Yoga

Friday, December 30, 2016

Peace into the New Year 2017

2016, this too, shall pass. Whew!

Perhaps this crazy time is meant to awaken us to new ways of being.

The darkest is right before the dawn.

Let’s be the dawning.

Some ideas for creating deeper inner peace ~~~~~~~~~

~ Awaken with a prayer or sense of gratitude for another day. Look at the sunrise or anything beautiful for a few moments before starting your day.

~ Be receptive, allowing, and curious. Be willing to forgo your schedule. Try setting this as an intention before getting out of bed; see it in your mind’s eye! Be ready for surprises; keep open to the freedom of the unknown. Change is the only constant.

~ Walk in the great outdoors – with curiosity and wonder! Walk tall, without fear into whatever arises.

~ A daily spiritual practice ~ You do have time! Try setting your phone timer for 2-3 minutes and focus on your breath, slowing it and deepening it, receiving nourishing oxygen from the Universe on your inhales, and Letting go of tension on your exhales. When you’re done, notice how you feel. Do it daily. This is meditation, one of the 8 limbs of yoga! ~ Spiritual practices are nourishment, elevating your vibration to help you have power to react creatively and constructively to what comes up in life.

~ Stay in the moment ~ Now is where life happens. The present is our point of power. To live in the moment is so fulfilling. This is liberation. No matter what is going on outside of you, open up to the possibility of experiencing freedom in this moment.

~ Lift your energy in a private session with me! We will discuss what is up for you and find new tools that support your moving forward. I offer yoga including breath work & adjustments, reiki, or a healing session using all of these.

Whole-hearted thank you for the support and co-creation this past year. I look forward to evolving with you in 2017!

Love, Love, Love,

Christina

******Two gong sound bath healings with Sat Guru Kaur - Jan. 21st Saturday 6-8pm in Albuquerque, and Thursday Jan. 26th 6:30pm at The Garden Gate Day Spa in Las Lunas.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Ahimsa and Standing Rock

UPDATE Army Corps Denies Easement For Dakota Access Pipeline This is very good news. This is the power of well organized non-violent action by The Lakota People and many Allies! There are many same, similar and other issues to deal with and all of our participation is key!

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Dear Ones, September 2016

Change is in the winds. Children are off to school. Mine is on the other side of the planet, far away for longer than ever before. I have cried, already missing her, yet, I praise the woman she's become, and cry happy tears! When we talk my heart swells and she makes me laugh, often. For me, Autumn is a time of rest or wildness, or both. Every autumn, I am aware of my own domestication process, school, learning to contain myself, sit still, follow directions, and hold back expression. So, I cry more this time of year, missing my wildness. I want to dance with abandon, let tears roll, and laugh until my sides ache and eyes water. Not all the time, of course, but more, deeper.

As autumn deepens, it is a time of decay and dying, to let go of what has finished it’s time. Some of what we let go of, we may need to grieve.

I recently listened to these talks, Grief and Praise by a South American Shaman, Martin Prechtel. His way of speaking is humble and funny. I hope some of you listen and enjoy this as much as I did, at least read my notes here. He reminded me of the medicine of tears (and laughter).

I am paraphrasing some of Martin Prechtel's talk here…

“The ability to weep is a gift. Laughter and weeping are relatives. Praise and grief live in the same house, sleep in the same bed. Weeping is not depression, not sadness…it is lack of grieving. Tears loosen medicine…This is why we feel so alive when grief is done…done properly…there is not a right way, but…you look a mess when you’re done and feel so alive~! Grief brings you back to life. Grief is a form of praise of life, the gift of being alive.

He talked about how important it is to praise young people,... all their ideas, praise them well, all the time, listen to them and teach them how to grieve properly. Let then see you grieve so they will know how..... The ”tough” youth play out our illness, for us to see- they act flat- like they feel nothing....flat. (he tells a funny story in the talk)

When something dies it is important to grieve, or it is as if it was never alive. You can’t deal with it yourself; it takes a community…To grieve properly takes a lot of people, hundreds of people... Praise is better that way too.

