Pranayama, More Than Breathing In and Out

Unconscious breathing is like eating iceberg lettuce, which is good for survival. 
Conscious breathing is like eating kale, which offers you what you need to survive and so much more!

A while ago I posted this status update on Facebook, because I felt it was one of the easiest answers to the question, "why should I practice pranayama?" Just as some foods can make dramatic changes in your chemical makeup, so can breathing practices.

Pranayama is like a nutritional supplement, working on your mental, emotional,  and spiritual health.

My knowledge of this branch of yoga is limited to my own experiences and research. The following are how I use these practices, which may or may not work for you. There are many texts out there that describe the benefits of breathing practices, if you are interested in diving into these subjects with more detail. As always, working directly with a live teacher is best in order to tailor these practices for your needs.

Mental Supplement

What happens when you sit down to meditate? If you're like me, your mind-stuff begins to pile up and your will to sit with it diminishes. I teach a Sunday night free breath and meditation class; some nights I include more breath and some nights it's more meditation. On the nights when I teach a solid 20 minutes of pranayama, the students report to me that they were able to settle into the meditation that followed with much more ease. Here are some techniques, if you interested in using breath as a means to meditation:

All techniques begin by finding an alert, relaxed physical position. On days when I need to recline to relieve pain, I will keep my eyes open in order to avoid falling asleep. Next, I will practice pranavidya, or observing my breath. I watch my breath for a few cycles, noting my depth, rhythm, sound and texture, before I move into the technique.

Ujayyi is an audible breath that I use when I need to feel warmth or stimulation (great for when I practice in the early, sleepy hours of the morning!). I begin by using ujayyi on both inhale and exhale, also noticing the quiet pauses at the top and bottom of the breath. After a few cycles of breath and when I feel comfortable with it, I will begin to quiet my exhales, so that only the inhale is audible. Whenever I catch myself make sound on my exhale, that's when I know that I've drifted in my attention.

Samavrtti is an equal-sided breath practice that has many layers and generations. Over the last 3 years, I've worked into a pattern of 6 second inhale, 6 second pause and 6 second exhale. I have not yet added the exhale, but that will be my next step over the next several months, beginning with a 2 second pause, then gradually increasing. Some days I can only manage 4 seconds for all sides of my breath. Whatever length my inhale is during my checkin, that's where I will set the length for the other parts. This is a subtler practice that requires more patience to build, and one that I like to use during times when my mind is particularly agitated.

Emotional Supplement

People who only know me from yoga classes have a hard time believing that I have a quick temper, but if you ask my family, they will confirm it. I spent years rejecting my temper, punishing myself and others around me for when it was triggered. I attempted to push it away, to sublimate it, but in the past few years, I've made a study of my temper to learn more about what happens when I'm triggered. I began to notice my tension, my energy, my thoughts and my breath. My temper is triggered by fear. Fear shows up in me as a tightening in my low back, my gut, my throat and my forehead. The path of my energy is similar to a tsunami's mysterious recession, followed by its catastrophic advance; my vital force free-falls downward for a split second (my face will usually drain of blood and turn white), then erupts upward with a forceful explosion (my face then turns bright red). During that initial recession, I suspend my breath; the eruption occurs simultaneous with a violent exhale, and the volume of my voice rises to ear drum - shattering volume. The is what my kids call the "mean mommy voice". Be grateful you've never experienced it.

Another emotion that I work with in my pranayama practice is grief, something I've had the opportunity to experience more of lately. For me, grief is actually fear combined with attachment, but it arises completely differently in me than fear.

If I were to describe my experience of grief using a grammatical analogy, I would say that it is a long list of depressing adjectives that get heavier, darker and more pressurized as the list goes on, punctuated occasionally with bouts of sobs that only mildly relieve the tension. It's hard to breathe in, and when I do inhale, it may catch or stutter. Grief lives on my shoulders, around my heart and down my arms. At times, I may feel like my wrists are handcuffed by it.

My study of grief has led me to the conclusion that I suffer because I reject it. The initial feelings of grief are good for me to experience, but because I try to stuff them down, they burst up through me, along with my opinions about them.

Grief, like, fear, needs a channel. My conscious breath opens that channel and relieves me of the extraneous suffering.

