Yoga Makes You Well
May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well,
May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well,
may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy.
may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy.
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Teaching meditation to kids with malas
Posted on October 16, 2016 at 8:48 PM |
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My
cousin is a pastor in a progressive Baptist church in town. They have
summer camp for the neighborhood kids where they learn to love reading. And there are some bible lessons. And
there are some creativity and skill classes, too. They asked me to
teach the kids a short little lesson about meditation. I thought that
would be lots of fun. I decided immediately we should make mala beads. Mala beads are from India.They
are used in counted chants and meditation. In traditional malas, there
will be 108 beads and then one special bead at the end that is not
counted that marks the beginning and ending spot where you turn around.
Malas are used in chanting and in prayers and in meditation. Each time
you say the mantra, you hold one bead. Then the next time you say the mantra, you hold the next bead. Until
you get to the special bead at the end and that is the end. I did not
want to make the kids thread 108 beads on their malas, so we just did
ten or maybe twelve beads apiece. With the littlest kids, we did three. Since I was
working with little kids, I just taught them to use something they like
as a mantra. I asked what they like. Some said kitty cats.Some said video games. Some
said Pokemon. And so we used those things, one at a time, to chant
while we worked our way through the beads. "Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty
cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat,
Kitty cat, Kitty cat, Kitty cat" works pretty well for calming the mind
and clearing out thoughts that might not be positive. The mind can only
hold one thought at the time, so the idea behind mantra is to replace
the generally negative chatter of the mind with some positive, rhythmic
sounds. All the kids made their bead necklaces/ malas and they learned their personal chant, which is just a favorite thing. They seemed empowered by it and by the idea that their thoughts don't have to stay negative. They can do something to cultivate their minds into peaceful places and think better thoughts. In America,
yoga is something done on a mat moving your physical body for an hour or
so. In India, traditionally, yoga is something done as a lifestyle with
vows and precepts and there is not a lot of movement involved. It is basically the cultivation of a stable and peaceful mind. I suppose
the hope is that the movement of American yoga will somehow stabilize
the American mind. And
open the American hips to be able to sit long enough to meditate. And
it does, to a point. It is an entry point for this sedentary society to
get acquainted with yoga and create some health and stability in our
bodies and minds. The original text of the yoga tradition is the Yoga Sutras. It is 2500 years old and is attributed to a man named Patanjali. It is
written in Sanskrit, which is an ancient language that is no longer
spoken, but which is supposed to be healing to speak and to hear. The second verse of Chapter one of the Yoga Sutras is (in Sanskrit): Yoga citta vrtti nirodhah To look at that word by word, realizing there is much depth lost in translating anything: Yoga- yoga Citta- the mind, perception Vrtti- twisting, whirling, spinning Nirodhah- halts (Rodhah is the goddess of storms and ni means the opposite or to negate.) So it could be translated dramatically: Yoga calms the whirling of the storm of your mind. Or less dramatically: Yoga calms the mind. Either way works. You get the idea. And so using
mala beads (or cheerio necklaces, or whatever) to chant something
pleasant and calming when your mind is feeling unpleasant and less than
calm is helpful for establishing stability in the mind. All together now: Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon... |
Yoga and the creative aspect of life
Posted on August 28, 2014 at 9:40 PM |
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I have been noticing the ways in my life I have become more reliable since starting yoga. I notice emotionally I am more available and vulnerable. I notice I am better able to keep a steady pace with the rhythm of my life, instead of rushing around all the time as I did for years. And I notice that I find it easier to be creative. I think as I become more balanced, I am not so overwhelmed by all the things happening around me and outside me. I find I can listen to and notice the things happening inside me. I write about them. One noted author I read said that the best way to become a writer is to read everything and to write a little every day. I believe in the every day habits. The things we do every day or almost every day become our lives. They are the things we build ourselves from. Brush teeth, eat breakfast, talk with a friend. That is a pretty good start on a pretty good life. Now add some artistic expression into it. Many artists are very passionate about their work, showing up to work on it whenever inspiration strikes for days on end with no sleep and no routine. And that makes sense. But the days lost, weeks lost, years and then decades lost as an artist waits for inspiration to strike cannot be redone. Those are years of artistic fields lying fallow. I think yoga is an excellent therapy for life because its wisdom is so simple and so practical. With yoga, the idea is to do some yoga every day. For a lifetime. What happens when we do a little artistic expression every day? "That practice is indeed firmly grounded when it is pursued incessantly, with reverence, for a long time." Yoga Sutras I:14 |
