Wanderlust

I think my desire to explore the world was all set in motion when I was in utero.  My family boarded a ship to England where my father was going to be undertaking his post-doctoral dissertation at Leeds University.  My mother was pregnant with me on this journey and perhaps it was the rocking of the ocean currents that unlocked my travelers curiosity gene.  

 

From a young age I traveled around the United States on family camping trips.  We would pitch our tent and head out to explore the many state and national parks that are a true treasure of this country.  Getting on an airplane was a luxury and offered an exciting feeling of adventure-in-waiting and was a much rarer experience than a car camping trip. 

 

My biggest adventure was two days before my 17th birthday as I boarded a plane to Australia on a year long exchange.  And in 1986, I bought my first around-the-world ticket that took me through Bangkok, to Europe for the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, onto the States and back to Australia.  The drive to explore kept getting stronger and stronger, longing and looking for that "off-the beaten-path" experience.  I embarked on a 20-month journey where I traveled for 12 straight months...Greece, Europe and onto a 6-month epic exploration of Africa.  I eventually landed back in the States so I could work, earn money and keep travelling.  The final phase of that journey went through Canada, Hawaii, onto Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.  Fatigue and the longing to no longer live out of a backpack brought me back to Australia where I began to focus on re-igniting my career.

 

But the wanderlust has never left.  I'm still curious and still excited to pack my bags and head out the door.

 

As you receive this, I will be in Squaw Valley (Lake Tahoe in Northern California) attending a yoga festival appropriately named "Wanderlust".  I return home for a couple of days then head to South America where the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and the Galapagos await.

 

My world exploration has taught many lessons which include patience, planning, acceptance, trust and letting go of control. One of the most potent lessons has been that of independence and self-reliance, a sense that we all have the potential to step out of our own backyard and enjoy what the world has to offer.  It opens our eyes, offers a perspective that might be completely opposite to the beliefs we hold.  It allows us to come face to face with humanity in not only its rich beauty but its terrible tragedy.

 

I've once again got that feeling in my belly that an adventure is about to unfold and I look forward to sharing it with you upon my return.

Adiós mis amigos!

Consciousness

This past week I've been thinking about consciousness and what it means to become more conscious.  This was partly inspired by attending a Krishna Das concert in Los Angeles where we sat with a packed house of high energy and seemingly like-minded people with a common intention to listen, chant and go deeper inside ourselves.  This was one of those occasions where you could "feel the love" in the room and the energy that was emitted from such a collective is a powerful experience.

What does it mean to become conscious?  We can travel through our entire lives and remain completely unconscious about things such as how we breathe, the impact we make upon the planet or how our communication touches others.  So why do we need to raise our awareness?  Am I not aware enough just through my human experience of walking through my own life?

One of the main tenets of yoga philosophy is to become more connected to ourselves so that we can eventually see that we are not separate from everything else.  As long as we have the "us and them" mentality, we are separate and not in union with each other.  I see consciousness in many layers.  It's not as though I am either conscious or unconscious, aware or unaware.  As I work on raising my own consciousness I begin to uncover the layers that lead me deeper toward my authentic self.  I begin to see that if I say something that is hurtful or mean, if I act violently towards somebody else or toss a plastic bag out my car window as I'm tooling down the highway, I begin to notice that it's not an act against something or someone else, but an act against myself.  

My awareness grows when I begin to realize that what I say, how I act and how I treat this aching planet affects not only the outward flow of that act but is rebounded directly back to me and I am then put in a place of choice.  I can choose to ignore my impact or I can alter what I put out there and therefore receive back.  If I act in a loving, compassionate and peaceful way, that is what will come back to me.  When I see you acting the same way it will be reciprocated. The conscious connection to being radically present with ourselves is one of the main reasons we step into our yoga practice.  We come face-to-face with our thoughts when we step onto our yoga mats.  We are given quiet interludes as well as an opportunity to notice what thoughts arise.  The deeper we go the more subtle our connection to our physical selves becomes as well as what's happening in our breath.

How can I expect a peaceful world if I myself am not at peace?

How can I expect unconditional love from others if I am unable to love myself unconditionally?

When we catch ourselves acting in a way that we are trying to shift it is at that moment that our consciousness changes.  We come more into the present moment and from that place we can act in accordance with our highest intentions.

One way to bring our attention inward is to slow down and take a deep breath.  Another way is to gather with a bunch of like-minds seeking to raise their own vibration and perhaps belt out a few lines of a Sanskrit mantra.

Om shanti, shanti, shantihi to that!

Choice

With Independence Day here in the United States, I was reflecting on what the 4th of July means to me. What came up was having the ability to choose. 

