The Benefits of Yoga for Children

Finding physical activities that are engaging and fun for children can be a challenge. Yoga has the ability to bring concentration, balance, physical and emotional well-being. Children are surrounded with stress producing stimulus; cell phones, video games, increased academic performance, physical competition… Yoga can help counter pressures facing today’s children. When children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation and inner fulfillment, they can navigate challenges with a little more ease.
Physically yoga enhances flexibility, strength and coordination as well as increased body awareness. Often this leads to increased concentration and a sense of calmness and ability to relax. Following are a few guidelines for enhancing a child’s yoga experience:
• Be attuned to their energy. If kids are calm and ready, begin with quiet poses and meditation; if they are more active delve into more active poses.
• Kids often feed on the energy of the adults around them. Be a model of peace, compassion, and love.
• Understand children’s natural talkativeness and exuberance. Guide – don’t dictate.
• Allow children to make up their own poses.
• Be flexible when working with children and willing to change direction on the fly.
• Teach them to honor and take care of their bodies in the spirit of cooperation and not competition. Facilitate great respect for their body.
• Have fun, laugh, giggle, sing and make noises. Trust that with perseverance, time and practice, children will learn what they need. Have fun, and the children will too.

Chattanooga Scenic Half Marathon, Feb. 26, 2011

How Yoga Improved My Running

The Perspective of One Woman: Runner, Yoga Teacher and Student

As I begin my preparation for the Chattanooga Scenic Half Marathon tomorrow, I find myself reflecting on the role yoga has played in my training. I’ve been running marathons and half marathons since 1998, and have kept myself at least half marathon ready for over five years. One year ago I began my yoga journey mostly because I wanted to find an alternative to the cross training I was doing at the time. I was also at a very difficult emotional place in my life with many life events interfering with my serenity. I continued to find running meditation (something I began implementing in my runs many years ago) helpful in bringing a sense of balance and serenity but was not finding the same benefits with my weight lifting and Pilates cross training routines. Everyone’s heard yoga can be a peaceful restorative type of physical practice and that stretching is good for any runner so I decided to pick it up. And let’s face it runners typically have upper bodies that resemble limp noodles or sticks.
I began with a one day a week class at my local YMCA, gym yoga as they say. I can’t say that I was hooked from the first experience but I definitely remember feeling a sense of having done something I had not previously done and yes I did feel stretched and a little more relaxed. I continued to show up sporadically, with no real commitment. I don’t know what happened but something began to shift within me even with this modest commitment. Even with my irregular practice I started to notice muscles in my upper body and core that seemed to have eluded me. So like any good obsessive runner I began to dive in a little more seriously, motivated primarily by a sense of vanity (my favorite muscle prior to yoga were my calves, oooh the definition.) I moved out from my gym yoga experience to investigate different studios and the vast array of class offerings they had. In the studios, the emphasis on shavasana (laying down flat on my back in the dark moving nothing) proved to be very soothing and completely clarifying. I never knew lying completely still could be so powerful. Much of what I learned was confusing, and more than a little overwhelming, but I was encouraged by the changes in my body and the increased clarity in my mind so I kept showing up eventually using yoga solely as my cross training activity.
Yoga did make me a better runner. I completed the Women’s Half Marathon last year, a fairly hilly and difficult course, shaving off time from my previous races. More importantly I felt great pretty much the whole race as well as after. Not one muscle twitched or ached and my mind was completely clear. I enjoyed moments of quiet in my mind followed by excitement and motivation. I loved interacting with the crowd at times and “going inward” creating my own solitude in the midst of the crowd at other times. The disciplined practice of six months worth of yoga taught me how to integrate my body, my breath and my mind in order to remain focused and calm even in the face of difficult hills and long distances.
As I head out to the race, and coincidently my 48th birthday, I can honestly say I have never been in better shape physically, mentally and emotionally. Yoga has taught me to pay attention. I have gained flexibility, balance, strength and clarity throughout my entire physical body as well as in my mind. Yoga has taught me how to be in intense situations in order to bring my awareness to my form and breath in order to make any situation more manageable. I have been able to carry this lesson “off the mat” as they say into my everyday life. I look forward to the joy of this race knowing I am well prepared balanced, clear and serene. Om Shante, Shante, Shante… Namaste.

Cultivating Discipline

Welcome everyone to your yoga practice in 2011. With the holidays past us and the snow still looming in the background, making a regular practice of yoga has become more of a practice in discipline than ever before. Not sure about the rest of you but the constant thread of snowstorms and the subsequent closing that accompany it have really caused me to be a little off balance and yes a little lazy. To continue to commit to my yoga has really been challenging. I have learned that discipline has less to do with accomplishment and more to do with intention and commitment. How does this apply on the mat? True I will gain a sense of accomplishment as I meet the challenges of a pose, getting into and maintaining a warrior pose for example. However, just as I am getting a little complacent in my pose, the teacher will point out some subtlety within the pose directing me to a new level of awareness. Once again I realize that in yoga, much like in life, the value of a disciplined practice. I continue to show up – honoring the commitment I made to myself and following through on my intention. In this way I am cultivating discipline, breath by breath, pose by pose. I do what I can and I commit to do it fully. In this way I learn that discipline is expressed by my intention to stay present in each moment. Namaste.

Meeting Resistance

Resistance and procrastination seem to be the constant companions of the regular runner, or at least for this runner. I am in the middle of training for the Chattanooga Marathon on Feb. 24 (one day before my 48th birthday) and today was my 8 mile run. Now the cold weather is not my friend. In fact I just can't stand it! So any running I do in the winter is done on a treadmill.