In order to reduce the effects of fear / anger, I use a technique I call the Tension Drain, which I learned from Tias Little in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As soon as I feel that tsunami-like recession, I look for a way to drain it downward. Like opening a valve, giving this energy a place to go usually helps me mitigate the rest of the response. To do this, I establish my connection with my feet (or seat, if I'm sitting). I focus of my exhales, attempting to make them as long or longer than my inhales. I visualize a drain at the bottoms of my feet and imagine I am rinsing the tension down and out. Usually, I feel the difference within a few breaths.

Grief constricts. To respond to grief, I use the following technique to connect with my Heart Chakra. In order to experience grief as a pure emotion and be able to then let it go, I have to first establish the best posture for it. If I am rounded inward, compressing the space around my heart and lungs, it will be harder to disengage from the heavy, seductive feelings of grief. Sitting upright or reclining with support along my spine are my typical postures. I then focus my attention to the space around my heart, imagining that the tightening softens with each breath and that my breath themselves originate from my heart. I see my breaths as a wave, rushing in and out in all directions. After a few moments of this, I begin to notice a feeling of spaciousness around my heart; often, I have to imagine this spacious quality before I notice it. Sometimes, I have to hack my way out of the comforting jungle of grief that has grown around my heart; each breath is a machete strike that clears away the space.

Spiritual Supplement

Prana is our life force, our spirit. Pranayama is the practice of studying, touching, channeling that life force. There are many written examples of the breath as a gift from our creator. My favorite is this one by Kabir:

Are you looking for me?
Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
you will not find me in the stupas, not in Indian shrine
rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:
not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding
around your own neck, nor in eating nothing but
vegetables.
When you really look for me, you will see me
instantly --
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.

The breath inside the breath. Subtle, powerful, connected and with us all the time. Whatever your emotional, mental, physical states, your breath is always there, always part of the fabric of reality.

The So Hum mantra is perfectly suited to honoring that connection. So Hum is translated to mean I am That. I am a part of all of creation. Think about it: as you breathe in now, there are air molecules that may have been here for lifetimes, even eons. As you breathe out, notice what you are leaving in this world. Inhale and hear your breath quietly, organically whisper the word So. As you exhale, hear your breath make the sound of Hum. Over and over, I connect with my breath, with my community near me through my breath, and my larger community of humans through this mantra. So Hum.

Announcements

• Share my blog with others, and invite them to sign up. This is one of the best ways I have to get news out to you all!
• Remember, if you can't make it to class, you can always pop in my DVD, Healing Yoga for Wellness, available online at www.amazon.com and www.eBay.com, and in stores at Breathe Los Gatos, Pacific Healing Arts, Cancer CAREpoint resource center, East West Bookshop and Kaiser Mind-Body-Wellness center.
  

Restorative Yoga

Restorative Yoga is a therapeutic application of the yoga practice designed to reduce the effects of chronic stress. It is recommended for any time that you need to restore your body or mind. There are asanas, or postures, that are considered restorative, and there are entire practices that are considered restorative.

What makes a pose restorative? 

Baddha Konasana (butterfly pose)

Props, passive traction, relaxation and time are the characteristics of a restorative pose. 

For example, if you sit on the floor in Baddha Konasana (butterfly pose), with the bottoms of your feet touching and your knees apart, you will need to engage some muscular effort in order to maintain the integrity of the pose. 

If you recline onto a bolster and supporting your knees (resting butterfly pose), however, you will be able to release all your weight into the floor or props, creating a stretch that is very passive and uses mostly gravity and your own body weight to maintain the sensation.

Supta Baddha Konasana
(resting butterfly pose) 

The resting butterfly pose is an adaptation of the butterfly pose, and the use of props to support your joints encourages passive traction in your body.

This passive traction encourages a gentle release of tension and tightness related to chronic stress.  

These poses are typically held for a while (5-20 minutes each) in order to induce a relaxation response in your nervous system.

What makes a practice restorative? 

A practice that induces your relaxation response for an extended period of time is considered restorative. Your nervous system is continuously analyzing your external and internal environment to determine if there is any threat. 

When your sensory input quiets down, your nervous system initiates your relaxation response, 

what Judith Lasiter calls the “rest and digest” mode. Therefore, a restorative practice is one that seeks to reduce your sensory inputs. 

