Recording Moments without living Them......

The bus is waiting for people to complete boarding. It is hot and I shift uncomfortably in my seat.  My eyes are drawn to what is going on outside.  In the square, children are riding on Greek donkeys. A father follows alongside the donkeys holding a camera.  He is recording every moment of his childrens' adventure.

I know how that goes.  You want every moment of your child's life to stay in your memory. You try get as much of it as you can on film. Then, if your memory should ever fail you, you have proof that it really happened.  People say, our children grow up so quickly and now I know it's true.  I miss my baby already and he is only four.

As the bus moves off, I glance across at the two men in my life.  They are snoozing gently, man and boy, oblivious to my gaze. I produce my camera and take a photo, then a video. An elderly woman smiles at me knowingly.

It occurs to me that, like the man with the children on the donkeys, I may well be too busy recording moments to really enjoy them. At every turn, on this Greek holiday, I am taking pictures and videos, desperate not to miss anything. But by doing this, am I really able to enjoy what is happening in the moment?

Are we so busy recording events, that we don't actually  get to enjoy living them?  Do we just live the moment over and over later, as we watch the recording back?  Is that when we actually notice things we didn't 'see' at the actual event? I find it bizarre when I really think about it and yet I am compelled to do it.

As I stare out at the passing landscapes of Greece, I resolve to relax the camera and  exercise my memory!  

Stressed Out Yoga Chick

Stressed Out Yoga Chick!

I just HAD to post this after reading it on my FB page. It was posted by the yoganonymous folk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUkPMMz9VoU

I am STILL laughing.

Namaste!

Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Body?

When I expressed how much I had enjoyed a yoga class, one of my fellow  students said 'yes, isn't it great to get out of the head and into the body?'.  At the time I agreed with her, but later, when doing my evening stretches, it struck me that when I was in the flow, that particular evening, I had actually felt out of my body!  

This was a great feeling for me because up until that point, I had often looked at other slimmer, fitter, more experienced people in the class and felt inadequate. Old familiar feelings of negative self image had often risen as I struggled with the poses. I had connected the practice of yoga with what my body looked and felt like. I had done this when practicing at home but particularly during class.

That evening, I began to truly realise that I am not in competition with anyone else, either in yoga or in other parts of my life. I realised that my yoga practice should be less about drawing me in to stronger identification with my body, but rather help me to let go.

By practicing yoga regularly, my body is improving physically anyway and my mind is certainly more peaceful so there is no need to dwell on this.  I just 'know' that this is happening as I 'go with the flow' and do the poses in a 'mindlessly mindful' way.

Natasha Rizopoulos says ' According to Patanjali, it’s the identification with thoughts and feelings that causes suffering not the thoughts and feelings themselves.  So if you can put a tiny bit of distance between them and your sense of who you actually are, then life can be a little bit less painful.  And your mind can be a little bit less hectic.

This is where the familiar practices of Asana and meditation come in.

When you sit, you learn not to engage with every single thought/feeling that enters the fray.  Things come up and you let them float by rather than entering into a (repetitive) dialogue.

Similarly, when you practice postures you learn to use the physical body as a way of focusing your attention in the immediate present, on what is actually happening.  You learn how to corral your attention so that your “fluctuations” are between events that are related in some way, as opposed to the wild roller coaster rides that our minds often take us on.'

I agree with Dr Kristin Shepherd, a chiropractor, actor and speaker when she says:  

http://blogs.yogajournal.com/beginnersmind/2011/08/i-am-not-this-body.html  

Here's the thing. I have to watch myself and be careful that my physical practice doesn't draw me into stronger identification with my body. I know it's happening when I don't love the way I look or feel during practice. I start to measure my inflexibility and be frustrated by it. I become a jealous observer of the woman over there whose wheel looks like a wheel instead of a broken crab. I might as well be in front of a bank of mirrors in a monster gym on these days.

The challenge for me, every day, is to begin by remembering who I am underneath it all.

Do you feel that challenge, or is it easier than all that for you?

Thanks to yoga for inviting us to look deeply. 

Yoga Can Change Your Mood!

I was delighted to be able to attend my Hatha Yoga class at http://www.yoga4all.ie/ yesterday evening.

