How Do I Win at Yoga?

Recently The Onion, an online source of satirical commentary, posted about meditation and I found one line in this funny article to be especially interesting:

"With consistent practice, you should start developing calluses on your chakras in no time."

This made me chuckle, and then it made me think.

Yoga has recently come under fire because of its apparent obsession with the physical form; yoga selfies are now a thing to be debated; there's an entire movement dedicated to educating the public that you can do yoga with any body shape or size, and instructors like Annie Carlin and Dana Falsetti have been getting a lot of traction as they demonstrate via pictures and videos how size doesn't matter in asana.

So why are we so concerned with how the pose looks?

Do the ancient yogic texts spend countless words on the precise alignment and sensation in each pose? As someone who has skimmed some of these texts (don't call me an expert!), I can tell you that asana is very rarely mentioned.

So why do we spend countless hours practicing yoga? Aligning this way and that... Checking our alignment in the mirror and asking for other's opinions about our postures. What is it we are really practicing for?

As The Onion author so cleverly illustrated, it's hard to quantify results from a subtle practice. In fact, I would say that the deeper and more subtle my practice gets, the less I want to quantify or even discuss it. Everything I try to say about my non-physical practice of yoga falls short or sounds arrogant.

But show me a picture of my navasana from 6 months ago and compare it to today's, and I'll see those quantifiable changes. And that will feed my ego just enough to keep coming back to the mat, which is where the real practice begins anyway, the practice that brings calluses to my chakras.

Lorien in the Wild! 

Come to one of my Education Workshops or Fundraisers for  Cancer Support

Living Better With Yoga & Breast Cancer

Fri, April 15 - Sun, April 17 @ Vista Yoga, Decatur, Georgia

Erase Cancer Weekend Fundraiser for Cancer CAREpoint

Sun, April 24 @ Breathe Los Gatos, CA

Summer of Love Fundraiser for Cancer Survivor's Yoga Retreat

Sun, June 26 @ Breathe Los Gatos, CA

Living Better With Yoga & Cancer Intro Workshop

Sat, Aug 6 @ Santa Barbara Yoga Center, Santa Barbara, CA

Living With Cancer, Without Fear

This week, I'm sharing an email from a student who is a breast cancer survivor; she wrote this as a response to the New York Times op-ed piece of Angelina Jolie's that describes her double mastectomy, a course of action the actress chose to take to reduce her risks of getting breast cancer (she currently does not have breast cancer).

Please read this, even if you don't have cancer, even if you don't have breasts, because her underlying theme is universal: intention matters.

"Caving into our fears and living a life in their shadows, feeling afraid, alone and powerless is the festering wound that all women are asked to heal. How we do that, is different for every one of us. For some of us it may mean letting go of our breasts, for others it may mean keeping our breasts and talking to them every day, or employing an infinite number of alternative healing practices.

There really is no salvation in following one approach over the other.

There is no guarantee in any particular choice. As always, it is what we do with it that makes the difference. 

If we cut off a piece of our bodies, bargaining to be somehow made less vulnerable, to be 'in control', to not ever need to fear anymore, we miss the mark. But if we make the same choice with the intent of facing our fear, and coming out of the shadows that have been haunting us, maybe for years, if we use the same surgery to confront our mortality, with the intent to die TO the fear (instead of from it), the same choice can be an incredibly self-empowering marking and initiation.

The same is true for other, more alternative choices. We can diet and exercise all we want, as long as we do it out of fear of developing cancer or having a recurrence,

we are still acting out of the same fear, and suffering. 

(Mis)using any healing tools to try to separate and insulate us from our fear, simply won't do. Fear is a fierce force and unless it is met at a deeper level of ourselves, it won't budge and we will continue to worry and obsess - whether it is about the cookie we ate or the day we missed our run…. And needless to say, fear, and stress (and worry about being stressed!) only keep the wheel of our suffering spinning.

The bottom line is, whatever choices we make, on any given day,

the healing lies in facing our fear AND surrendering at the same time. 

We may think we would feel better if we could only get rid of our fear, cut it off, squish it down, tie it up, box it up, control it, if only we could be safe from it. And yet, paradoxically, all these attempts only do what wind does to the flames. Truly, our salvation lies in turning toward it, in facing our fear, not fighting it, not even fixing it, but surrendering it.

It has been said, that true courage only comes in the face of great fear. So let us USE the fear we all share, the BIG fear of our untimely dying (is it ever timely?), that for many women comes in the face of breast cancer, to FIND our courage, to die to all that hurts or hinders our healing and wholeness, to let go of all that no longer serves and step into the uniquely precious life that has been waiting for each one of us since before we can remember.

