July 4, 2009
LIBERATION, INDEPENDENCE, VISITORS!! This morning we had a little visitor.  I was sitting on the couch, with Leroy snuggled up next to me, drinking my coffee, reading The Embers by Hyatt Bass.  Out of the corner of my eye, something kind of big and dark ran past and back toward the bathroom.  I pretended for a few moments that I didn’t see that happen.  Was it a…???  A what?  If I was in Manhattan I might — with a heavy heart and total sense of panic — think it was a scary rat, even though that has never happened in my apartment.  But they are in the subway and on the summer streets.  But not here.  So, I bravely got up and just at that moment the shiny black bird started to fly.  He/she was trying to get back outside but was flying into the glass.  Oh, no!  So I got a broom to try to guide her out through the glass door.  But she hid behind the couch.  I pulled the couch away from the wall.  I opened all the windows.  Then I realized that I had to put Leroy in the bathroom because he was barking and salivating.  The bird was hiding behind the videos stacked under the TV.  I finally got her out of there — by this time all the furniture was in the middle of the room and all the sliding glass doors were open.  It was 8am and Dave was, theoretically, sleeping through all this racket.  The bird ran under the couch and I gently swooshed the broom under there and she got between the bookshelf and the glass and then finally managed to boink, boink, boink, hop out through the door.  She stood there, looking a bit dazed.  Then she realized she was liberated and off she went.  It was not a picture taking time so this is a picture of our next visitor.  After Dave finished meditating in the garage he quietly came back into the house and took my hand.  He said, “Leave Leroy in the house and come with me.” And there was this turtle right outside the door to the meditation space.  After a while he slowly crawled away, back into the woodsy-ness.

LIBERATION, INDEPENDENCE, VISITORS!!

This morning we had a little visitor.  I was sitting on the couch, with Leroy snuggled up next to me, drinking my coffee, reading The Embers by Hyatt Bass.  Out of the corner of my eye, something kind of big and dark ran past and back toward the bathroom.  I pretended for a few moments that I didn’t see that happen.  Was it a…???  A what?  If I was in Manhattan I might — with a heavy heart and total sense of panic — think it was a scary rat, even though that has never happened in my apartment.  But they are in the subway and on the summer streets.  But not here.  So, I bravely got up and just at that moment the shiny black bird started to fly.  He/she was trying to get back outside but was flying into the glass.  Oh, no!  So I got a broom to try to guide her out through the glass door.  But she hid behind the couch.  I pulled the couch away from the wall.  I opened all the windows.  Then I realized that I had to put Leroy in the bathroom because he was barking and salivating.  The bird was hiding behind the videos stacked under the TV.  I finally got her out of there — by this time all the furniture was in the middle of the room and all the sliding glass doors were open.  It was 8am and Dave was, theoretically, sleeping through all this racket.  The bird ran under the couch and I gently swooshed the broom under there and she got between the bookshelf and the glass and then finally managed to boink, boink, boink, hop out through the door.  She stood there, looking a bit dazed.  Then she realized she was liberated and off she went.  It was not a picture taking time so this is a picture of our next visitor.  After Dave finished meditating in the garage he quietly came back into the house and took my hand.  He said, “Leave Leroy in the house and come with me.” And there was this turtle right outside the door to the meditation space.  After a while he slowly crawled away, back into the woodsy-ness.

Isn’t he cute?  Or she?
Isn’t he cute?  Or she?
He was about 6-8 inches long with 13 squares on his shell.  He was a little shy when we got close and his head went in.   But he stayed still and let us touch his little back.  Then he pulled his feet and tail in a little bit, but not all the way.  I talked to him in a nice way and I think he liked that.
He was about 6-8 inches long with 13 squares on his shell.  He was a little shy when we got close and his head went in.   But he stayed still and let us touch his little back.  Then he pulled his feet and tail in a little bit, but not all the way.  I talked to him in a nice way and I think he liked that.
Leroy swimming in the pool.  He does. not. like. swimming.  But he is a natural — he’s a poodle, right?  Poodle/puddle/water dog.  Anyway, I thought it was important for him to get used to it just in case he is running after a butterfly and falls into the pool.  No matter where you put him in the pool, he turns toward the steps and doggy paddles there as fast as he can.  Scrambles up the steps and shakes so hard he almost falls over.  Then, being overstimulated by the water, he runs around in circles non-stop for about an hour.  
Leroy swimming in the pool.  He does. not. like. swimming.  But he is a natural — he’s a poodle, right?  Poodle/puddle/water dog.  Anyway, I thought it was important for him to get used to it just in case he is running after a butterfly and falls into the pool.  No matter where you put him in the pool, he turns toward the steps and doggy paddles there as fast as he can.  Scrambles up the steps and shakes so hard he almost falls over.  Then, being overstimulated by the water, he runs around in circles non-stop for about an hour.  
Leroy at the beach
Leroy at the beach
July 3, 2009

Recommending....

Are you curious about the other topic that YJ interviewed me about?  It was for a yoga summer reading list.  I suggested:

Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer

How We Live by Sherwin B. Nuland, MD

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Christiane Northrup, MD

The Thoreau You Don’t Know by Robert Sullivan

Then I asked the OM yoga teacher training faculty — Sarah, Margi, Christie, Frank and Joe, to send me recommendations for an OM yoga summer book reading list.  Their suggestions have been coming in and it will be announced soon.  Then we will start an OM yoga book club.  Stay tuned and send your suggestions to me, too, at info@omyoga.com or on my facebook page.

