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

Autumn and the Art of Letting Go

Here in California, our change of seasons are subtler than in other parts of the world, but they still impact us.

Photo: strogoscope

Last Friday, I sat outside the DMV as my daughter applied for her driver's permit. There were oak leaves on the ground - beautiful splashes of yellow with orange and brown singing the edges. I picked one up and crumpled it, feeling the rubbery texture of the innermost part of the leaf, the part closest to the stem. Maybe this leaf wasn't quite ready to be released, yet here it was.

Are we ever ready to let go?

As my "baby" begins her rite of passage towards independence, I keep thinking of the rubber part inside, and I wonder if the leaf protests, or just accepts the truth of the season: Fall is for letting go.

The change of the seasons varies year to year and place to place; our ability to accept change varies, too. As a teacher who works primarily with populations that are dealing with change, I see variety in how people let go and accept their new reality. Everyone has a different timeline - some leaves hold out until the very end of the season, after all - and I see my role as helping my students understand what is available to them, no matter the circumstances.

I'm leading two different workshops to round out this very full year. One is geared towards yoga teachers, but is open to practitioners, too; the other is geared towards yoga students, but is open to teachers, too. Both are offering tools to let go of what can't be done, sowing seeds of what can be done, instead.

Break it Down: Adapting Classical Yoga Postures For All Abilities with Talya and Lorien
Saturday, Oct 4, 1:00-4:00pm at MindBody Zone in Fremont, $45
Pre-register HERE


Yoga for Cancer Survivorship Workshop with Lorien
Saturday, Nov 8, 1:30-3:30pm at Samyama Yoga Center in Palo Alto, $35
Pre-register HERE

Whether you are a teacher or a practitioner, you will gain insight on how to use yoga as a tool to let go of what was and work with what is. I hope to see you there. Until then, enjoy the leaves!

A Little About... Tari Prinster

In April, I will be sharing my passion for working with people with cancer, and training others who want to use yoga as a tool to help those on the cancer journey. When I stepped on this path, I struggled to find information to help me develop my yoga classes, so I began collecting information. Years later, I'm calling on my experts to help me explain what we've discovered along the way.

Even though she is based in New York, I have been fortunate to study with Tari Prinster on two different occasions, and was so happy to discover someone else who believes that yoga for people with cancer is specific and that it can include more movement-based yoga. I found myself nodding my head almost the entire way through the first weekend training that I did with her!

Since then, I've taken her Level 1 training, and we've discussed how we can support each other and people with cancer from coast to coast. In April, Tari will be joining my training and offering two different lectures out of her own training that really blew me away when I experienced them. Here is more about Tari:


Tari Prinster became a yoga teacher after her diagnosis of cancer. Since then she has used yoga as a powerful tool to manage the daily challenges of cancer treatments, as well as the side effects and lifelong vulnerabilities they create. She developed a unique, carefully constructed system of yoga poses and sequences based on the specific needs of cancer survivors. Tari’s book, Yoga for Cancer: A Guide to Managing Side Effects, Boosting Immunity, and Improving Recovery for Cancer Survivors, published by Healing Arts Press, will be in book stores Fall 2014.

In 2003, Tari began teaching yoga class for cancer survivors at OM Yoga Center in New York City, and offering workshops and retreats. With that grew the need and interest in a yoga teacher certification utilizing her researched methodology. She has since trained over 450 yoga teachers from all over the world to meet the physiological and psychological needs of this special population.  y4c©, Yoga 4 Cancer classes are designed to address the needs of cancer survivors and patients, provide safe healing yoga, and the important opportunity to bond with others ‘touched by cancer’.

Tari launched The Retreat Project, a non-profit, funding annual retreats for low-income and under-served populations endeavoring to encourage and cultivate access to the transformative power of yoga.
www.y4c.com

Tari is a regular presenter at industry conferences like Yoga Journal Conference, Yoga Service Council, Texas Yoga Conference, and International Alliance of Yoga Therapist Conferences.  She has had numerous articles published in MindBodyGreen, Organic Spa Magazine, YogaCity, and Yoganomymous. And in October, 2012, Yoga Journal published a feature story on Tari’s work.