I remember an experience I had when I returned to western culture after spending 6-months in Africa. I was in London and headed to the supermarket to buy some basics. As I stood in the brightly lit and wide aisled store, looking at the enormous selection of cereals all I experienced was the feeling of being completely overwhelmed. There was just simply too much to choose from and my next reaction was to leave. 

Yet at the same time, I was struck by how much we take for granted, particularly as it relates to the number of opportunities we have to choose from. In less fortunate countries, there may be only one cereal choice, if any at all. You might go for days and only subsist on bananas and maize meal. In the developed Western countries, we have created abundance and much of this began when people left their countries seeking other places in which they had more choice, more opportunity to live as they wanted and not as they were told.

The Fourth of July reminds us that we wanted to be able to create our own utopia with freedom to practice speaking, praying and expressing ourselves without oppressive censorship. It took a collective courage to realize the need and seek a path of creating a way of life that supported this ideal.

Our yoga practice is a way of seeking our own liberation and manifesting it into something that is greater than ourselves. But, we must first know what it is that we need to connect to, our own inner freedom and then trust the ancient methods that have been passed down through generations.

The Buddha said that suffering is a given in life and through making particular choices about how we undergo our daily existence we can move further away from this suffering to liberation. Brené Brown, Ph.D., L.M.S.W a research professor of Social Work (author of the book, "The Gifts of Imperfection") found that we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Thus, if we have difficulty in tapping into our own hearts, how can we fully connect into the heart of others? By uncovering our own deeper need, one of which is love, we can begin to not only better our own lives, but more fully engage in other peoples lives...you know...spread the love from the inside out.

As we engage in the process of discovering what we need more of in our lives (peace, knowledge, freedom or socks), we can then begin to set in motion our plan of striving to reach it. Just as our forefathers knew they were suffering and sought freedom, we too can look at our own lives from a similar perspective. 

This brings me back to cereal. We have so much opportunity sitting within reach. We have so much (sometimes way too much) to choose from that we often forget that having choices is a result of having freedom. For those less fortunate, they can still find freedom in their hearts and spirits. For us, we have the chance to not only choose between the high fiber/gluten-free granola or Captain Crunch but also how we choose to be in a relationship with ourselves, other beings and our planet.

I am grateful for being able to live in a country where I have the power to choose. Happy Independence Day to all! 

Stay In Your Own Hula Hoop

This past week a friend of mine posted a quote on Facebook by Krishna Das that truly resonated with me.  It read:

"We have to learn to love people even if they are not giving you what you want... and then not take it personally. If you feel hurt, you have to recognize that they are not hurting you because you are you, but because they are them. You have to try not to be so hard on yourself."

When things resonate with me, I like to share them for two reasons. One is that if it connected to something inside of me, then it might do the same for someone else.  Two, it reminds me where I am in my own practice.  It's as though whatever I'm working on bringing into my greater awareness shows up through quotes, conversations or interactions.  It's as though the Universe knows what challenges me and then offers up another piece of the lesson.

I have heard Judith Hanson Lasater say many times in my trainings with her that "you can't control how other people are going to react to what you say or do.  All you can control is your own reaction and actions".  Another way I think of this is to stay in your own hula hoop, that is, to keep working on what is yours and let go of what isn't.

One cool thing that happened as I brought this quote and theme into a class this past week was the reaction it sparked in one of the students.  I was offering the image of how many hula hoops do you have spinning at one time?  Are you like an eight-limbed Hindu goddess twirling many hoops, with only one of them being yours? The student said, "By taking on other people's hoops, we don't have to look at our own."  What an insightful observation and comment!

When we take on other peoples stuff, it often has the effect of drawing us away from looking into our own shadows.  If we can keep distracted by how other people are reacting and acting, we can avoid the painful pieces of examining our own soul.

Our culture is rife with opportunities to get distracted via reality television, gossip magazines, posts on social media and conversations with others that go no deeper than their reactions to all of the above.  It's no wonder our time here in soul school often seems to be on the slow track...too much noise, movement and distraction.  Isn't it time that we let go of all the other hoops and just look at what's within our own?

My thought for the week is about getting connected to our own selves.  It's a truly challenging process yet undertaking something like a yoga practice, at the very least, gives us the opportunity to take a peak inside.  Sometimes as soon as we begin to look, we want to slam the door shut but with consistent practice, a supportive community and a compassionate instructor we can begin to let the light in through the cracks to illuminate our darkness.

The quote I read this week in my classes by Carl Jung sums it up precisely:

"There is no coming to consciousness without pain.  People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.  One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but my making the darkness conscious."

And once you've done that...grab your hula hoop and head outside!  Barefoot of course!

