Category Archives: Goals

Days 6 & 7: Yummy Hip-openers and Scrumptious Brunch

Hi All!

I may not have blogged yesterday, but that doesn’t mean that I forgot to practice.  I had to catch a bus to Philadelphia in the morning, so it was this handy-dandy Yoga Today practice for me.  It ended up being a great mix of hip openers and strengthening core and arm balances.  There is a misconception that you have to be super strong arms to accomplish arm balances, but in fact, a strong core is really the key; Neesha’s inclusion of knee-to-nose planks and navasana (boat pose) were not only strengthening, but also got the core muscles firing, making it easier to tap into that strength when it came time for the arm balances.  However, I especially needed the hip openers since I had a long bus ride ahead of me.

Today’s challenge was finding time to practice.  As I said, I’m in Philadelphia for the weekend with the man-friend, who so kindly invited me to join him on his work trip.  Since he didn’t have to work until later, we had a long, leisurely brunch at a restaurant called Farmicia, which turned out to be an amazing recommendation from my friend Lindsay.  We feasted (not an understatement) on baked Brie, french toast with apple-cherry compote and a mexican omelette with potatoes, after which our waiter had to roll us out the door.  So. Good.

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After that, the man-friend had to go to work, which would have provided a perfect time to do yoga….except that too much food had happened.  I was also torn because the Jets game is on, and for those of you who know me, know that the NFL is a fall sunday staple for me.  So what to do?  I made a pretty fair (if I do say so) compromise:  I watched the first half of the game, and then found this 30-minute practice from Sarah on Yoga Today to do during halftime (and a little bit of the 3rd quarter).

Just a few notes on this practice:  There is a lot of intense hip-opening, which is necessary to prepare for Bird of Paradise pose in under thirty minutes, but was a little too intense for someone like me who has very tight hips.  I was also having an off-day concentration-wise (which I think can also be a symptom of squeezing in your yoga practice rather than having a time carved out for it).  But overall, it’s a good practice when you’re short on time.

Alright guys–that’s it for today!  Time to go enjoy more of  Philadelphia on this fine Sunday (i.e. head to a bar to watch the afternoon games :))

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Day 4: Primary Series Express

Remember yesterday when I said I was going to get up for my roommate’s 7am vinyasa flow this morning?  Well, that didn’t happen.  I couldn’t quite get my act together so early in the morning, especially since I would have had to leave straight from the studio to go to the hospital where I teach yoga in the Pediatric department to renew my “volunteer” status (I use quotations marks because, as I talked about in this post, I am sponsored by the wonderful Starlight Children’s Foundation).

However, the wonderful thing about yoga is that it not only improves your physical flexibility on the mat, but also helps you to be flexible in your every day life.  The fact that I didn’t make it to the studio was not an invitation to beat myself up over it; after all, my practiced hadn’t been sacrificed, just changed.  Instead, I pressed snooze two extra times (my best friend will tell you that’s quite an improvement from college), got up, grabbed my laptop and rolled out my mat in my living room.  In just a few clicks, I’d found my favorite g0-to quick practice from Yoga Today, which I actually access through YouTube: Adi’s Primary Series Express.  Though I definitely prefer at least a full hour of practice, if not more, this is a really well-rounded class to do when you are pressed for time.

The Primary Series Express is a shortened version of the 90-minute Primary Series of Ashtanga yoga.  Ashtanga is a really powerful style of yoga that incorporates a lot of push ups and lift ups and jump throughs, of which the latter two I am still working on.  In case you aren’t sure what a lift up or a jump through look like, you can see examples here and here.  And no, it is not lost on me how ridiculously easy both of these yogis make it look.

Aside from a mat, yoga blocks are probably the best investment you can make for your practice–they are extremely versatile and can bring your yoga experience to a whole new level!

Oh sure, Michael Taylor, I will just bend my knees a few extra times and take a big deep breath to warm up and then I will lift myself up light as a feather.  No problem.  Except…that advice kind of helped me.  You see, recently when I practiced my jump through (using blocks under my hands of course!) I would end up majorly stubbing a toe or falling over completely.  This was strange only because I used to be able to do it (again, WITH blocks!) without much of a problem.  Something was getting in my head and I wasn’t sure what it was.  So today, after watching (…and scoffing) at these two videos, I gave it another go, taking some deep breaths before and voilà!  My legs were through.  It wasn’t pretty, but I got there, and now I can continue moving forward.  Which just shows how powerful taking a deep breath and focusing on the task at hand can be; it’s something I tell Charles all the time during school, but clearly need to work on myself.

What’s a pose that has been challenging to you?

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A Good Sign

Many of you know that part of my gig as a yoga teacher is teaching children in the pediatric department at a hospital in Brooklyn.  This is thanks to the generosity of the Starlight Children’s Foundation, where I used to work.   I was (and am) so excited to be back working with Starlight, which does amazing work for seriously ill children and their families–such as providing yoga in the hospitals!

