A Year Without Yoga

June: Wedding Planning
July: Wedding
August: Moving
September: Settling
October: Begin New Job
November: Sinus Infection
December: Stressful Holiday Season
January: Stress At Work
February: It's Cold!
March: Slump
April: Travel... Quit Bad Job
May: Start Better Job

A day turns into two, two days into a week, and week into a month, and a month into a year.

Time turns so quickly morning to night, Fall-Winter-Spring-Summer, and without intention or attention our practice escapes us. Suddenly we wake up on a Sunday morning with hamstrings of steel and shoulders somehow beginning directly below our ears. Where has my neck gone? What is this extra layer around my mid-section? Why can't I touch my toes? And worse yet why can't I see my toes?

What has happened? Where has the time gone?

This happens to the best of us: it's happened to me, to my best yogi friends, to that once-yoga goddess bikram powerhouse. But why?

Yes, life is busy, unpredictable, and of course moves by so quickly, but what are you doing to slow the humdrum and return to daily stillness? Are you setting an intention rather than allowing your attention to drift from distraction to distraction? Are you surrounding yourself with the right people, good influences? What are you putting in your body? What are you holding on to?

Inspired By Heat

I have no idea where this heat wave came from. Early Sunday morning I was driving to teach in Huntington Beach, all around I felt warmth on my skin. As I began to guide my students through their practice I started to notice that all of them were dripping with sweat. Yes we were moving our way through Sun Salutations building our Tapas, but I hardly found it sweat-worthy. An hour later as I was driving up to work I noticing that my sunglasses kept slipping down my nose. By the time I made it to my Sunday evening class I noticed that even as the sun was setting I was sweating. Yesterday I resisted the heat, wanting only to cool down and take it slow, but by today I noticed that I began to revel in the heat, working off of it. Building and building Tapas in my personal practice and with clients. I noticed my students getting deeper in their forward folds. I noticed my body opening and responding to the heat, and I watched as my personal client was able to make her way into positions she hadn't been able to do in the past.

It's been quiet a while since I took my last Bikram class, as I've began to teach Hatha more and more I have shifted away from Bikram, as (at the time) I found it difficult to work into my already busy schedule, but today I am reminded of the benefits of heat, and am encouraged to return to my favorite Bikram studio, Bikram Yoga Downtown Fullerton, to deepen my personal practice.

As such here are a few benefits working in a heated room is said to have:

Release toxins
Improve flexibility and range of motion
Increase the chances of weight loss
Develop muscle tone
Build the immune system

Give heat a try and see how it works for you. Let me know. I love your feed back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEbIIO4KK54 (Here's a little Video link about what Bikram actually is.)

MOVING INTO STILLNESS

Wednesday morning I picked up a copy of Erich Schiffmann’s book “Yoga, The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness.” I barely cracked the cover and was knocked over by the profound wisdom that he shares.

I don’t know if this is a copyright issue, but I am going to pass on an excerpt from his introduction.

He writes:

“The purpose of yoga is to facilitate the profound inner relaxation that accompanies fearlessness. The release from fear is what finally precipitates the full flowering of love. In this state you will love what you see in others, and others will love you for having been seen. This is the softened perception of the world that yoga promotes.”

Wow, to see the world with a softened perception, to release the hardness from our hearts, which is generally the onslaught of fear: this is what our breath-work, what the asanas and what mediation promote. How profound, and gentle is that? I took this thought with me to my practice this week. I opened myself up to release fear; releasing fear is so much more difficult than it sounds. It can be so painful and yet totally cathartic.

Opening yourself up to that is so brave.

I deeply thank Schiffmann for his words, which although only read in a book, felt as deep and honest as they would if they came directly from his lips.

To the release of all that blocks our hearts and minds.

Namaste.

Hurt

Lately I’ve been so overwhelmed with anxiety and hurt that I haven’t been able to operate with a clear mind. Last Friday I decided that enough was enough and prescribed myself to a three-hour yoga session starting with Restorative practice and ending with a Candlelight Flow.

I worked my way into Viparita Karani (Legs up the wall) and began to steady my breathing. I fought to clear my mind, I visualized all the blockage and baggage that was weighing me down and systematically began removing them from my mind. I removed stress and “to-do lists” with each exhale until my mind was almost clear, but then in the quiet tranquility of the studio I found one hurt that just wouldn’t leave. This pain clung to my heart and breath. No matter how deep my breath or how relaxed my body became I just couldn’t remove this hurt. It was as if it were super-glued to my heart.

I found myself being robbed of my restorative. I just couldn’t find the silence that I so desperately hungered after. I moved through each pose, my body opening, but my head becoming more and more frustrated. Everything in me began yelling “Let it go! Rachel let it go!” So much so, that I began to well up with tears. It was at this moment that I realized that the hurt wasn’t holding onto me, but rather I was holding onto it. This realization transformed my mediation. Rather than fixating on the hurt over and over again, I began to allow it to go. Taking deep breaths I slowly began to break apart the hurt. By the time I got to my Flow class my mind felt lighter and just a little bit freer.

Only then was I able to work deeper into my body and my mediation.

Yesterday morning I woke up with that hurt heavy on my chest again. This time, however, I didn’t let it rob me of my day or of my happiness. I saw the hurt for what it was and with a few tears was better equipped to send it on it’s way.

