Day 15: Not Much New…

I didn’t sleep well last night – extremely unusual for me. (I use to say I slept like a baby. Then I had one – they don’t sleep that well!) So I slept a bit later and skipped my morning practice. I taught a couple of classes tonight so I did quite a bit of yoga. I am off to do my evening of forward folds and then Savasana. Good night!

Day 13 and 14: Surrender…Surrender…Surrender…

I was feeling burned out on the computer yesterday so I decided not to do anything on it for the evening (usually when I post). Then, I decided I would at least do my woyopracmo post because, well, I should do it, and wouldn’t you know! It was the same moment the site was down for upkeep. The Universe was out to help me release my control. I bet everyone survived without my post as well.

So, yesterday I taught a class for teachers. I do it once a month and it is such fun! We work on poses as teachers and break them down in ways I don’t do in regular asana classes. I also got up extra early to do my own japa and meditation practice beforehand. Before bed I did my forward folds and Savasana.

Today I slept in and it was glorious! Being the last one up I chose to forgo my morning practice. I taught today and will be doing my evening forward folds and Savasana. Sorry so short and sweet. Must go do yoga…

Day 12: Celebration Craze

(I am tracking my yoga practice for the month of january for World Yoga Practice Month. You can read each day about what I did that day!)

I was up super early again today. I had an 8:30 class and I was up at 6 am to fit in my japa and meditation and boy am I glad I did! When I got home this afternoon, I had an experience of comic relief (something that other parents will appreciate especially.) First of all, I was deeply exhausted. You know the kind of fatigue, the-I’ve-really-had-enough–and-I-just-need-a-bath-and-12-hours-of-sleep kind. Only your kids need you and have been waiting by the door for you to come home to spend the rest of the day with you and your husband is already out the door to take a break, uh, I mean errands, before you have your shoes off.

I knew that when I came home my job was to make brownies for a family celebration. I have an extremely easy brownie recipe so I didn’t think much of it even in my fatigue. It would be an easy 20-minute job. Only my son was melting down because he was hungry so the first 60 minutes of my time at home was spent coaxing him to eat. Then I realized that I didn’t have the chocolate I needed for the recipe so I called my “errand running” husband (who was eating at Big Bowl when I reached him! ☺ ) to buy some and bring it home. Once I got the brownies in the oven, we began the frosting. (Yep, I forgot this part. Brownies are a treat but frosting makes it a celebration!) I made the frosting and then discovered that the celebratory boy wanted “rainbow” color. Since I homeschool, I am always looking for a way to sneak in a lesson so I agreed that we could make several different colors of frosting, mixing different combinations of food coloring. Out came four bowls, the craft table cloth (have you ever tried to get food coloring out of a wooden table?) and we mixed different food colors together into the bowls. Then he decided he wanted to make “cookies” out of the brownies and frost them individually. First I tried a drinking glass to “cut” them out only to find the brownies are stuck in there once cut (and it makes a very big mess!). The only thing I could think of to use was the cookie cutter my children use for the play dough. I did wash it quite well and I make my play dough from scratch so it is edible, I still found I didn’t want to share this part with my husband! We finally got the brownies cut out and frosted. I then turned to review the result in my kitchen. You guessed it, chaos. I took a deep breath and plunged in. I pulled out a pyrex container to store the leftovers only to find it was too heavy. It came down on the plate of brownies (squishing them) that were in my other hand then they both landed in a bowl of frosting which promptly broke splattering colored frosting everywhere! I cleaned the kitchen for 15 minutes before I even got to the broken bowl! Once the kitchen was cleaned, I realized it was time to start dinner. If I thought I was tired before…

I am off to forward folds and a lovely Savasana…although I must admit, I am not even going to try to stay awake for this one!

Day Eleven: Surrender

Let me begin by saying I have chosen this year to study the niyama, Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender) in my life. Control is a big one for me and can leave me inflexible, impatient, and certainly not in the flow of what life has planned for me. I have studied surrender often in my life and have let go of much of my control. There is still a bit left and I am ready to leave that bit behind! So, with that introduction, let me tell you about today.