To make this happen in your external environment, you will need a warm, quiet, dimly-lit space with no worry of interruption. Traditionally, the practice has minimal verbal instruction, no music and a warm climate. In my person experience, people with cancer need soothing sounds and touch to help them stay present and turn down the volume of their thoughts. 

To make this happen in your internal environment, you may need to prop your joints dramatically, because you will want a very mild level of sensation so as not to trigger your nervous system. If you are in a pose that requires you to “do” something, like engage your muscles to hold your body in place, then your internal environment will send sensory inputs to your nervous system, restricting you from fully relaxing. One of my student’s dubbed this practice the “fancy nap” for its qualities of doing nothing.

No matter how foreign it may be to practice doing “nothing” for 5-20 minutes in each pose, you feel the benefits right away; after understanding the practice, some of my students use just one pose to relax on their own, like Instant Maui or Legs Up the Wall, both depicted below.

Instant Maui pose

Legs Up the Wall pose

Announcements

• Please see my schedule page for updates coming in September; 2 NEW classes for cancer survivors, and new locations!
• Sunday, September 15: Basics of Pranayama and Chanting; this 1-day workshop is at Mind-Body Zone in Fremont; see the Events page for more information.
• Share my blog with others, and invite them to sign up. This is one of the best ways I have to get news out to you all!
• Remember, if you can't make it to class, you can always pop in my DVD, Healing Yoga for Wellness, available online at www.amazon.com and www.eBay.com, and in stores at Breathe Los Gatos, Pacific Healing Arts, Cancer CAREpoint resource center and Kaiser Mind-Body-Wellness center.
  

Reflections on Teaching Yoga in a Chronic Pain Program

Artwork from:
http://criticalscience.com/chronic-pain-
psychosocial-interventions.html

This population is really limited... Some of them are addicted to prescription narcotics... Some of them have mental health challenges... They could be in a pain flare.

Do you think you can help?

The questions made me pause. Could I help? As I had been taught to do in yoga, I took a deep breath and checked in. I knew I wanted to help, but did I feel like I could be of service? The answer that came back was yes, so I laid out ideas and plans, and my interviewers glanced at each other and smiled at my enthusiasm. I was in a room filled with medical professionals who were redesigning their pain management program and wanted yoga, among other healing modalities, on the menu. I mentioned my own experiences with chronic pain, dating back to when I was a pre-teen, and how yoga had helped me. I was so full of idealism in that interview, and I was totally underprepared for what I was about to undertake. I’m grateful for that idealism, because I might have been scared off if not for it.

On my first day, there were 8-10 people in the room, and their pain was as diverse as them. Some could sit in chairs, and some could only sit for a few minutes; some preferred being on the ground, and some turned green at the thought of getting to the floor and back up again. We had chairs, a few padded mats, a few bolsters and some foam blocks. I had planned a yin yoga sequence, but realized quickly that this was not going to work. I started to worry,

what could I ask these people to do that wouldn’t hurt them?

I went through my yogic toolkit, and realized that all of these people could help themselves through pranayama. Good thing yoga isn’t solely about the body!

What they each had in common was that their nervous systems were stuck in a fight-or-flight mode because of their pain. As Dr. Palermo wrote in her post, pain triggers the stress response, and continual pain leaves the switch to the stress response fixed in the “on” position. My tool for the nervous system is always the breath. They might not all be able to get to the floor, or stand, or sit up, but they could all breathe. So, we started there.

Slowly, I eked out a sequence that supported most, if not all, of them. Together we found options for anyone who experienced pain or struggled to breathe during any part of the practice. I used Kelly McGonical’s book, Yoga for Chronic Pain Relief, as a guide, and I asked them to befriend their bodies and establish a relationship that wasn’t based on fear and pain. We joke about being less of a dictator and more of a coach of our bodies. Over and over, we emphasized – together – that the shape of the pose wasn’t the priority; the attitude, breathing, and observing were what really mattered.

When they weren’t doing yoga with me, they were practicing qi gong, walking or chair dancing, learning about their brains, their emotions, their diet and their habits. The team consists of psychologists, physicians, a pharmacist, a nurse, a Traditional Chinese Medical practitioner, a physical therapist, a Feldenkrais teacher and myself… a very well-rounded and holistic combination of providers.