Sitting Is The New Smoking

By now many of us are well aware of the adverse effects of sitting for extended periods of time.  If you've had the experience of a long-haul flight, you know exactly what I'm referring to.  We sit in a confined space with a chair that is ergonomically poor and are expected to stay virtually still in our seats for countless hours. Unless, of course, we need to use the restroom and have the ability to crawl over our neighbor or we wish to move and take a lap of the plane.  On top of that, the food may be high in sodium, low in fiber and alcohol is often free on long-hauls...we have a recipe for swollen legs, poor circulation, lousy digestion and stiff joints.   
The above scenario is an extreme example of what sitting for long periods of time can look like.  In fact, on one of my recent trips I heard someone state that "sitting is the new smoking" and I thought, "wow...we've come a long way in educating the general public about the hazards of smoking, can we do the same for inactivity?"

In a June 2014 report from NBC News, it was cited that sitting 
raises the risk of disability, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, not to mention obesity.  And research also shows that even if you hit the gym or the jogging path every day, sitting is bad for you.

A new study puts some precise numbers on the different types of cancer that might be associated with what too much sitting around can do. For every two hours spent sitting in front of the computer or television, the average person raises his or her risk of colon cancer by 8 percent, of endometrial cancer by 10 percent and of lung cancer by 6 percent.

Really!  Cancer from sitting?  No wonder it's being spoken about in the same breath as cancer from smoking.  It actually doesn't seem that surprising as having a sedentary lifestyle that has intermittent bouts of movement is a reflection of a broader picture of ill-health in our culture.  We eat more than we need, we buy more than we can use, we work longer hours than most developed nations and we have stress levels that are reflected in our inability to manage it except through self-medicating whether it be via prescribed or over-the-counter drugs, alcohol, self-abuse or food.  We are too worn out to move out of our own couches and with technology, so many of us spend countless hours facing a screen.  And it's beginning to reflect similar health risks as seen in smokers.
  
In an article published in Runner's World, July 2013,they report that "Up until very recently, if you exercised for 60 minutes or more a day, you were considered physically active, case closed," says Travis Saunders, a Ph.D. student and certified exercise physiologist at the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. "Now a consistent body of emerging research suggests it is entirely possible to meet current physical activity guidelines while still being incredibly sedentary, and that sitting increases your risk of death and disease, even if you are getting plenty of physical activity. It's a bit like smoking. Smoking is bad for you even if you get lots of exercise. So is sitting too much."

Our bodies are meant to move.  That's how we evolved...through locomotion and "doing the locomotion".  While hunting and gathering wo sat when we were tired, ate when food was available and slept in quiet dark caves.  We are a far stretch from those ancestors and it's likely to get worse, unless we begin to equate that being sedentary is as big of a risk as smoking.  

Even with consistent exercise we need to interrupt long periods of sitting still.  How this translates is to take frequent movement breaks throughout the day in addition to your regular bouts of exercise. The benefit of yoga in this overall picture is that it gives us opportunities to move in ways that counteract the forward position of sitting.  Yoga is one antidote to our seated dilemma.  Get on your mat, find your breath, open your arms wide to expand your chest and find non-pharmaceutical ways to help manage your stress. Yoga is one way and when you do it with like-minded, health seeking people, it fulfills that other benefit of staying socially connected.

Now's the time...stand up, step out the door and roll out your mat! Your health will thank you!

Ode To Our Teachers

Last week I wrote about my visit to Austin, TX attending the Symposium of Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR).  Aside from the amazing learning experience in the realm of yoga therapy, I was in the presence of two of my primary teachers, Nischala Joy Devi and Judith Hanson Lasater.  I can't remember a time when BOTH teachers have been in the same place at the same time.  It worked out that I had time with both of them and the impact of that came as a surprise to me.

Following a session with Nischala, I waited in line to say hello and thank her for the session.  My intention was to express my gratitude for the impact she's made upon me, not only a teacher, but as a guiding light.  The first time I met Nischala was eight years ago during my yoga therapy training in Northern California.  We were in the first stages of the course which began in a way that I found frustrating.  And then, in walks Nischala, a literal beacon of radiance.  She taught us in a way that was stern yet completely passionate.  Ever since those moments, I have aspired to follow in her example.

At the conference, I was the last person in line waiting for Nischala and as I began to speak with her I began to cry.  Not in a teary- eyed way, but in a way that felt as though all of the gratitude I held in my heart came rushing up and out, getting caught in my throat. It completely took me by surprise.  What I did manage to communicate to her, in a less than eloquent way, was how much her teachings shaped my teaching.  That her voice was in my voice.  That I quoted from her writings and recommended her work.  That her advice in working within a western medical model was still spot on.  I didn't fully realize how powerful it is to have a teacher who through her own compassion and experience, influenced me over such a long period of time.  She stood there, quietly listening and then hugged me saying, "I know that what you're doing is enough and is making a difference."  Well, that pushed me over the edge and I was truly left speechless with the lump of my heart lodged firmly in my throat.

