Breathe Into the Tight Spots

In yoga each Saturday we are given the chance to breathe. To let go of the week, the frustrations and speed we all learn to live with.

For a few precious minutes, in a room with no clock, we get to forget. And to remember how it could be.

Our teacher often says to breathe into the tight spots. We practise directing our breath to those uncomfortable places.

Breathe Into the Tight Spots

Most of us have been raised to ignore where it hurts and paying attention to the pain is not our first choice of where to go. We much rather spend our money in a shopping mall, distract ourselves with online late night entertainment, or pour an enormous glass. And even if we don’t do the noticeable “bad” things, we may take up projects just to keep ourselves busy to avoid paying attention to something important, and gather things around us as protection.

My yoga teacher tells us we need to spend some time in those tight sad places. We need to go to them to get better, and I know this applies not just in yoga. We need to take a deep breath in all of life’s challenges and stay there quietly to figure things out, to make peace, to forgive, and then to move on.

What I've noticed is that my yoga mat takes me to all kinds of places but mostly it takes me within.

Breathe in, feel the focus of your pain literally and figuratively. Acknowledge it, make friends with it, be grateful for it. What is it telling you?

We need to go to the tight sad places to get better. (Tweet This)

My yoga mat takes me to places within. (Tweet This)

It’s All About the Ego, Dude

Clear your mind, the teacher said. Let’s just move along here, my cousin said in his inside voice.

Breathe deeply, breathe into your hips. What? What does this mean?

The teacher walked about the room, he asked permission and then adjusted the student to help ease into the pose. He’s coming near me, my cousin thought. I can do this, I know I can, I’ll show him how good I can be and it’s only my first class!

But the teacher walked by. Ha, I am pretty good, thought my cousin who is also a doc.

The class continued, and each time the teacher walked by. Hmm, no adjustment necessary. I am good!

At some time during the class, my cousin stopped looking around at the other participants. He realized that his hamstrings were tight from running. That when standing he couldn’t touch his mat, That he swayed like the branches of a willow tree in the breeze when he stood on one foot.

His teacher did not adjust him for the first few classes that he attended. The teacher and the student finally connected.

The teacher understood that in spite of my cousin’s first efforts that he was committed to learn more. The student started to feel some benefits of his yoga class and now stood on one foot at home while he brushed his teeth. He started to be conscious of his breath.

What my cousin didn’t learn until a few years had passed was that his teacher didn’t adjust him in those early days for a reason. He needed to show that he had found his own reasons for continuing to practise yoga. He had to stop using force.

The teacher knew that to continue to learn, we have to put aside what we want to prove, and to breathe into those worrisome places.

And that when we don’t allow it, It’s All About the Ego, Dude. 

You can't force Yoga. (Click to Tweet)

Part 2 of this 3-part series "Ego, our Friend" coming soon.

Listen to Learn

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 1926-2004, Psychiatrist and Author

Today we found out that our favourite Yoga site was closing down in a few weeks. There was an audible groan from the participants as the announcement was made.

Even the most non-life-threatening changes in our lives cause us to re-assess. In the quietness of the studio you could almost hear the thoughts echoing in each others minds. Where will go to practice? Will we lose our pre-paid passes? What will become of us?

 Our lesson... breathe and wait. 

Finding Love in unusual places

If you are in a committed relationship, it is inevitable that someone at some point someone will ask you “how did you meet?” Of course, there is no simple answer to this very complicated question.

If you carried a “list” either on paper or in your head. You invariably checked off items as you blind-dated, 7-minute dated, or “smiled” on numerous internet dating sites. You kept an eye out for him as you did your groceries (does he eat vegetables?), walked outdoors (can he keep up with you?), or popped in to a bookstore (oh please let him be a reader!).

But if you were fortunate like me, you crossed paths, perhaps when you weren’t really watching for it. When you both know yourself and know what you were looking for, the Universe has no choice but to respond!

And then as each moment passed, you realized that you had found a “keeper”. Our true match should come with total surprise and ease. What I need in a relationship might not be what you need and hence you have to be patient.

And then one day there was the unexpected gift of organic chocolate bars while on a business trip.

And never, never being late to pick me up.

Of listening to my long, rambling stories, and remembering my friends’ names.

Opening car doors and giving me his arm on the icy parking lot.

And with each of these, he stole a little piece of my heart.

But the clincher was in what he didn’t do; how he used his time and energy in ways that fit with how I had chosen to live my life.

For me, some of the magic words were, “No, I don’t golf; never could understand the point of endlessly chasing a ball”. Don’t get me wrong, I have golfed, once. I wore shorts and matching top with a jaunty hat, I looked fantastic but my aim was terrible and I ended up giggling for 9 holes. So for me, a golfer would not do. When my special someone said that zigzagging for several hours searching for an errant ball was not his cup of tea, I was hooked (that is golf talk).