Over the last year I’ve notices some patterns arise in the hundreds of patients that have come through the program. In the first few weeks, the patients are very fixated on their bodies and their sensations. The questions they ask me are indicative of this perspective: Am I doing this right? Is there a yoga pose for this body part / pain situation?

But at some point, the patients realize that 

it’s not about their body or their pain, but their relationship to both. 

For most people, that realization happens during the third week of the program, but some figure it out right away, while others report back months later that they now understand.

Pain and stress are on one side of a coin, with relaxation and service on the other, and emotions running along the edge of it. The tools that we offer them are mindfulness, compassion, presence, perspective and community; we use these tools to flip that coin from one side to the other. Some of the tools are packaged as yoga, and some are not, but the foundation is all the same.

Announcements:

• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.

Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD is out! How to get your very own copy:

• Order from Amazon for $27.95, plus tax and shipping 
• Stop in to Breathe Los Gatos and get it today for $30, plus tax
• Buy it directly from Lorien for $27.19 (tax included, no shipping, you must pick it up in class)
• Coming soon to eBay, Kaiser Santa Clara, local yoga studios and many more...

Yoga and Chronic Pain

I teach yoga as part of a chronic pain management and rehabilitation program through Kaiser. I asked one of the psychologists to write me a post that explains how chronic pain occurs. Here is the post from our wonderful Dr. Cassie Palermo:

Artwork by George Camacho

"From the first time that I practiced yoga, I was drawn to it. I appreciated the centering, calming, meditative aspect of it. It provides me with a path back to equilibrium when I lose my way. At times I feel compelled to prove my worth – both to myself and my team, as I judge myself against the more seasoned professionals with whom I work. I also lose balance when I strive for "more" and overdo it in my daily routine, and this imbalance takes me out of the moment. With its emphasis of "keeping my yoga on my own mat," focusing on my breath, and being aware of my body movement, posture, and alignment, I practice what I need to restore my sense of balance.

A year or two after I began incorporating yoga into my own routine, yoga became part of my work, as well. I am a psychologist in a chronic pain program and the program now includes a yoga component. It turns out that yoga, among other smooth and gentle movement practices, is a healing approach for the management of chronic pain.

I say "it turns out," not because this discovery is coincidental, but because I have not always known as much about chronic pain and its management as I do now. What I have learned has come from observing the patients in the pain program and doing my own research.

Chronic pain is essentially a disorder of the central nervous system, 

though it becomes quite complex when looking at all that is involved in the way the brain processes pain. However, we must first understand that pain actually serves a purpose.

We are hardwired to interpret signals – sent by nerve endings – as pain, in order to avoid physical damage and/or death. For example, if we put our hand on a burner we do not initially know is hot, we are able to respond by pulling our hand away before we consciously become aware that the burner will indeed singe our skin. Likewise, when something startles us, our system shows a response before we make sense of what has caused the alarm. Once we realize that a friend has jokingly jumped out to scare us, we then experience our rapid heart rate, our tense muscles, and the surge of adrenaline that is already starting to drain. When we feel this, we are experiencing the sensations related to the "fight or flight" response.

In this automatic response, the central nervous system receives input that that there is danger and the potential for harm, and takes action to either gear up and fight to protect, or take flight to distance or avoid. Our brain, part of the central nervous system, is wired so we do not have to wait to consciously weigh our options of what to do. Before it's at the conscious level, our brain sends signals to increase heart rate, make our breath more shallow and rapid, decrease blood flow to the extremities so more is available for the vital organs, speed up our thoughts within the primal part of the brain focused on survival, increase adrenaline to delay the sense of pain and provide a surge of energy, and tense our muscles so as to gear up to meet the situation.

This happens with acute pain situations, such as putting your hand on a burner. Unfortunately, this also occurs with chronic issues, such as spinal stenosis, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, and multiple sclerosis

Since the trigger for danger is always present (chronic in nature, i.e. cannot be cured), the signals are continually being sent, translated as pain, and the central nervous system is responding with the fight or flight response. Right idea but wrong situation since, with the above-named issues, we cannot figuratively remove our hand from the burner nor is there necessarily further damage being done.

Chronic pain is the constant signaling of danger, resulting in over activity of the central nervous system and the fight or flight response.