What Yoga Has Taught Me About Making Art
Posted on August 14, 2014 at 10:02 PM |
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Today's guest post is from Lucy Curtis... The Amazing Lucy Curtis! Lucy is a yoga teacher at the 500 hour level (an advanced certification). She is a groovy DJ and she makes her yoga classes fascinating through the use of storytelling. When I have attended Lucy's yoga classes, I have always learned some new things about the ancient roots of yoga and I have always laughed because of the way she phrases things. I remember one time she told the class to hold our hands in front of our chests as if we were "holding something amazing in them, like a library card!" She is quirky and deep and an amazing yoga teacher. She has a wonderful way with words, too, as you will see. _______________________________________________________________________ What Yoga Has Taught Me About Making Art First
I was invited to design and make my own hat at a High Tea thrown by
Elisabeth Koch, who is my oldest friend on Earth. We spent most of the
1980’s playing Barbies and building kudzu forts in the suburban Atlanta
neighborhood we shared. Elisabeth’s family moved to Europe when we were
just 12 or 13, but we’ve always kept in touch. She’s since lived all
over the world and in recent years has made a name for herself as
mainland China’s only couture milliner. Elisabeth’s hats are beautifully
crazy and crazy-beautiful and can be found on the heads of socialites
and in the pages of Chinese Vogue. I jumped at the chance, not only to
catch up with my friend who only comes to America a few times a year,
but also to make my very own fabulous hat! Then
the very next weekend, another dear friend, Atlanta artist Heather
Johnson, invited me over for brunch and to make our own linocuts, which
is a printmaking technique. First you draw a picture and transfer it to a
piece of linoleum. Using a little gouging tool you then carve out the
negative space so that the image shows up. Then, after slathering a
piece of plexiglass with ink, you press the linocut into it and finally
print the image onto paper. I’d never made a linocut before and drew a
complicated little cartoon for my future husband of all of his favorite
things. It includes me, a skateboard, our two cats Debbie Harry and Joan
Jett, his Gibson Les Paul guitar, and a fishing rod with a lunker of a
bass dangling from the hook. In
both creative pursuits, I felt an exquisite feeling of happiness that
was so intense it surprised me. I wasn’t just making a hat to wear to a
party or making a little present for David “Dreamboat” Lane, I was truly
connecting with my soul through art. I’ve felt this feeling before,
sometimes in nature, certainly while watching live music (if you want to
experience enlightenment through your ears, check out The Purkinje
Shift at the Earl on 8/ 28), but most often on my yoga mat. In fact, I
feel like my yoga practice is what’s trained me to be able to feel that
soul connection in the first place. Here are 3 things my yoga practice
has taught me about making art: 1. Trying is Succeeding I
remember making a scribbly mess as hot tears rolled down my cheeks
when, as a kid, I couldn’t get the perfect mermaid on a rock out of my
head and onto the paper. At that moment I threw in the towel, decided I
was “bad at art” and began to pursue other interests even though making
art had always felt so good when I wasn’t obsessed with a perfect final
product. In
yoga there’s no such thing as a perfect final product. Yoga is not
competitive. It's about the practice for each individual, and in yoga
trying is doing and doing is succeeding. It’s
not like you practice yoga to achieve a perfect Tree Pose and then
you’re named champion of the Yogis and you never do it again.
Conversely, it’s not like the Yoga Police are going to come in and take
your mat and stretch pants away if you fall out of Tree Pose. The
physical poses are just a conduit for doing the best you can with the
tools you have in the present moment. Before
my yoga practice taught me that trying is succeeding, I might have
turned down the opportunity to make art, because I would’ve been too
scared to try and fail. I might have spent my time comparing my work to
others instead of diving into my own experience. Now, however, the hat
might turn out ugly or the linocut stupid-looking, but I’m not going to
let fear of a non-perfect final product stop me from throwing myself
into the experience with all I’ve got. 2. Positive Self Talk At
both events I noticed that as people were working on their pieces, they
were dogging themselves and their artwork, pointing out all the ways
they were sucking. At the same time, they were freely complimenting
other people’s work. They say we’re our own worst critic, and I saw that
in action for sure. In
the years that I’ve practiced yoga, I’ve noticed a definite shift in
how I talk to myself and about myself. The first rule of yoga is ahimsa,
which means non-violence or non-harming. You try not to hurt others and
you try not to hurt yourself. One way to make your self talk more
ahimsic is to talk to yourself like you were talking to your best
friend. I’ve even used this band from Tennessee’s name as a mantra: Be
Your Own Pet. The whole function of yoga is to control the mind. My yoga
practice hasn’t made all of my self-critical thoughts disappear, but
it’s certainly trained me to quit listening so hard. 3. Aparigraha, Baby! At
the hat making workshop, Elisabeth was running out of black supplies so
I got stuck with a pink base for my hat. I felt a flash of greediness. I
wanted a black base! I calmed myself down by reminding myself of
another tenet of yoga, aparigraha. Aparigraha
means non-grasping or non-clinging; pretty much you get what you get