Tari’s work with cancer survivors gained her a featured role in the full length movie YogaWoman along with industry celebrities like Shiva Rea and Sean Corne that has been shown across the US and many international markets. Tari has been a leader in her work:

• Founder of yoga4cancer, LLC (y4c)
• Founder and President of The Retreat Project (501c3) whose mission is to help underserved and low income women with yoga and other modalities.
• Director of Women’s Cancer Survivor Program, OM Yoga, NYC (2005-2012)
• Yoga Ambassador, Foundation for Living Beauty
• Board Member and Yoga Program Director for The Libby Ross Foundation
• Advisory Board Member, YogaBear

Welcome, Tari! We are so honored to have you share your knowledge. If you want to know more about this training, click HERE.

A Little About... Rochelle Brannan, PT

In April, I will be sharing my passion for working with people with cancer, and training others who want to use yoga as a tool to help those on the cancer journey. When I stepped on this path, I struggled to find information to help me develop my yoga classes, so I began collecting information. Years later, I'm calling on my experts to help me explain what we've discovered along the way.

One of the long-term side effects of cancer treatment is lymphedema, a swelling of the body due to scar tissue and lymph node removal. There isn't a lot known about lymphedema, other than it's inconvenient, uncomfortable, embarrassing, debilitating at times and life-threatening at other times. It's mostly associated with breast cancer, but there are risk factors that affect everyone. In the past, it was believed that we need to immobilize the affected area... now we know that isn't the right approach and that lymph needs to circulate in order to maintain health. 

A question I am often asked is, 

"If I have cancer in my lymphatic system, should I be working to move the lymph, or will that spread my cancer?" 

I posed this question to our expert, and this is her response:

My personal view on this question is that manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) does not move cancer cells. Cancer cells invade slowly (sometimes quickly too); the cancer cells devour healthy organ cells before traveling onward to continue healthy tissue destruction. Moving lymph fluid is a slow and gentle process, like breathing. To my knowledge, breathing is not linked to causing cancer metastasis. What scientific evidence concludes is that  "...increased lymphatic flow from MLD is not associated with cancer cell metastasis," (Klose 2013).

Rochelle Brannan is a physical therapist (PT) who specializes in working with lymphedema. She will be a guest lecturer in my training program, discussing the ways that we can prevent swelling and promote circulation. Here's a little more about her:
An active member of Oncology, Orthopedic and Policy specialty sections of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Ms. Brannan received her Bachelor of Science from UNC-Greensboro and a Master of Physical Therapy degree from University of Kansas City Medical Center. Presently, Ms. Brannan is preparing to take the Lymphology Association of Northern American (LANA) exam this spring.

With over twelve years of full time clinical practice, primarily in outpatient orthopedics, Ms. Brannan integrates her orthopedic and lymphatic knowledge to produce successful functional outcomes for each patient. Ms. Brannan believes

"It is essential for all breast cancer survivors to receive greater education, instruction and referral resources for decreasing post-operative complications from oncology treatments."

Welcome, Rochelle! We are all looking forward to hearing how we can support our immune systems and prevent lymphedema. If you want to know more about this training, click HERE.

A Little About... Veronica Reis, PhD

In April, I will be sharing my passion for working with people with cancer, and training others who want to use yoga as a tool to help those on the cancer journey. When I stepped on this path, I struggled to find information to help me develop my yoga classes, so I began collecting information. Years later, I'm calling on my experts to help me explain what we've discovered along the way.

Veronica Reis, PhD, is a health psychologist, and a registered yoga teacher whose training emphasized yoga therapy and Kundalini yoga. She has been working with people diagnosed with cancer for 13 years, 6 of those years as a licensed clinical psychologist. Veronica will be a guest lecturer in my training program, discussing the psychological impact of cancer. Here's a little more about her:

“I have been living with cancer for 20 years. 