So, what can we do to deal with this automatic response? We actually have more control over our brains than we originally thought, and we can initiate the opposite (parasympathetic) response in our nervous system – and initiate it earlier and earlier, to catch and reverse these survival responses in order to return our system to a calmer, more sustainable state of operation. Practices like yoga, meditation, QiGong, and changing our thinking patterns do just that.

Seeing this transformation among the patients enrolled in the pain management program is profoundly rewarding. Having yoga be a part of that transformation reminds me of my own practice. I'm included in a larger system of change, and that encourages me that my part of the whole is enough; it brings me peace and balance, and makes my job worth doing."

Announcements:

• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.
• Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD is out! Go to Amazon to order yours today!

Fascia, Our Body’s Infrastructure

As a yoga teacher, I get asked many questions about pain. A common one is:

Why does an injury in one part of my body present pain in an entirely different part?

Logic would dictate that the area where you feel pain is the site of the injury or issue, but that doesn't always occur. 

If you’ve never experienced sensation that originates far from where it presents, then try this: open your mouth and place your right hand on your lower jaw bone; slide your jaw into your hand, but resist against it with your hand… and notice where you feel the sensation. Yes, there’s some feeling around the connection of your hand and jaw, but mostly you’ll feel this along the left side – the side where your hand isn’t. Why is that?

To answer that, think of Spider-Man’s costume, a tight second skin with a web design all over it. When he moves, the lines of the webs shift and move with him. Now, picture that web design under your skin, not on top of it. Each line of the webs are connected to each other, so when one spot tightens, tangles or is knotted (as in scar tissue), the rest of the web is affected - and the web is extremely sensitive. 

That web is called fascia, which is a type of connective tissue. These tissues range from light, easily affected “fuzz” to ropey, dense fibers. The following video shows some of the fascia in the forearm.

As the video shows, this web of fascia provides a container for nerves, blood and lymph vessels. When the fascial web contracts, we experience constriction on the nerves, in the blood vessels and the lymphatic system. Too much of this contraction may affect our systems in the following way:

• pain response and coordination
• circulation
• immune system

How do we loosen, untangle or release the adhesions in the fascial body? Massage is one method. Passive resistance through gentle yoga poses can also help, as well as tools that reduce overall stress, such as mindfulness and breathing exercises.

The next time you feel a pain response, ask yourself,

Where does this really come from?

You may be surprised by the answer, or you may not if your "Spidey-sense" is alert!

Announcements:

• Hear Lorien's interview on the Transformational Power of Yoga Telesummit.
• Next Kaiser Restorative Yoga for Cancer Survivorship 6-week series begins June 12 (ends July 24, no class July 3). Call 408-366-4284 to register.
• Tuesday, June 4th: Lorien will be offering gentle yoga demonstrations as part of Stanford's Cancer Survivor Celebration week. See Events page for info.
• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.
• Stay tuned: Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD will be out in June...

What Yoga is...

I have practiced yoga for 14 years. Early on, I was introduced to shalabhasana, or the locust pose, as a means to help my back. In every attempt to practice this pose, my legs were heavily earthbound, no matter how much flexibility I gained in my back or strength in my legs. After a while, I began to tell myself stories about this pose:

My arms are too short.
I'm not strong enough.
This pose is not for me.

I began to modify the pose whenever a teacher would offer it in class. I avoided teaching the full pose. I identified with what my mind told me, and embraced the justifications for rejecting the pose.

Last week, I stepped into a yoga class that changed so much for me. The teacher was visiting from India, and he and his wife taught several classes at the studio where I teach. I had heard great things, but had little expectations as I began this journey with him. He asked us to use our breath in a very different way, and then to explain why it was challenging to us. We all had stories about why we couldn't do what he was asking us to do; he neatly and succinctly exposed these stories as false - like removing training wheels, then pushed us to try more.

And then came shalabhasana.

He asked me why I wasn't lifting my legs. I gave him my stories, and he - kindly - refused to believe them. He then explained how I needed an experience to prove it to myself, and that I would then be able to practice the pose forever after that. By adding a small prop, I was able to lift my legs skyward with minimal effort. And so I tried it again. And again, but without the prop. My legs joyfully rose. I tried it the next day, and had the same experience, as well as the days after. So, what happened?