Ironically I had already named this evening’s post “Ramping Up Again” because I had every intention (and plenty of time) to do a lengthy asana practice. I did start the day meditating before I got out of bed (my favorite time) and then planned to do a breathing practice. My family got up with me so instead, I chose to have a lovely morning together with them. It felt so wonderful to fully let go of my plan to be fully with them.

Then, this afternoon, I was running in the house with my kids and backed into the couch leg. I twisted my ankle a bit. It certainly wasn’t serious, at least I didn’t think it was, although I did hear a slight pop and I could see some bruising. So, I sat on the couch and put some ice on it. My son snuggled in next to me and told me it was his job to, “Help mommy feel better.” It was so sweet! He has been wanting to learn about giraffes lately so we popped the tape in of a giraffe special from PBS and snuggled in to watch. When my practice time came up, I chose to stay with him. I knew he needed it (I have been working a lot lately and will be gone much of this weekend – on yoga business, of course!) and I certainly needed it, too! What I am particularly proud of is not only choosing to stay with him but also not feeling an ounce of judgment for not doing my asana practice I had planned. Because there was no judgment, I felt perfectly present with him the entire time. What a gift for both of us!

I am off to do some forward folds and twists and then, of course, my Savasana, before bed. Happy surrender to all of you!

Defining a Yoga Practice

I am a huge supporter of defining yoga as so much more than the physical practice. I also firmly believe that you do not need 90 contiguous minutes of uninterrupted practice to consider yourself a “practicing yogi” (Thank goodness because otherwise I could count on one hand the number of “real” practices I have had since my children were born!) In fact, that is one reason I love yoga so much. It is a way of living, a philosophy, a spiritual path, it is so much more than exercise for the body. Truly I find I am practicing yoga almost all of the time -- a fact I hadn’t realized until a student asked me. She was curious if I had yoga on my mind all the time. I laughed, thinking, “of course not!” Then, only a moment later, I realized that I really do. I might be thinking about a piece of the physical practice, thinking about a pose I am going to teach or write about. I am just as likely to be considering the meaning of a Yoga Sutra in my life or thinking about whether I am breathing or wondering about ahimsa (nonviolence.) So, if you have narrowly defined your yoga practice, loosen up! A practice can be one pose, Tadasana in the shower, a twist in the car, savasana before bed. It could also be learning more about nonviolence. Learn more about what this fabulous art has to offer and expand your definition.

Day Ten: Physical Fatigue

(I am participating in a program called World Yoga Practice Month. I have committed to doing a practice each day in the month of January. Continue following my practice here on my blog.)

I was up early for a client today (I do life coaching) and once again was able to get up a bit earlier to fit in my Japa and meditation session. As I mentioned in my last post, my biggest “work” days are Tuesday night through Thursday afternoon so I always feel a bit spent by now. (I must use quote when I say “work” since it I feel a bit silly calling what I do work.) After two days of many classes, Thursday is usually my physical asana break, although I may do a few forward folds this evening and definitely a Savasana before bed.

Day Nine: Early Wake-up

Not only did I make my private session, I got up even earlier to start my day with a Japa and mediation session. I then taught a four-hour private, came home to spend time with my children and then taught again this evening. I am quite tired. The bulk of my “work” week is from Tuesday night to Thursday afternoon. Since I do late evenings and early mornings, I find by Wednesday night I am plum tuckered out so forgive the brief post. I am off to do a long Savasana and then sleep.

Day Eight: Still Going Strong

I started the day with a breathing session. My son got up with me and I was so grateful he was willing to watch the photos on the computer screen while I listened to my breathing exercises. I taught two classes tonight and I am going to do a looooonnnnnggggg Savasana before bed. I have a really early private session tomorrow (8:00!)

