Happy New Year 2010 LifeFit students and friends!
As we start the new year with new and renewed hopes, plans and expectations, I wish you all peace, clarity and good health to enjoy every day as it unfolds. As we live in the real world, here is a thought and a quote: “Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath.” - Charlotte Joko Beck So then let us resolve to take it all in stride, to pull each other up where and when we can, to look to the positive side of things often and to really use our yoga practice!
Business/class notes:
1. The CUMC classes made the $1000 mark in our efforts to raise funds for the new Youth Building that the church is planning. Once it is built, I will be able to rent space so that LifeFit classes will be held there – how lucky for us to be able to use the new space! I am so thankful for the generosity and willingness of each student to take part in this group endeavor toward such a “win-win” situation. In my heart of hearts I have prayed your appreciation and blessings. I am quite proud of our accomplishment together!
2. All group classes are going well! There is space in the Chair Yoga class on Thursdays at 12:15. I am still recruiting to fill space for a small group to meet and work at my home studio on Wednesdays at 8:45 am. The group will work in a circuit format using the yoga wall stations, the Pilates reformer and Arcs and have access to the Migun bed and each 6 week session will have a set of sequences created unique to the abilities/needs of the students in the group. Whether you are a seasoned yogi or a novice student, this is a great opportunity to use state of art equipment and to work well on your body awareness and . If anyone has a friend who is not inclined to begin in a larger group setting or in with private session, please pass the info for this opportunity on to them.
3. Look for information on YOGA DAY later this month.
4. Look out for a new Pilates mat class that will be offered for a short session later in the spring.
5. Look to the website and to emails when in question of inclement weather – for CUMC classes, if you call the desk at 299-1571, there will be a recording even.
6. Though I had not previously planned on it, I have 12 yoga blankets now for sale at $20 each. Colors are: Light blue, blue and green. As new students will want yoga toe socks, our new price is $15/pair. That is what one would pay anywhere for the brand I have been using as I think they are superior. Please let me know as I have a short, yet growing list and the minimum order is 20. Colors are black, grey, white, brown and blue stripes. You will also need to indicate your shoe size as these socks are made to accommodate foot size.
7. I am encouraging those of you who have eye pillows to bring them to class to use during restorative poses. Many of you have them and forget to use them. I will remind you that their main use is on the “brow” – not on the eyes, during restorative poses, to help quiet the central nervous system. Once you get used to the use this way, the body quickly recognizes the signal and the effect becomes more efficient. If you do not have one and want one, I have them for sale at $12 each. They come with a “sleeve” that can be removed for washing. Some are scented with lavender and some are unscented. Keeping one in a ziploc bag, rolled up in your mat is an ideal way to have it ready for your next yoga practice session.
8. I am marketing workshops to business groups, especially suggesting “Healthy Backs/Healthy Bodies.” If you know of groups who would welcome a staff educational opportunity, this workshop is created to empower the use of poses and preparations for poses that can be practiced during short breaks in practical ways throughout a workday. I am also beginning the planning of the summer LifeFit workshops. My plans are always to create informational settings to help pull in new students as well as to provide for seasoned students to take on “next steps” as their yoga practice evolves. Sometimes both can be accommodated in the same theme of a workshop. This summer that will not always be the case so for existing students who have special requests as to what you want to learn now is the time to ask!
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Yoga As Medicine: An M.D. and Yogi on How It Works
:: By Nina Zolotow
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If you're looking for choices beyond drugs and surgery for a health condition or concern, you're likely finding that traditional western medicine isn't giving you many (or any) options. Most M.D.s aren't trained in alternative therapies, but a growing contingent of M.D.s is more broadly trained in complementary and alternative medicine. And some are trained in yoga — a practice that's been emerging as a highly effective alternative therapy for many chronic health conditions and symptoms.
Among the most respected of these forward-thinking docs is Timothy McCall, M.D., is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and a dedicated yoga practitioner. McCall has traveled to India and throughout the United States observing, training with, and interviewing the world’s leading yoga teachers and therapists including his primary teacher, Patricia Walden. He is the medical editor of Yoga Journal, and is the author of Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing. I talked with McCall about how and why yoga can offer real healing for common medical conditions.
Q. How does yoga work from a medical perspective?
A. Yoga — by which I mean a broad array of tools including asana (yoga poses), pranayama, meditation, chanting, service, etc. — has been shown in hundreds of scientific studies to benefit people with a wide variety of health conditions. Yoga lowers blood pressure, improves lung function, relaxes the nervous system, cuts cholesterol, boosts immunity, and makes you more content, to name just a few documented effects.
Perhaps even more important, yoga is a methodology to change dysfunctional habits and attitudes into ones that serve you better. Patanjali wrote that the key to success in yoga is regular practice over a long period of time, and this idea is finding support in recent breakthroughs in neuroscience. We now know that the brain is capable of changing itself — of creating new patterns, new connections between neurons — and that the more you do something, the stronger those neural pathways become.
Is there a difference between yoga therapy and taking a yoga class?
Absolutely. Almost any form of yoga can be great preventive medicine, and wonderful stress reduction, as long as you’re not doing things that hurt you. But yoga therapy, as I’ve observed in my travels around India and the U.S., tends to be personalized to the individual. Even the masters who write books giving sequences for particular conditions don’t actually practice yoga therapy that way themselves. They look at the person in front of them and come up with something just for him or her, and modify it over time in accordance with the student’s changing needs. Since group classes are actually an invention of the last 50 years or so, in a way modern yoga therapy, which is often taught in small groups or one-on-one, is returning yoga to its roots.
You did a great job in Yoga as Medicine of featuring the work of teachers from a wide variety of traditions. Do you think it matters which style of yoga you practice?
Again, as long as you’re not doing something potentially harmful, I think the fact that you practice is more important than what you practice. I’ve seen healing in pretty much every single system of yoga I’ve investigated. I do think that some styles come from deeper traditions, some train their teachers more thoroughly, and some are safer than others, particularly for those with serious ailments, so I definitely think it matters which style of yoga you do, and maybe even more important who you study with. But the beauty is that there are so many good choices that almost anyone can find an approach to yoga that will work for them and that they’ll really enjoy.
Republished courtesy of Yogamates.com.
"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."
-Matthew 5:14-16 (NRSV)
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
-Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
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“Peace is the only logical choice.” – Albert Einstein
Lastly, I look forward to our continued growth together, both on and off the mat.
Namaste,
Mona Flynn
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