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Celebrate!

The theme for the week: Celebrate!

That's been the atmosphere at Kona Yoga for the past few weeks, as Krista made the final touches to a 1967 theme birthday party, held Saturday night, for husband Matt. Matt wasn't born in '67 (only a handful of us attending the party were alive in '67) but his prized GTO was.

Guests were asked to dress in period costume and the top music hits from 1967 played in rooms lit with either red or black lights. As the photos get distributed, I'll post them on the Kona Yoga blog. Thank goodness digital cameras and iPods weren't banned from the party.

It began with one person's birthday and another's intention to celebrate, and the creativity and anticipation spread far beyond the guest list. Although we can't always physically and logistically include all the people we'd like to, there's no reason not to share the joy of the celebration.

Birthdays are truly unique occasions that should be celebrated, but why limit yourself to one occasion a year? Do a handstand for the first time? Celebrate! Get rid of any old, encumbering belief or fear? Celebrate!

If we look for reasons to celebrate, we'll find them everywhere. Gifts are everywhere too. Think globally, act personally. The world needs and loves a party!

Just some of the people and their Celebrations this week:

• Matt Graves: birthday, 8/26.
• Natalie Shiotsuka: birthday, 8/28.
• Shan Quinn: birthday, 9/01.
• Geno Ortiz: climbed to the top of Half Dome, and made it back down!
• Armand Singer: the completion of his summer road trip.
• Congratulations, Moku-wai Bush: winner of the most authentic '60s costume award!
• Share your celebration!

Originally published in the Kona Yoga Newsletter, August 28, 2006.

Moku Wins the Prize!

The most authentic 60's costume winner (voted 8/26/06): Moku-wai Busch. Replete with all the accessories, including protest signs. The costume is pure Ross Dress For Less. The beard and hair are pure Moku.

Yoga for Teachers

Betsy Cole, deputy director of the Kohala Center, sent me an article regarding yoga for teachers:

Lessons from Yoga
Beyond toning the body, yoga conditions the mind to think about teaching and learning through a powerful pedagogical paradigm. Yoga workshops for teachers are popping up in school districts all over the United States. The summer issue of Educational Leadership examines a program called Yoga Ed that has led hundreds of California teachers through a yoga training program that integrates yoga into public school curriculum.

I found it fitting for teachers of all subjects, even yoga.

Read the entire article.

The Real Winners

"The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better.”
- Barbara Pletcher

The term stress, usually elicits thoughts or pictures of external factors such as our workplace, world events, and relationships. In essence, however, stress is caused by our responses to self-induced irritants such as our worries, fears, and faulty expectations of the external factors.

Some people react to a little nick on the car door as though it's a major disaster. Others are able to take everything that happens to them in stride, always looking for the 'silver-lining'. Most of us oscillate between the two extremes, depending upon the amount of stressors present in our lives.

Chronic stress has become a major determining health factor and the suggestions to help manage your stress may appear formidable. Yoga consistently appears as one of the tension taming techniques because of the overall health benefits of the poses and breathwork.

What my teachers have learned intuitively, through years of experience, are the dividends of a heart-centered yoga practice. As I have included this focus in my own practice and teaching, it cannot but spill over into the rest of my life. Beautifully, science and technology can now measure and illustrate the effects of "joy, rising within you as you inhale".

I've been interested in the Heart Math Institute's techniques for some time now and I was ecstatic to find that they've developed a simple handheld device to measure heart coherence. "Coherence leads to an inner calm, but is not a relaxation technique," explains David Servan-Schrieber in the Instinct to Heal. "You can establish coherence just as well when your heart rate is 120 as when it is 55 beats a minute."

He continues with the effects, "The results experienced by men and women who have discovered coherence and practice it regularly are almost too good to be true. The control of anxiety and depression, the lowering of blood pressure, the increase in DHEA, the stimulation of the immune system-what these preliminary results suggest is not only a slowing down of the aging process, but a turning back of the physiological clock."

I recently purchased an emWave device and have used it to reach a state of coherence before my yoga practice, sustaining it for a couple of minutes. I was also able to regain it (a green light) right after 12 sun salutes with my heart beating much faster.

I've quoted Servan-Schreiber before saying, "I have often observed that my patients or acquaintances who practice yoga can induce coherence easily when I test them with a computer. Their physiology seemed to have already been partially transformed by their regular exercises."

More reasons why we need to put a smile on our face as we continue to do the Tibetan Rites!

Published in the Kona Yoga Newsletter, 8/21/06.

Language and Thought Processes

"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief."
-Gerry Spence

In "Watching The Tree" the book's Chinese author explains that Chinese sentences do not need a verb. 'Big house' is a complete sentence. He, she, and it, are all written differently in Chinese but pronounced the same: ta. Because the sound 'ta' stands for all three in Chinese, the author believes that she mixes the pronouns up when speaking English.

"... how we speak does affect our way of thinking. Each language builds a fence around those who speak it from birth, imprisoning our thought within its vocabulary (and grammar) unless we find a way out", Adeline Yen Mah offers.

Ethnoscientists believe that it is our culture and interests that prescribe the way we categorize our reality. If we lived in the middle of a flat desert, mauka and makai ( definition, just in case) would serve no purpose. Just as we in Hawaii, have no immediate need for some 13 terms for the different conditions and types of snow, as the Indians in the Northwest Territories of Canada do.

Yen Mah suggests a way out from the confines of one's native tongue: "Freedom is achieved by becoming familiar with a second language. This new knowledge enables us to view our first language objectively from without, creating fresh insight while further enhancing the interplay between language and thought."

