "Yokibics" and after owning it for almost 30 years, I had the vision of it as clear as the day it came - a double seater airplane crossing the screen of my mind while in meditation, followed by a banner proclaiming the name.  I didn't "think it up" but rather I received it while waiting for it to arrive.

Ahhhh - waiting for it to arrive.

There is ease in that...

and a sort of patience demanded.

A couple of years ago I had a nasty keritosis on my back - the kind of "pre-cancerous" itchy thing that can worry the life out of a person and usually get cut off, which I have already had happen to others spots just like it.  Sinking into my deepest self I literally "knew" that a blend of essential oils would be benificial to me.  I heard the list inside my mind like directions.

This time it was not a vision, but rather a voice.

My body received the mixture of oils like the perfect antidote - and 5 weeks later no more spot.  Others have asked me for my recipe - many others at this point - and with some tweaking and a fair amount of research on how to create a base creme for delivery, it has become a Yokibics Monkey Creme Personal Care Product - "use it to get those monkeys off your back!"

What a gift!

I have had many more like these two pivotal experiences in meditation... many more. 

Sometimes the gifts are dramatic. Sometimes they are so subtle as to be almost missed.  A quiet moment of insight can shift everything...a reflective moment of caring can open the floodgate of tears withheld, and bring the refreshment of new beginnings. 

The certitude of a path that feels like a slippery slope when the worry mind is at work can apprears as an oasis of calm in meditation.

These are the gifts of meditation that cannot be bought or demanded.

There are plenty of places where you can get information about techniques and styles and support for the journey.  I will write about more of them here on this blog in my upcoming posts. 

For today it is my simple intention to share some of the gifts of the journey.  Once embraced, the "how-tos" will simply fall into place.

I invite you to close your eyes for a moment when you finish this post, and stay for a minute - or five - before you move into your next activity or thought.  Stay a while and feel the quiet place of your own receptivity.

This is a powerful place, and it already exists inside of you.

Befriend it now and you can rely on it forever.

blessings and grace to you,
Gael
Author and Spoken Word Artist

Photo credit: Bob Alba

Come join me!

Are you eager to participate in a live Yokibics workshop?  I am grateful to offer the opportunity and happy to begin my "year of the road trip" as I embrace opportunities to flow and travel.  The offerings here and now are just the beginning - I'll keep you posted as we broaden our range!

Our website at Yokibics 

offers information and easy registration in the

EVENTS Sign Up link (left sidebar)

Florida, Pennsylvania and New York are on my schedule now.  California and the West Coast in the fall. Costa Rica after that with information coming soon.  Is there a special location you would like to see me create a training or an event? Come play...

Meanwhile, contemplate this from the wise one Rumi, who believed of the mystical path:

"In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations."

May this be so for all of us as we grow in wisdom and knowledge.  I greet you on the path.

Namaste

Gael

Does anyone know the meaning of yoga?

Have any of you been following the huge new (ish) movement to redefine yoga these days?  I'm seeing all sorts of folks changing it up at will and fighting for the privelige - and others hanging on to traditional systems like their lives depended on it.  Leave it to us Westerners to take something sacred and ancient and make it our own.  This is the one thing that perhaps we can all agree on if you start looking at all of the dissention about what "it" actually is.  Innovators innovate, that's for sure!

In my role as Yoga Therapist and founder of Yokibics Mindbody Fitness, I am currently being interviewed for an article on some of the new yoga fusion programs.  The writer wants my expert opinion on what's what. Oh boy. She has been re-contacing me to tweak this comment and that - and to tell you the truth I find I am actually delighted to enter the fray on such a broad and timely subject since I've been taken with reading much of the hubbub and controversy that arrives in my daily news feed.

Here's what I commented to the question "what is the meaning of yoga in a yoga-fusion class - and who qualifies and who doesn't?"

(cue up the theme from Jeopardy...)

OK -  my take on it is this - the good news is simply that the topic itself "the meaning of yoga" is so controversial it is sure to get a rise from readers - which brings attention to the subject of yoga at all.

If you haven't tuned into elephant journal (out of Boulder CO - birthplace of all things new age and hippie :) that's one place where you too can subscribe and see what their bloggers are constantly arguing about - some tongue in cheek, some just cheeky - in addressing who is right and who is wrong and who is full of the most hot air...and what a modern definition of yoga might be.  The conclusions are allllll over the place from hot-body-sexy-chick-never-say-ohm types, to Bikram and his tribe, to traditionalists who are surely moaning as I write.

