Yin Yoga for SPRING!

It’s springtime in New England and in my mind we’re waking up from not just the winter, but two long years of the ups and downs of pandemic life. Bringing this energy into balance will be important for all of us for our overall health and wellbeing. Yin Yoga does an amazing job of bringing our bodies, minds and spirits back to balance, so I thought I’d share this sequence for you specifically focused on postures that influence the meridians associated with Spring.

You can download this sequence below and practice along with it. Here are a few notes that will help you in your practice:

• You’ll need a timer to help you stay in the postures for the appropriate length of time.

• You can always do less but, especially if you’re new to the practice, I wouldn’t advise doing more.

• For Sphinx you can always substitute supported bridge (lay on your back, lift your hips and place a yoga block or something else under your low back, lower your hips to the support and rest there).

• For Sleeping Swan (often known as pigeon) you can take Figure 4 instead (lay on your back, cross right ankle on top of left thigh. Stay there or draw left thigh into your chest with your hands. Repeat on the other side).

• If Shoelace is inaccessible take Half Shoelace instead by straightening the lower leg. Support under the straight knee may be helpful.

• Don’t skip Shavasana! It’s the one pose you CAN extend the time on if you wish.

Click the image to download your sequence!

If you’re ready to come back to In Person Yoga classes with me, I’m offering a few this month at a beautiful new space in Amherst, NH.

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Yoga & Hiking: Complementary Practices for Health and Wellbeing

In my free time, I’ve been spending more time hiking and backpacking in the last couple of years. It doesn’t hurt that I live in this amazing state that has so many beautiful trails to travel and discover. It’s become an important part of my weekly routine and a great complement to my yoga practice. Throughout the pandemic, it’s also been an important point of connection to the natural world. Here are 5 reasons why hiking can be complementary to your yoga practice and an important component to your health and wellbeing.

Legs up the Sign Summer 2018 on Mt. Katahdin. My first 4K footer turned into a 5K footer. Whoops!

1. Cardio & Strengthening - In my classes I tend to focus on yoga not only as physical movement, but a wholistic practice that includes the mind, body and spirit. That’s not to say you won’t find some physically challenging classes. However, most yoga classes you’ll find don’t really qualify as cardiovascular exercise. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as "any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic in nature." While it may seem like yoga would fit the bill here, especially the vinyasa style that I mostly teach and practice, a typical yoga class just isn’t going to raise your heart rate enough and sustain that elevated rate long enough to really qualify. Hiking on the other hand can do just that and if you’re carrying a pack with any weight in it (did you know one liter of water weighs 2.2 pounds?!) you’re definitely going to be keeping your heart rate up for a longer period of time. In addition to strengthening your heart, you’ll also be strengthening your legs and core. This has been incredibly good for me personally for managing my back pain. Balance this with a yoga practice and you’re on your way to a more well rounded fitness routine and a stronger body all around.

2. Time to disconnect from devices - Technology rules our lives more than ever these days and it’s influencing our health. It’s messing with our sleep patterns, causing physical issues like “text neck”, and may even be causing mental health issues in some people. While you’ll definitely see me using my cell phone to take pictures and occasionally navigate when I’m on the trail, being out of cell phone range for a even a little while can be an amazing way to refresh our tired minds. While your 75 minute yoga class can be a great small break (provided you actually turn the phone off), even a day hike can give us a greater opportunity to experience this relief from the everyday requirement of being connected to devices.

3. Mindfulness practice - When we aren’t able to respond to every text message right away we create a space and an opportunity to bring ourselves more to the present moment and practice mindfulness. There’s so much to discover out there if you’re paying attention! I can’t tell you how many times I nearly walked by something small like a red eft or a snail, but since I was actually in the moment outside I got to see the finer details. If I’m hiking with other people, we get to talk and interact (even if it’s between gasping breaths) in a way that is seemingly so rare these days. We might even help each other notice the small details we’d otherwise pass by. What a great way to take what we’re practicing on our yoga mats for 75 minutes off the mat and into our experiences with others for a longer period of time!

4. Letting go of watching the clock - Your yoga class is going to begin and end at a certain predictable time. 99.9% of the things we do in our daily lives are like this and we need that structure in our lives. However, every now and then, to be able to do something without a definite ending time, especially when it’s something we enjoy, can be *so* liberating. I’ll often go out on a hike and tell my husband if I’m not back by dark, that’s the time to worry. I purposely don’t put too definite an end on this time I’m spending with Mother Nature and myself. There is something really freeing and mentally restful about that. If it’s a great day and the weather is amazing and my body feels good I can go for hours. If the bugs are swarming and I forgot to bring enough food and my feet hurt I can go home. There’s a freedom there we don’t often get in our daily lives. It can help us tune back into a more natural rhythm and relieve stress in a way that’s hard to describe.

5. Change of scenery - We all live with a variety of stressors in our lives. Some of these are welcome and others might be more than we’d ever wish for. Sustaining ourselves physically and mentally over the long haul of life requires times to refresh, get a new perspective and look at the world differently. You’re probably going to have a yoga class that you go to on a regular basis at the same location with mostly the same people, but that class will be different in some way every time and that’s a really good micro break. Similarly, hiking can be a good micro break as well. Even if you walk the same path every day *something* will be different. Being able to notice that change and recognize it can relax your mind and relieve stress in a way similar to your yoga class

These are just a few of the benefits you might find by getting out on the trails this summer. I’m sure you’ll find even more reasons once you’re out there!