When the tears roll you have to listen to the person. Nothing to solve… they are in that place, listen to them, let it rock.. Same with happiness... let it roll... Grief makes people care for each other...We love expression in the village, the people watch out for you. People praise and grieve in such a way that the village holds them up while they do it".

Here is a prayer he spoke in native language, then in English, then explained it's meaning Long Line, Honey in the Heart, tears of Gods, white roads, paved with the eyebrows of the moon, which is sea foam. All color roads, which are paved with abundance, from the tail of the morning star, which is the deer. No evils, 13 thank-yous.

Namaste, Christina

Dragonflies do you see the frog?

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

What Yoga Is and Is Not.

Know What you are getting into, it might not be an “exercise class”!

YOGA IS NOT:

· A physical exercise class

· A religion

· Simple

· Being a contortionist

· A sport

· A quick fix to anything

· Something you master completely on any given day, there is no finish line.

YOGA IS:

· Moving Meditation.

· Focused Concentration and keen awareness of mind and body.

· Control of the breath, with movement synchronized to the breath: awareness always with the breath.

· Vinyasa- a flow through a series of movements - One breath to one movement. An example is sun salutations. Vinyasa warms the body from inside and increases meditative focus, awareness of the breath.

· Asanas- (“poses” and the movement into, with-in and out of them) which build to more difficult Asanas, creating greater freedom of mind and body.

· A process. Each movement towards, with-in and transition out of an asana is a journey towards mind-body integration, flexibility and strength with-in that asana.

· Yoga is complex. This is why it is a process! Usually a rather slow process in the beginning.

· Always a whole being (body-mind-emotions) experience. Expect to change more than your body!

· Vinyasa and asana are only one of the eight limbs of yoga Philosophy.

· The goal of yoga is no less than Enlightenment, (knowledge/understanding/insight which brings freedom).

· The rewards are mastery over the mind and a strong, flexible, yet supple, body.

· Yoga was originally created so that a person could remain in seated, still in meditation without being distracted by discomfort in the body.

· It is a philosophy. One branch of Yoga, Devotion, can be devotion in the religious sense, but this is a personal choice.

· Yoga has been attributed as great tools for religion, or spiritual growth, no matter what faith or philosophy a person believes. The practice of yoga as lifestyle is expanded understanding, compassion, inner peace and peaceful conduct, eventually all of life becomes a moving meditation

Namaste, Christina

Saturday, January 30, 2016

How does our lifestyle affect our mobility?

Our mobility, health, physical, mental and emotional well-being are affected by the way we live.

Lifestyle can be changed, and with understanding and patience it can evolve to support health of mind, body and spirit.

You may be pleased and surprised at the things you will be able to do with patience and practice. Being aware of daily activities and how to do them in such a way as to support health and well-being can make a huge difference.

These are several factors inhibiting mobility which I have seen effect myself and most people I know:

Outward focus – focus on the job(s) at hand rather than keeping focus on the body doing the job. In physical education and sports the focus is on the ball, with the team, and the competition. When introspection and body awareness are valued, movement becomes more fluid, safer, and meditative, leading to more useful mobility and reduction of stress.

Chairs – Think about it - sitting in chairs uses a very limited range of motion in the hips compared with sitting on ground, squatting, or on low cushions several times a day. In olden times and currently in many places, particularly in rural areas, people daily sit or squat on the ground or floors throughout their lifetime, not only when they are young.

Cars – We walk far less than we did historically and compared to rural people. Walking is the most underrated exercise/ activity in modern culture. Many people don’t walk daily or for more than a few steps, many days of our lives, yet daily walking is great for our whole bodies including our posture. In many large cities like, New York, NY, people walk as their primary means of transportation. See my earlier post- Walking is the Most Underrated Exercise.

Seat-toilets –Squatting uses a great range of motion in the hips legs ankles and feet Also squatting is the best way for the body to completely eliminate waste. There have been numerous studies showing that the more open position of the colon when squatting leads to easier elimination and fewer problems associated with it.

Shallow breathing- Yes, most all of us tend to do this! Deep breathing is essential to mind/body connection, physical performance, and true relaxation. Deep breathing and breath control are essential to progress in any physical practice. When I instruct new students to breathe deeply, more often than not, they do a fast shallow breath and hold it then exhale fast as well. Deep controlled breathing takes much daily practice.

