Why meditate?

Check out this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

We just finished watching this video about a brain scientist who had a stroke. She eloquently and warm heartedly explains her sensory experience. Wait till you hear her describe what happens in the right brain.

If you would like to explore your right brain a little more, come to yoga classes on Monday July 26 when we learn alternate nostril breathing.

Tattoo survey

This is a photo of my roommate Sherri's shoulder tattoo. She has 13 all together. It certainly provides entertainment during the down times when she describes the meaning of each one and how she came to create them. One of our fellow students is known as the survey queen, and has determined that 63% of us have tattoos and the average number is 3 per person. As I am allergic to pain, I'm afraid this yoga teacher is in the minority and plans to stay that way!

Today was an awesome learning day. The morning was filled with a medical doctor who filled us in on the physiological realities of aging. The best nugget of wisdom from her chat was that we often start to panic about 40 or 50 years old and desperately try to hang on to youth. But many of the symptoms of aging require us to slow down. Doesn't that sound divine in contrast to our frantic, exhausting schedule we have now? When it's time to make lunch, that's all you can concentrate on is making that lunch. Not texting, reading someone's blog, doing leg weight lifts and shovelling in a tuna sandwich all at one. And then we wonder why we gain weight, or have poor digestion? Aging is not something to be dreaded or feared. It is a natural and proper stage of our journeys on earth. That was a comforting concept for me.

This afternoon, Sherry Baptiste (Baron's sister) taught us her yoga with weights series. Look for a few workshops in the fall on this system. We worked very slowly with light weights but you could so feel the difference in the poses. So often, we want instant results so we use heavier weights and move too quickly, thereby straining the joint. When we slowed down ,you could really feel the muscle work with no stress at all in the joint. It was a great workout, and done in a spiritually infused, mindful manner. Loved it!

News from the ashram... we spent the last two days on diet and metabolic syndrome. So much information on healthy eating. From the Ayurvedic perspective (Ayurveda is a sister science to yoga and is a health science), we eat way too much. That isn't much of a surprise to those of us who marvel how much our clothes shrink each washing. Undigested food is called "ama" and is the root cause of disease. It kind of makes sense... how many of us going around feeling bloated? Experience elimination difficulties? Feel fatigued? Have a lot of emotional eating issues?

There is a complex hormonal process as we eat that is supposed to tell us that we are full. But the signals can easily become confused by eating the wrong foods or just too often. And here's something that was new for me... the adipose tissue (the belly fat) actually functions as part of your endocrine system ... it secretes hormones of its own! So the more belly fat we accumulate, the more we change our hunger signals.

What's the fix? Slow down and really tune into your body's signals. This means no eating at the computer or at your desk or in front of the tv. Solid food should be spaced at least four hours apart. Pay attention after your meal. Especially 30 minutes after. Make a diary and note if you are tired, bloated, gassy, etc. A pattern will likely emerge. And we have all heard that it takes 20 minutes for the "full" hormone (leptin) to fully discharge, so eat until you are about 2/3 full and then wait. Chances are that plate of pasta was enough after all. There are many different approaches to diet based on your natural constitution (prakriti) and any current imbalances (vrikiti), lifestyle and emotional state. The "take home" (our catch phrase now to try and distill the main points from the avalanche of information that descends each day) is to slow down and eat less, and more slowly. Of course, eat as many vegetables as you can stuff in (70% of your diet will hopefully consist of fruit, veggies, organic yogurt, nuts, seeds and other alkalynizing foods - that's a whole other subject!).

Here at the ashram, we do follow these rules for the most part (except for the evening runs for ice cream for some!) and it really isn't that hard.

The best news from the day? Dark bitter chocolate is really ok! Yay!

Back at the Ashram

Namaste my friends. Transitions are always challenging, so leaving my students and family at the height of a beautiful Niagara summer was difficult. There was trepidation as I packed my now finished homework and headed out at 4:30 am on Friday.

But as with all things in life that you worry about, it's never that bad once you face your fears.

The sun is bright and it is like coming home to be in a community of fellow yogis. What a luxury it is to have someone else prepare our food while we meditate, stretch and study. This morning's practice was over 3 hours! Can you imagine carving out that amount of time in our normal crazy schedules?

Our topics yesterday and today are depression/anxiety. You probably love someone, or maybe even you, who is burdened with this kind of mental pain. One in ten people in the US seek medical intervention for clinical depression, and the stats for anxiety are even higher. Unlike western psychological approaches, yoga therapy sees each individual as just that, so we recognize that there are different types of depression and anxiety and many different ways to approach healing. It would be my sincere honour to share some of this information with people who feel impacted by negative thinking, racing thoughts and associated pain.

One of the most important aspects to healing from depression or anxiety is to remember that you are not your thoughts. To help calm the thoughts, remember that your mind is tied to the breath like a kite to a string. Deep, rhythmic breathing that focuses on the exhale is almost magic. Try it!