It was such a transformative moment, realizing that sometimes we can do ourselves more damage by holding on to the things and people that have hurt us. Perhaps through letting go of these moments and hurts in our lives we are no longer defined by them. Perhaps if I acknowledge something or someone that has hurt me I can then better let go of it, or sometimes even them. No longer being defined by the pain in our pasts can open up new doors and new freedom, maybe something that we never expected for ourselves, or maybe just a new way to love…

So, I encourage you to acknowledge what hurt there may be, or even what thing in your past may be holding you back from peace, and let it go.

Om Shanti

Namaste

A New Year

A New Year, A Fresh Start

I haven't written in such a long time. Life has seemed to turn upside down on itself. Everything has changed. I no longer blog from the confines of my three-walled cube. Rather, I sit here at my desk in my room, glancing out the window at the cloudy skies and listening to, well, whatever suites me at any given moment.

I've finished my teachers training at have started teaching at Cloud Nine Yoga in Huntington Beach. I also have connected with a few amazing people that I have taken on as private students. As much as I teach them, they teach me. It's a wonderful relationship.

As you can see the Free Yogini blog has a new look and I've finally gotten my website going. Check it out at www.freeyogini.com. There is more to come...

Until then, cheers to a wonderful New Year!

Namaste,

Rachel

Warrior Women

Sarah, Temma, and I took a hike up to the waterfall in Sierra Madre. We found a nice shady spot to get our yoga on! Enjoy the pictures.

Sense of Peace

It's 8:35 in the morning. While I wait for my tea to brew I scan over my 22 new emails. My inbox looks like it's been hit by a tornado. Nothing is in order, but they can wait. I scan the stacks of paperwork, magazine layouts, and raw text piled up on my desk. What to do first? The familiar pang tightens around my right should... the stress knot. Very easily I can let it all get to me. I can become distracted or overwhelmed with it all...I can allow “it” to become daunting.

But where's the joy in that?

Two more minutes and my tea should be brewed. My Sense of Peace.

This artfully crafted, recyclable tin sits, filled with lovingly blended sachets, on the shelf above my computer. It blends in with all the trinkets I've placed up there. Throughout the day my eyes gaze up and delight in these small trinkets, which bring me joy, peace, solace, and nostalgia. A picture of an airplane taking off and a small statue of the Eiffel Tower remind me of travel, a Mariksa doll and picture of my little sister remind me of childhood, origami, a model MINI cooper, a picture of my boyfriend, and a yellow piggybank all create various emotions—happiness mostly. I let my eyes dance around the objects until they undoubtedly land back on that tin...teatime.

Two minutes up… I sip on “Sense of Peace” and white tea created by Master Blender Zhena Muzyka of Ojai California. Her “Gypsy” teas are becoming a sweet addiction, one that I share with family, friends, colleagues, and yogis alike. I like to think about this kind-hearted woman gently blending this tea for those she loves… even if she doesn’t know their name. She gifts the world with such a small token, but really (for me anyway) sitting down in the middle of a hectic workday and enjoying a cup really can impact the way I respond to things, the stress I feel or don’t feel, and may sense of peace.

There’s less than half a cup left now… time to return to reality.

With Peace.

Backbend Bliss

The Beautiful Backbend: Urdhva Dhanurasana



Benefits
A Stretches the chest and lungs
Strengthens the arms and wrists, legs, buttocks, abdomen, and spine
Stimulates the thyroid and pituitary
Increases energy and counteracts depression
Therapeutic for asthma, back pain, infertility, and osteoporosis


Urdhva Dhanurasana or Upward Bow Pose

A heart opener; Stacey joyfully pushed up into this pose—yes blood may have been rushing to her face and her wrists and arms may have trembled a bit, but as she stretched into Urdhva Dhanurasana she felt energy rushing through her body. This pose stimulates all sorts of areas that we as adults forget to feel. In my practice, I find a child-like joy in the pose. Not only does it strengthen the core, but it also opens the heart.

I found a perfect break down in Yoga Journal: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/473

I suggest following up with a lovely “legs up the wall pose” for a counter stretch. End your day with this…bliss!

Namaste.

Heat

Heat. Right now it’s all I can seem to think about. I wake up in the morning perturbed by the light hitting my windows; turning my little room into a sauna. I set my alarm for “early” hoping to elude the heat, hoping to get a nice little practice in before day is upon me, hoping to find refreshment, but the only thing I seem to find is myself…myself in a state of frustration. I honestly don’t want to move. I want to be lethargic, sit in an ice bath, and downright do nothing. I’m irritable and can’t quickly find my focus. I search for solace but instead find sweat. I struggle to get through my asana’s and worse yet some times struggle to even start my practice.

I voluntarily step into my Bikram studio. I inhale the 106-degree heat. I let it wash over me. So, what is the difference between the heated studio and my heated apartment…

Perhaps intention.

Regardless, when the forces of nature are upon us we can do nothing but to respond in peace. I’ve been fighting and resisting this heat, rather than embracing it. Perhaps if I can just sink into it I’ll find it less embracive than it seems…

Crazy Bikram Fun

Here is Nitin showing us all up with his crazy Camel Pose. "Who does he think he is?"