I’m considering guiding some outdoor experiences beyond the outdoor yoga classes in the late summer or early fall.

Interested? Leave a comment below!

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Leave No Trace is a Form of Ahimsa

One of the good things, in my mind, to come out of the pandemic is the number of people that are reconnecting to public lands and outdoor spaces. Given the extra hours all of us have been spending in front of screens to find safe forms of connection to others, to learn, to take a yoga class and so much more, time away from screens in the three dimensional world is all the more important. But if you’re going back into nature for the first time in awhile (or the first time), you may not understand the impacts of your presence. In this post I’ll give you a few ideas and some information that might help you draw your awareness practices from yoga out into your interaction with the outdoor world so that you can see the connection between Ahimsa and Leave No Trace and make your interactions with nature less negatively and more positively impactful.

Yoga is, in so many ways a practice of awareness. One of the most important points of awareness we can have, especially these days, is our impact on our natural world and outdoor spaces. Yoga philosophy goes beyond the physical postures and addresses our mental and emotional interactions with ourselves and others. Many people often describe these principles as the ethical principles of yoga because they guide our interactions and are a code of conduct. Ahimsa is a foundational tenant of yoga philosophy that asks us to do no harm to the best of our ability. That includes our thoughts, words, deeds and actions. Without awareness, none of that is possible.

Leave No Trace principles explain how we can bring more awareness to and minimize our impacts on nature, whether we’re spending time in the “backcountry” or the “front country”. Practicing these principles keeps our wild spaces wild, leaves things for others to experience as we got to experience them and may even encourage us to leave those spaces BETTER than when we arrived. They are also an ethical code in that they guide our interactions and conduct, specifically with the natural world in this case. Many of them may seem obvious when you look at them, but as with yoga, when you dive deeper into the details and can be truthful with yourself, you’ll find that there may have been things you missed along the way. The seven principles are:

1. Plan ahead and Prepare.

2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

3. Dispose of Waste Properly

4. Leave What You Find

5. Minimize Campfire Impacts

6. Respect Wildlife

7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors

(© 1999 by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics: www.LNT.org)

So in my mind, Leave No Trace is a form of Ahimsa. Both give us ethical guidance on how to interact with our world outside of ourselves. Both ask us to be kind and consider others whether that’s other people that we’re sharing the environment with or the plants, animals, etc. we may encounter when we’re outside. Both ask us to bring greater awareness to the impact of our actions from a perspective outside of ourselves and our immediate needs. And both ask us to recognize that when we are aware of our actions through thought, word and deed we can have great positive impact on our world.

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To inspire you to learn more about and put LNT into practice, here are some ideas, experiences, information and thoughts that I’ve been sharing recently on my social media channels. In preparing each of these, I certainly learned a few things along the way! I hope you enjoy some of the pictures from my outdoor adventures too!

Plan Ahead and Prepare

I had a conversation with my Dad on my way home from a recent hike where he was surprised to find out I had a complete change of clothing in my pack. I was hiking Mount Jackson, a 4000 footer here in NH and a place like many in the White Mountains where conditions can change on a dime and one false step might mean waiting for search and rescue. When I told my Dad I packed to stay overnight if I had to, he suddenly understood. While you might not be climbing mountains, even when you go out to the local park, a sudden change in weather, a wrong turn or an accident may have an impact on not just yourself, but that park you’re enjoying. So be sure to plan ahead and consider what you might need if you had to be out there longer than expected.⁠⁠

Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

It’s what we all affectionately refer to as Mud Season here in New England and it’s a time when we may be having impacts on our local trails more than we might think. Some places in NH and VT actually “close” trails this time of year because most of us don’t really want to walk through that big puddle of muck that’s right in the middle of our path. But when we walk off the designated path we may be trampling plants that will never grow back and “blazing a trail” for the person behind us that was never meant to be there. With so many people trying to get outside these days due to the pandemic we’re seeing this impact on a lot of places. So the next time you come up to a mud puddle in the trail, knowing that you already planned ahead for it, channel your inner child and just jump right in!⁠

Dispose of Waste Properly

I know many of my students are dog owners and lovers (and you know I love dogs too), so I thought a reminder about dog poop in the outdoors might be helpful for y’all. Leave No Trace Center had some very interesting facts about why this is so important in a recent instagram post. We all know it’s unsightly, but there are far worse impacts.⁠
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The high nutrient value in dog food when left behind in dog poop and leached into streams from run off can cause algae blooms. Dog poop can have all sorts of bacteria and disease vectors that find their way into waterways in the same way. Thousands of POUNDS of poop get left behind in parks every year all across the country. No one’s saying you’ll always be perfect, but if you do plan ahead to pick up fido’s droppings you’ll be doing Mother Nature a solid (sorry, had to get a poop joke in there somehow! 😂💩)⁠
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Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJZMBzijsM9/⁠

And please, please don’t leave that poop bag behind and think you’ll get back to it later. Things happen! Take it with you now!