I was fully prepared for the emotions involved with working with sick children; I don’t think you ever get over seeing small children in a hospital bed (or crib for that matter).  However, what I had not been prepared for was the fact that it is virtually impossible to be prepared…at least, not in the way that I was familiar.  No day at the hospital is the same, so every week I am presented with any of the following: group classes, bedside breathing/guided imagery, private sessions with family members, teenagers, toddlers, and everything in between.

Oh the anxiety!

I spent the first few weeks feeling like a fake.  Thoughts of nervousness and doubt were constantly ambushing my mind.  Sure, I’m a yoga teacher and I get along really well with kids, but does that make me a great children’s yoga teacher at the hospital?  Not necessarily.  But how do I become one?  I just spent 20 minutes doing yoga with a little girl’s Barbies, how is that going to help her?  That group class was chaotic, didn’t flow at all, and the one little boy didn’t try any of the poses or breaths.  Why are you even doing this?

Then one day I was leaving, once again being overly critical of my teaching, when I saw a sign with this quote posted on the wall just outside of Pediatrics:

“It’s not how much you do, but how much love you put in the doing.”

~Mother Theresa

And it all clicked.  What I am doing is great, not because my teaching is perfect, but because my intentions are good.  In yoga, we always begin our practice by setting an intention; life off the mat is no different.  The mission of the Starlight Children’s Foundation is to brighten the lives of seriously ill children and their families–which is exactly my intention.  So if playing yoga Barbie brightened that little girl’s day, then that was successful.  Keeping this in mind has given me greater confidence in my abilities as a yoga teacher, which in turn has helped me to relax and just have FUN with it–because at the end of the day, seeing a smile or hearing that what we did felt good to a child is way better than teaching the “perfect class” (what is that, anyway?).

Who knows more about giving love than Mother Teresa?

Last week, I had the opportunity to have  a second session with a little boy who I’d met the week before.  Then, he had limited mobility, so he stayed in bed and we had the most wonderful session of guided imagery; the places he went and the things he saw were truly heart-warming.  This time, I was glad to see that he was up and walking about, with just a slight hunch in his shoulders.  I asked him what he would like to do and he said, “I think I should do some stretching since I can move around more now.”  We ended up squishing ourselves into the only space we could find.  A few months ago, I probably would have been stressed out because the space was not ideal and limited what we could do.  But this time I kept Mother Teresa’s words in mind and, together with his mom, we breathed deeply as we did basic seated stretches, twists, heart openers and some standing balancing poses (his favorite).  We giggled as he renamed Cobbler Pose “peanut butter and jelly” (because your feet touch like a sandwich), and encouraged mom when her hips weren’t as open as his to move into a pose.  When we were finished, he stood up and his mom pointed out how much taller he was standing.  He had a huge grin on his face and told me that he felt more relaxed, which in turn made me feel wonderful.

When you put all the love into the doing, it comes back to you many times over.  All it took was a sign on the wall for me to realize it.  What signs have you been given?

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The Wisdom of Coach Taylor

Extremely grateful for this love muffin.

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” One of the greatest lines from a TV show if you ask me. But when you really think about it, it’s also a great perspective to take in life. In yoga, we dedicate our practice to emptying the mind and filling the heart in order to see more clearly and live more deeply. Coach Taylor would probably scoff, but he is quite the yogi.

I have been feeling this mantra even more deeply in recent months. My heart is so full of gratitude for all of the incredible changes and amazing opportunities that have come my way. But even more importantly, I am so thankful for all of my family and friends, who have been such an amazing support system along the way. Thank you will never be enough to express how I feel about all of you.

While I won’t be with my family today for Thanksgiving, I am fortunate to be able to spend it with my friend Ashleigh at her family’s alpaca farm! Extremely grateful to have such hospitable friends all over the country.

Wherever you are and whomever you are with today, I wish you all a healthy, safe and delicious Thanksgiving….and of course, clear eyes and full hearts.

 

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The Universe is all Green Lights

Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to make some pretty significant changes in my life:  first by becoming a yoga teacher and getting to teach to real, live people (adults and children!) and then getting a new job that not only affords me the time to teach yoga, but is also going to give me incredible travel opportunities and challenge me professionally.  Right about now I would have to say my life is pretty grand.  I keep asking myself, how the heck did this happen?  Am I just a stupidly lucky girl who was in the right place at the right time?  Maybe.  But I believe it’s a little bit more than that.