Given that - for me - and I am certain of what "for me" is - the meaning of yoga would signify the essence of "to yoke the powers of body, mind and spirit."

If one or another of the parts to that three legged stool goes MIA in anyone's class, then perhaps it's time to find another definition.  "Asana" is one of the eight aspects of yoga and signifies the purely physical part of practice for example and nobody has to imagine it to be anything more or less - but the essence of yoga itself includes and addresses body-mind and spirit as part of the equation.

Another question was "how is meditation related to yoga?"

According to the ancient texts of Patanjali there are eight limbs (aspects) to the practice of yoga.  Like a tree, yoga embodies each of the eight limbs equally. Meditation ("Dhyana") is the aspect of yoga that invites the practitioner to witness the difference between their ego self and their essential self - and to be in contact with the essential self through observing and stilling the wandering mind. Wiki says " In Dhyana, the meditator is not conscious of the act of meditation (i.e. is not aware that s/he is meditating) but is only aware that s/he exists (consciousness of being), and aware of the object of meditation."

A practical example exists in my classes as we continually breathe through the presence of meaning in every action we create. We allow meditative moments to flow throughout our physical practice. Being brought to conscious awareness in this way allows the mind the actual experience of observing - and releasing - negative self-talk, comparative thinking, one-upmanship, imperfect body "stinkin' thnkin'" and all manner of upsetting mind filling junk. 

Just like a good teacher needs to correct someone who is butchering an exercise movement - hopefully so they don't kill someone, especially themselves! - so too will a good "yoga" teacher bring attention to the thought processes that don't belong through the discipline of a meditative mind.

Well, my interviewer is off to write what she writes - and I'm sure she's having a heck of a time putting it all together with what everyone else is coming up with besides. 

For more of My Take check out my new e-book 40 Simple Steps to The Eight Limbs of Yoga online.

Now I want to know - what do you think?

Cheerio!

Retreat Yourself

Busy days...

30 years of taking and teaching yoga. Memories of retreats in scores of places, both attended and facilitated. Some of my personal favorites? My home venue - solo.  I worked it out no matter how - kids at grandmas - hubby on a trip with friends - whether 1/2 day or more, give whatever you can (I've been fortunate and routinely give myself seasonal multi-day silent yoga staycations.)

Some high points to share for an awesome experience: 

* clean your home and have all  fresh linens * turn off the computer and phone and feel your home like a peaceful breath. * fetch your all-time favorite music out of hiding and play it day and night. * go to the library and fill up on sacred books that are calling your name and have them ready to peruse. * scrub your tub or shower and have all your self-care stuff set out and available. * plate fresh fruit and have pitchers of fresh ginger water just waiting for you to enter the room. * roll out your mat and keep it out * candles * journal * quiet evening walks * views to ponder * letters to friends * meditations...

* create a collage of your highest vision as you re-member who you are in the simplicity of where you stand...

hoooooommme.

There's no place like it.

love, blessings and namaste :)
gael

A Controversial Diary of a Yogi

My friend Tom asked me recently why he doesn't get down on his mat anymore even though he loves yoga.

I think a lot of people feel that way when it comes to all sorts of things that are good for them.

Mostly we are told to get some discipline.  Stay the course.  Hire a trainer. Watch a video.  Buddy up with someone.  Develop a routine. Not bad, all these suggestions, and they certainly can work to alter our behaviors. Isn't it true that the disciplined yogi - the accomplished athlete - the distance runner - is better off?

Isn't it?

I had to think for a minute what kind of support I could give my friend, and in offering something to him, I referenced what it is for me to honor my body even when I don't "feel " like doing my routines anymore.

I clearly recognized that most of the time I just go ahead and give myself the rest.

That's right, I rest, recover, recuperate, relax, retire, and acquiesce more or less completely to my resistance.

Now I know this is not the popular party line. A couple of decades in the fitness industry didn't fail to leave an impression. :) Take a look at the iconic Nike slogan making all sorts of waves pushing us to "just do it" and everybody numbly nodding their heads.  

It doesn't seem reasonable for a teacher, a practitioner, dare I say a mentor in the field to say go ahead, don't do it... 

But I am saying that. 

The operative here is what's really going on when you don't feel like doing what is supposedly so good for you to do.