July 2, 2009

Owning your practice

Yesterday I got interviewed for Yoga Journal about two separate topics. 

1. Self-adjustments: why they are a good thing, etc.  Some of what I said was that self-adjustments empower yoga students to own their own practice.  This is very important.  If yoga teachers just lead class, putting people through their paces…well, I don’t even consider that teaching.  That is called instruction and is akin to what’s on the back of a shampoo bottle:  lather, rinse, repeat.  There is no teaching and hence, no learning happening.

At OM yoga we have many teaching methods for empowering students to own their practice.  Why is that important?  First of all, yoga is a practice of GOM.  That is the Tibetan word for “getting familiar with.”  Yoga is a practice of getting to know yourself.  That is step one toward the process of becoming your best self, to cultivating the qualities you might want to embody such as compassion, curiousity, patience, confidence.  We can’t just grab those qualities and layer them on top of confusion and expect results.  So our practice invites us to take what’s called a “naked look” at what is going on and then work from there.  Self-adjustments is a great method for doing that.

At one point in the history of OM yoga I was courted by a group who was interested in opening an OM yoga Center in Las Vegas.  ”What fun!” thought I.  I went to LV and met with them and one of the issues that came up was that they insisted on having mirrors on the walls.  (Really, if we’re going to do mirrors in a yoga class, why not on the ceiling?  woo-hoo!)  Anyway, I slammed down on the idea asap and they asked, “But how can the students tell if they are doing the yoga correctly?  How can they see their alignment?”  They were very surprised when I said, “They can look at themselves.  They can observe and touch their own bodies.”  I managed to shock them in Las Vegas!

Another good thing about self-adjustments is that students really learn about how yoga works, technically, energetically and philosophically.  When you use your right thumb to draw your outer right hip crease back in parsvotanasana, you can also use your left thumb to press your right big toe down.  You are then learning, through seeing and feeling in your very own personal body, that down creates up and that the diagonal relationship between these two points can be consistent in most every other pose.  This is how students learn yoga philosophy- in-action as well as universal alignment principles.

One more thing that is learned from self-adjustments (there are so many things but this post is already getting long) is that we begin to imprint the notion of interdependence through how things work in our body.  We see that every action has a reaction.  In How We Live: The Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin Nuland, he writes about the Constancy of the Constant Sea.  He says that if we get a hangnail our whole body kicks into action to heal it.  When we lift our armpit chest, we make space in our torso for our breath to deepen and our digestive system to be more effective.  This understanding and observation creates an intelligence imprint that helps us be more conscious, not just as yogis, but as people.

Self-adjustment is a great way to embody one’s practice.  And if we don’t embody our own yoga practice, who will?  No one can practice yoga for you.  As yoga teachers, we need to give the practice to our students in every class and every pose.  Yoga is about flow, give and take, inhale and exhale, extending the benefits.

July 1, 2009

I tried....I read.

I tried to Twitter.  Or tweet.  For about an hour.  But I didn’t get it, I guess.  And I just don’t have the chutzpah to think that anybody cares that much about what I’m doing. Although I am doing a blog, so….  Anyway, I might get it someday.  It took me a while to get email instead of personally talking on the phone to people.  In the meantime, I still love to read.  These are some current favorites:

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering by Phillip Moffitt

The Thoreau You Don’t Know by Robert Sullivan

and — TA DA!!!

The Embers by Hyatt Bass (an OM yogini and now an acclaimed novelist!)

June 29, 2009

She's so beautiful!

I know I already told you that I wrote the current Yoga Journal Master Column about how to work on Titibhasana.  But here is the link and check it out because our very own OM yogini, Tania Varela-Ibarra is the yoga model.  Her practice is the total expression of OM yoga.  You can see absolute clarity in her poses, vibrancy of life and breath and good heart, and the confidence that comes from strength and stability and stamina.  

We love you, Tania and we miss you at OM yoga!  (she moved to CA….)

http://www.omyoga.com/inTheNews/articles/2009_8_tittibhasana.pdf

June 28, 2009
After that we have a sugar high and we are a little bit silly.  Here is Lexi, with her sunglasses, demonstrating the proper look for one who carries the Wainwright DNA.  After we listened to a little Bill Monroe and a little Louis Armstrong, we got in the car and I promptly fell asleep.  I slept all the way back to the ferry.  I slept through the entire ferry boat ride. I slept all the way through Sag Harbor, up 114 and along Stephen Hands Path.  I finally woke up, got out of the car, sat on my bed and did my meditation practice.  Home, sweet, summer home.
After that we have a sugar high and we are a little bit silly.  Here is Lexi, with her sunglasses, demonstrating the proper look for one who carries the Wainwright DNA.  After we listened to a little Bill Monroe and a little Louis Armstrong, we got in the car and I promptly fell asleep.  I slept all the way back to the ferry.  I slept through the entire ferry boat ride. I slept all the way through Sag Harbor, up 114 and along Stephen Hands Path.  I finally woke up, got out of the car, sat on my bed and did my meditation practice.  Home, sweet, summer home.