Less than three months ago, my life was still pretty great.  I was pursuing teaching yoga and had a fantastic job teaching preschool with wonderful teachers and students.  Yoga was really starting to take off and I was getting a lot of opportunities to teach.  One such opportunity was teaching children in a pediatric unit at a hospital in Brooklyn.  Amazing!  But all of this happened while I was on summer vacation.  How could I make this work with 8-hour school days and an hour commute to and from work each day?  I knew that I was going to have to make a change; I began thinking that yoga would have to wait a year, and then I’d figure out another way to do it.  I considered leaving New York when the school year was finished.  I even submitted a resume to a school with a better commute and shorter hours, thinking that would solve everything.  Not only was I thinking these things, but I began voicing my concerns to friends and family.  “How great would it be to be able to teach school while having time during the week to teach yoga?” was something that I often thought to myself and aloud.

Then one morning I was having brunch with several girlfriends after teaching a yoga class, and one of them asked if I’d be interested in a new opportunity as a private teacher traveling with a family.  My initial thought was, sure, that sounds amazing, but I can’t do that, I have a job.  But as the day went on, I continued to think about it until I said to myself, “But really, why not?”  Over the next few weeks, I talked to my friend about the job a great deal more until I finally came to the conclusion that it was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.

Perhaps it is all luck.  I just happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right friend who had this opportunity for me.  There is definitely some truth to that.  But there is another factor, or rather, factors.  The first being: me.  My willingness to bring change into my life.  And with that, an open mind.  Just putting something out into the universe isn’t going to give us exactly what we want (because if that’s the case, money would be raining down from the sky all over the country).  No, once you put something out there, it’s important to be open to the fact that sometimes what we want comes to us in a completely different package than we were expecting–like this job, which I wasn’t looking for but turned out to be exactly what I needed.  And other times, we don’t get something we thought we wanted because something even better, that we really need, is right around the corner (For example, that other school I applied to?  I never even got an interview.  At first I was disappointed…but now?  Really grateful.).

Recently, a friend shared with me this saying: “The universe is all green lights.”  Meaning, whatever we put out in the universe is what we will get.   If you are a person that says, “I always lose my keys,” then…you will always lose your keys.  But if you say, “I am learning to remember where I put my keys,” then maybe, just maybe, you will start remembering (my friend says this has really worked for her!).

It’s not about being unrealistic.  It’s about being willing to make changes and having the ability to recognize the open doors, even if they’re where you never expected to find them.  I am extremely grateful I saw the green light and walked through my door.  Have you found yours?

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Thank you, Mrs. Obama

Today, Michelle Obama announced that retailers such as Walmart and Walgreens are pledging to expand their stores to stock affordable nutritious food in communities that would otherwise rely on the fast food industry and other unhealthy options to feed their families.  While I know there are those out there who shun these mega chains because they take away from mom and pop small businesses, I think this is a really important step for the future of the US.  The obesity rate in this country is utterly and unacceptably out of control, and it’s about time that things started to change.

Last week I read an article which listed Colorado as the ONLY state in the ENTIRE country with an obesity rate less than 20% (and it was only just under at about 19.4%).  This is incredibly alarming.  According to this article, scientists are already predicting that this generation of children may be the first to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali discusses five Yamas, or restraints, which are part of a moral code for right living.  The first is called Ahimsa, or non-violence.  To follow ahimsa is to do no harm to any living being–including ourselves and our loved ones.  Consistently eating and providing foods that do not provide nourishment goes against Ahimsa**.

Yes, we need a better healthcare system.  Yes, we need a military.  And of course, we need to provide more support for our education system!  But none of these things are going to matter if people are dying of obesity because they couldn’t afford better food options and don’t understand proper nutrition.  I applaud Michelle Obama for leading the fight against this epidemic.

With that said, each of us can time to make sure that we are treating ourselves with ahimsa, because this is the beginning of a greater change.  My sister and I joined our local CSA (community supported agriculture) this year, and it has been awesome–bags of fresh veggies every week!  (Anyone who reads this is invited over for dinner anytime :))  What can you do?

 

**This is not to say that sometimes, Ahimsa can’t be a large brownie sundae a la mode…sometimes. 🙂

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Welcome to Yoga Snax!

One of the things we discussed in my training is the idea of consistency in practice; a little bit of practice, every day, will make a much bigger difference in your life both physically and mentally than one long practice once a week.  So, in that vein, I’ve decided to start a blog to document my new journey as a yoga teacher and life in general.  I see it as a place to share moments, quotes, tips and ideas that have made an impact on me, and that may have an impact on you.  Just like a great snack helps to energize you until your next meal, perhaps Yoga Snax will do the same for your practice.

I’ve recently begun reading the writings of Thich Naht Hanh, an amazing Vietnamese Buddhist monk.  When you read his words, you can feel the smile on his face.  In fact, smiling seems to be his favorite thing to do and write about.  I highly recommend his books, it’s hard not to feel better after doing so.  For today, I’ll leave you with this quote:

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

What do you have to lose?  🙂

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