“Sit still” - many of us are conditioned from early on to not move. After kindergarten, children in school move-about very little for most of the 7 hour school day. e.g. no longer sitting on the floor, standing, stretching or free play.

To hold the body in one position, at computer, TV, phone, in a car, formed into a chair without some movement (especially of the spine) promotes poor posture and weaker core strength when it is done over days and weeks and years (7 hour school day, 8 hour work-week).

Even infants and toddlers in car-seats and strollers need to move frequently (15+ minutes at a time I believe is a long time to “sit still” unless resting or sleeping, and there should still be room to move as the child intuitively will do).

Those fidgeting children in school may have been doing (or trying to do) the right thing for their body!

Not resting when we are tired.

I love this picture! Restorative yoga, farm style! So much of the time people drink coffee or tea to keep going, when really they need a rest. Quality rest is a benefit of an active lifestyle, remember how well you slept as a child after active playing all day?

We live in a culture of quick-fixes- We are way too easily discouraged. We expect instant and fast results, and tend to become discouraged if we don’t do something well within the first few days or weeks. Yet we all know that people don't become masterful at anything without years of study and practice.

Because of all these trends in modern life, many people experience stiffness (inhibited movement)*, discomfort, and often even pain in the tissues of the body. With this, there is also atrophy of the neural pathways; even your brain needs some re-training! *There are other factors also, such as age, injuries and illnesses that effect people’s mobility worldwide.

It is disheartening to realize we how much we may have “lost”.

The good news is it can be gained back with patience and practice.

No wonder getting started is difficult! Do it anyway!!! And accept yourself exactly where you are at and enjoy the journey! Find teachers who challenge you and genuinely care.

All the best, Christina

If you stay mindful of some basic ideas it might be easier get started. If you are interested in yoga, you may want to read this blog to know what you’re getting into What Yoga Is and Is Not.

Monday, November 9, 2015

I DON’T DO YOGA! I PRACTICE YOGA!

Just as a runner does not do a marathon, he or she spends hours, days, months and years training in order to run (do) marathons. Dancers don’t just wake up one day and perform complex choreography with ease, they practice daily for weeks, months and years.

This is why, as a yoga teacher, I get weary of hearing “I can’t do that” or “I can’t do yoga”. I am weary because I couldn’t do 98% of what I do now when I started, either! I did not get to where I am now by magic; I wasn’t at all flexible when I started, my posture was poor, and my core and many other muscles were weak. Fortunately, I have had great teachers and attended many helpful workshops and training. I have been to classes ranging from horrible to excellent.

Mostly, I work hard at it every day with my mind as focused as possible every moment of the practice. And when I find a good teacher, I stay with him or her so that they know me and know what is hard for me. (Because I try to avoid what is hard. Yup, I do this too!)

The other reason yoga teachers get tired of hearing “I can’t do that” or “I can’t do yoga” is that we know it is not true. We see people practice yoga who let nothing stand in their way. Personally, I have practiced yoga with a person missing an arm, another person dealing with multiple sclerosis, and people recovering from cancer treatments and surgeries.

The main reason I am weary of hearing this (and I suppose most other teachers are also) is because it is a self-fulfilling-prophecy. It keeps you from starting and inhibits progress when you do start.

If you have ever tried to teach a kid to swim or ride a bike you know exactly what I am talking about. All those attempts when they didn’t believe they could do it didn’t bring success! Yet once they start to believe even slightly “maybe I can do this”, the attempts become successful. This isn’t just true for kids!!! It is true for adults as well. I and my yoga friends often talk about why we struggle with certain poses, for example I was (still am) frightened of arm balances and handstand poses. I know the problem is in my mind – my thinking “I can’t do this” or fear “what if I fall, and get hurt”. Intellectually I know this is ridiculous because I can do these with a spotter or teacher standing next to and supporting me, and I have fallen and not gotten hurt. It might be ten or one hundred more attempts before I believe I can do it and/ or get past fear enough to actually succeed.

