Into a Joyful Life – Yoga & Personal Writing

On Thursday May 15, 2014 I am starting yet another yoga/creativity/writing adventure and I would like you to join me!

First of all – what is this course about?

It is mostly about figuring out how we can live with less stress and more enjoyment. There are days, like today’s, when the sun is shining, birds are chirping, the sky is showing off its best blue colors, and I am working like the planet depends on me, forgetting to breathe, to get up or, God forbid, to smile.

There are days when things are not going right, when some serious problems happen, and I think that this is the end of the world, not really, but emotionally quite so. After a week or so, you can ask me about that problem and I will not even remember it. I will not remember it, but five days of my life will have been consumed by it.

This course is about learning to hold on life, on beauty, on joy and all good there is in it, despite everyday life stress.

“This course is about learning to hold your ground and not give in to depression and anxiety.”

Sounds complicated? Not really – we’ll meet every Thursday at 8.30 am till 10 am. We’ll spend time in meditation, breathing practice and soft yoga practice. We’ll write a little and observe a lot. Every week will have a new theme for writing – we’ll look for ways how to simplify our lives, how to weed out things and people who do not belong to our space.

Who is this course for? For people who want to enjoy life more AND who are willing to work some on it.

So yes, do join me! For registration, please visit Writers & Books web-site  at http://www.wab.org/classes-workshops/yoga-and-personal-writing-into-a-joyful-life/

Turning Point Park Summer 2010. 

Dealing With Life

At the end of the morning class, the volunteers asked us to leave the stuff in the room if we were staying for the next session and to  make sure we save the spot. “There are 150 people signed up for the next session,” the woman explained. To put it in the perspective, most classes were filled with up to 40-50 people.

It was Sunday, the last day of the Yoga Conference in Toronto and the last session for me. I signed up for this session a while ago, and was happy that I saved the spot right up front, next to the teacher-presenter so I do not miss anything.

‘What was the session?” you wonder. Well, it was not Bikram yoga, a current rage in the mainstream yoga.  It was a completely different topic, most likely something that is underneath high energy exercises like Bikram, Crossfit , or Zumba. The workshop was on Anxiety, Depression and Chronic Stress taught by Bo Forbes, a psychologist and a yoga teacher.

Most of the attendees were women -a surprisingly large number of young women and girls, the ones you would expect in Power Yoga classes, were sitting cramped on their mats in this class. As we started, Bo asked “How many of you suffer from anxiety?” Most hands went up. ‘How many suffer from depression?” Many hands went up.”How many suffer from chronic stress?” Again many hands up.

“Not a surprise” she continues, ” World Health Organization predicts that by 2020 (6 years from today) anxiety and depression will be #2 illness and by 2030 they will be number 1 health issues in the world.”

In the next two hours, we dived into the ocean of research and latest development in the neuro-plasticity (brain study); we heard about the currently studies to find the scientific proof for the connection (or lack of it) between exercise, yoga and meditation and depression… we followed a complex web of theoretical work and anecdotal evidence from Bo’s work as a psychologist and a yoga teacher.

“So what are the answers?” you wonder. Here are some of my take aways:

• “Whenever they interview me” says Bo, “they ask me for 3 or 5 poses for depression or anxiety” She stops and adds “And it is always 3 or 5.″ No, there are no 3 or 5 or 10 poses that will cure depression and anxiety and stress. There are no “cure all” poses, but there is a way to be in the poses, transition into them and out of them.
•  Body is a powerful vehicle in balancing anxiety, lifting depression and strengthening resilience. Can we work through and with body vs. just with the head? To paraphrase Rumi: “Can we meet in the place beyond words?” Though this may sound complicated, it is not – we have 1,440 minutes in the day, and we can take 3-4 minutes to listen to the internal sounds.
•  We can and should create our own research – by observing our body, our reactions and by becoming experts in it.

These oversimplified three, yes, I know, three, take aways are just a tip of conversation that will continue through my upcoming “Yoga And Joyful Life “course at Writers & Books.  Throughout the course we’ll explore the ways to reduce what prevents us from living a joyful life.  The course is focused and practical. It will be a great challenge and adventure to add what I learned at the this conference to my teaching, and yes, I am up to it!

The yoga mayhem in the exhibit hall of the conference. Here you can spend the whole day doing yoga with various instructors for $15 a day.

Beating the Arctic Freeze

Lake Pleasant, ADK January 18 2014

We have been brutally attacked by this cold. The deep freeze came unexpected, overstayed its welcome and made me  reconsider my whole winter wardrobe. There is one jacket – my yellow dawn skiing jacket – that was on its way to Goodwill, but was saved by single digit temperatures. After a few days in its cozy soft yellow comfort, I could not remember why in the world I wanted to get rid of such a beauty.

The arctic weather came after  long holidays,  so between felling heavy and drained, cold and unmotivated,  I started figuring out how to beat this cold.  I felt it was closing me in, it was making me hibernate, it was draining my energy like the 1926 windows on my house.  I am no stranger to cold and had to re-adjust before when I went to college in Sarajevo, Bosnia, a place where cold is coupled with heavy smog and beautiful mountains around. Still these recent  multiple days of single digits challenged me and made me come up with these BEAT THE COLD TIPS:

1. Real gear and clothing! Yes, invest in really warm gloves, pants, and really warm winter boots. Do not forget CuddlDuds! The best clothing items I never knew about. Thanks Karen for enlightening me.