and you don’t pitch a fit. Perhaps if I hadn’t learned about aparigraha
from my yoga practice, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy making a pink
hat, but as I ungrasped my mind from the idea of having to have a black
hat, I began loving it more and more. Here is Lucy in that fabulous pink hat: Lucy Curtis is the cofounder of Art & Action, a yoga and art program for kids. Learn more about what she does and contact her at the website: artandactionatlanta.com Elisabeth's website (with the hats): elisabethkoch.net Heather's website (with the prints): curiositaphotography.com |
Comments on this blog
Posted on August 14, 2014 at 12:35 AM |
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Every time I get a comment on my blog, the website service sends me an email excitedly announcing that I have a comment on my blog. And almost every time, I rush to see what someone wrote in response to my deep (or not so deep) thoughts about yoga or meditation or massage or just making the world a better place to live. And almost every time, I get to the comment and it is just some spam post from Russia or China trying to sell watches or to promote weight loss or maybe I do not even know what it says because it is written in a foreign language and I do not even know which one. Frustrating. A blog is kind of like a personal graffiti wall. I can draw whatever I like up there. And then some spammer can come along from wherever and draw over it with pictures of Rolex watches or some special product. And then I can draw over it again. I like getting friends and people who do good things for the world as a habit to write little posts about what they do and why. I know it might not stop global warming or get us all universal healthcare, but I like writing my little practical tidbits about yoga and meditation and massage. I wonder if the spammers ever read it. |
Making a massage powerpoint
Posted on July 14, 2014 at 10:52 PM |
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I have been a massage therapist for almost thirteen years. I am supposed to put together a power point presentation about massage and its benefits and present it for half an hour at a university in a couple of days. Awesome, right? Yes. And yet I find myself stumped as I face the computer screen. There is so much to say about massage and so much that no one will ever understand from me speaking. I was working with a client recently who I had never worked with before. She described herself as under a lot of stress in the interview. As I worked with her, I noticed her skin felt tighter when I did long strokes down the back (which most people's tissues respond to well). I changed to circular strokes and her whole body relaxed. She took a deep breath and then we could work. How do I put that in a power point? It has taught me to understand people. Being in a healer's role will teach you about how we become who we are. We tend to tell our stories with our bodies. Above all, I think massage has taught me how to be quiet with people. And how to let them be quiet with me. That is such a gift. Just letting go of the personality for an hour and just being. I feel much more able to just be quiet with people in my whole life now. I give thanks for that. So now to get back to that power point... |
Sowing
Posted on June 28, 2013 at 11:10 AM |
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Mandala Project Day 2
Posted on May 28, 2013 at 5:10 PM |
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Teaching mandala meditation
Posted on May 27, 2013 at 5:12 PM |
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Starting a Peace
Posted on May 21, 2013 at 10:54 AM |
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New Growth
Posted on May 15, 2013 at 2:17 PM |
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Life seems to have a destination, but sometimes the path is unclear. That perfect relationship, that perfect job, that harmony and ease are over there, always over there, just out of reach. Play it Loud I played clarinet in band in middle school. I remember how terrible we were. And I remember my teacher telling us to play the wrong thing and go ahead and play it loud! He was dealing with our angst as we hesitated our way through each piece. When we started playing and making the mistakes, we got better. Do Something When I plant seeds in the garden, after they come up, some of them show lots of growth and some don't. I weed out the ones that have not grown very big and give space to the others. There are moments in my life when I have been that spindly plant, wondering which way to grow, not growing very much in any direction. Follow the Sun Just like a plant, the way to grow is to follow the light. There will be some path that just has more of a glow to it than another path. It might look like a more winding path. It might seem to disappear at times. But walking that path feels warm and sunny. Keep on Taking Steps The plants I pick to let grow are the biggest, strongest plants. They have the most life force, the most chi. They have established their ability to follow the light. I don't really care if they have grown a little east or a little west in their attempts to grow. Just like these plants, the direction to grow in is not the most important thing. Do some every day toward the goal that feeds your inner light. Others Get Inspired by You Sometimes I have made the mistake of thinking that I should not do all I can do because it will make those around me jealous or threaten my relationships. But in truth, relationships that are threatened by my growth are worth losing anyway. And those that aren't will just get stronger. In this way, my life gets weeded and pruned and new growth comes in to nourish. |
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