We don't become good or even great teachers by accident.  We all need guidance, we all need a reflection of our own potential and we need to apply what we've been given through the filter of our own voice.  I am not Nischala Devi's or Judith Lasater's clone.  I am a student of their teachings who has had to find her own way of expression.  Yet they are like parents imprinting my yoga DNA, just as their teachers shaped who they are.

Upon my return to teaching on Monday morning, I was inspired to ask my students to reflect on who their teachers were.  Who is the first person you truly saw as your teacher?  Parent, relative, sibling, friend or in school?  What was it that they brought to you?  And what was the lesson(s) you took away from their presence?

When we are ready to learn what's next, a sense of letting go needs to happen.  What we hold onto can get in the way of our own expansion.  In order to see the lesson, we have to open up a space within us to allow it to manifest.  How many times has a lesson been right in front of your face and you ignored it?  The saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher appears" rings true as being ready means surrendering.

I have had many teachers with my Dad being the first and most influential (how appropriate I'm writing this as tomorrow is Father's Day!!).  I have been gifted several amazing beings who have taught me extensively.  Ju Ping Tian and Bernard Petiot, international gymnastics coaches from China and Canada; Mr. O'Brien, my 9th grade English teacher; Andrea Buchanan, a physical education teacher in Australia; and all of my hundreds and hundreds of students and clients over my 32 year career.

Lessons are constantly upon us.  What is your current lesson? What is it that you need to learn right now?  When you realize what your lesson is, that becomes your practice.  My lesson is one of letting go of being perfect and understanding my value.  My lesson, as Judith Lasater says, "is to see with soft eyes".  I will forever be a student and, in that lesson, I have nothing but gratitude for the profound impact it has already had upon me.

I bow to those who teach me...my heart is cracked open wide and I can sense the light dropping in.

Yoga As Therapy

This week I've been in Austin, TX...the home of a rockin' music scene, the University of Texas and its state capital.  I'm here attending SYTAR (the Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research). When trekking to such conferences, I step into the realm of the unknown as a seeker of knowledge.  I'm curious to learn about what's next in the world of yoga and yoga therapy.  It seems as though Western science is catching up with what the yogis have been touting for a couple of thousand years.  Yet, research plays a vital role in bringing legitimacy to an often skeptical Western mindset of allopathic medicine.  

I am working on the vision of having the practices of yoga being so accepted that when visiting a physician, yoga is an integral part of healing and wellness.  They write on their prescription pads..."take three deep breaths, find a good yoga teacher and call me in the morning."

Part of my role within the Eisenhower Wellness Institute is to bring this vision into manifestation.  Needless to say, it's not the default attitude of many but you can feel the shift happening.  Part of this shift is having great research that supports the benefits of yoga.  The change is to one of legitimacy rather than someone saying, "yeh...try yoga, I hear it's good for you."

I have seen an increase in the number of people attending my Therapeutic and Restorative classes.  These classes offer a space in which people who might never step into a mainstream yoga studio or want a spiritual component to their practice often not found in a gym setting, can feel at home.  If they have physical limitations, are recovering from an injury/illness or have high levels of stress, depression and anxiety, these classes are aimed at supporting their specific needs.

If we look at the definition of therapeutic:
adjective \ˌther-ə-ˈpyü-tik\ 

: producing good effects on your body or mind

: of, or relating to, the treatment of illness 

then all yoga is therapeutic in nature.  Although if we follow the trend of popular yoga in our culture, it can look more like an exercise option than a healing modality.  My thought is that for yoga to have a therapeutic impact it needs to reflect the eight limbs of yoga as articulated in the ancient teachings of the Sutras of Patangali which include:

*Internal and external observances of behavior such as: compassion, integrity, gratitude, simplicity, discipline and connection to a higher source
*Postures & poses
*Conscious breathwork
*Inner reflection & contemplation
*Meditation

It's also a practice that unfolds over time with no quick fix, yet a way of establishing practices that support good health (emotional & physical) for the long haul.

It's incredible to be part of such a community that is striving to bring a higher level of accessibility and acceptance to this ancient practice through research and on-going education.  Here at the conference, I am spending my time looking at chronic pain, hormones, chakras, stress reduction and fascial release (and more!) and am excited to share what I've learned.  I know that what yoga has to offer can alter the course of our lives in the most profound way, even if it simply begins as a way to improve balance or lengthen muscles.  Keep at it and the magic will be revealed!