2. Wear colorful and pretty clothes. Even better  buy a new colorful coat. Buy warm AND really pretty boots. Yes, they are really expensive, but you know what – we’ll wear them for ever.

3.  Just open the door and walk through it. Then close the door behind. There. Then walk some more.

 Giant Mt, ADK January 19, 2014

4. Go out in the evening – to a concert, to a library, to see a friend, to work out, to yoga.

5. Snow shoe or XC ski. I have never been cold while XC skiing and I skied at zero F.

6. Buy or grow live flowers. Here are daffodils I have right in front of me as I write this.

7. Take it personally! Make it your own crusade to fight back  and resist – what else can we do?? It is January only, we can not be waiving white flags (yet).

8. Practice yoga regularly – make it sometimes physical, make it sometimes resting, do not give in to the urge to cuddle up with a good book under a couple of blankets.

9. And lastly, do cuddle up with a good book occasionally, close to the window and soak in quietness of snow.

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

 Dust of Snow. Robert Frost.

Be.Here.Now.

Every time I try to get my yoga friends or students come to the Webster class, I end up exasperated with futile attempts to convince people that I am offering them “ex-pe-rie-nce” for free or for little money! Whichever! ‘Just Come’, I say. “I have my kid’s, my mother’s…” they say.

Why is the Webster class “experience” you wonder? Well, not so much for what we do- it still a yoga practice, but rather for what it is:

• it is an after work/workday-hustle class when you have the luxury of relaxing deeper and your mind is ready to take a nap
• It is in a secluded, tucked away Liberty Lodge with no traffic noise, no street lights, no front desk, no check in.
• You park the car in the front, park your mat in the room, and that’s it.
• It is longer than any other classes. I sort of try to keep the class on time and I sort of fail… and we go over 7 pm. Blissfully
• Instead of vampire neon lights, there is real fire in a real fireplace.
• It is imperfect, the floors could be cleaner, the room could be warmer, and we could, honestly, be more flexible.
• Nah.

The dictionary says that experience is the actual living through an event or series of events.

In order to actually live through an event, to have an experience we need to be present-we need to BE.HERE.NOW.

It is not easy, it is not easy at all, and that is why I need a secluded lodge, a quiet fireplace, dusk falling silently around as we gather in our yoga practice to chase the fireflies of “be.here.now”

Reluctant Spring

As we are waiting for spring like those two characters in”Waiting for Godot” (which is more or less waiting for something that will never happen, though, in our case, we stand some chance to see flowers bloom soon), so, as we are waiting for this reluctant spring of 2013, here is one poem for everyday life. It takes a long while to come to this poem, it takes a lot of courage and persistence, resilience, but once we get it, we get it!

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield
but to my own strength.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant that I may not be a coward,
feeling Your mercy in my success alone;

But let me find the the grasp of Your hand in my failure.

R.Tagore

The last time yoga@ beach- this Sunday at 8.30 am

Here is our last yoga @ beach for this year. It is one few of  events/experiences which does not fail. It always delivers something new or something good.

I am inviting you to join us and see what it is. As a yoga teacher, I feel that my role is to create an opportunity for you to explore – I will open the door and wave you in, and it is up to you to walk in or not.

To enter a door or not – is my struggle too.  More often than not, I will stop my car suddenly to take a picture of a sunset or a rainbow. It does not happen just like that – I will first think – oh let me go on, there will be other sunsets. Still – somehow –  I will make myself stop. I will park,  find a camera, and take a picture or just watch it for only a couple of seconds.

This is not a good photo, but it is meaningful to me and was  worth swerving my car to the side. It is a double  rainbow somewhere in the  Rockies in Colorado.  I saw it as I was driving towards Keystone to start my three day hiking last week.

Last year, when I was on a shuttle bus in Rockies Mountains Park, there was another double rainbow, and the whole bus gasped. The driver stopped a couple of times for us to try to catch it. That I was greeted by a double rainbow every time I visited Colorado made me smile and think – it will all be good!

And it was!

A friend of mine wrote “I wish I had your life” when she saw some of my travel photos. Well, I wish I had someone else’s life many times, particularly when I am driving at 3.30 am down the Loveland overpass  at 11,000 feet and a huge semi-truck is roaring behind me, and I am thinking about “a runaway truck  ramp” and if his brakes work well…. or when I am at the end of a trail after 6-7 hour strenuous hike and can not figure out if I made a right turn, and it is 5 pm already and my I phone has 20% to go.

Whether you will come to a yoga class is not important at all. It is rather about not ignoring small delights, it is maybe about going back to  who you were before you put  this  grown up clothes on. It is definitely about things that make your eyes sparkle and make you smile.

Here is my small delight –  one sea gull and a huge blue sky. You have to watch it lying down!

For yoga details, check the previous posts.

