“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
Buddha

Let’s face it, most of us have trouble staying present. I always think of it as just putting my mind to it – no pun intended. There are all kinds of strategies we can practice to help us stay present in our meditation practice.
Just a few of many ways to try to stay present in your meditation practice are:

• Focusing on the breath – counting it, practicing Pranayama to stay present while meditating (there are tons of Pranayama techniques to do too)
• Listening to a guided meditation

(There are some great ones of all types, on Itunes – like Meditation Oasis)

• Even candle gazing is an awesome way to stay present, clean out the tear ducts and open the Ajna Chakra. (I love this one.)

But, another great way that seems to have dwindled down the meditation practice list (at least in a yoga class is) is Yantra Meditation.

Yantra Meditation is done by using a mandala (a universal symbol) or a yantra (a geometric design). A person would preferably place the yantra or mandala in front of them equal to their eye level and sit upright, (not stiff or wood like of course) and gaze at the symbol seeing whatever they could see inside the shape. I really enjoy doing this type of meditation because I learn more about myself than I do from some of the other meditations I do. I watch and see whatever it is that I see in that shape on that day, at that present moment.

Meditation practitioners can get cd’s with mandalas and yantras on them to use to gaze at, they can use a design of their own that they have created or my absolute favorite are mandalas made by Susan Bloom in Asheville, NC.

I originally found out about the mandalas in a Mindfulness Training with Shala Worsley at the Asheville Yoga Center. She used them as we practiced yantra meditation and then we got to journal after viewing several different ones. We searched for patterns in our lives from our journals. It was so fun to see what we saw, to learn and to reflect on it.

Then of course, I had to find out where Shala got the beautiful mandalas and she revealed the secret and yes – now I am sharing it with you.

I purchased a notebook full of mandalas from Susan to use when I teach yoga, for my own meditation practice and also for fun gifts for friends – they look awesome in frames too. Take a look!

I have no idea how she makes them, but boy oh boy aren’t they beautiful?

And these pictures don’t even do her work justice!

Each and every time you can see something different inside them.

Try it out, see what you see, see what you learn about yourself and you life.
Susan even has some posted on You Tube too, so that you can watch and do a Yantra meditation.

Do you have a regular meditation practice, a pranayama practice that you incorporate into your meditations?

How do you take/find the time to meditate?

Uncategorized

My newest yogini adventure consisted of a Restorative Teacher Training at where?, of course, the Asheville Yoga Center, with who?, of course, Stephanie Keach.

I specifically decided to attend this training because she was teaching at. As I progress further in my teacher trainings, not only do I have fewer and fewer trainings to take, but fewer and fewer are with her or Shala Worsely. Bummer. I love them both!

I decided to drive up, like a crazy person, but really because the flights were just out of control expensive and since half the time when I go I end up getting stuck in ATL for one reason or another I decided in mid- Jan. this might be a better choice. I actually was looking for to the stillness of the drive (at least inside the car) after being so busy lately. Quiet time, just me and the road.

As soon as I arrived, I headed into the studio for Candra’s Hot Flow class at 4:00 PM (yeah, I got up bright and early to head to NC from FL) why? because I wanted to take a class with Candra. She also completed her teacher training at the Asheville Yoga Center and she is a massage therapist (trained at Shala’s school). I love her easy going voice and style, but rock solid, powerful class. What a great combination. After class ended, I chatted with her about some of her philosphies regarding Ayruveda and she replied, that she followed some of the principles, like scraping her tongue each morning. Interesting…. I love to her what people take and leave from Ayruveda.

After  a quick snack to refresh my body, I headed back for the beginning of the weekend training. Restoration is surely what I needed. I have to admit, I wasn’t too thrilled with the fact that I was going to be restoring all weekend, what I really wanted was some serious vinyasa. It is interesting what our mind wants  and what our body really needs, thus our mind does too. Stephanie immediately talked about why we are always in such a hurry, when what we really need is to slow down, take our time, really breathe. Even though I know this, I get swept up in all the activities of life. As soon as we began to practice my whole body and mind were like Ahhhhhhhhhhhh………..sigh……………..Ahhhhhhhhhhhh……….and then of course……thanks! That is pretty much the just of it.

