Five Points Yoga

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Archive for October, 2008

Fasting

Posted October 8th, 2008 | Leave a comment » | Bookmark and Share

 

I’m fasting tomorrow for Yom Kippur.  Although I’m writing this before the fast gets underway, I can project what it will feel like, having done this many times 🙂  It’s hard at the end!

 

But there is something about the fasting that is designed to help us focus and get really present.   I remember in college someone saying to me that the way they got through Yom Kippur every year was by sleeping all day.   If they weren’t conscious, then basically they wouldn’t feel the hunger pains and they wouldn’t suffer as much. 

 

You might guess, correctly, that I think this misses the point.  If the point of life is to sleep through our challenges, then that’s pretty pointless!   Yoga helps us wake up!   Wake up and go through the challenges with our eyes wide open, learning the whole way.

 

I think a spiritual fast can do something similar – help us be present with difficulties, not to shut them out or shut ourselves down.   And for sure it helps us wake up from the mundane act of eating by withholding food for a day.  

 

So, tomorrow, at long last, when I break the fast, I hope the act of eating feels more conscious and sacred, and I hope I am filled with gratitude for how amazing the simple joy of eating can be.   In all things, we can eventually become awakened to and appreciative of the world around us.  

 

If you’re fasting tomorrow, I hope you don’t sleep through it – napping is different 🙂  Of course, we might grumble a bit when the going gets tough, but see if you can use your yoga breath in those moments.  And for those of you not fasting, I hope you can make each meal a conscious and sacred joy.   

Posted under Personal Experiences, Upcoming Events, Yoga

Yoga in the Classroom

Posted October 8th, 2008 | 4 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

 

I’m excited about how much yoga is cropping up in academic settings.  On Monday I had the opportunity to present some material for a college class at Lesley University.  I did some Masters degree work at Lesley awhile back, and still have a few great connections with some of the other grad students who are there and studying yoga academically. 

 

The format of this class is exactly what I’ve always wanted a class to be:  1 hour of physical yoga practice followed by 1.5 hours of academic class.  Students sat on the floor (not at desks slumped over) and I tried to tie in the physical yoga practice to the topic we were talking about afterwards (the yamas and niyamas – perhaps more on that in a later post!). 

 

My advisor when I was at Lesley has been spending time looking at how yoga is being incorporated into K-12 classrooms as well.  Though I don’t do that kind of work, I’m so excited to think that perhaps yoga can help us in our search for a new paradigm for our education system. 

 

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of controversy about bringing yoga into public schools.  In the last 15 years, several opponents to yoga in the classroom have cited the separation of church and state in the schools, claiming that yoga is too linked to religious practice to be considered secular.   Check out this recent article about a school system in New York state that is struggling with this issue. 

 

Though yoga definitely comes out of spiritual roots, it is so clear (to me) that we have really removed the “religion” from the physical practice we engage in today.   In this classroom (admittedly, at a private university, not a public grade school), it just seemed so obvious to me how some yoga mindfulness fit in to the learning environment.  

 

It makes me sort of interested to teach kids in school and see what that’s like!

 

I’m curious if any of you teach in schools, or have kids who are learning yoga in school?  Share your experiences in this expanding field! 

 

 

 

Posted under Education, Yoga

NOW

Posted October 7th, 2008 | 6 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

 

 

The first Yoga Sutra is often overlooked because at first blush it sounds like it’s just simply the introduction to the real stuff to come.   

 

“Now, the practice (or discipline) of yoga.”

 

Utha Yoga Nusashanam

 

What I love about this is the first word.   NOW.  Not tomorrow, and not next month.  Now.  Whether you can get on the mat or not.  Now.  Begin it now. 

 

This helps me in so many ways!   Not even just with yoga practice, but with whatever task I have ahead of me.   I try to be present NOW, and it helps me know what I need and want to do.

 

This, for me, is another example of yoga helping me off the mat. That is one of the joys of yoga, seeing it help us live our lives more fully. 

 

Namaste,

 

Barrett

Posted under Yoga, Yoga Philosophy

Yoga Research

Posted October 3rd, 2008 | 1 Comment » | Bookmark and Share

I am a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and they put out a yearly journal of scholarly research on yoga.  I went to their first ever conference in January 2007 and was blown away by the resources (time and money) being invested into “proving” how yoga works for people.   I was mostly excited by it, but also a little worried that we were narrowing yoga’s efficacy down to what could be “proven” in a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. 