The past two weeks have been grueling to me. From the first step I have been feeling a sense of fatigue. And because I run on the treadmill, I have a pretty good idea of my pacing. To do my 10 minute miles has felt like torture. Why I am not completely sure. The cold weather, less sunlight, my tendency toward depression in the winter, age, the increase in my yoga practice... Any one of these or a combination could be the reason for my resistance.

What keeps me running when the euphoric feelings are not present is my commitment to the training, the working toward a goal and the Nike mantra to "just do it" keeps me in my sneakers.

My yoga practice has taught me many lessons through the commitment to the practice that I can take off my mat. Why then can't the lessons learned in running be carried off the road? Really no reason. So I have thought about my recent attitude toward running, the difficulties in finding a rhythm and ease on the course. I have done a lot of thinking on how this attitude carries into the rest of my life. There seems to be no reason why I can't carry my persistent, committed attitude with which I approach running when I don't feel like running to all areas of my life. Life seems to be filled with hundreds of tasks that I find myself not wanting to do. Just like lacing up my sneakers and hitting the gym or road, following through on my commitment to my training, I can approach life. I can adapt the "just do it" attitude when I don't want to take care of some detail or unpleasant task. In fact following through on my commitment to myself to pick up my writing again has been one such task. I do believe my 8 mile run has helped me today to put fingers to keyboard in an effort of follow through on the commitment to myself.

So go ahead, the next time you find yourself procrastinating or avoiding some task, just lace up your sneakers per say and "just do it." Then take note of how you feel. Relish in the feelings of satisfaction in a job well done.

Losing Weight in the New Year

Losing Weight in the New Year

It’s the beginning of the year, lots of drama around losing weight. It seems as if every commercial, talk show and magazine ad is toting the latest and greatest weight loss method. I just finished watching an episode of The View where a young eighteen- year- old lost 90 lbs. in 90 days on some extreme weight loss show. Whew! Though I commend her on her success, I have to wonder how long her weight loss will last. Seems to me she is sitting on the pink cloud of success right now. I admire her perseverance in completing the program, but I have to wonder what happens when life hits, some adversity finds its way into her life. Will she have the tools she needs to maintain? I am saddened once again by the pain of our culture and what it does to those that are different, suffering, and trying desperately to be someone else.

Obesity is a problem for our culture. An estimated 1 billion + people are obese, spending over 50 million on weight loss products. For me the only thing that has worked in maintaining my weight is nothing new. A complete lifestyle change including healthy eating habits and exercise, along with reducing stress has proved to be most effective and what professionals agree is the only thing that is lasting. The next question is how to achieve this. Yoga helps. A dedicated, regular yoga practice helps slow the heart rate contributing to lower stress levels, improve elimination causing improved digestive function, and build healthy muscles, all helpful in losing weight. Because yoga practice builds on itself consistency, and regularity are essential. If you must do something drastic, enroll in a yoga class and commit to making yoga a part of your lifestyle. See you on the mat.

2011, my first posting of the New Year, welcome 2011. I am so glad you are here. 2010 was filled with lots of changes for me, my journey on the yoga path being one of the biggest and most life changing. I am thrilled and excited to be facing 2011 in anticipation of continued growth and inner peace. This year instead of setting a New Year’s resolution (how many of us really keep them all year anyway?) I decided to set a sankalpa. Some texts describe a sankalpa as resolve others as an intention. . Whether you look at it as a resolve or an intention, a sankalpa practice starts from the premise that you already are who you need to be to fulfill your life’s dharma or purpose. All you need to do is be present to the voice of the inner self, following the voice of the highest truth.

A sankalpa comes out of listening, it’s not something you need to make up it is already present, but you have to be still and quiet to discover it. That’s where the physical yoga comes in. Through a regular practice of pranayama (breathing), along with asana (poses), practicing yogis have discovered a stillness within. Out of the stillness of listening your are able to hear the message of the deepest truth and heartfelt desire. Once you have heard the message the second state is turning to and welcoming in the message. When you hear the voice within speaking, you must be willing to be in its presence – sitting with it, feel it, and deeply reflect on it! Next you form your sankalpa as a statement of deeply held fact, and a vow that is true in the present moment. So I set a sankalpa for myself: With energy and perseverance, I bring the practice of yoga to those who need it, simple and in the present tense. This was true for me when I set it and it remains true to me today. (Doing a spiritual check in with yourself to assess whether you sankalpa is still a statement of truth in the present moment is a good practice.)
I woke up this morning with two things I resolved to do to support my New Year’s sankalpa, to do my home yoga practice and to run 7 miles, all part of my new path toward accountability. Initially I was hesitant, but I did a check in with myself asking for the energy and willingness to take these actions if they were meant for me to do today to support my sankalpa. As I went through some other tasks, the desire to practice came, followed by the desire to venture out into the cold to reach the YMCA (frigid temps did not seem to support my sankalpa, so why torture myself, the treadmill did very nicely). I noticed lightness in my running as I faced the window watching hurried, bundled patrons approaching the doors. This is how a sankalpa works. When you are connected to the truth within your own self a sense of purpose materializes.

I encourage you to do the work to set a sankalpa. Sit quietly, meditate, listen and then move forward in action toward being and becoming your true self, the self you’ve always been, the self you are meant to be.

For more information about sankalpa visit:
www.YogaInternational.com
www.yogamat.com