KonaYoga.com

Upside down
Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found
I don't want this feeling to go away
from Upside Down by Jack Johnson

I remember the first time I tried a headstand. It was with my first teacher, Darina Archer, on the small lanai of her house. I was enjoying yoga up until then, and learning to balance while standing erect. The thought of standing on my head was daunting and the process was not easy.

Nearly twenty years later, I have come to appreciate the posture for the strength and confidence it has instilled within my psyche, more than the benefits that it has brought to my body.

When my world literally turns upside down, I think about Sirsasana (headstand) and remind myself that nothing has really changed, except for my perception. The time I spend out-of-sorts is only going to strengthen me and when I come out of it, I'll feel calm and blissful. That's my experience of a headstand.

I did have to go through some time of balancing against a wall, then with one heel against the wall, falling over while trying to come up in the middle of a room, etc. If I string all of those years and hours of practice together and wear the laurels with gratitude, those years were also very beneficial.

Right side up. Upside down. That about sums up the time in this physical body, but the beauty and joy we receive is all about our individual perception.

Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found?

Photo: verhelstaal

All at once...

"Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, I hear them all at once."
-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

So often, my instructions during a yoga class and to myself in practice, refer to opposing actions (stretch here and contract there) and directions (rising here and descending there). Then I either suggest reaching a balance between the opposing actions, or call for the actions to occur, all at once. I love opposing actions, moving from one end to another and trying to grasp and feel everything at once. It is the way that I understand and assimilate yoga. It is the way that I understand and assimilate life.

That's what I love about the photo above, it shows two extremes, all at once. The composite illustrates a genome sequence on the left ("What You Are") and a photo of a high-rise apartment on the right ("Who You Are"). The illustration leads into a Wired Magazine article about 23andMe, a company that is offering to decode your DNA for $1,000.

I love the image and the concept. We can now see the evidence of our interconnectedness by tracing family inheritance. We can discern our propensities, the ailments and diseases that we are most likely to develop and do something about them, if we want to.

Outcries of conspiracy theories may soon resound, by those who have such thoughts in their genes perhaps. Open minded as you are however, read the Wired article and another that ran in the New York Times. I find it fascinating that technology is able to discern so much of our genetic history and the future of our physical bodies through a sample of saliva.

Our life force must be amused as it dances through, and with, the helices being encoded and mapped. What will we do with our maps of treasure? Just where do we think we're going, all at once?

Illustration:Wired Magazine, Issue 15.12

 

Our few minutes of fame...

This is a quick scan of the article that appeared in today's issue of West Hawaii Today (WHT). Reporter Jen Reeder, contacted me as I was leaving for West Virginia last month to attend memorial services for Armand Singer, for an interview.

We finally connected when I got back to Kona and a few weeks ago, WHT photographer Mike Darden, captured the essence of a  restorative yoga class.

The folks in our Gentle Stretch Class are diligent practitioners and it's difficult to distract them, especially during a restorative class.   Thanks to Jen Reeder, Mike Darden and West Hawaii Today for spreading the word about the benefits and joy of yoga!

Note: that's my dad, Fred Uechi, with his hands in namaste. He's usually the only male in the class.

John Leebold, in India

John Leebold rang me (Australian for "called me on the phone") last week and he's still in India. He's attending classes and assisting Guruji in his therapeutic classes at the Iyengar Institute in Pune. 

Ray Madigan and Shelly Choy, co-directors of the Manoa Yoga Center have also arrived so they'll have a chance to discuss John's next visit to Hawaii this coming March.

Staying in an apartment very near to the institute, John's internet access has been spotty but we were lucky to get a decent Skype connection last week (9:30pm my time, 1:00pm the next day in India). The city was preparing for Diwali,the Festival of Lights. "It's very noisy here! Fireworks going off all the time," John reported. "Keep your headset handy, I'll call back soon."

Inhale, Exhale.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
~Chinese Proverb                                                               

Can something as simple as the act of breathing change your demeanor? Try taking a series of quick and shallow breaths through your mouth. How does that make you feel? Now take a full exhalation, let your shoulders drop and take a few deep but gentle breaths, through your nose. How does that make you feel?

An increase in carbon dioxide may induce negative emotions (1) by triggering an inborn stress response. If we were suffocating then yes, it would be important for our bodies to respond with the fight or flight reflex. How bizarre to think that we could induce that same response just by the quality of our breath!

We discussed the importance of relaxation during childbirth in Friday's Prenatal Yoga class and the role of pranayama in learning to relax. The expectant mothers are learning to control their breathing and relaxing during exertion. It's a practice that's beneficial for all human bodies.

In times of pain and mental stress, slow deep breaths can bring instant relief, lower your heart rate and blood pressure. We come into this life with an inhalation and leave with an exhalation. Paying attention to the quality of those breaths in between the first and the last, makes all the difference.

(1) Griez EJ, Colasanti A, van Diest R, Salamon E, Schruers K (2007) Carbon Dioxide Inhalation Induces Dose- Dependent and Age-Related Negative Affectivity. PLoS ONE 2(10): e987. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000987

Photo: AK Travelers

Submitted to The Kathleen Show, Prevention Not Prescription

In Remembrance of Marcia Carman

A memorial gathering for Marcia Carman is being planned for Saturday, December 1 at the picnic area at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park at 3pm.

Pupu potluck also.  Feel free to bring something to add to the table.  A beach/lawn chair is suggested.      

For more info, please call Pam (Meister) Sokach at  cell: 808-895-8897 or home: 328-9340

Note: Click the photo for a more legible copy.

Best Friends

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.
-Edna Buchanan

On Saturday, I went to a memorial service for Adelheid (Heidi) Paik who passed away on October 19 in Honolulu. She and her late husband, Kwong Sin Paik, had four children who attended Konawaena: William, Heidi, Bernadette and Linda. Linda and I have been friends since the fifth grade and as I looked at all of the family photographs on display, I realized that her mother had an influence on my life too.

Adelheid Kreft grew up in Germany and followed her mother, on foot in 1944 to escape the Nazis and then the Russians, from Danzig to Berlin and on to Bavaria. A year after the war ended, she met a young man from Hawaii and then a year later, found herself on a coffee farm in Kona.

Heidi lived an affluent life before the war and when she became a coffee farm wife and mother, she shared her experience-rich life with, and through, her family. My first and lasting exposure to opera came from Heidi by way of Linda's voice. Musetta's Waltz from La Boheme was my favorite and Linda sang it beautifully even in her pre-teen years. She always prefaced her rendition by letting me know that it wasn't a song for a "nice girl". I'm sure her mother told her that.

Heidi sought out and befriended other German brides and had a circle of friends with whom she enjoyed kaffee klatches and singing. But she also appreciated the ethnic mixed plate that is Hawaii.

I sat at the front door of the church on Saturday with another grade school friend, Nellie Pulido Medeiros, where we looked after the guest books and received the cards and offerings of condolences. So many people stopped to tell me that they, or someone close to them, had been Heidi's best friend. Some had German accents, others were Filipino, Japanese and Hawaiian. They were all her best friends.

I sat behind the congregation at her service and noticed many of my classmates. Many were there to help, as well as be there for their best friend, Linda. Like mother, like daughter.

Some people have a magnetic attitude, always extending an open arm into a circle that already looks full and occupied. Linda opened her arms to me when I was a new kid at her school. She always encouraged others to sing with her, even though her clear soprano notes could outlast and override us all.

Adelheid Kreft Paik opened her arms to embrace a new life, a new family and new friends here in Hawaii. Her reach continues to grow through all of us touched by her and her children. Where is it written that we can have only one, best friend?

Photo:Home and Garden