We’ve done a lot of new things together since, but not once have we golfed!

 Happy Anniversary Sweetie. Thank goodness for running and yoga, and the forces that brought us together.

Thank your special someone today for loving you! At which moment in time did you fall unequivocally in Love?

Balancing Patience in Half Moon

Sometimes we get a less than subtle lesson on what we need to work on for the day.

My day started with my log in password not being accepted. That can’t be, I only just changed it, when? 3 weeks ago, 1 month ago, 45 days ago? I don’t remember.

Finally resolved.

Then the article I wanted to read on Guess What? Answer: Patience (yes, the Universe can be very witty sometimes) wouldn’t link and sent me to an unacceptable advertisement for some product that I really didn’t want.  http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2012/11/30/patience-virtue/   Very good article by the way, if you have the time to read it. (there’s a joke in that readers).

Finally resolved.

The staff room which is usually a hub of drop-ins who drink tea, big gulps, and frosties was surprisingly empty. Why then is the coffee that I got ready at 8am, all gone? Who drank it?

Deep breath, make some more.

Finally resolved.

And so my day continued. One delay after another. Finally resolved. Until I saw a pattern.

More deep breath.

Ahh, all this was the build up for the ultimate test. Medical tests for a family member, it will take ten or more days for results.

Okay, by then I got it. Back to breathing. Pray for Patience, Wait for Grace.

I needed my yoga class and chuckled as I left early for my class. Good execution of a plan. Work and choices have made me race my life away, recently I have rarely arrived at my yoga class with time to unwind before class begins. I have time today. I am stretching, I am bending, I am relaxing like I haven’t done before in weeks. It feels good.

Finally resolved. I get it. Stop with the last minute chores and get to class early, stop racing to relax. Allow the moment.

This is Half Moon, Yoga Journal; this is not me!

                                         

Maybe today I will master the Half Moon pose, or, maybe it will be another day. (Click to Tweet)                                                         

Announcement.

Our yoga instructor is caught in traffic. She will arrive to start the class…whenever she gets here.

Patience, it’s a beautiful thing. (Click to Tweet)

Universe, thanks for a day full of lessons.

Saluting the Sun

My yoga teacher was sharing how the other day, she had to resort to imagining herself doing Sun Salutes in order to re-gain her composure. Her circumstance involved a five year old. 

We have all heard of take a deep breath before you…say something you might regret, pull out your hair, tell someone to **off. Visualizing yourself decompressing certainly would be valuable. But just for one moment, picture yourself just stopping and doing a Sun Salute. Anywhere, wherever you might be. Just stop, in the middle of a bad customer service transaction, opening an unexpected bill, at work when you’re dealing with an ignorant customer/co-worker/supervisor. 

Wouldn’t it be great to just STOP and say, Just a moment please I need to collect myself before I can deal any further with YOU. Wouldn’t that be liberating? Doesn’t that just make you smile?

Yes, STOP and go into your Sun Salute, honour yourself and your feelings and tell the recipient “I’ll be back…better”.

Tamara - this one's for you.

A little town called Lillooet

You never quite know what you will find while you are travelling on holidays. In Lillooet, we were met by two young women in the Visitor Centre who didn't seem to have too much traffic that day, they were delighted to see us!

I am always curious as you pass the small towns along the highway. What made people stop here? Were they pulling their wagons and just couldn't go up one more mountain? Did they run out of food? Did the "little lady" just say no more?

Did you know that in the late 50s and early 60s, that "Lillooet shipped more nephrite jade worldwide than any other place on earth"?

"Lillooet was the location of an internment camp for Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War and many chose to stay on. One of them was Dr. Masajiro Miyazaki, who served the region as its sole doctor for many years and later became the first Japanese-Canadian to hold public office in Canada when he was elected to alderman in 1950. Dr. Miyazaki was awarded the Order of Canada in 1977 and his home is now a community landmark." The Miyazaki Heritage House offers a Summer Concert Series from July 6 - Aug 31st.

Dr. Miyazaki was interned, and still he gave back. Let's keep that in mind when things are not going our way and we'd rather throw up our hands in despair.

We got back in the car in the falling rain, and found refuge at Mount Currie Coffee Company in Pemberton. The coffee was wonderful, and I held strong to my resistance to the strawberry cheesecake coffeecake.

Now here are two words I have never put together before, Yoga and Horses.

One of many ads on the bulletin board at Mount Currie Coffee Company.