Did he magically transform my arm length, my strength or change the pose so that it was "for me" now?


No. He reminded me what yoga is. From Yoga Sutra 1.2 (Gary Kissiah's The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali),

"Yoga citta vrtti nirodhah: Yoga is the cessation of the misidentification with the modifications of the mind."

My mind had modified reality to fit a concept of my ego: this pose is not for me. I misidentified with this story; I believed it... for a long time, too. By pushing us with our breath, and then giving me an experience that I was convinced I couldn't have, I realized how much I was believing that wasn't necessarily true.

This all happened just 2 days before my Kickstarter campaign was scheduled to end, when I wasn't sure that I could raise the $18K to make the video project a reality. After the class, though, 

I started to doubt my doubts. 

Maybe they, like my thoughts about locust pose, were wrong.

It turns out I was right about being wrong. We reached our Kickstarter goal, raising over $18K, thanks to all of you!!! Since then I've now been wondering, 

What else have I been modifying and misidentifying? 

What have you?

Announcements:

• Hear Lorien's interview on the Transformational Power of Yoga Telesummit.
• Next Kaiser Restorative Yoga for Cancer Survivorship 6-week series begins June 12 (ends July 24, no class July 3). Call 408-366-4284 to register.
• Tuesday, June 4th: Lorien will be offering gentle yoga demonstrations as part of Stanford's Cancer Survivor Celebration week. See Events page for info.
• Sunday, June 23rd: Lorien will be offering restorative yoga demonstrations as part of Kaiser's Seeds of Hope Cancer Survivor Day. See Events page for info.
• Stay tuned: Lorien's Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD will be out in June...

Got My Back? Pledge Matching Begins Today!

I am so excited to announce that I now have a backer who is willing to match new pledges for my Kickstarter campaign!

Between now and May 2, every Kickstarter pledge made will be matched, up to $8,000.

So, please help me get the remaining pledges needed for this project! If you've already backed me, but want to increase your pledge, that will count towards the matching. If you haven't backed me yet, please consider doing so. These videos will help so many people. If you cannot back me, please let people know about the campaign so that others can.

Send this email to anyone who:

• loves yoga
• has chronic pain
• has physical limitations
• is healing from injury or illness
• has chronic stress
• has difficulty getting to a yoga class
• is taking care of someone with any of the above situations

I can't wait to get this funded so I can share these videos with people in hospitals, clinics, support groups, as well as anyone going through challenging times.

Here is the link to the Kickstarter page, where people will need to register and pledge: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yogabylorien/healing-yoga-for-wellness-video.

No money will be exchanged unless I receive my goal of $18,700 by May 2. Please help me get there!

Yoga & Filmmaking, How "Healing Yoga for Wellness" Began

In February of 2010, I began working with a 9-year old girl who had recently recovered from surgery to remove a brain tumor... only she hadn't really recovered. She was have lasting effects from the surgery, so her family contacted me. Through support from friends, family and even strangers who heard about her situation, I was funded to work with her and her parents. When I was with her, we worked on breathing, swallowing and balancing. When I was with her parents, we worked on stress management. Getting the opportunity to meet and "play" with her and her parents changed my life in many ways. As I got to know them,

I learned that her father makes films for a living.

Around the same time, I met a fellow yoga teacher named Cindy Campbell, who runs a non profit organization called Human Connexus; I was deeply inspired by how her organization supports people who are facing medical emergencies by offering financial aid, so they can focus on what really matters. I told her I wanted to help. I offered yoga to her clients, but we quickly realized that these people are spending long hours in the hospital with their loved ones, and cannot plan to be at a yoga session. Help would need to be on their terms.

The idea of a video was born, as a tool for the caregivers to remain healthy during stressful time.

I immediately thought of my client and contacted him to see if he was interested. He was, and had many questions and ideas about it. I was impressed with his enthusiasm and we began making plans right away:

• Calling on my students to play the roles in the video was the easiest part; they were eager and supportive and very willing. (I'm sure that's not always the case with "talent" on screen.)
• I contacted people who I knew made beautiful music and asked if they would consider donating their talent to this project, and I was so moved when they said yes.
• I asked the owners of Breathe Los Gatos if they would donate their space, because I knew it would look lovely when filmed.
• I contacted several yoga clothing companies to see if they would consider costuming us. be present, a company based in Colorado, replied almost immediately with a yes. I was thrilled!