I found this article in the NYTimes very interesting because it points out some of the other problems with “studying” yoga through scientific research.  Interestingly, Sat Bir Khalsa is interviewed in the article.  I met him at the conference in 2007 and he casually invited me to participate as a teacher in his insomnia study at Harvard Medical School.  I didn’t follow up, mostly because I wanted to focus on other aspects of yoga teaching and studying in my work.   But I think his work is interesting and will probably yield some very positive results for yoga.   I know from many many students how helpful yoga is for their insomnia.

Here’s a fascinating list of 77 health benefits from yoga practice.  This information is based off of many of the small studies that the NYTimes article mentions.  

Anyway, may each of us keep “proving” in our own ways how much yoga works!
Namaste,

Barrett

Posted under Education, Health and Wellness, Yoga, Yoga Articles

Taking Care of Yourself

Posted October 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment » | Bookmark and Share

As I can feel the fall creeping in, it’s reminding me that I have to start to get conscious of the ways that I need to take care of myself in the next several months.  Winter is not my favorite time, and I get a little moody.  Whatever I can do to stay warm and happy is important!!
Luckily, I just got an email today from Inman Oasis, a local business in Cambridge.   My boyfriend and I started going there in the winter because they have some great hot tubs that you can soak in.  This month they have a special on their Frequent Soaker card, so i’m going to grab one in anticipation of the colder weather.

How about getting a massage now and then?   I’m happy to recommend my massage therapist in Cambridge – just email me!  A professional massage is an amazing experience, but you can also consider doing it yourself.   Use pure organic massage oil for your self-massage (or partner massage).  Just a few minutes can really make a difference!   Take a shower before or after and then take a nap after your massage!

Finally, in this season of colds, break out your neti pot!   Neti has been shown to dramatically help with sinus infections, and with lessening the effects of the common cold.  Whole Foods and natural foods stores usually carry neti pots.  Additionally, gargling with warm salt water can really help keep the bugs at bay.

My final goal each winter is to plan to go away to a warmer place.  I’m taking suggestions as to where we should go this year! 

Thinking about how good I feel after I take care of myself in these ways almost makes me look forward to the wintertime.  Almost 🙂

How are you taking care of yourself?   Let me know what we should add to the list. 

Love and light,

Barrettt

 

Posted under Health and Wellness, Yoga

Why I Love Teaching Prenatal Yoga

Posted October 1st, 2008 | 5 Comments » | Bookmark and Share

 

 

Anytime we come to the mat to practice, we bring all that’s happened to us stored inside someplace.  We bring the difficult parts especially –  the tense conversation with our boss, the silent treatment we got from our partner, the anxiety about our child.  Of course, we also bring the good things – the smile from a stranger on the subway, the achievement of a job well done, etc.   Our practice reflects back to ourselves how we’re feeling, and often helps us know why we’re feeling that, and what to do about it. 

 

That is all magnified in a very intense and focused way when someone is pregnant.   For a very specific period of time, such extraordinary growth is going on, and I don’t mean in just the physical realm!  Mentally and energetically, women are so *ripe* in their yoga experiences, so ready to meet change and become a new person on the other side of it – a parent.   They know they must change, and slowly but surely, through the weeks and months that they come to class, they let go of what used to be, and merge into the ever-evolving present. 

 

Prenatal class is magnifying glass to see a yogi’s accelerated growth.   It happens to anyone who consistently practices, but when you’re pregnant, there’s a bit of a deadline! You can’t put off your practice for a few months if other areas of your life heat up.  You must do it now. Pregnancy seems to help women crystallize what’s really important to them.  

 

It’s not always a pretty or graceful transition!  We have a lot of struggles that we talk about in class, and a lot of tears and laughter and joy.  But it’s so helpful to share with a roomful of women who are in a similar place in life.  I think a lot of students come in feeling alone, but leave yoga class feeling like part of a positive community. 

 

Teaching prenatal yoga has helped me teach in my regular classes.   I feel so much more open to just *being* with someone’s struggles when they share with me.   I think I’m just able to hold the space and not try to fix it like I might have wanted to years ago when I was a new teacher.  Best of all, being with pregnant women has helped me know better how to gently but firmly encourage someone to see it through, and stay on the self-healing path, even when it’s tough.   

 

This is just a beginning of why I love teaching pregnant women.

 

 

Posted under Prenatal Information, Yoga

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