KonaYoga.com

The Gift of Support

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

-John F. Kennedy

When asked a few days ago, "What's the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?" my response was:

My most memorable gift this year was Support, I truly felt the helping hands of others this year. Whether they sent kind words, generous monetary gifts, smiles, airline tickets, mouthed "thank you" or  "I love you", treated me to breakfast, lunch and dinner, or sat expectantly in front of me for a yoga class. I felt so cared for and appreciated.

 

I've been so blessed in years past, but this year I felt as though everyone was bracing me, telling me that I was doing the right thing. In the coming year, I'd like to continue to notice and appreciate Support, as well as to spread it around to others.

 

Pleasure is spread through the earth
In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.
~William Wordsworth

 

Art: Gifts by Julie Paschkis, 2003

Posted on Lessons In Balance, December 30, 2010.

Beautifully Different

For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day. -Evelyn Underhill

This month, I'm responding to prompts offered daily by the authors of Reverb 10. I chose to do it, in hopes that it would inspire me to write daily for my blog, Lessons in Balance. So far, I've learned something new about myself, everyday. For instance, on December 8 the Prompt was, Beautifully Different:

Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different - you'll find they're what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

My response dealt with what I consider to be the quirkiness of my brain/mind and how I manage to present myself to the world. In writing that post, I realized that the one thing no one will ever be able to see in me, is what I consider to be most beautiful. It's a good thing I have a dimple on my right cheek. :D

For more prompts and responses, see Lessons in Balance.

Stepping Stones, Remembered

At the beginning of each week, I try to send an article to Prevention Not Prescriptions, a feature column of the Kathleen Show. It's a forum that's meant to "inform and inspire each other to better health". Sometimes I write a new post, but I often go back into my archives.

Often, I am pleasantly surprised by the memories that surface from something I wrote a year or two ago. For example, Stepping Stones, my submission for this week, was written in December 2007, shortly after Moku-wai Busch broke his ankle.

When I wrote it, I knew that Moku wasn't going to use his injury as an excuse for anything and I was excited at what was about to happen for him. Not that I had any idea what that would be. Read Stepping Stones... 

A Natural Tooth Powder

Turmeric has been piquing a lot of interest lately as a pain reliever (Read one doctor's opinion), weight suppressant, anti-inflammatory,Alzheimer preventive supplement, and the list goes on. (See this collection of articles.) So far, I haven't read anything about the way I use it as a tooth powder!

My yoga teacher, Jehangir Palkhivala told me about it a couple of years ago. These are the ingredients:

Turmeric and sea salt.  Salt for cleansing and turmeric to strengthen the gums. Buy the best quality ingredients you can find,

mix equal parts in a glass container or jar (keep it airtight),

blend it well and dip a slightly damp toothbrush to coat. Then, brush away.

I'll spare you the sight of me brushing my teeth but I will warn you that your toothbrush will turn yellow after the first use. I even fill my wash basin with a little water to keep it clean, although any discoloration cleans up right away with a little cleanser. At first I was a bit concerned about the porcelain crowns I have, but they haven't yellowed.

So what's the benefit? I've had some challenges with my gums because I'm a mouth breather when I sleep (another photo I'll spare you). Everytime I got my teeth cleaned, my gums bled, a lot. Well, after a few months of brushing with this mixture, there was hardly a speck of blood during my last cleaning.

Aside from stronger gums, as I keep reading about all the positive nutritional benefits of turmeric, I think the anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin are doing wonders for my body. True, I'm ingesting very small amounts through this tooth powder but I'm definitely not swallowing all of the additives found in most toothpastes. Are you?

This post has been submitted to : Prevention Not Prescription.

Moving to the State of Balance

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.- Thomas Merton

This is what balance actually feels like to me: all of my physical, mental and emotional pieces are vying for order and stability.  After years of teaching and practicing the most fundamental pose in yoga, Tadasana, I can accept the dynamic physical actions that are necessary to simply stand upright and balance. In other areas, I for one, spend more time moving toward the state of balance than residing in any particular territory. But with practice, it gets easier.

Lessons just seem to present themselves, like this past Saturday.  I declined an invitation to spend the entire day lounging at the beautiful Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, where I'd be with friends, develop a darker shade of tan, read a book, laugh, eat and be merry. But, I also wanted to go to the Farmers Market in Keauhou, I had a class to teach and blog posts I wanted to write before my upcoming family vacation this week. So I leaned a little to the left.

Then as it happens once every three hundred and forty-five days or so, no one showed up for my 10am yoga class. I took it as an invitation to get a two hour head start on my writing so I leaned the other way and felt as though more time poured back into my side of the hourglass. At least, that was until I realized that my blogging service was not fully functioning. I couldn't write any blog posts.  My ankles quivered as I abruptly stopped moving forward.

Thank goodness I have things to fall back on. I've got a hard head and a chest full of wants and wishes. I stubbornly refer to roadblocks as simple detours and when refused one menu, pull out a cookbook. Those are not the traits of a more intelligent or developed soul, no. Just the reflexes of someone who insists on moving to the state of balance.

I ended up learning how to create and install widgets on my blogs and at the end of the day, I was grateful for all of the detours. You know, I don't think I'm ready to live in the State of Balance, yet. At least not full-time. I'm beginning to enjoy the challenge of leaning from side to side, going forward and falling back because I can create my own landing space. As one of my yoga teachers used to say whenever we struggled to stand on our hands or heads, "Don't worry, the floor is always there!"