After a few hiccups in recent weeks, and a visit to Sweden, I was really missing guided practice. I get so much more from participating in a class than I do when I practice alone.  There is always something to learn from the teacher.

I have been feeling physically tired and lethargic the past few days but fighting hard against it.  The tiredness was making me snappy with my family, especially my mother and my son. I have been sleeping really deeply and waking with what feels like a hangover!  I literally dragged myself along to yoga, because, although I felt exhausted, I just knew that it would make my mood improve. And as usual, that was what happened.  I went in there feeling tired and a little down in the dumps and came out feeling elevated and alive.Okay, that feeling only lasted a few hours and I was in my bed asleep again by eleven but I was so so glad that I went.



The class also gave me the push I need to get back on the healthy eating track today. Suzanne led the class in a gentle, yet challenging routine and at one stage I had to face the mirror doing postures against the wall.  I was shocked as I looked at myself doing a twisting posture.  My hips looked positively humungous and thats after losing almost 17lbs!   It inspired me to get back to the mindful way I have been eating in the last while. I am not focusing on the losing weight, or focusing on any particular diet. I am focusing on being more aware of each thing I choose to eat in my day.

Yoga is about the best thing I have found to change my mood.  There really isn't anything else that can do so, so instantaneously, except maybe my little son's smile!

Yoga for Asthma And Other Ailments

Now that I am in my forties and I know the ailments that have shown up in my family,  I am going all out to prevent them.

There is heart disease, osteo arthritis and cancer.  My father had heart disease but passed away with cancer.  One disorder that has shown up a fair few times is Asthma. I have a sibling, nieces, nephews and cousins that had it and have grown out of it. But I also have relatives who have developed it again in later life.The predisposition to some conditions may be so strong that I can't avoid them,  but at the very least I hope to be able to alleviate them.

My mother  has COPD (chronic Obstructive Pulmunory disease) brought on by her asthma.  She has never smoked and the asthma itself seems to be a hereditary condition.  However, while recovering from a knee replacement operation due to osteoarthritis a few years back, she had an asthma attack.  This scarred her lungs causing her condition to deteriorate.  She uses various inhalers and tablets and a nebuliser six times a day ever since. She gets constant chest infections and is regularly on antibiotics and steroids which play havoc with her weight and mood. While trawling medical sites, I discovered that if both parents have asthma, there is a 70% chance of the offspring getting it. If only one parent has it then the chances are down to 30%.  I want to reduce that 30% if I possibly can. Yoga may be a good way to help to prevent the condition or at least the suffering that may ensue from it.

Yesterday evening, after a hectic few days, I was all set to go to my new yoga class at http://www.yoga4all.ie/  My  little boy, who is almost four, usually stays with my mother for the short while I am away.  I don't mind leaving him there as my brother or her friend are usually there too. Even if they are not, my mother wears an emergency bleeper on her arm and my little boy knows how to phone for aid. When I arrived at her house, she was struggling to breathe.  She was grey in the face and exhausted from the effort of just being. She had made an appointment with the doctor so I packed her into my car and we headed straight up there. As we thought, she had a severe chest infection and had to have a strong course of antibiotics and steroids immediately.  She was lucky that she didn't end up in the hospital as she has done many times before. We went straight to the pharmacy to get her medication and straight back to her home. There was no way I could go to my yoga class, so extremely disappointedly, I settled in for the night.

Since I started yoga, I have lost 17lbs in weight and for the first time since I hit forty, my cholesterol is normal. Before Yoga, I had been on 40mg lipitor for the condition and had to have an angiogram to check that all was okay with my heart. Yoga, and I am convinced it is yoga that has done it, has changed all that. Through becoming more aware of my body and mindful of what I eat, the weight is coming down and the bad fats with it.  Now I am determined to see what I can do to ward off any respiratory, cancerous or arthritic complaints that may await me in the future.

I am off to do a bit of research now and will ask some questions of yogis that I admire with regard to the above.  I will be posting the best postures and foods to help with the ailments that  I have mentioned today so please come back!

Namaste

A Laugh Out Loud Video Clip featuring Graham Norton and Yoga!

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I absolutely love the great Graham Norton.  I find him to be one of the funniest comedians around.  I was delighted to find this video clip featuring both Graham and yoga!  I just had to share and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!  It features yoga teacher Emily Collins.