Leave What You Find

I’m particularly guilty of this one, but we’ve all done it. You pick up that one cool rock you found on the trail and take it home with you as a souvenir of your time outside. Now imagine that the person after you does that. And the next one. And the next one. If not a rock, maybe a flower. Or an acorn. It seems like such a little thing. How could it possibly be that big a deal? One of my favorite little quotes is shown here. We can choose to do small things for the greater good or the opposite. Which will you choose next time you’re outside enjoying our amazing outdoor spaces?⁠⁠⁠⁠

Respect Wildlife

“A fed bear is a dead bear.” 😢⁠

⁠This is a sad but true saying I’ve heard a lot in the hiking community. We all know to bring in the bird feeders in the spring because Yogi (see what I did there 😉) is looking for his free lunch. But if you head out to a state park or other campsite in the warmer months it’s really something to think about there too. Most campsites in parks (not backcountry) have wash sinks and dumpsters just for this reason - to control food and waste smells to certain areas. And while it may not seem like a big deal to wash out a pot or plate and toss the dishwater into the woods or to leave the ketchup on the picnic table overnight, the food smells can attract all sorts of animals and make the next person’s experience a little “hairy-er”. Some estimates say that a bear’s sense of smell is 7 times better than a blood hound!! Let’s let Yogi find his own lunch, shall we?⁠

(Picture is the closest encounter I’ve ever had with the biggest bear I’ve ever seen in GSMNP in 2019! Video will be posted to social media on 4.24.21 if you’d like to see the bear in action!)⁠

I hope this post as inspired you to learn more about practicing Ahimsa in the great outdoors! Please visit https://lnt.org to learn more about the 7 principles and how you can practice them when you’re outside.

If you’re ready to take your yoga practice outside my Outdoor Yoga Class offerings begin May 2, 2021! To learn more and sign up

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Why You Can’t Stretch Your Way Out Of Pain

Acknowledging bias in our lives is always a good first step toward healing. Yoga teachers and practitioners have long held the belief that if something didn’t feel good in our bodies we could stretch our way out of the problem. I certainly thought that way for many years, particularly around my own back pain. Yet no matter how much I stretched, it didn’t ever seem to get better. I inadvertently realized the error of my ways when I started getting into hiking and began to develop more strength in my legs, hips and core as a result of scaling mountains with a backpack regularly. My back pain started to get better over time and I started to wonder if my hiking had something to do with it. I finally started to put two and two together when I started approaching my yoga practice in a way that incorporated strengthening actions along with the stretching I knew and loved. When I began to understand that the way I had approached yoga in the past had an inherent bias toward stretching and range of motion, and I began to balance that with strengthening actions within the practice, my body responded with less pain and more range. If you’re struggling with pain in certain areas of your body and stretching doesn’t seem to be changing it, here are some things to consider to bring balance to your body and your yoga practice.

Imagine that your muscles are like rubber bands for a moment. Let’s take your arm as an example. Your biceps and your triceps are on opposite sides of your upper arm. When your biceps contracts, your triceps has to lengthen. That’s a really good thing or you wouldn’t be able to bend your elbow! That muscle needs the ability to lengthen (aka stretch). But consider what would happen if your biceps didn’t have the ability to strongly contract. Imagine it was like a rubber band that had lost its spring. You still wouldn't be able to bend your elbow because it wouldn't have the strength to contract enough to create the movement. We might think of this as the muscle being “too long”.

Now imagine it the other way, which is what we often seem to notice the most in our bodies, especially if we’re dedicated yoga practitioners. Imagine you are trying to bend your elbow and your biceps is contracting, but your triceps is SO strong it can’t lengthen to allow the movement to happen. Now we have a situation where the muscle is “too short” or the sensation we often label as “tight”. Thinking about these two opposites starts to allow us to understand why this balance is important.

Another way to think about this - imagine a suspension bridge like the Golden Gate in San Francisco. The cables have to have just the right amount of length and strength to allow the structure to be stable while also allowing for movement. You probably don’t (want to!) think about it when you’re driving over such a bridge, but there are constant small movements due to weight of vehicles, wind speeds, temperature changes, (god forbid) seismic activity and other factors. Our muscles are similar in our bodies, giving stability to our underlying structure but also allowing for movement.

But with the human body there is one more curveball that we also have to consider. Muscles can be tight without actually being strong and they can be long and still be tight. To understand this, consider the person that spends hours a day hunched over a laptop. They might look something like this most of the day:

The body and the muscles are being held in a certain position for extended periods of time. Over time the muscles on the front side of the are being held in a shortened position. They aren’t actually being asked to contract and so they tend to become weak, but they stay shortened and therefore may be perceived as tight. On the other side, the muscles are constantly being stretched, or held in a lengthened position. They can’t possibly contract for many hours a day to counteract the position in which they’re being held, so they are long but are very weak from being over stretched which may be perceived as tightness. These positions of holding when repeated over time tend to bring about this chronic state that may be experienced as painful. An imbalance forms that won’t be helped by simply stretching, particularly for the muscles that are already too long.

These examples are a simplification and a model for a VERY complex system, but hopefully you get the general idea here. Constant stretching of muscles isn’t good, constant contraction of muscles isn’t good. We need muscles that can contract well and lengthen well. We need balance between the two. Without those two things in balance, we may experience pain.

Yoga does mean union after all so is it any surprise that creating balance between length and strength should really be our goal?