Italian would be the second language I'd choose to learn (just to be able to speak it 'when in Rome') but I believe that when we focus on self- reference in Yoga, we gain insight into language and the thought process.

It was my first Yoga teacher, Darina Archer, who taught me the power of the word, yet. When I'd say, "I can't do that." She'd add, "yet" to the end of my statement; a beautiful way to add promise to the present.

Last April, I was in a workshop with Jehangir Palkhivala at the Big Island Yoga Center, and I made a comment about the "hard" and "soft" qualities of the surya namaskar series which Jehangir was teaching. He promptly, although gently, suggested that I replace the word hard, with 'powerful' or 'opening' because the word and the feeling that it invokes, goes right back to the brain.

I realized that I needed to be mindful of the feelings that I associated with the yoga movements: synthesizing body, spirit, and mind. Jehangir reminded me that the poses were meant to feel good, before they looked good. The beauty of the poses comes from allowing joy in the poses.

Words of love and compassion, might just be the second language we need, to free us from a vocabulary that stifles and inhibits our joy. Watch your choice of words during your Yoga practice, when you speak about yourself, and when you speak about others. Always allow room for joy!

Recently, a friend relayed that on the way to dinner, his 98 year old mother anxiously wanted to know who they were going to see. After the third or fourth time repeating all the names, he answered by saying, "Let it be a surprise for you!" She was immediately soothed by the prospect of a happy evening.

We need a language with verbs. Especially, 'to love'!

Originally published in the Kona Yoga Newsletter, April 17, 2006.

Self Talking

Every waking moment we talk to ourselves about the things we experience. Our self-talk, the thoughts we communicate to ourselves, in turn control the way we feel and act.
-John Lembo

Someone once told me that he stopped going to yoga classes because the teacher had begun chanting in class. Although he had grown to truly love the asana (posture) practice, he could not allow himself to be surrounded by the chants. He was wary of the "power of the spoken word". I told him that I thought he was right in not returning to class if he felt uncomfortable, although flippantly dismissing his concerns to myself.

Now that I have experienced the power of attraction, I understand his concern. Continuously doing something that you feel is wrong, is detrimental to your body and spirit. Holding negative thoughts as you chant words that ask for enlightenment, causes stress and may be hazardous to your health!

We seem to be well aware of all the negativity that surrounds us in the newspapers, on television, and at gossipy dinner parties. Although so often, we are unaware of our own insidious chanting.

If someone told you that you were fat, dumb, or lazy, would you be offended? Offended might be a mild reaction. Yet how many times do we pass our reflection in a mirror or stand in judgement of ourselves, offering such comments? Words we would never say to someone else.

Just as pregnant women instinctively begin to treat their bodies with care because of the 'extra' life inside them, we all need to care for the 'extra ordinary' life inside us and be mindful of how we talk to ourselves. Self-talk is a non-stop radio station.

Bertrand Russell said, "The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good."

We cannot seek to do good in this world by diminishing ourselves, in any manner. Purring is a prerequisite to roaring.

Ice Therapy

 Some reach for the bottle (aspirin or alcohol) at the first sign of pain. I've been conditioned to recommend ice! Ice cubes in a zip-loc bag or even a sack of frozen peas. Ice. 15 minutes on, 45 minutes off. Ice.

I received my massage training at the former Kona Hawaii's School of Muscular Massage and have not found a better way to explain ice therapy and treatment than the one page hand-out prepared by instructor Geno Ortiz. With his permission, I'm making it available to you as a printable pdf. page.

That's what I did at least 4 times during the night. I iced my hand and then my forearms. I wonder if that's why I couldn't fall asleep...

Self-Care Ice Therapy handout.

Medco Ice bags, source.

Pain

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
-Kahlil Gibran

Pain. I went down that road this past week. Wednesday night, my right hand was held in a spastic-claw impersonation. It throbbed and ached, without end.

I have my theories as to how I may have injured myself, but as Yogi Berra deftly once replied, "I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question."

I did everything I could think of, except take a pain pill. There was not a solitary milligram in the house. I was on the road called Pain, with no side exits. I laid awake, unable to find a comfortable position but I knew, with certainty that it would all be better in the morning. I fell asleep around 3:30am and when I next looked at the clock, it was 6:00am and the throbbing pain was gone.

My very own 'kink in the hose' situation! It's a story with a happy ending: everything is back to normal, as far as my hand is concerned. I also had a key lesson in pain and the mind-body connection. It's about to alter a few things in my life and in my yoga and massage practices.

I'll continue this over the next few days covering such topics as repetitive stress, ice treatments, and the control of the emotional brain.

Have a great week!

Breathe!

In essence, science is a perpetual search for an intelligent and integrated comprehension of the world we live in.

Cornelius Bernardus Van Neil (1897- ) U. S. microbiologist.

Now there might be proof of the benefits of deep, focused breathing. An article in yesterday's CNN.com states that slow, deep breathing may help to break down the excess salt in the body. Read the complete article.

RESPeRATE is the device, approved by the FDA, to help the breathing challenged learn the correct techniques. The manufacturer claims that it could take years of practice and individualized coaching to learn what this apparatus could teach you quickly. Hurry up and calm down?

I may get one of the devices, just as a teaching tool. I'm so grateful that science can now prove the benefits of pranayama through digital read-outs. Our belief systems have such an influence on our health that it might pay to see it, and then believe it.