Strength from within

What brings most people to the yoga mat is a desire to increase flexibility in their joints or build strength in their arms, legs or backs, but what keeps people on their yoga mat day after day, year after year, is the strength they build from within. On the surface, yoga looks like a purely physical routine, but the more you do it, you as the yogi begin to peel back the layers of your self, and go a little deeper. Suddenly this consistent yoga practice is helping you handle life's ups and downs on a multitude of levels.

This is why it's imperative that after you have crossed over the threshold of doing one class a week, you build a consistent home practice, because doing so will help build this inner strength. You'll begin to tap into resources you never thought you had so that you can ride the emotional waves of what's going in your inner and outer world. Yoga is a great equalizer, bringing equanimity to your thoughts, your energy, your faith and your physical body. And it offers you the opportunity to stay true to yourself and follow your Dharma (truth) with purpose.

So if you are taking a consistent yoga class, why not experiment with building a home practice to deepen your knowledge and experience of this ancient tradition and cultivate strength from within.

Namaste,
Susan

Cross training

I am preparing for my first 5K run this weekend. Am I excited, nervous, a little scared? You bet. But I'm also prepared and I've set my intentions to have fun, pace myself and have patience. It also got me to thinking how my yoga practice has prepared me even beyond what I've done running on the trail.

Yoga compliments my other forms of exercise, whether it's running, tennis or racquetball. All very yang sports to be sure, but yoga creates a place where I can stretch deeper in my body and helps me to take full advantage of my breath. It's all interconnected.

Years of performing Warrior poses, twists, downward facing dogs, balancing poses, vinyasas and pranayama (breath control) all has prepared me for this one little charity run this weekend. I can even call upon my meditation practice to guide me through. Don't believe me? What happens when you do any sport of endurance? It eventually becomes a mental game. It's you and your thoughts either propelling you forward or stopping you all together. In yoga, we call this monkey mind, "chitta."

It's really quite amazing how it all comes together. And you can use so many aspects of yoga to enhance your physical fitness. So, if you are one of those recreational athletes who thinks that yoga is too easy or too hard, just remember that some of those very same stretches you do to warm up, are the very ones I teach in class. You are already doing yoga and you don't even know it.

Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend. I'll see you on the mat and on the trails.

Blessings,
Susan

Thanks mom

So this Sunday is Mother's day and I'm going to be just a tad self indulgent as I focus this week's blog on thanking my mom. There are alot of people in this world who have lost their moms or who had moms that were critical or abusive or just plain ineffectual. This was not my mom. My mom was no Donna Reid and we didn't see eye to eye all the time, but looking back on what I know now, she was exactly the perfect person for the role to shape me into who I am today.

My mom is funny, fiery, loving, spiritual and one of my very best friends on this whole planet. She worked full time, as did my dad, raising us 4 kids and she spent seven years going to night school to get her bachelors degree in finance, all because she really wanted that college education. She has fought cancer twice and lived to tell the tale and she continues to be an inspiration to others who are still fighting it. She's just an all around hip gal and I continue to learn from her.

But what I really want to thank her for besides her strength and grit, is that she taught me about my humanity and about spirituality. I found yoga because of her. She was practicing it long before it was fashionable or trendy and somehow that yoga gene got passed on to me in a big way. I am now a teacher and I don't think I would be if not for her laying down the tracks for me to follow. Yoga has become one of the most important things in my life that has given me direction and a rock to cling to during the tough spots and so I thank my mother for sharing this with me and continuing to practice with me. I don't know what I'd be without that or without her, so thank you mom. And Namaste.

Susan