So what does this mean for our yoga practice?

The bias of yoga asana, at least the way that its been taught historically, is toward creating length and range of motion. Again, these are good things to have, but yoga can also help us build strength if we approach it a little differently. One way to do this is to engage a muscle at its end range of motion.

For example, let’s take pigeon pose. We might typically think of this posture as a hip opener (aka stretcher), particularly because of the way it may create a sensation of stretch in the hip flexors of the back leg and the rotational muscles of the hips in the front leg. For many people, finding their way into this posture brings them to that end range or maximum range of motion for several muscles. That’s not a bad thing. But now, once at that end range we can ENGAGE and create strength over time by pressing the back leg down and forward and the front leg (shin) down and backward. The legs won't actually move from the shape you’ve put them into, but the muscles will contract and create strength by doing so over time.

The overall effect is that the muscles will, over time be able to move through a full range of motion while also maintaining their strength. That brings us to our ideal state. (In a perfect world anyway. Again this is a complex system.)

Notice that I keep using the words “over time” here. This is not an instantaneous change. It takes constant attention and constant practice.

One last quick note about those long and tight muscles - when we start to address this imbalance it can be challenging. In the example above of our laptop user, if she decides she wants to start to strengthen that back side of the body that is overly long, weak and tight, she may run into one big obstacle, a sometimes painful cramp. 😣 This shows up all the time in the hamstrings for many yoga practitioners in postures and actions like this:

I’m hugging the heel of the back foot toward my buttocks without using my hand or a strap to do so. That asks the hamstrings to contract strongly and that’s often where the cramp happens. If that happens to you don’t give up! Go a little easier the next time around and increase the demand on the muscle(s) that are cramping over time. They’re basically telling you (rather loudly) that they don’t have the strength to do what you’re asking them to do just yet. It’s really something you have to build up to and takes a bit of patience.

I hope this starts to give you some ideas about how to bring more balance between stretching and strengthening into your yoga practice. Strength training outside of yoga certainly isn’t a bad idea for most bodies, but we CAN create more strength and stop worshiping at the altar of range of motion in our yoga practice if we simply bring more balance to our actions. A pain free, healthy and balanced body should always be our goal and bringing a greater focus on strength into our yoga practice can help us get there.

If you’d like to learn more about putting these ideas into practice, we’ll be working with the concepts here throughout the month of February in my Livestream and On Demand vinyasa classes as we always do. This month we’ll be specifically addressing the muscles surrounding the hip joint.

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Tech Advice for Getting the Most Out of Your Online Yoga Class

I’m taking a break from posting about the specifics of your yoga practice today to give you some tech help. Online Yoga is here to stay. Even when we’re able to go back into spaces and safely gather together again, the conveinience factor for online yoga alone is likely to make it a part of our yoga practice far into the future. But if you’re straining to see a small screen or your teacher can only see your ceiling, you might not be getting the best experience from your Online Yoga Class. Here are a few ideas from a technological perspective that might help you get the most out of your online yoga experience and calm your fears about diving in if you haven’t done so already.

First, let’s talk devices. Did you know that you can do your online yoga practice from nearly any device? Zoom has apps for phones and tablets as well as laptops, desktops and everything in between. It can also be used through any web browser such as Chrome or Safari. You can use it on Apple and Android devices as well and your account will work across multiple devices. Most other platforms have multiple device compatibilities as well. Perhaps this is obvious to most of you reading this, but we wanted to be sure you knew that you could use nearly any device.

Second, the bigger your screen size, the better your viewing experience will likely be. You may want to try casting to your TV or directly plugging into your TV or other monitor. Here’s where we get into some nitty gritty details in the tech, so hang with me here. There’s typically two ways of taking what you’re viewing on your smaller device (like a phone or tablet) and making it work with your TV. Whether or not either of these will work will have a lot to do with how old your TV and your device are and if they are on similar operating systems. Let’s talk about these two ways individually. First up:

Casting or Sharing Your Screen

These are terms for wirelessly transmitting the sound and video from your smaller device to your TV. This can be accomplished through your home WIFI network or with the help of additional devices such as an Apple TV, Chromecast, or Smart TV such as a Roku or Fire TV. To do this, make sure your TV is attached to your home WIFI network. If you’ve been streaming Netflix that’s probably already happening. The next steps depend on whether you’re using Apple or Android devices.

For Apple devices including a Mac computer, you can share your screen using Airplay. You can do this with a compatible Airplay device (such as Roku, Smart TV or adapter) or an Apple TV, which is another box to plug into your television. Follow the instructions that come with it for connecting it to your TV. Once that’s done, make sure your phone or tablet is connected to your home WIFI network. Then go into the Settings on your Apple product and look for “Screen Mirroring” or “AirPlay”. Once you open that, your Apple TV should show up in the list of available devices. Click on it and you will see whatever you had been working with on the phone show up on your TV. If you’re using Zoom on a Mac, you’ll have to set your speaker choice to Apple TV to hear sound on your TV.

For Android and Samsung devices, you can use a Chromcast to share your screen. Some TVs will come with this built in nowadays. With older TVs you’ll need to buy an additional device, similar to Apple as described above. Once you’ve connected that to your TV following the instructions that came with the device, you’ll follow a similar procedure as above for connecting. On your Android device, go to the Settings menu, click on the Cast icon. Then choose the TV or Chromcast you want to connect with.