                                                                    
                                                                  
For more on Dr. Miyazaki and Lillooet
Lillooet is also home to Fort Berens Estate Winery Ltd.
Quotes from: "2012 Lillooet's Official Visitor Guide":

Be Still My Mind

There's a man in my Friday night yoga class who reminds me of my old friend Dan.

I don't know his name and I don't need to. He looks sort of like Dan, speaks in a careful, unassuming way and then when you are least expecting it, will let a wickedly hilarious remark just slide in.

I remember my teenage days with my friend Dan, while we each navigated our way into adulthood. Now we live on opposite sides of the country and our paths seldom cross without emails rapidly flying back and forth in the planning.

We met some years ago in Vancouver, together with another friend Eddy, who was up from Petaluma. Together for a few days, we walked along the sea-wall, stopped for endless cups of decaf coffee (for Dan), had sushi, and talked, photographed and laughed. They humoured me by eating as many meals as possible out-doors. I ate a lot of fish that weekend, I who had escaped the cold dreary March in my home town.

At a wedding, I introduced Eddy to the girl who would become his wife. I wonder where Dan's wife is working right now. Was it Cats, that she'd danced in?

Breathe slowly, in and out, stop thinking, in and out. Stop my monkey mind, too much coffee today.

Another time, we met in Montreal, and drank draft at the pub which was down the street from our high school. How do so many decades go by so quickly? There were a few of us, old friends joining together in an informal reunion of sorts. Catching up with the present, reminiscing of the past. Remembering how it was one of us who instigated the petition to allow the wearing of jeans to school.

He even looks like Dan from behind. Stop it, breathe slowly, in and out, stop thinking.

Some years later, Dan stepping off the train in red pants. College days of him throwing his head back while he had a good laugh.

And all this happened in my head even before the three beautiful OOOMMMs that started our class.

Funny how familiarity beckons us. Unsuspecting we are and eager to follow our thoughts down the rabbit hole.

From Far and Wide

When the unexpected runs amok how do you react?

It could be a mouse in the house, no hot water while you're standing naked in the shower, or the sudden realization that you've overslept by one hour, what sets you off?

Do you know a whirling dervish? Someone who stirs up your emotions, the air and destroys the feeling of tranquility and calm? do they invoke your less-nice side, bring up old family behaviour and generally just peeve you right off? Does their emergency become your problem; their bad planning become your emergency?

Do you wake up each day and see a light shining at you from the end of the tunnel, or is there a fire crew and live telecast at your every corner? Today, do your best to keep some distance from those who rankle. some things can't be escaped, but some people can surely be avoided.

Whether you are Dan sitting high atop a mountain doing yoga at sunrise or Gareth, gazing at the setting sun on your Napa Vineyards, discord hits us all.

I suggest that on this sunny Saturday, we all take a deep breath, drink some CALM tea, or take a run around the block. Together, let's each do whatever soothes our souls so that when the unexpected comes knocking at your door, you can welcome it in and know that it too, will exit.

The Field

We start out with the best intentions, and then get way laid by life. Sometimes it’s big things, like a family that moves just as we are about to launch our stuff in the high school drama club, sometimes it’s a run-away parent, a broken leg prior to the big game, or a broken marriage.

Surprisingly enough, it can also be small things, a missed bus makes us late for an interview for a job we would clearly have hated, a flat tire takes us to a coffee shop where we reacquaint with an old high school friend. How many times do we think that we’re going in one direction and then find out it is taking us to something better? I know a man who ruined an Achilles tendon running, and then took up yoga to rectify it.

I took up yoga on the advice of a friend who said that 50+ was not too old to start! Through my 134 yoga visits of stretching, bending, and flowing, I have learned more than I can explain. That breathing through the learning really does help, how our body teaches patience and then rallies to our demands, how the joy of finally getting the asana can carry you for an entire day. Even though it’s nice to be naughty, how much are you willing to do to be good? Will you stick to the surprise ending to see how far it can take you? Even though my 184.5 hours of yoga are a far cry from Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours to greatness (Outliers, 2008), I am a better person because of it. I have a long way to go but as Rumi said "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there."

The Universe conspired to bring a wounded runner to an unsuspecting soul, and it gave me someone who makes me smile every day.

Together we have balanced, OOOMMM’d, twisted, and seen the room upside down. We have grown stronger and more flexible together. We could sit together endlessly under a Bodhi tree. Namaste to Rob, Tamara, Tom, Deanna and many others for being a part of our story.

Go to Yoga - check

Finally did it! Have always wanted to take Yoga, and now I am officially "practising" it. Not a foreign concept to me, the philosophy part of it comes naturally. Have always been kind of a meditation fool, but we'll see what my body thinks about it tomorrow...hope to strengthen, tone and relax. Oh, it was hard to leave at the end of the class. When was the last time YOU got to be still?