Day Seven: A Day of Yoga

I had a really early private session today (okay, it was at 8:30, that is really early for me! I used to teach aerobics regularly at 6:15 am. I think I am getting a bit soft! ☺) And I got up that early so I could start my day with Japa and meditation. Ahhh…nothing sets the tone for the day like a bit of quiet. Then I taught a private and another class. I did twists in both. It felt so good on Sunday, I wanted to share what had come up for me. Tonight I am going to do some forward folds and a long Savasana before bed…yummy!

January Practice

As part of World Yoga Practice Month (woyopracmo.com), I have committed to practicing and blogging each day in the month of January. I think I will do it in a single blog and just keep editing it so look for this post for my latest practice.

Day Six: Finally, A True Practice

I did it! I actually got on my mat for a total of 60 glorious, uninterrupted minutes! My daughter and husband were taking a nap (both are still feeling under the weather) and my son did puzzles quietly next to my side. I finally got to my twists and I got the zing up my spine! (Thanks Lilalia! ☺) I also woke an hour before my family and fit in a breathing session, some Japa and a meditation. Now I am off to another Savasana and another meditation before bed. I did so much yoga today, I was thinking about how I used to do three-hours every Sunday morning, BK (before kids. Actually, before husband, too.). I was actually thinking about how all of you parents fit in yoga with your family. I would love to hear from you!

Day Five: A Day in Heaven

I just had one of the best days of my life. I woke early, again before the sun, (only this time it was really early – 6 am) to do my Japa and meditation before getting ready for class. I taught then spent the afternoon with my family. Then I spent an absolutely unforgettable evening with the most amazing women. They are a group of students of mine whom I took through an advanced yoga teacher training. We had such a great time in the two-year program we decided to stay together to start a company. We will be beginning with a daily eNewsletter and then moving into many wonderful things. I will keep you posted on this blog. Now I am going to close to do some seated poses and Savasana. Sleep well!

Day Four: Getting Back on Track
Kids are gratefully feeling better, although they were unexplainably grumpy today. I was able to do my breathing practice this morning relatively undisturbed but was unable to get to my twists practice this afternoon. Luckily I remained unattached to it and surrendered to the "higher" plan my children had for me! I am off to a seated forward fold and twists practice and then japa and meditation practice.

Day Three: Everyone felt a bit better today -- after a very rough night (read: "Mom is exhausted!" My husband commented, "Isn't it great they slept so well." After noticing my look, he added, "Or, perhaps, I slept through some parts!") Anyway, I did keep falling back to sleep because after I posted last night I was also able to do 10 minutes of Japa (chanting of a sacred name) and 10 more minutes of meditation and then Savasana. When I go to sleep in a relaxed state, I find I can fall back to sleep when awakened much more quickly. Today I plan the same thing when I sign off. If all goes according to plan (are you laughing yet?) tomorrow I am going to do a long twisting practice!

Day Two: I had an interesting night and day with two very sick kids. I was up for two hours in the middle of night with a feverish child and then held a vomiting one for the afternoon. Did I mention I was studying Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender) for the year? Ask and the Universe provides... I practice breathing deeply and being perfectly present with my very sweet, very sick little ones. When they felt better for a bit in the morning I was delighted my daughter suggested the Yoga Garden Game. Not only could I sit in Upavistha Konasana pose while we played, I was able to throw in a downdog and tree pose as well! I am off to do a Savasana before falling into a restful sleep (between my two, still feverish, little ones!)

Day One: I was up before the sun (not hard to do this time of year -- but doesn't it sound self-sacrificing! :-) ) and did a breathing session and Savasana. Zack was up with me and did a craft project as I breathed. (He interrupted three times to get me to rip tape off the dispenser for him. He was so cute -- he came up and gently whispered in my ear to ask if I was available for a favor.) Then I taught a two-hour workshop on Yoga and Manifesting: Bringing Your Yoga Practice to the Mat. (Fabulous, by the way! I will blog about it later.) When came home, I did a practice for myself focusing on releasing my psoas for Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Facing Bow Pose.)