For PCs running Windows 10 you can share your screen using the Connect function in your Settings panel. You may be able to Cast directly to a Smart TV or Chromcast Device or by using Microsoft’s wireless display adapter.

Remember, with any of these options the camera on your device will still need to be used so I can see what you’re doing during your class. More on this below.

Direct Plug In

This is my preferred method because it’s typically more reliable and easier to manage. You’ll need a couple of things to make it work. The first is an HDMI cable. You can get one of these inexpensive cables from the typical big box stores like BestBuy or Amazon.

One end is going to plug directly into your TV through an HDMI port. They are often labeled as such but they typically look like this:

HDMI Input on Back of a TV

The other end is going to plug into your device. Many computers and laptops will have an HDMI out port on them somewhere but phones and tablets will not. For those smaller devices, you’ll need to purchase an inexpensive adapter such as this:

Various Adapters

When you plug into your TV, you’ll be able to control your zoom meeting on your device, but you’ll see a much bigger picture of everything that’s happening on your phone on your TV screen. You can do this same thing with a big external computer monitor as well. Just look for the HMDI port on the back of the monitor and use the same adaptor on your phone or tablet. (Adapters are also available if your computer does not have an HDMI port or if you need to connect to a monitor using USB-C, VGA, DVI, or Displayport.)

Audio controls

If you’re using Zoom on a computer, you’ll have more choices on how you can hear and be heard on your device. There’s a little microphone icon on the screen while you’re running Zoom. Click on the little arrow next to it to explore your options.

Zoom Audio Settings Menu

If you are using a phone or a tablet, some of the audio settings will be available by changing your zoom account settings. You’ll need to access zoom’s website from a browser on either a computer or other device to change these settings. Connecting an external device such as a bluetooth speaker or wireless headphones may be an available option through these or your device’s settings.

A Note About Hearing Aids

I’ve had a couple of students who have bluetooth capable hearing aids tell me about sending the audio for these classes directly into the hearing aids. Basically, the hearing aids are connected to your smartphone (I think the hearing aid companies typically help with this setup, but I imagine it’s the same as connecting any two devices together via bluetooth) and so instead of using the audio on the computer or tablet, you would choose to “call in to the meeting" with your phone when you enter via Zoom. If you do this, be sure to mute the audio on the computer or other device or you might get some unpleasant phasing of the audio (the delay in the audio being heard on your computer will be different then in your hearing aids) or feedback (just like when you accidentally aim a microphone at a speaker). You may also be able to pair your hearing aids to your device directly. We aren’t experts on this one at all, so I’d advise you to talk to your hearing aid provider about this if you have questions. I just wanted you to know this was possible!

Help Me See YOU!

Now that you can see and hear me better, time to make it easier for me to see YOU! My interactive livestream classes are meant to allow me to help you since it’s a two way system. I’ve made jokes lately that I’m getting used to only having half of you visible at any time, but it doesn’t have to be that way! Here are a few ideas to help me see you better.

1. Now that you are using a bigger screen to see me, the device you're using and the camera on it can be farther away from you. That will give me a better picture of your whole body and is a really good start.

2. Ideally, you’ll place your camera so that I can see you from the long side of your mat, with the full length of your mat in view from floor to ceiling. I’m talking about something similar to the view I provide you of me. Something like this:

3. If a full view from the side isn’t possible, a small angle can also be helpful for me. It allows me to see a little bit of what is going on on the side of your body that is facing away from the camera. Something like this:

4. Depending on how far away your device can be will often determine how much of you will be in view from floor to ceiling. From my perspective and from what I’ve learned over the last several months of teaching this way, if your whole mat and body are in view, but I can’t see your arms when your standing and reaching up, that’s better than if I can’t see your legs and feet. Opt for a camera angle that gives more of a view toward the floor than the ceiling if possible.

Making sure I can see your feet more than your arms will help me help you!

I certainly hope you found this post helpful. I’m happy to provide a bit of tech support for you for my livestream classes and private lessons if you feel like you still have questions. Feel free to email me to let me know what specific devices you might be using or would like to use. We can even set up a time outside of class to test things out and make sure they’re working for you, to talk about camera set up and other issues as well.

Many thanks to my husband Justin (who often gets referred to as the I.T. Guy around here) for his help in making this post possible.

[Links in this post are for clarity and convenience only and are NOT affiliate links. We always encourage you to support your local small businesses whenever possible!]

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Yoga Related Book Suggestions for your Summer Reading

One of the greatest things I did for myself when the pandemic hit was give myself the gift of Jim Kwik’s Reading course. It’s really sparked my love of reading again, something that has been lying dormant for sometime (translation: after I finished grad school the second time I didn’t think I’d ever want to pick up another book again! But that was ^cough^ years ago and I’m finally over it, thanks to Jim!). While I’ve been reading on various topics ever since, it occurred to me that this is the time of year people often ask me for suggestions of books on the topic of yoga. Below you’ll find a few recent reads and some old favorites to inspire your summer reading.

1. Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg. I’ve been familiar with Lovingkindness meditation for some time, I even did a 40 day practice earlier this year, but I had never read much in-depth about it. I’m so glad I finally decided to pick this one up and read it cover to cover. Sharon’s expertise in the subject really shines through, despite the fact that this is one of her first books and was originally published 25 years ago! I feel like I have a whole new insight into this type of practice, a greater understanding of the benefits and obstacles to working with it and a real roadmap of how to go about it and what I might experience as I practice now. I definitely wish I had read this sooner! If you’re interested in Buddhist psychology, meditation or lovingkindness in any way, don’t hesitate to pick this one up.

2. The Yamas & Niyamas; Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice by Deborah Adele. This one is an old favorite and I can’t recommend it enough. The Yamas and Niyamas are the first steps on the yogic path in a traditional approach, but in our modern exploration we often skip these and go right into the Asana or physical practice. Never fear! Deborah Adele’s book is here to help you shore up that foundation that you may have missed with explanations that make this ancient wisdom that is still so relevant to our modern lives accessible and understandable to the modern yogi. If you’ve been thinking, “I really want to know more about yoga but I’m not sure where to begin.” begin here. You won’t be sorry. And you’ll be coming back to this book over and over again for years!

3. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. What can I say that isn’t said in the title? If you’re struggling with the circumstances of the moment we’re all living in right now you might give this one a try. Your thinking about many things will be challenged. But the love that underlies that challenge can be deeply felt if you’re open to it. This wisdom comes from one that knows suffering and is able to bear witness to it in such a way that I felt like I was being guided through Very Hard Things with a very soft touch. This book is a great gift if you can allow it into your consciousness. If right now is not that time, just put it on the shelf for later.

4. Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson. (I realize I’m pretty Buddhism heavy here but they did grow up in the same neighborhood with the yogis so go with me on this!) This book is all about the intersection of neuroscience and Buddhism. The author, having studied for sometime with Jack Kornfield, pulls the two subjects together in a very practical way. The first chapter can be a bit tough to get through, but if you hang in there, it’s totally worth it. I find myself drawing on this book over and over again for myself and my classes. The summaries at the end of each chapter of the key points really help solidify what you’ve read which is a nice feature. (I recently heard Mr. Hanson has a new book out which is definitely on my future reading list!)

5. The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T.K.V. Desikachar. While I wouldn’t necessarily list this amongst my favorite books on yoga, I will recommend it because it does provide a foundational understanding of the practice from a source that is highly trusted. Desikachar was the son of Krishnamacharya, who is widely considered to be the “grandfather” of the physical practice of yoga as we understand it today. You’ll find some interesting historical context in here as well as a foundational discussion on yoga philosophy. The Yoga Sutras are included with commentary, but if you’re new to all this I’d definitely recommend starting with Deborah Adele’s book first. To the modern reader there are elements that will come across as dated (this one was first published over 20 years ago as well), but if you read it with context in mind including time and place, you may find yourself filling in the gaps of some of your knowledge depending on how yoga first appeared in your life.

BONUS: Meditations of John Muir compiled by Chris Highland. This is a bit of a tangent but you might find it valuable. If you love the outdoors like I do you’ve probably read some of John Muir’s writings. This compilation comes from a spiritual perspective and intersperses Muir’s words with quotes from some of the leaders of the world’s great spiritual traditions. It’s a great one to sample from while sitting by the campfire this summer.

I hope this gives you some inspiration for your time reading in a hammock at a state park campground, at the beach or in your backyard this summer. If you’ve got a title you’d like to share with me or you want to see what else I’m reading lately, feel free to look me up on Goodreads.

Happy Reading!

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Finding Balance During the Holidays

Been feeling a bit out of balance lately? Me too. According to Ayurveda, the sister science of yoga, we are well into Vata season which can make us feel a little bit spacey, dry out our skin, make our digestion a little questionable and leave us generally just feeling ungrounded. And it sure did seem to sneak up on us quickly this year! What’s worse, we know that the holiday season is close at hand and all of these things may get exacerbated even more by all the hustle and bustle and stress.

But Yoga and Ayurveda are here to help! Here are a few simple ideas to help you maintain balance (and maybe even your sanity) as the busy holiday season approaches.

The qualities of Vata are light, dry, rough, clear, active, cold and mobile.

The tastes associated with Vata are pungent, bitter and astringent.

These are the qualities and tastes that we want to AVOID at this time of year. There is a basic principle in Ayurveda that says Like Increases Like. If you remember that little catch phrase, you’ll know just what to do. Here are some examples relevant to the holiday season:

At a holiday party? Avoid the dry crackers and cold raw veggies. Now is definitely not the time for the salad! Head for the soup, especially if it has a root vegetable base. Warm mulled apple cider with some warming spices is a great choice for a beverage. Go easy on the alcohol, they don’t call it fire water for no reason! Find the items that are cooked, not super spicy, maybe even a little bit sweet and have some weight to them. Mmm… pumpkin pie…

Got a million family members to see? Try your best to not over schedule yourself. Can you spread out the merriment over the course of the holidays? Maybe you see Aunt Tilly at Thanksgiving, and then see Aunt Marge the week after. Or maybe you can even wait to see those friends you’ve been meaning to see until after the New Year. It will give you a little break from all the running around to recover (see active and mobile above) and prolonging the joy of the holiday season isn’t the worst thing in the world (providing you find it joyful, but that’s for another post).