We rehearsed, filmed, edited, recorded voice over, collaborated on music, and - finally, made our video. It took 2 years from its inception to produce, but I feel it is a product I can be proud of. The funding I am asking for is mainly to pay the filmmaker, plus the cost of pressing the DVDs, packaging and shipping them out. Along with so many others, my hours dedicated to this project are voluntary.

At its roots is the idea of serving others, on their terms. 

When these videos are made, I will continue that idea. I will donate several copies to cancer centers and hospitals. Human Connexus will received a collection of the videos to distribute to their recipients, and a portion of every sale will go back to their organization.

Please help me get these videos made. The following link takes you to my Kickstarter page, where you can pledge any amount between $10-$1000 to help get this project funded and going. Share this post, or the link (or both), with anyone you know to help spread the word. Namaste.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yogabylorien/healing-yoga-for-wellness-video

Healing Yoga for Wellness DVD Project: Not the Virus I Was Looking For...

"I need a virus," I said, glibly. I was speaking about my Kickstarter campaign to raise $18,700 by May 2, referring to the concept of going viral, a method for spreading the word about my project to more and more people. I need lots of people to donate small amounts in order to reach my goal.

Well, I got my virus, but it wasn't the one I wanted.

Instead, I came down with a cold. You really need to be careful what you ask for.

I rarely get sick, but when I do, it's usually fast and furious. This was no exception. People were raving about the nice warm weather, but I was shivering. It hurt to blink my eyes and I kept leaning towards my left, if I tried to stand up. There were a few of my yoga classes that I couldn't find a sub for, so I taught them, keeping my distance from the students, and my hands and energy to myself (the opposite of my normal intention). I told my kids they would have to find their own rides, that the Mom Taxi was out of service. I huddled under a blanket and a 50-lb. dog and did nothing.

It took 2 days and countless holistic treatments, including acupuncture, to feel human again. I'm amazed at how quickly a virus comes and goes. In the middle, it's easy to think that it will be this way forever, and you learn that breathing is not to be taken for granted and skin really is the largest, most sensitive organ.

I kept imagining that I was watching a great football game, with my immune system as one team and the virus as the other. I felt when yards were taken and given, and I tried my best to cheer on my home team, supporting them with all that I knew how to do.

And then it left. Our bodies are incredible at finding equilibrium.

Now that I feel better, I'm attacking this Kickstarter project with the same enthusiasm. And I'm rephrasing my request:

"I need word about my project to spread like a virus."

You gotta be specific when asking the universe for help!

Here is the link to the Kickstarter project; please help me spread word about it:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yogabylorien/healing-yoga-for-wellness-video

Indra's Net & Lorien's Kickstarter Campaign

Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring. ~Francis Harold Cook

The Buddhists use the symbol of the net of Indra as a representation of our interdependence.  Each jewel in the net contains within it the reflection of all the other jewels, and each reflection is dependent on the other jewels. It’s the same with people:

We are all dependent on each other and our actions ripple through everyone to eventually reflect back at us. Today I’m asking you to help me make some ripples that will, in the next few weeks, return with abundance.

As some of you may already know, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a yoga video project of mine. Kickstarter is a website that allows people with ideas but not enough funds (like me) get the visibility they need to raise enough money to bring their idea to market. People pledge to pay a certain amount of money and, if the total amount is raised, the project is backed and the pledgers contribute. In my case,

I need to raise $18,700 in pledges by May 2.

Certain pledge amounts come with certain rewards (just like on PBS). If I don’t complete my goal, none of the money pledged to my project will be available. But that’s not what I want to reflect, and I need your help to make sure that I do meet my goal. As of writing this, 23 backers have pledged $1,268! I’m extremely grateful to all of you who have backed me. I’m asking that you now help me spread the news about this project far and wide by emailing, posting on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter about my project, found at 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yogabylorien/healing-yoga-for-wellness-video. 

In other words, help me build a net like Indra’s, reflecting support at each eye of the net. With your help, I know word of this project will ripple through our independent webs and eventually connect into the dependent web that really exists. Thank you!

Update:

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