Original Photo: Heidi Vickery-Uechi

Blog Action Day

This coming Monday is Blog Action Day. Over 9700 bloggers (the number grows hourly) have committed so far to answer the question:

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?
One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

The Environment is the chosen issue. That one day is October 15. We are one of thousands of voices.

Why don't you join in on the action? Watch the video (1min 8 sec) on YouTube, pick a way to Go Green, choose an environmental issue to blog about on Monday or pledge to lower your personal climate impact forever.  Sign-up at BlogAction.org.

Let's Eat Local

Food is the most primitive form of comfort.
-Sheila Graham

I joined the Eat Local Challenge (ELC) a month ago, inspired by the Keauhou Farmers' Market and my dear friend, Nora Bow. It was a month of education for me because I made the commitment to record my consumption of local foods and, as we all know, thirty days hath September!

I certainly fit in with the population of humans who reportedly eat from a preferred list of ten or fewer foods. It would have been opportune for me to try different fruits (but I love mangoes!) and food products for a wider variety and a more interesting read. I did, however, learn a few things, made some new connections and have some ideas for future challenges.

This is what I learned:

Your local supermarket may be a better source than the health food store, at least for fresh and local produce. I found that out within the first week.

The proper placement of the apostrophe S for the possessive noun farmers is after the S, as in Farmers' Market, not Farmer's or absent as in Farmers. I'm usually picky about such things but chose to ignore it until I began reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life. I respect her writing expertise so much more than any government entity. Mangoes may make you lazy and I'm correcting my previous posts as I find them.

It's far more healthy to feel good when eating your food than worrying about eating good food. You can take down two mangoes off a tree with one stone, if the Eat Local concept truly appeals to you and you don't obsess over it. Click here, for Food: The Science of Scrumptious. The article explains how we all have our food quirks and may even pass them on to our kids.

Pre-planned meals avoid the need for prepared meals. You'd think I would have learned this after all the years of late afternoon competitive grocery shopping.

My Eat Local focus has given me a greater appreciation of the Big Island and all that is grown here. I'm also gaining a new respect for the foodies of the world! Their enthusiasm and true joy of eating will change the way America eats, which Europeans will say is with too much worry and guilt.

Here are some links to a few happy foodies I've made contact with this past month:

Bettina and Suzanne are the high-energy writers of Loulies...for the love of food. Bettina found us through the ELC website and introduced herself.

You'll want to keep an eye on a new Hawaii publication: Hawaiian Edibles. Gloria Cohen, the publisher and editor-in-chief, promises an interesting second issue.

Kale for Sale is written by an eco-conscious foodie named Katrina and she mentioned Kona Yoga in her September 27 post along with a list of other blog sites.

I am inspired to continue my local eating focus and to try some of the recipes shared by all of my new friends. I'm also highly intrigued by the concept of a 30 day challenge so stay tuned, this is the beginning of a brand new month!

What's considered local? Take a look at this 100-mile radius map and type in your zip code. Many Eat Local enthusiasts consider local to be within that area.

Print: TaroFestival.org

John Leebold's Blog

In the few days that he's here in Kona, John's decided to start blogging! He's sifting through photos and learning the ins and outs of Typepad features.

His aim is to keep the yoga community informed of his whereabouts and to share some of his travel-teaching-experiences. Keep checking the blog for additional cities and yoga studios where you can meet up with John. As well as for some of his personal photographs of B.K.S. Iyengar.

View the blog and save this address: www.johnleebold.typepad.com

Full Circle

I have photos to help remind me of all the sights and sounds of my trip. Heidi, my sister-in-law, took me to see Chicago in New York. The big draw was the holdover performance of Usher. I'd heard about Usher, just enough to differentiate him from the people leading us to our seats. The fact that people screamed when he first appeared on stage, made the show even better, serendipitously.

When the show was over, we had to wait until the crowd left the building before we could find our way to the bathroom. By the time we got out to the street, there were barricades holding throngs of fans back on the sides and across the street. We walked right down the center of attention, like celebrities, minus the recognition and applause.

Horns honking, people talking, short bits of music as we walked by bars and restaurants; all the sounds of Friday night on Broadway. They're all a memory as I sit writing this and the sound of the earliest rising rooster is all I hear.

I had a beautiful trip. So many people opened their homes and took the time to share their lives. I got to see my friend Annie's, childhood home and friends in Morgantown and Pittsburgh; my brother's home and world in Montclair, New Jersey and New York City.

If we have a finite capacity to remember, then replacing scenes every now and then, is good. My luggage was withheld twice on this trip (once due to weather, once due to some baggage handler's slight of hand) but it pales in comparison to the memory of playing Somebody with my nephew Kai, and listening to him sing "Worthless" from the Brave Little Toaster, in it's entirety.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware,” quoting Martin Buber once more. A good trip is one that excites and draws you forward and out into the world. It is also timed just right to bring you full circle, in appreciation of home.

I sat next to a little girl on my flight into Kona and she turned to me, more than once, to say, "You must be so happy to live in Hawaii, huh?" I answered, each time, "Yes, I am."