Life is vulnerable.
Life in this body is terminal.
Everything is impermanent.
Don't waste another day (or hour or breath) in the shadows of your fears. 

Instead, use whatever tools are calling out to you, to step into meeting your fear and finding the COURAGE that is your birthright. Step out into the bright light of your daring, as the heroine that you are, bold and empowered by responding TO and not from your fears, and held and supported by the community of our brave hearts beating, honoring those that have come and gone before us and inspiring those that will follow in our footsteps to live this one precious, wild life with courage, compassion and grace."

Why I Won't Be Lopping off My Healthy Breasts

Recently, actress Angelina Jolie wrote an op-ed piece for the New Yoga Times about undergoing a preventative double mastectomy. You can read it HERE. She lays out her reasons with such painful openness and details her own statistics battle; it is a great piece to read. Honestly, I didn't look at the author's name until I read the entire piece (I was thinking how funny that this woman has a husband named Brad Pitt, and how confusing that might be in everyday situations). When I realized who wrote it, I read it again with the perspective that this woman's career is based on outward image, which makes her actions even more profound.

I was moved by her situation. I recognized the fear and the strong desire to do everything and anything to keep her family intact and away from the pain of losing someone to cancer. And, I really and truly hope it does. But...

Genetics are not the only player in the cancer game.

The medical party line is that cancer is a disease of the genes. I don't buy this entirely. Certain races report less death by cancer instances than others, but once they immigrate to the US, their cancer incidences rise.

The holistic party line is that cancer is a disease of the environment. I don't buy this entirely, either. People who live "clean" lives by removing toxins from their clothing, skin, food, water, thoughts, breath, spirit, work and play can still develop cancer.

I believe it's both genes and environment. 

Some of us are more predisposed to genetic mutations than others, and this can be tested, so people will flock to the tests with religious fervor. But just because you test positive for a genetic mutation, does not mean you will die from cancer. The environment has to be ideal for the cancer cells to continue to mutate to a point of danger. That is where environmental factors play a part, and the hard choices that we need to make every day in order to reduce our risks. These lifelong choices can be equally as difficult as deciding to remove a healthy part of our bodies.

Has Angelina Jolie avoided a cancer diagnosis? Maybe. Does it mean that she can now riddle herself with toxins? Definitely not! She still must watch all that she eats, drinks, breathes, washes with, paints on herself, wears, thinks, prays and participates in. I'm sure she already does all of these things. I'm sure that her preventative mastectomy was yet another in a long list of hard choices that she has made in order to beat the odds.

I would say the same to anyone else faced with this choice:

there are no guarantees, so do everything that you can, but please, do not be rash about losing a healthy body part.

Lymphedema and Fascia

People with cancer - especially those with breast cancer, hear the term "lymphedema" often, but I wonder how many actually know what it is? The lymphatic system runs parallel to the circulatory system, but has no pump (like the heart) to move the lymph through it; instead, it relies on our physical movements to encourage the flow through the one-way valves and channels. The flow supports 1) the drainage of waste and 2) our body's ability to learn what to defend against, in terms of illness and disease; it's for this reason that exercise is recommended to keep us healthy, and for this reason that all of my yoga class for people with cancer include gentle movements. I met Daya Fisch at a talk she gave in San Jose for the Cancer CAREpoint organization, where she explained how the fascia has a great deal to do with the flow of lymph through the body.

Daya is a wonderful educator, a certified massage therapist, specializing in lymphatic massage, holds an MS in Holistic Nutrition, and is Director of the Breast Health Project, which is dedicated to educating women in practical holistic techniques that can be used to increase their breast health, changing attitudes from fear to knowledge and empowerment.

Daya made this informative, accessible video and I'm so thrilled she's sharing it with all of us. Please watch it - even if you are not affected by cancer, because it will explain how the fascia works and how tightness, injury or surgery can affect it and, subsequently, the circulation of lymph.

Namaste

Announcements

Please see the Events page for more information about these upcoming special programs:

• Sunday, March 31 (Easter): OM for Peace
• Saturday, April 7 - Sunday April 8: Yin Yoga 14-Hour Immersion
• Saturday, April 7 - Sunday April 8 AND Saturday, April 13 - Sunday April 14: Yin Yoga Teacher Training
• Sunday, April 28: Yin Yoga 1-Day Workshop