Guru Purnima

We've all tossed around the notion of someone being a guru, a person who is an expert in their field. A guru is also a spiritual teacher or advisor. For many, the image of a monk or holy sage in long flowing robes generally comes to mind. But yoga defines a guru as something different. "Gu" means darkness and "ru" means light. So essentially a guru is someone who turns ignorance into enlightenment... who brings you out of the darkness and into the light.

Usually around this time of year beginning in July, the Hindus celebrate their holy day, called Guru Purnima. This year, it's July 7. Now you may not have a guru you pray to, per se, but we all have teachers who have touched our lives in different ways. This is really what Guru Purnima is all about. It is a day set aside to specifically give thanks to the teachers in your lives, be they yoga or something else. And lets face it, we all have people who come into our lives as teachers, mentors, or advisors. This is a day set aside to specifically give thanks and honor your teachers for all the wisdom they have passed down.

"It is also a day in which Divine energy flows more freely than any other time of the year. The Guru principle is said to be 1000 times more active on this day than any other in the year." (Mike Cohen) To celebrate this upcoming holiday, a special kirtan will be performed at the Yogahome Symmes studio on June 28 at 7pm. It is a great opportunity to come together as a community and honor your teachers past and present.

http://www.yogahome.net/

I hope on the actual day of Guru Purnima, on July 7, you will take a yoga class and give thanks to your teachers and in doing so, you give thanks to your teacher's teachers and their teachers and on and on it keeps going through thousands of years. That's a lot to celebrate!!

Blessings,
Susan

Creating a Sacred Space

Building a consistant yoga practice can take months and sometimes years to establish. But even if you are not there yet, or have the intention of wanting to take your practice further, sometimes creating a special place in your home is all the motivation you need to keep you on track. This is where creating a sacred space comes in.

A sacred space is a designated space in your home where you can sit at an alter to meditate or pray. And it's hopefully also enough space where you can roll out your mat and do a yoga practice.

I know what you are thinking. Alter?! No, it's not the big ornate alters you see in churches with holy statues, etc. A personal alter can be as simple or as detailed as you make it. And it's personal, so you put on it those images or things that have special significance to you. If you want a picture of Jesus or a picture of your cat, go ahead and put it on there.

If you are not big into meditation or find this practice difficult, this alter can be a spot where you come to when you just need to sit and reflect and breathe. My alter is in my bedroom and consists of a cushion I can sit on and a few pieces that ground me: a Tibetan singing bowl, some mantras, Buddha candle (pictured), incense burner, flowers, and a pink-colored rock I picked up on the last nature walk of my teacher training.

It doesn't have to be much. But I hope you allow it to be a personal focal point in your life, a safe harbor, you can go to each day when the world gets a bit crazy and you need a time out. I'll admit my alter doesn't get utilized every day, but it is a daily reminder for me to breathe, sit and practice. What more motivation do you need?

Blessings,
Susan

The Good Earth

I long for a garden. I don't have one currently living in an apartment, but when I have a house, soon I will start one. But if you are lucky enough to have small patch of earth you call your own and can devote it to a garden, it's a great way to take your yoga practice outside. Yoga teaches us about being in the present moment, staying grounded and simplifying our chaotic lives.

A garden also can help us stay mindful of the bigger picture, especially if you grow fruits and vegetables. Where does our food come from? Where does it go after we've consumed it? Who has to labor for it? How much waste are we creating in the day to day living of our lives? One way to address this issue of waste and consumption is by composting.

Composting is utilizing your food scraps (i.e. coffee grinds) and organic matter such as yard clippings and flowers and allowing them to break down naturally in the earth through oxygen, bacteria and insects. This yields soil that is rich in oxygen and nitrogen. If you simply throw these things out in your trash, they end up in landfill and get layered and buried. Oxygen cannot get to it to break it down and the end result is a large production of methane being created, which, as you know, affects the quality of the air we breathe.

Going "green" as never been more important as it is now, especially as we begin to reverse the damage we've already done to our planet. It's never been more important as the economy fluctuates and we stretch our dollars anyway we can to sustain our lives. If simplifying your life as led you to grow your own food, why not take it to the next step and begin composting. Below are some helpful websites to get you started. Good luck.

http://gogreenonline.com/

http://www.compostguide.com/

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/index.html

http://www.vegweb.com/composting/

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

Getting out of a rut

As with any exercise routine, your yoga practice can sometimes get to be, well routine. How do you shake off the doldrums and rekindle the passion of why you started practicing yoga in the first place? One way to do that is to try a different class or try a different teacher. Getting a new perspective on your practice and hearing it presented in a different way, is sometimes all you need to jumpstart your practice to the next level.

As a teacher, I face the same challenges. I'll practice on my own at home, but I get caught up in the teaching so much that I lose focus for a bit. It's at that point that I need to take a class and be a student again. It's amazing the new things I learn that fuels not only my personal practice, but my teaching as well. It's all a big circle, and I'm fortunate to pass on the teachings of the great masters that have come before me.

So, if you are feeling in a rut with your yoga practice, check out some local yoga studios and try a different style or try another teacher. It just may be what you've been needing to shake things up a bit.

I'm going to take my own advice and practice with a master yoga teacher this weekend, Rod Stryker. If you are interested, please check out the Yogahome website and see if there are spots still available. It's worth it to study with one of the great Western yoga masters, especially in our own hometown. This doesn't happen often, folks.
http://www.yogahome.net/

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you on the mat.

Blessings,

Susan