Have You Ever Wanted To Play Dead?

Have you ever wanted to play dead?  I know I have.  Back in my clinical depression days I wanted to hide from life, just lie down and be done with it all.   Fortunately, it didn’t happen.  

When I play dead now it is doing the corpse pose or savasana at the end of a yoga practice.  I am in a place of utter relaxation and peace.  How often do we get there in the midst of our usually hectic and busy day?  Seldom, if ever.  That’s why yoga is so beneficial.  It slows everything down.  It has to be a conscious choice, like eating breakfast.

Even going to bed at night isn’t that refreshing if we haven’t wound down from our busy day.  How about choosing a few simple yoga poses before going to bed.  Stepping back into down dog makes you focus on something besides your daily stressors.  Everyone deserves a simple child’s pose to help put the brakes on.  Last but not least, lie on the floor and put your legs up the wall.  Close your eyes and dream of clouds or flowers or a waterfall.  I call it ‘blissing out.’  

Crawl into bed and assume your savanna or corpse pose.  Lie on your back with your hands open and facing up.  Move your eyes from left to right and back several times to disrupt the patterns of thinking of your to-do list for tomorrow.  Breathe softly and go to sleep in relaxation and comfort.  I love yoga, don’t you?  www.gobodhiyoga.com

As Best You Can Yoga

Yoga has made a positive difference in my aging body.  My stiffness, aches and pains are minimized as I stretch and pose making my body do things I didn’t expect to do in my seventies.  Going to BodhiYoga (www.gobodhiyoga.com) two or three times a week keeps my body from complaining.  I got so motivated a year ago that I started taking the teacher’s training course.  I am working on my certification.  I love helping others enjoy yoga—‘yoking body, mind and spirit.’  Doesn’t that sound lovely? 

You may think you can’t do yoga.  If so, it is only because you haven’t tried.  I make it easy to give it a try.  I hold classes in my basement for the brave at heart and willing in body.  I often call my classes, As Best You Can Yoga.  I will say, “Bend over your front leg and touch your nose to your knee—-as best you can.”  There is no perfection and no pressure in my basement studio.  We laugh a lot and everyone wants to come back.  I have taught classes of children, young adults, adults, Baby Boomers, and Seniors.  Everyone has a great time.  Everyone is surprised at what their body will do when given the right instruction.  Let me know if you want to join us. 

There is MUCH More to Yoga Than ‘Just Yoga’

I hope you enjoyed contemplating some of the deeper meaning of yoga in my previous blog where we considered three important aspects of yoga.  Petanjali, the “Author of Yoga” from ancient times included five more aspects that influence our physical and mental health.  Again, I will be quoting from the Bodhi Yoga Teacher Training manual.  

4. Breath-Work:  Pranayama-Prana refers to the life force of the universe.  Pranayama is yogic breath-work.  This is a big one.  The benefits are listed; to tone the diaphram, release thyroid tension, increase energy, calm the nervous system, relieve insomnia, cleanse the body and mind and reach altered states of consciousness.  How about a sound night sleep?  I consider that an altered state of consciousness.  Breath-work does magical things.

5. Reflection:  Pratyahara-Turning the senses inward from the external world to the inner.  

6. Focus:  Dharana-Concentration and focusing of the mind on a particular point.

7. Meditation:  Dyana-a meditative increase of deep concentration to envelope the entire consciousness in the present.  

The last three aspects help me become fully present in my life.  This is no small trick for me and I continually work on becoming better at it.  These aspects of yoga really help.  Now for the crown jewel.

8. Joy:  Samahidi-“State of truth and bliss”, Transcendence.  Have you ever wanted to lift out of this troublesome world, just for a few minutes?  That isn’t easy for me, but doing yoga on a regular basis brings me closer to the joy I aspire to in my life.  Come join me in my yoga practice and find out what I am talking about.  

Learning The Language of Yoga

It’s one thing to watch someone do yoga or even do it oneself; but learning the whys and wherefores of yoga is another thing. It’s like learning another language. In fact, it is learning another language. Most of the terms in yoga come from Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language.

What would you do if someone asked you to do the Urdva Dandasana pose? Easy. Everyone knows it is the plank, right? Not that it is easy for me to do, but I do it as best I can. How about the Balasana pose? This is my favorite. It’s child pose. I couldn’t survive the more strenuous poses if I didn’t know I could soon rest in child pose. Then there is Savanasana or corpse pose. At the end of each practice we get to rest in corpse pose, relax in our blended nature of body, mind and spirit and feel alive in every cell of our body. It is the cherry on top of our beautiful yoga practice at Bodhi Yoga in Provo. www.gobodhiyoga.com

As we sit up one more time in Sidhasana-Sukasana or easy pose with our legs crossed and hands together at our hearts we chant OM three times. We feel the resonance of all the positive energy we have drawn on together and end with a bow of the head and say “Namaste.” Namaste means “The divine in me salutes the divine in you.” What a sweet salutation to end our session together. There are many more poses; sitting, standing and kneeling. You have just given your body, mind and spirit the recognition they deserve in your life. Working together you can experience the peace and joy of yoga without even knowing another language.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life—Do Yoga

I am fascinated by what is going on in brain research these days. I just read Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel G. Amen, M.D. and learned that doing yoga and mediation are two ways to change your brain. Not long ago, scientists said the brain couldn’t change. When we reached maturity we had a certain amount of brain matter that would diminish as we aged and there wasn’t anything we could do about it.

Fortunately for us, research has proven that there are things we can do to change and improve our brains for our entire lives. How, you ask? Well, we all know we should eat our spinach and get adequate sleep, drink water and move our bodies. I’ll let you deal with your nutrition and sleep. Let’s talk about yoga and meditation for our minds and bodies.

Studies show that meditation actually builds new brain cells. Yoga is a meditative practice as well as a physical one. Yoga builds brain cells, too. One of the benefits I find is that yoga lifts my mood. The gray days of winter in Utah Valley influence me less than they used to before yoga and meditation. You can be sure that I will fight for every little brain cell I can build and use to keep me from sliding into dementia and lethargy any time soon. Join me in the fight and come to yoga with me at Bodhi Yoga in Provo. www.gobodhiyoga.com  Or you can call me for a private session.

All I Did Was Start Playing...

I started playing at doing yoga over ten years ago, maybe fifteen.  I witnessed a charismatic yogi fold and stretch at a conference I went to.  I knew we were meant to meet.  We met off and on for six or seven years without my being committed to practice.  Finally, at age sixty eight, I decided to give myself a chance to really do it.  Since then I have learned to fold and stretch much further than I would have without the help of Syl Carson at Bodhi Yoga.  

For some reason, what reason I know not, I am training to be a yoga teacher.  Fancy that!  I am now nearly 76 years old and moving well.  I definitely feel and act my age from time to time.  The rest of the time I am telling folks how much I love yoga and what a difference it has made and continues to make in my life.  

The thing I love about training to be a teacher is that I am learning things I didn't know I wanted to  know; like, what the gunas are.  You know, the way we move our bodies forward and backward.  That is called the rajas guna.   The next one is the tamasic energy, the way we move upward and downward.  Sattvic energy moves side to side.  Those three energies are part of everything we do.  I am expressing sattvic energy, outward, in the image above in Warrior II (Sanskrit: Virabhadrasana II).  I love learning and doing more yoga.

When we meet at one of my classes, you will be surprised by how ordinary I am and how gray my hair is.  It is never too late to become good at something you love.  I am on my way.

www.gobodhiyoga.com