I Am Ready!

I am so ready to go! I have been waiting for January first to come around. I am teaching a New Year's Day workshop tomorrow (Taking Your New Year's Resolutions to the Mat). I am going to get up extra early to begin my day with Pranayama and meditation. Mmmm...Delicious!

Feel Your Heart

Happy Holidays, everyone! I have a gift for each of you. Here is a visualization I created for consciously feeling your heart and the beautiful love that is there. Have a wonderful holiday!

Love Meditation

Recycling Old Sticky Mats

I just had to share these great tip from a blog I really enjoy: Total-Health-Yoga. Ideas for recycling your yoga mats! Personally, I have three I could recycle. (All but my very first mat -- very attached to that one sentimentally! :-) )

Surrender

One of the things I love so dearly about yoga is there is so much to learn. I will never be done. I am a frequent studier of the Yoga Sutras, especially the yamas (nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, moderation, and non-greed) and the niyamas (purity, contentment, discipline, self-study, and surrender). I have spent time on each one, teaching about them and studying them myself. I have decided to spend 2008 exploring the final one: surrender. As a recovering control addict, I am looking forward to this investigation. I will keep you apprised of what I am learning.

Funny Zacky Story

I was up early this morning to do my breathing practice before my children were up. I often use the podcasts I have on my website (so my own recordings) to guide me in my breathing. So, here I was in the middle of our living room, listening to my own voice talk myself through a breathing series. My four year old son, Zack, woke up and came to find me. My children know that when I am in the middle of a breathing practice they can’t touch me (it throws off the energy balance). So this little cutie snuggled next to me without touching my body at all and rested his face in his hands to watch my screen saver. There he sat for at least 10 minutes, not saying a single word.

That in itself is a cute story, but it gets better! My daughter, Sierra, (6 ½ years), then woke up and came out to find me. She whispered to Zack, “What is Mommy doing?” He replied in the loud whisper of a child, “Whatever she tells herself to do.”

Giving Thanks: And We Get To Eat!

I love Thanksgiving. It is truly my very favorite holiday. A day set aside for us to count our blessings; to realize how wonderful our lives really are. I taught silent classes tonight as a gift to my students. As silent class is one in which I do not speak for the entire class. I demonstrate the pose, then they do them. It is an incredibly power class. Students are drawn into the silence and their minds truly slow down. Savasana in a silent class is deep and wonderful. At the end of class, as we had our palms at our hearts, I spoke of how much I loved the holiday, how much I enjoy a holiday in which the purpose is to feel grateful. Then one of my students piped up with: “And we get to eat!” It was quite amusing. So enjoy your day of gratitude and definitely enjoy the food! Know that I am incredibly grateful that you are out there and reading what I write!

Is Your Practice From Love or Fear?

In my last post, I discussed the difference between motivation (coming from fear) and inspiration (coming from love). When you are doing something with motivation, you are doing it because you are afraid something else will happen if you don’t do it. When you are doing it from inspiration, you are doing it because you are excited about what will happen when you do it. Well, when I learned the difference between the two, I realized my yoga practice was coming from fear. How is that possible, you say? Read on. The genesis of my yoga practice came from all my years of exercising and *eating right* and all the self-discipline that engenders. Goodness! If I went one day without exercise I might get fat or feel depressed or who knows what terrible thing could happen! When I began yoga in earnest, I just transferred all my discipline from exercise to yoga. I think I just didn’ I still loved my yoga practice and thoroughly enjoyed how great I felt throughout it and after, but deep down I knew that I was doing it because I feared what would happen if I did not.