A few years ago when I was in the midst of huge life altering events I suspended my yoga practice.  That's right - suspended it altogether after 30 non-stop years.  Now why do that you might ask, when it would seem to be the single most needed anchor in the midst of so much challenge and change?

I did it because I needed to go in the direction of change - and I needed to do it body, mind and soul.  

It is an amazing thing to be without almost all of your familiar reference points and habits.  Life can open dramatically and you can open into it in thoroughly new and unexpected ways.  Taking days - weeks - even years off from an activity that doesn't inspire you can be healthy and wise.  Mind you, this is not the same as becoming an advocate for sloth, yet I have found there is rarely much glory is doing what is not wanted, or in refusing to listen, as if "staying the course" must be preferable to the "cease and desist" message blinking away in our consciousness.

Take therapy for example.  How many people do you know that are still seeing their therapist? Month after month - year after year.  You get a clue to the attachment in the language itself: "I'm seeing my therapist..."

My my my my my. What's the matter with us?  When did we forget that therapy is meant to be like a boat ferrying us from one shore to another...we are supposed to get out on the other side. Go! Live! Prosper!

Often the attachment we have to familiarity and the routine of a thing that is good for us can mask the need for wholehearted change.  It can take real courage to see ourselves hiding out in the weeds of the known, doing things that are "right" rather than diving into new territory. It's an (almost) foolproof method of staying stuck.  And who in their right mind will call you out on it? After all, "it's good for you!"

One of the first books on yoga I ever read was by Bubba Free John and it was called The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace.  Hefty book that, with all sorts of new thought at the time, but the thing I remember most from it was the idea that the mat is just the mat.  The practice is the practice.  As much as we need a practice so we can grow into our best selves, in the end we are meant to BE that very self without the practice that gets us there.

Now that's an idea...

So back to the mat and the nitty gritty.

Toms problem wasn't that he had stopped his yoga practice.  That was just the symptom of something else.  Tom had disconnected from nourishing himself altogether. What Tom needed was inspiration and a thread of desire to keep him connected to what felt good for his body.

I offered him my own recipe of walks, nourishing food with lots of water, and abdominal work.  Yup, that's the holy trinity for me. Ab crunches particularly make me feel alive.  150 at a time to be exact.  Like brushing my teeth, it is a simple part of my daily - and desired - routine.

During my own separation from the mat, the crunches kept me in touch with my body as a strong physical vehicle, the healthy food and hydration an honorable gift throughout my hiatus, and the changes that were occurring in my life kept on changing.   Many an aspiring yogi will stay on the mat rather than change his heart, his habitat, his relationship or his job, all the while convincing himself that the practice and the sweat and the accomplishment leads to growth while actually the box is getting tighter and smaller and more form fitting by the day.

The inspiration to embody my physical form never left.  My own threads of desire were found walking among the trees and beside the river and around the winding blocks of my new neighborhood.  The song of my soul never quieted - just the venue for it's expression.  If I had forced myself to the mat I would have been focusing on the wrong item. More important was to keep my aliveness sacred, however it appeared.

As I let myself be and the sands settled, lo and behold the mat beckoned me again, only now it is different. More free.  Less self-conscious.  I have brought my self to the practice rather than the practice defining me.

The less of it now is so much more.

As for Tom, he reported a new appreciation of his vitality with the lighter vegetarian fare he's been eating. What started with my pea soup recipe and my husband Bob's thin crust pizza has expanded.  The crunches have given him a sense of embodiment and the walks offer time he shares with his wife.  For him, the mat is right around the corner as his desire for it grows.

Whether you are beginning a new physical practice, maintaining one you enjoy, or letting something go, the growth you seek will be found in your willingness to change in the direction of your true heart's desire.

Develop yourself

Appreciate your body.

Find what makes you happy.

Engage rather than force.

Be "one with" rather than power over.

Disconnect from needing and move toward embracing

Nourish yourself

Nourish your desire.

Love yourself and say so - in the mirror. 

Best of all, keep smiling.

Let me know how it goes.

namaste :)

Simple Steps; #20 Alternate Nostril Breath

Pranayama invites balance.

Our right nostril is energetically associated with our body's heating energy, symbolized by the "Sun" and the syllable HA.

Our left nostril with our body's cooling energy, symbolized by the "Moon" and the syllable THA.

For the average person these energies are typically in conflict, which leads to disquiet and disease. The goal of traditional Hatha Yoga is to integrate and harmonize HA and THA for happiness and health.