Got some outdoor activities planned? Maybe you have a tradition of cutting your own Christmas tree or caroling with friends or family. Maybe you go for a hike on New Years Day. Great!! Just pay special attention to staying warm. Don’t forget to leave a good quality thermos with some of that hot cider or hot chocolate in the car for when you’re done and make sure you have a good layering system. If you’re like me and you always seem to have cold hands and feet no matter how good your gloves or socks are, consider picking up some chemical hand warmers or maybe even ask someone to get you a rechargeable hand warmer for a holiday gift or maybe even these reusable ones.

Outside of the days and times of celebrating, here are a few other ideas:

Maintain a daily routine - I find this one particularly challenging, especially with my all-over-the-place work schedule, but as I’ve been reminded lately, keeping some kind of daily routine is huge for balancing Vata. It really doesn’t have to be complicated. As I mentioned in this video, one thing I’ve implemented lately is a strict sleep and wake schedule. Just that little container for my day has made a huge difference in my energy levels in a short period of time. And hey, maybe that’s a good excuse to get out of that party you really didn’t want to go to a little sooner anyway ( What?! Don’t tell me you don’t have those! ;-) ). If you really want to go for it in this area you might investigate Ayurveda’s recommendations for a full daily routine.

Choose physical exercise that is slow and grounding - Yoga anyone? But seriously! Your yoga practice can either help relieve your symptoms this time of year or make them worse. If you always do a hot, fast paced practice it may be time to slow it down and cool it off just a bit. Maybe you add some strength training to your weekly exercise regimen (this is really never a bad idea at any time of year). Walking can be a great form of exercise and time in nature can be very balancing to Vata, but be sure you’re staying warm if you head outside.

Create a home environment that is soothing - The Danish concept of hygge was pretty popular a year or two ago and it still holds true for this time of year, especially in places like New Hampshire that are cold and dark. Light some candles, put on the big sweater, drink copious amounts of your favorite tea, turn off the TV, fire up the fire place and enjoy some coziness and warmth.

Up your self care game - This can be tough when we’re just SO BUSY and have so many things to do. But if you don’t fill your own cup you have nothing to give. Consider that what your loved ones really want is the best version of YOU this holiday season, and that isn’t going to be the you that is stressed to the max trying to make it all happen. Go get a massage. Book an acupuncture appointment. Shut the door to the office and do some Yoga Nidra. Take the time to read a good book for pleasure rather than study or research. Do what will nourish you the most and protect that time like you would any other important appointment.

If you want to learn more about Ayurveda and your own personal constitution I highly recommend taking the quiz on the Banyan Botanicals website (no affiliation, just love their resources). You’ll learn more about your particular make up and what may be out of balance for you right now. And if you find yourself really wanting to know more, head over to Amala Wellness and get a consultation with Susan Morgan, a real Ayurvedic practitioner in our area who can do a full evaluation and get you headed in the right direction for your own wellness goals and unique constitution.

I hope you found these ideas helpful! Did I miss something? I’d love to hear what you’re doing to keep yourself in balance during this busy time of year. Leave me a comment to let me know and share with our community!

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Self Regulation: The Key to a Happy Life?

Life is messy. But if you’re reading this, you’ve probably been around long enough to know that. 

In the yoga and spiritual community there’s often a notion that if you just think positively and align your chakras just so and make your full moon intentions, while drinking your green juice at the stroke of 6am after three hours of meditation everything will be just fine.

And that’s all good stuff, but the universe can also from time to time look at all that, laugh and say,

“Oh yeah? How about THIS!”

What do you do in that moment?

You probably already know.

• Scream.

• Cry.

• Throw a fit or an object.

• Give up.

• Curse a blue streak to the point where you don’t call your Mom for a week because you’re pretty sure she’ll know about your behavior even if you live several states apart.

• Become a giant ball of stress that moves through the world like hurricane, demolishing everything in its path.

Don’t worry. Me too.

I think a lot of people are attracted to yoga because they think they will learn how to NOT be that person in those moments. I’m here to tell you, after a reasonable amount of time and practice, that notion is false.

I’m still that person. Ask my husband about the last time the printer didn’t work while I was working on a deadline to get something done.

But here’s what IS different:

• Those moments are farther apart. 

• The little things that used to set me off all the time have lost their ability to do so. 

• And in the times when I do turn into that hurricane that I mentioned above, my recovery time is a little better.

All of that is due to my yoga practice and the tools of self-regulation that are inherent to the practice. 

Self regulation is hard to define on its own, so we might define it by the feelings it generates. When we are self-regulated we feel grounded, centered, and present in the moment. On the flip side, when one is dis-regulated there is a general lack of control over one’s emotional state and/or behavior.  We are reactive rather than responsive, impulsive rather than thought out. 

Hence that streak of blue language referenced above. * ahem *

So what are the tools of yoga that help us achieve self regulation? Here are a couple of my favorites:

Notice your surroundings - what do you see around you? What colors, textures or patterns do you see? If you’re in a familiar place, can you find some detail that you may have missed before?

Grounding - feel your connection to the earth. Whatever is touching the ground is your foundation and your connection to stable, calm energy. Feel the quality of that connection.