Because my practice was based in fear, it was keeping me from growing. In fact, at that time, I realized my entire personal practice, all the things I was doing in my life for “my own good” were also from fear. If I was going to grow spiritually, my life needed a foundation of love. That was also the time I really got on a deep level that any external control I tried to exert was also from fear and if I was going to release fear in my life, I needed to let go of control. The only way I knew how was to stop doing everything that came from control — my practice. I stopped exercising, doing yoga, meditating, journaling, and watching my food intake. It took me awhile to miss anything. Initially I just felt relief from the time pressure. I had free time and no shoulds for probably the first time in my life. It was incredibly liberating! Then I went through a period of judgment and self-criticism all around the guilt of not doing my practice. I just sat through it and did nothing. I cannot remember how long that stage lasted. I know it was a couple of weeks or so, though. Then I felt done. I was ready to begin inviting things back into my life. I was inspired to take my practice to new places. I only brought in one thing at a time and didn’t do it if the old pattern showed up. I would only do it if it came from an inspired place. Any will power needed and it wasn’t what I wanted for that day.

How did I know it was time? Not sure...I just knew I was ready to pump up my practice and take it to the next level.

Inspiration vs. Motivation

In one of his books, one of my favorite authors, Wayne Dyer, describes the difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation comes from the negative. “I must do this or this bad thing will happen.” (Read with enormous weight and negativity to the words.) (I must exercise or I will get out of shape. I must eat right or I will get high cholesterol. I must do my yoga practice or I will have a hard day.) Do you resonate with any of those? Now, inspiration comes from the positive. “If I do this, this wonderful thing will happen.” (Read with lightness and delight.) Coming from inspiration is much more delightful and joy-filled! (I get to exercise today to help my body feel strong. I want to eat right today to feel good. I am so looking forward to my yoga practice. I know I will feel delicious afterward.)

His definitions have affected every part of my life since I read them. I have always been a highly motivated individual – I could will power my way through anything. Changing from the negative to the positive was an incredibly foundational shift for me. Motivation is based in fear and inspiration is based in love. I was shocked at how much of my life was based in fear. In my next post I will discuss what I did with my yoga practice to shift it from fear to love.

Personal Practice Guilt

How is your personal practice? Usually when I ask a student this question the response is riddled with guilt. Rarely is a student able to live up to her own expectations (or what they think mine are). I am always a bit amused because the guilt is causing more harm than not having the practice the student thinks she should have. We need to grow into our habits. We cannot force them on ourselves. Using will power is just a recipe for failure. Whenever we effort for something, we aren’t flowing with what we need in that moment. So, you’re thinking, “Great, Laura, how am I ever going to start a practice then?” I am glad you asked!

Reread my column under “Thoughts from Laura”. Now get excited on two levels. First, the everyday one. You can have more energy! I have heard many things from students. I guarantee I have never heard, “I have enough energy. I don’t need anymore!” Think of how good you can feel every day. Let the excitement of feeling good spur you on.

Second, the life-long one. Begin to be drawn by the excitement that your life can be more, that you can feel better, and then what you do for the world is add to it, not take away. Adding to the world doesn’t mean doing Nobel Peace Prize work (although you may!) Just being a kind person to the clerk at the grocery store adds to the world. Plus, as you feel better and experience more joy in your life, you will be drawn effortlessly to whatever the best thing for you to be doing is, your life purpose, if you will.

Kind of gets you excited to get to the mat, doesn’t it?

Alignment: More Than Just Aligning the Bones

“Good alignment allows you to do more with your life effort,
while poor alignment requires more energy to sustain.”

This quote is a paraphrase by one of my students from something Donna Farhi (an internationally renowned yoga teacher and author) said. It is so powerful. Read it again. Good alignment lets you do more with your life effort. What a thought! We often get caught up in our day-to-day chaos and stress and forget the big picture. Regardless of your belief system, I think we all agree that we can have a life that makes a difference to the world or a life that takes away from the world. Having that choice, we all would choose to make a positive difference, to leave the world a little better than we found it. Good alignment gives you more energy to make a difference. Hmmm...that helps bring more meaning to my yoga practice.