I was also reminded about how great eye bags are for us to use regularly…I am so glad I share this with my students after I teach, as I tote my little eye basket for of bags like Little Red Riding Hood to all of my classes. Eye bags are great for the brain, relaxing it, taking pressure off the eyes – allowing them to rest, stimulating more of the parasympathetic nervous systems actions to kick in. I so love an eye bag.

In addition, to all of the restorartive poses I learned about and participated in doing over the weekend, my favorite other concept I learned was about the Lymph System. In case you didn’t know, the Lymph System is a 1 valved system, the valves move one direction. We want to move and twist and turn and take deeper breaths and get all of that lymph fluid pushed around our body so that it can do it job, cleanse!  By the way, did you know that the right lung has 3 nodes and that the left lung has 2 since our tummy takes up more room on that side? (I was reminded of that from my 200 hour tt).  We want to breathe deeper and bigger and exercise those nodes.

All in all, my favorite poses of the weekend were reclining big toe with some new tricks, modified shoulder stand with a block to activate the nadis in the sacrum (a great option if you are on ladies holiday too), and the serious shoulder openers we did. So come to my classes and make sure I include those poses in the class.

As I left to drive back home, on Sunday, I was completly refreshed. A little sad as one of my last trainings (maybe the last) with Stephanie herself was done, but so excited to share all of my knowledge with each of you!

Uncategorized

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted, hasn’t it? I have got to get more on my blogging game.  Times are busy, boy is 2010 already flying by, with work and teaching yoga, practicing yoga, hosting and attending workshops there is not enough time in the day to do all the things I love.

With that said, last weekend I had the ultimate pleasure of attending Shala Rain’s Detoxification & Pranification workshop in Tampa, FL at Yogani Studios. As you know, from my previous posts, I love her! She has this solid, well rounded, but so much knowledge in her brain you wonder how it all works, way about her. What a grounded girl she is.

Friday nights practice began with a Kapha dosha practice and we began by choosing an oil that coincided the most with what dosha we felt we were at the time. Of course, I chose vata because I am so vata, running around all the time. 
We then proceeded into a more firey practice with lots of heat building pranayama – Agni Sari (breath of fire) and hip openers.
Saturday mornings class was a vata style class, the class was a slow flow as I like to describe it. Slow but stimulating enough for a vata girl like me. Shayla’s smooth way of teaching just glides you through the poses and it just flows right  together smooth and easy.

I was fortunate enough to squeeze into my tight schedule, the Saturday afternoon discussion session all about Ayurveda. We did a dosha test to see what our constitution was and mine came out:

1. Vata
2. Pitta
3. Kapha – although I am really close in all of them (not close enough for a Tri Dosha – 1 point apart in each dosha)

I am mostly a Vata then Pitta.

Then we talked about what to eat for your dosha, attributes of each that affect your daily life, how to be more balanced and eat in a more balanced way for your constitution, and she gave us some really interesting recipes that are great for certain seasons and for our dosha.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the Sunday morning Pitta practice due to my Introduction to Yoga Series workshop at Yoga Asana of Brandon, but it was well worth it, another great group of 18 students (pics to follow soon).  I did hear that the Pitta practice was done by yogis blindfolded. Eeekkk… a challenge for the Pittas in the world.

If you want to learn more about Ayurveda, visit either of the following web sites (Blue Lotus Ayurveda or Holistic Online) or conduct a fun search of your own and take a dosha test to see what constitution you are.

For more follow up come to my Spring Detox workshop just before spring begins on March 14th at Yoga Asana of Brandon.

Uncategorized

My newest favorite book is titled, Wherever You Go There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The authors name just makes sense with the title. The book is the best book I have ever read about meditations. Of course, Shala used it in her Mindfulness training, that is where I got the reference for it from. It has so much information, so many meditations and so much common sense that I just can’t seem to put it down. If you are attending my classes, you will find me using it over and over again, sharing it’s wealth of knowledge and peace with each of you.

Uncategorized