Breath - learning to slow and control your breathing activates the rest and digest response. A single deep breath can start to turn down the flood gates of all those chemicals and hormones that have you feeling like you’re ready to fight a grizzly bear (Pro tip: you are really no match for an actual grizzly bear. Take a deep breath and know what to do should you be the type of person that might be out in grizzly country. Just saying.).

These are wonderful ways to help you self regulate. But here is the main key:

You must practice them when it/life/things are EASY so you remember them when it/life/things are HARD.

Without practice, you can know the best tools, but you won’t be able to use them when you need them most.

We’ll be working with these tools all this month in my public classes. I hope you’ll join me for practice.

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Hiking and Yoga Reflections

Have you really looked at our logo for our Yoga and Hiking series? If you look closely you’ll see that what appears to be the air pathways in the lungs are actually upside-down trees! I purposely had this created (thanks Laurie!) to reflect a vision I had while driving back from one of my own hikes one day.

We talk about it in yoga all the time - the idea that we’re all one, all connected, all part of a bigger whole. I think we often think about other people in that context, but we don’t often think about all the other living beings that surround us.

As I looked at the trees around me on this drive home, I suddenly noticed how much their underlying structure - the trunk, limbs and branches - looked exactly like the illustrations we often see of human lung tissue and the pathways the air travels through in order for us to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide. It then wasn’t a big leap for me to consider how that without these trees and their ability to photosynthesize, that life-giving oxygen I breathe would not be nearly so readily available. And if we take it one step further, the carbon dioxide I exhale feeds the trees and gives them the raw materials for their own life sustaining needs. And so the cycle continues.

It’s this kind of realization of our connectedness to nature and each other that I hoped our Yoga and Hiking Series would allow people to start to experience. Over the course of our 9 week series we had such a wonderful time taking in so many beautiful spaces within a 30 minute drive from the studio in Milford. We made new friends, took the time to really notice our surroundings and our own bodies, were inspired by the beautiful words of many great writers and poets (thank you Iris for your beautiful readings!) and saw pieces of Mother Nature that we may not have noticed without the awareness we cultivated through our yoga practice.

Thank you to everyone that joined us over the course of the summer! If you haven’t heard, we’re cooking up some ideas for continuing these experiences through the fall and into the winter, so stay tuned for more!

Here are a few pictures from some of our outings.

Press Pause

Routines are good. They keep us steady in our day to day lives. They ensure our clothes are clean, our bodies are clean, we’re fed regularly, the people we’re responsible for caring for are cared for and we get enough sleep. But every now and then, breaking with routine and doing something different can have a profound effect on how we see our routines and might help us do something better or different in an important way. And now just might be the perfect time.

When’s the last time you got out of your routine? Have you even thought about how may routines you have in your life?! Some examples might be:

• The way you drive to work every day

• Your daily hygiene

• Your exercise program

• Your food regimen

• The type of meditation practice you do

• How you relate to the important people in your life

• What you do when you first wake up in the morning

Any of these could be a good thing to have in your life. Routines often keep us grounded. They can help steady us through the inevitable ups and downs of life. They can help us maintain our health and sanity. 

But what if there’s something you want to change? What if there’s a pattern in your life that just doesn’t seem to be serving you? Or is actually doing you or your relationships harm?

That’s where a shake up might come in handy. Maybe it’s time to press the pause button on that routine and step outside the day to day so you can see the world (and yourself) differently.

Maybe you’ve been on a weight-loss journey and you’ve been at a plateau for a time. You had been steadily making progress but you seem to have stalled. This can be SO frustrating. But what if you changed up your exercise routine a bit? What if you got outside and did some hiking instead of your usual weightlifting routine? Or went for a swim instead of running on a treadmill? You might find that you A) find another form of exercise you really like and B) jumpstart your weight-loss by changing how you use your body. 

Maybe this has nothing to do with loosing weight but with your exercise regiment itself. Changing up your activities might help you build strength and flexibility or cardiovascular fitness in a way that wasn’t happening with your other routine. You might even find a different activity becomes a great compliment to your usual forms of movement (hiking and yoga anyone?! ;-) ).

What if you wanted to change your relationship with someone close to you. Often our reactions to the people around us can fall into routines too. These can be some of the hardest to break because they are SO ingrained in us and are often so tied to our emotions. We might (if we’re lucky) even have the awareness to see it happening in the moment, but feel completely unable to change the response because we are so caught in the reactivity of the moment. 

Maybe it’s time for a vacation. Believe me, I don’t say those words lightly. I know full well how difficult this can be for reasons that can range from financial investment to work responsibilities or lack of paid vacation to the simple coordination with the rest of the family and all THEIR similar situations. However, you really can’t put a price tag on the time to reconnect with the people you love.

But we’re just talking about breaking out of your routine here. So maybe it’s just an overnight camping trip to that campground down the road (NH State parks have an amazing array of close and far away sites for as little as $23.00/night depending on the type of amenities you require) or an AirBnB a short drive away (some of the most interesting and memorable “vacations” I’ve had have been right here in NH in someone else’s backyard!). Maybe you just take the day off and go to the beach and turn off your cell phone for the day.

Maybe you do one of these things all by yourself. You might be surprised how liberating that can be and how much it may make you realize you value the people closest to you. 

These are just a few ideas to help you shake things up a bit in your life. Which one will you try?!