I was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28, with two recurrences following, and in 2003, I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. I was on my way to becoming a health psychologist because of my fascination with the mind-body connection; little did I know I would be diagnosed with cancer, with no family history at that time, less than two years after starting my education. My diagnosis only fed my curiosity even more intensely.

I have had multiple surgeries, undergone radiation, and two different types of chemo. I'm fortunate that the breast cancer I had was sensitive to hormones and I am able to take a small white pill each day that minimizes these hormones within my body and keeps the cancer at bay. On the other hand, I am still working on healing from the blow of having lost the ability to have children due to the cervical cancer.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I tried my first yoga class. 

It is within yoga that I finally experienced the mind-body connection that had attracted me for so long.

I came to understand that no matter how near or far from a "perfect" pose I am, as long as I go to my edge, I derive as much benefit as the person who can assume the fullest expression of the same pose. That was a huge revelation to this woman who couldn't even touch her toes! I've also learned that Bhakti yoga [yoga of devotion] and Naad yoga [yoga of chanting] are some of the fastest and surest ways to open my heart deeply and fully. I have been studying kirtan [chanting] with Prabhu Nam Kaur for over two years now and attend every kirtan concert I can.

My journey with cancer came full circle when my mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.  I lost both of my step-fathers to cancer (esophageal and colon), and my father lives with a form of leukemia, but the privilege of caring for her in the last few months of her life made a deep impact. She was fiercely independent, and being able to share her journey as her caregiver was such a lesson in Life and Death and Healing.

Practicing (even imperfectly!) the eight limbs of yoga - whatever style(s) of asana one practices, can be a wonderfully potent tool for dealing with cancer, at any place in one’s journey.”

Welcome, Veronica. I'm so honored to have her contribute to this upcoming training! If you are interested in learning more about this training, please click HERE. Thank you.

Turn the Page

"2013 was the Year of the Snake, but 2014 will be the Year of the Horse, according to Chinese astrology," one of my students told me recently.

He went on to explain that the Snake represented, for some, the process of transformation and shedding - sometimes painfully. He also explained that the Horse can represent a lot of welcomed work for some of us and for others it may be a wild ride. He told me that he has been following Chinese astrology for several decades now and found it to be somewhat accurate, but that it offered him something to reflect on and work with, in terms of his own personality. The model has proved useful to him in his personal and professional life.

I know that the Chinese New Year is still a month away (Jan 30 or 31, depending on your calendar), but I decided to reflect on these qualities now, as we turn the calendar page to the next year.

Shedding

The past twelve months have certainly been transformational for me. I am not the same person that began this weekly blog back in January. Education, loss, success and failure have all shaped my character. I see those changes in my personal relations, my teaching and my business planning. As this year comes to a close, I use a mantra to let go of old fears (I actually say the words, "less fear" during my meditations now).

In my business, I have always strived to be useful: Yoga for people with cancer... Tools for teachers who want to teach yoga to people with cancer... Fundraising to build the tools... All these ideas began because I saw them as useful - first to me, then to others. In 2013, the ideas got bigger. The fears grew, too, but my mantra (and my family!) helped me to stay focused on what I could do, in each moment, rather than be overwhelmed by the enormity of need that exists in the world.

Galloping

When our son was living at a horse ranch last year, we got to ride horses each time we visited him. On one of those rides, the horses decided to race. I'm not an experienced rider, and I felt out of control as the horse took off. But the stride was so much nicer than a trot, and it felt like we were flying, so I soon began to enjoy myself! It wasn't until I thought about stopping that I became afraid.

I don't know what, exactly, the Year of the Horse will bring. It could be a wild, out of control ride. It could be joyful leaps of weightlessness. It will probably be some of both, and the fear will creep in once I think about stopping. In 2014, I've set up some big goals for myself. I'm leading an extensive yoga teacher training by myself for the first time ever. I'm traveling to Africa for the first time ever. I'm organizing a fundraiser with a goal of $25K for the first time ever.

Leap... Leap... Leap...

Welcome, 2014. Welcome Year of the Horse. Welcome life.