So keep trying, keep practicing, there is no finish line.

YES! It is difficult, and yes it does take discipline. It is especially difficult if you are not active, athletic or young. It is also especially difficult living the modern urban lifestyle. I wrote a whole blog addressing this *WHY IS YOGA SO DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE LIVING MODERN, URBAN AND SUBURBAN LIFESTYLES?

All the best, Christina

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Pure Sound

The Power of Pure Sound.

Chanting, sounding Om, Singing bowls, Gongs, Toning, flutes and Sound Healing. What is this stuff all about? I don’t know the how of it; I know there is something very real and wonderful going on. I am no authority on this subject, but I will share from my own experience. Then you will know why there is chanting and OM as part of yoga Classes, and sometimes live gongs, singing bowls, flutes or with harmonic sound healing.
We all know the pure joy and satisfaction of listening to, singing playing a favorite song, sometimes over and over. We all know how some songs help us cry when our hearts feel broken. This is emotions for certain, yet perhaps more. There are studies showing the benefit of music for the elderly, for persons with depression and even heart conditions. I do dance/music exercise with elderly people in assisted living many times as well. Recently I was fortunate to hear Robert Tree Cody play native flute for these elderly people, we were outside under the New Mexico blue sky. They had done the breathing exercises which we always close class with. When flute music began, the healing effect was obvious, so different than when someone hears a “grand old song” they love. As they listened, a profound peacefulness settled over everyone. I saw their faces become more relaxed and felt something changing. I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt it and others there felt it. There were more smiles and eye contact between the elderly people and also with the staff that cares for them.
The experience of pure sound and Harmonic Sound is more than emotional. I know it resonates with-in our whole being, our consciousness. Yoga includes chanting as part of Kundalini yoga and at Kirtans. Many cultures have mystic practices involving sound, music singing or chanting. In Tunisia I heard singing one night, a special singing called “Singing the heart/throat” hearing it from a distance and then up close it had an effect on me I have never been able to explain, I didn’t know the language enough for there to be any understanding of the words, it wasn’t like anything music-wise I normally enjoyed, but I could have listened to it all night, and will never forget it. This was over15 years ago.
Pure sound began to be very interesting to me, after my first one hour, silent, group meditation; we did 11 minutes of Om sounding afterward. There was a merging and amplification of everyone’s “energy”; I don’t know what else to call it- it was not simple emotion : there was a palpable raising or shift in everyone, I talked with others who had the same experience, and one person described it as “all the cells of their body were vibrating at a higher frequency”! That described it! We talked about the sound helping raise our consciousness.

Shortly after that I went to a sound healing event in Santé Fe, (Renee S. Lebeau, http://www.ahkana.com/ who studied with Tom Kenyon, http://tomkenyon.com. (There is a wonderful documentary film about him, I recently saw). The sound/music was amazing. The next event, I asked Renee if there was space to dance or do yoga in the back of the room. I wanted to explore movement with this live pure sound. She said we could make that an option. That night she was collaborating with two others, there was a wooden flute. I listened and did yoga breathing and then began to move. I did a combination of yoga and dance spontaneously, my mind was totally quite – void of thought, I moved in expanded ways and did yoga poses I thought were out-of my-reach and did them with amazing ease. I experienced direct effect of the sound on my physical body, movement in the fascia and tissue deep within the body. Whenever the flute was played, I felt as if I had wings and my shoulders became very flexible, again I did poses beyond my usual range with ease.
I was contacted to do Yoga to the sound of Gongs www.thegongtemple.com recently, and said yes! to complete strangers!!! (Who turned out to be wonderful, kind and true sound healing artists). It was awesome to teach with the gongs, halo, singing bowls and Michelle's voice and share this experience. I also participated in doing a healing circle, where healers did Reiki, and other types of healing, on massage tables, placed around the gongs. The energy, sound vibrations, harmonies amplified the healing effects. They are back May 6th, 2018

The Gong Temple's photo of their gongs, halo and singing bowls....

Please share your thoughts and experiences with sound healing; toning, chanting, singing bowls gongs- I would love to hear more about people’s experiences and practices.