I wish you a wonderful end of the summer!

Your Daily Practice – 5 minutes a day for 5 days

It is not easy to enjoy the holidays… unless you are Martha Stewart, I guess.  Every holiday season I re-discover that  Christmas comes too fast after Thanksgiving. Then New Years sneaks  in  as I am recovering from wrapping presents, and then … a long snowless winter ahead of us.

There is much more to holidays than just joy and cheer: there is running around, decorating, cleaning, cooking, hosting or being hosted, parties, food and drinks, seeing people we have not met in a long time,talking, lunches with dear friends,talking, joy of giving, gratefulness of receiving, cookies, listening, smiling, going out more, staying up later, laughing…. All good  stuff.

What do we  say about good stuff?  Too much of a good stuff is too much or there is no such thing as too much of  good stuff?

The most useful way, for me, to put that question is:  can we handle a lot of a good stuff? How to prevent being overwhelmed and how NOT to end up exhausted?

The simple answer to these questions can be two fold: (a) either move more and generate more energy or (b) surrender, and admit that we need rest.

I will be the first to advocate for moving, running, hiking on a daily basis. I will also be the first to admit that relaxing and surrendering to the quietude is not easy. Dead tired and brain tired I could be, and my mind will go on how I can engage myself in something as appealing as sorting the drawers or going through my closet. Oh yes, I could also finally organize my files – color code them and in alpha – order. Right.

Or I could just look at this photo above and be amazed how wise and blissful this leopard is – who, I am sure, can run around  to no end, and  who knows when he needs  just to plop down and disconnect.

As we are entering this  new year,  I am inviting you to start it  with a 5 minute a day relaxation. Any pose will do : legs up the wall, legs on the chair or a sofa, a relaxation pose. Play some soft music if you wish, count your breath, use a timer….  Let me know how it goes, let me know if you ever feel, after a minute or two of being quiet,  that you do not need this relaxing moment – that it is too much.

Weekly Practice 5 – Loving Kindness

There are many ways to practice ‘loving kindness” and many different versions what to say, how to say. Here is something that I came  up with and I would encourage you to change the words to suit your own breath flow. Start by sitting  quietly like we do at the beginning or the end of the class, eyes closed, face relaxed.

“May I be happy

May I be healthy

May I be free of suffering

May this day, week, year, life unfold smoothly for me”

Not much, right?

Here are the RULES :-)!!!

1) Start with yourself and wish yourself a good life. No, you can not go to needy ones right away, no you can not give your loving kindness to the people who are suffering. No. Sit quietly, find your breath, find your quiet heart and say these words silently or aloud.

2) After 2-3 breaths, bring the image of the loved ones, or a person who needs all good energy in the world to help them go through hard times, and with a smiling, full heart wish them good lives using the same words.

3) 2-3 breaths and switching gears…. find a neutral person, a neighbour you barely know, a person at the local store, and wish them the same.

4) 2-3 breaths and we are in the choppy emotional waters… think of a person who is not adding value to your life, someone who annoys you, someone who is a source of stress for you. Now really inhale and exhale evenly. Find your quiet heart and visualize that person and say these words……

“May he/she  be happy

May he/she be healthy

May he/she be free of suffering

May this day, week, year, life unfold smoothly for him/her”

No, it is not easy. Here are the tips: you can mumble quickly the words through the clenched teeth, you can stop and start, you can say it without really meaning it – and you know, that is totally fine! Fake it until you make it!!

In case you do not have anyone who annoys you, good for you! Send the wishes to the whole world.

No, it is not easy… what helped me is a very pragmatic thought ... if these people were happy and free of suffering, they would not bother me.

It took me two years to be able to say these words with some people in mind. I am not sure that I really wish them a happy life, but I do want them out of my head!

Namaste!

Wish Life Were Simple – Compare or Not?

“Do not compare yourself  to other people”

This may be one of the first sentences you heard in your yoga class, followed by “Let go of competition”, “This is your practice”. You take it to heart and close your eyes tightly, so you would not look at those flexible  people around you, who I swear have not one bone in their bodies, yes, you close your eyes, you focus inside, follow the directions… and it works.

You stay mentally on your mat, and then after a couple of weeks, you hear your teacher’s voice while you are in the Pigeon Pose (Eke Pada Rajakopasana) “Remember this sensation and compare it to the other side”.

As you grunt your way out of that pose, something clicks in your brain  ” Are we supposed to compare or not?”

Of course you do not ask that question, because nobody else does, and you do not want to draw attention to a big black hole of your yoga in-experience.

That question safely pushed aside, you continue your practice, at your own pace, and you are quite proud of yourself. You feel you are accepting your own body (finally!) and your limitations.   One day you are in the middle of backbands, and you are wisely staying with your version of the Bridge pose, ignoring the calls for the Wheel Pose. No, thank you very much,  you know your boundaries, your body is saying no. As you rest after the Bridge (Setu  Bandha Sarvangasana), you look around, and everybody in the room is in the Wheel!

What is up with  that? What do you do now? Stay safely in the Bridge (photo above) or go into unknown scary territory of the Wheel (below)? Compare and compete or let it be?