The purpose of alternate-nostril breath is to create balance by "warming" a "cool" body-mind and vice versa.

Todays Simple Step

Sit upright in a comfortable position and slow your thoughts and your breath pattern. Relax...

Using the middle finger and thumb of your preferred hand, block your left nostril lightly and inhale through your right.

Pause gently...

Close the right nostril and exhale through the left.

Pause gently...

Reverse the instructions and inhale through your left nostril...pause... exhale through your right...pause.

Continue for 1 to 5 minutes.

Affirm your ability to balance yourself, living healthy and well.

This is your simple step.

Till next time...
oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm

Simple Steps: #19 Breath of Fire!

The limb of yoga called Pranayama is the measuring, control and directing of the breath, and breath of fire is one of the most powerful techniques in the arsenal of purification.

Since the practice produces the actual physical sensation of heat (called tapas or the inner fire of purification,) as the yogi follows the proper rhythmic patterns of breathing he/she will strengthen the respiratory system, soothe the nervous system, and reduce cravings.

The mind is then set free to become a proper vehicle for concentration and meditation.

Check out the benefits of this breath skill that includes:

• Cleanses the sinuses and lungs
  
• Keeps the lungs supple
  
• Strengthens the diaphragm
  
• Develops belly muscles
  
• Stimulates the brain! (We could all use that)

I have adapted the general technique as follows, but if you feel unfamiliar with it you can refer to Yoga Journal for more information.

Kapalabhati, or fire breathing consists of alternating short, explosive exhales and slightly longer, passive inhales. Exhales are generated by powerful contractions of the lower belly (between the pubis and navel), which push air out of the lungs. Inhales are responses to the release of this contraction, which sucks air back into the lungs.

Fire breath is done through the NOSE!

Focus on your lower belly. Many beginners aren't able to isolate and contract this area. If needed, cup one hand lightly in the other and press them gently against your lower belly.

Now quickly contract your lower belly, pushing a burst of air out of your lungs. Then quickly release the contraction, so the belly "rebounds" to suck air into your lungs. Pace yourself slowly at first. Repeat eight to 10 times at about one exhale-inhale cycle every second or two.

As you become more adept at contracting/releasing your lower belly, you can increase your pace to about two exhale-inhale cycles every second. Imagine the exhale sweeping out or "brightening" the inner lining of your skull.

Do 25 to 30 cycles at first. Gradually increase the number of cycles you do each practice to 100 or more. Stop if you feel dizzy.

Todays Simple Step

Like me, I hope you fall in love with this breath!

I have found it to be strengthening, centering and powerful.

Practice, practice, practice...

and ask yourself...

What do you do with your fire?

How do you need to manage it?

What gets - and keeps - you inspired?

What energizes you - and does it have genuine health benefits??

Just for today, see if you can call on breath of fire to energize your day - and substitute one minute of breath of fire for your "less than optimal" habits and routines.

This is today's simple step.

Till next time...

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhmmmm

Photo credit: GCA "Touching the Sun" by Bob Alba

Simple Steps: #18 Deep Belly Breath

When you think of your "center" where do your thoughts go?

For the martial artist, the center of the body is called tan tien, for the bodyworker it is hara, for the breath practitioner, it is the lower belly. All roads lead to Rome...

The simple step of belly breathing truly is simple - yet it has the possibility to change your life.

Feelings can get trapped inside of us when they don't have a vehicle for movement. We hold on tight...we hold our breath. This habit can last a lifetime, and affect every moment of our relating as we become more and more constrained.

As the practice of pranayama brings mind-body-spirit into deep communion, a deep belly breath practice brings a freedom to held emotions that is healing on all levels of your interactions.

Todays Simple Step

Take a few minutes to relax and quiet down.

Close your eyes and place your hands on your lower belly.

Breathe in and allow your belly to expand so that you can feel it with your hands....belly first and then lungs. Imagine a balloon filling with your belly becoming round and full as you slowly inhale.

Pause - then as you slowly exhale, let your belly flatten.

Once you get the feel for the movement, allow your waist, back and chest to expand with each breath, always allowing the belly to fill first.

Today allow this practice into as many practical areas of your life as you possibly can.

Belly breathe at every stoplight, during every TV commercial, between every call, after every email.

Wherever and whenever you can, incorporate this practice and watch the results. Don't be surprised if long held feelings move through you. The breath, like a breeze, can carry them away.

Till next time...

oooooooohhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm