SEEING YOUR YOGI SELF ACCURATELY

by Karen Keltner

It is a new year, new decade, and new time to create, declare, or reconstitute any resolutions, dreams, inspirations and changes that you may want and desire, but as every year or moment comes and passes it is always a new opportunity for being present. As most of us strive for change, to achieve goals, or sometimes to be other than where we are right now, essentially all we want is a fulfilled life- health, love, connection, friends, family, etc. But how about taking on the challenge this year of being present and rather than wanting more or better allowing yourself, your “yogi” self, to

see yourself (and maybe others) accurately!

How do you see your yogi self accurately? What does that even mean? Think of it as an increased self-awareness in the present in order to reach an expansion of desired fulfillment, dreams and or change.

A monk living in the 12th century once put it this way:

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town so I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realized the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realized that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation, and I could indeed have changed the world.”

How many times while on the yoga mat have you peaked over to a fellow yogi and wished your warrior III, side plank, or half moon was more or better? What does your mind tell you about yourself? Judgments? Well what if the practice of seeing your poses or yogi self accurately with self-awareness was your first step towards change, and that practice of self awareness expanded to the change that you can have in the world?!

Seeing yourself accurately and without blame, excuses, self-doubt or so on can be hard work, especially when patience steps in the way of being present and change does not happen automatically. So here is a mantra to manifest a path around the obstacles that may stand in the way of balance, strength, endurance, breath, mindfulness or just simply life.

Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha

Om Guhm Guh-nuh-puh-tuh-yea
Nah-mah-hah

Translation :Om and salutations to Ganapati (Ganesha)

Online Sound Sample: Thomas Ashley-Farrand is the author of Healing Mantras and Shakti Mantras http://www.amazon.com/Om-Gum-Ganapatayei-Namaha/dp/B000QWIRC0

This mantra is a sound meditation that is chanted to start new endeavors with positive, present energy while removing, letting go of any obstacles that are in the way of seeing your yogi self accurately! So chant, meditate, dream, and yogi on for the New Year!

About Author: Karen Keltner is a photographer, marine biologist, yogini, pilates instructor and  SOMA GET FIT Retreat Specialist.

This entry was written by scrawford, posted on January 8, 2010 at 4:52 am, filed under Fitness, Green Lifestyle, Life is Fitness, Santa Barbara, Yoga and tagged Chant, Dream, Insight, Karen Keltner, Mantra, Meditate, Self, SOMA GET FIT, Yoga, Yogi. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Healthy Connections – Keeping Joints Pain-Free

by Jennifer Lynn

Our joints are places in the body where two parts come together in a way that creates mobility, more freedom and possibility. Relationships in life are meant to do the same; bring two parts together to create a third life-enhancing energy. However, if the nature of the parts are not understood and honored, the relationship will not be effective and can often become damaging. By understanding the nature of our joints we can honor them with conscious movement and continue enjoying the freedom they are designed to give us. When we create healthy connections in our bodies and feel the goodness of that, we will naturally begin to do the same in our relationships with others.

Let’s deepen our understanding of our joints. Joints are designed for mobility, not stability. Our muscles are meant to keep us stable, not joints. Yet, often we “dump into” our joints. Over time this will compress our joints and weaken our muscles. Not a healthy combination. This is what causes joints to fall out of alignment and get locked in misaligned positions causing uneven wear, degeneration and pain. With yoga we can reverse these unconscious patterns. First we must understand the “home position” or optimal alignment of our joints. From there we see which muscles need to be stretched and which need to be strengthened in order to support the joint in that home position. Finally we learn to move without uprooting our joints from their optimal alignment. Keeping joints rooted in optimal alignment allows the articular surfaces to glide evenly. Keeping joints hugged with muscles allows us to reach without unplugging and, in fact, allows us to decompress the joints. Think about it. If one group of muscles is rooting your upper arm bone into the shoulder girdle while another group reaches your forearm and hand away from the shoulder, you are creating space in the joint capsule. Again, this triple action of aligning joints, hugging into the alignment then lifting up out of the joint creates healthy connections. Let’s apply this to the major joints of the body; the shoulders and hips.

The shoulder joint is the intersection of three bones; the upper arm bone, the shoulder blade and the collar bone. The head of the upper arm bone is ball-shaped. On the outer edge of the shoulder blade there is a bowl-shaped depression meant to hold the head of the upper arm bone. In optimal alignment, the head of the upper arm bone stays snuggled against this depression and glides evenly across it. However, most of us allow our shoulder heads to slump forward. Not only does this move the head of the upper arm bone away from its home position, it also pulls the shoulder blades off the upper back causing the upper spine to round. You’ve seen this slumped posture in many people and perhaps in yourself as well. It can become habitual and our muscles lock into misalignment causing our joints to move in a damaging way. Each of us is responsible for recognizing our unconscious habits and empowering ourselves to wake up and heal. Again the metaphor is clear; when we dump into relationships/joints and expect them to keep us stable we give away our power and freedom and we can cause damage. Let’s get clear on how not to do that in the shoulders.

Again the shoulder joint is the three-way intersection of the head of the upper arm bone with the shoulder blade and the collar bone. When one of those bones move, the others move too. This is good news. It means with awareness of the shoulder head (head of the upper arm bone) we can align the whole kit-n-caboodle. In order to get big movement in the shoulders, we need slack. If the upper arm bones are pulling down away from the ears we tighten the tendons around the shoulder. Do that now and feel what I mean. Pull your upper arm bones down hard and feel what is happening across the top of your shoulders. Keep pulling them down and try to move them back behind you. You can’t get much movement and it feels like crap, right? Okay, now, sit tall and inhale, lift your armpits (like a gentle shrug). Keep the armpits floating and move the head of your upper arm bones back and your upper chest forward. Do it again, exaggerating the movements. Can you feel how free your neck gets? Aligning the shoulders will free your neck and help you lengthen your spine. So aligning your shoulders this way should be a habit you get into in your postures and throughout your day. Use the mantra “Inhale float the armpits, exhale, arm bones back, heart forward”. Try this in different arm positions. With the arms over head, you will be drawing the armpits back away from your field of vision and moving your heart towards it.

When your shoulders are optimally aligned, your shoulder blades will be on your upper back. Let your awareness go to the bottom tips of the shoulder blades and draw them close to your spine. Feel the muscles that make that happen. You want to flex those often, get them strong. They are essential to keeping the shoulders rooted in optimal alignment as you move. Now try this: keeping your shoulder blade tips “pinned” to your spine, lift your arms. Can you feel how you have to struggle to get your arms up without uprooting? That’s a good thing. We are so used to uprooting the shoulders to lift the arms or reach with the hands that it feels very odd when we say “no” to uprooting. But we must be adamant about keeping the healthy connection as we move. If we practice this enough we integrate it and it becomes the natural way we move.

So your homework for healthy connection in the shoulders is to move through your day keeping your shoulder blades on your upper back; the bottom tips narrowed into the spine and the top edges broad. Okay, you won’t be able to do this every minute of the day, but do your best and notice the unconscious habits that pull you out of healthy connection and be willing to balance them. Let’s move onto the hips.

Your hip joint is where the ball-shaped head of your thigh bone tucks into a socket in your pelvis. If the ball at the top of your thighbone is snuggled deep into the socket, the joined surfaces roll evenly across each other. This is a healthy connection. However, if the ball is pushed forward, pressure is concentrated at the front of the ball and the front edge of the socket and they wear down quickly creating joint degeneration. Our habit of dumping into our hip joints not only pushes the head of the thighbone forward it also compresses the joint. Dumping into the hip joint means we shove our groins forward. You might notice your tendency to do this when you stand facing a counter or when you are holding a child or bag of groceries. Not only does this habit compromise the hip joint, it also compresses the low back. Now there is motivation for creating healthy connections in the hip joints. Let’s explore how to do that.

In order to seat the hip sockets, we move the head of the thighbones back (toward the hamstrings). This will soften the groins and make you feel like you are sticking your butt out. That’s okay. We’ll balance that by tucking the tip of the tailbone under to draw the pit of the abdomen up and back. Hook the tailbone down without shoving the groins forward. This dynamic dual action keeps the hips integrated and creates a lifting feeling through the low belly. Learning to keep the thighbones back and the tailbone hooking forward, you will stop the habit of dumping into the hips and empower your core to keep your stable and centered.

In addition to saving the joints themselves, aligning the hips and shoulders will greatly benefit the spine. When the hips are properly seated, we have a strong lumbar curve. When the shoulder blades are on the upper back, our thoracic spine (the part that is attached to our ribs) is deep in our bodies and can help with extension. Aligning the hips and shoulders will improve your posture and give you a light and floating feeling as you move.

With awareness and practice we can integrate these healthy habits into our postures and the way we move through the world.  May the healthy connections in our bodies inspire us to make healthy connections with each other and our beautiful planet.

Jennifer Lynn teaches Wisdom Flow Yoga on Maui.  info@YogawithJenniferLynn.com

This entry was written by jlynn, posted on November 13, 2009 at 12:28 am, filed under Fitness, Life is Fitness, Santa Barbara, Yoga and tagged jennifer lynn, Joint Health, Joints. Alignment, Optimal Alignment, SOMA GET FIT, Yoga. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Fall Into Yoga

by Karen Keltner

As we shift from summer’s heat where our bodies may naturally accelerate deeper, and advance muscle strength and endurance in our yogic practice, fall brings us to the season of balance, breath, and restoration. Fall is a time, in ayurveda, that is considered to be the time where vata (air and earth) easily get out of balance. Fall vata (lack of water and warmth) often cause our mind and body to become imbalanced–our sense of time (as we fall out of daylight savings time), our daily routines sometimes become out of sync, and our bodies become prone to the typical imbalances such as dry skin, respiratory illnesses such as colds and flu. So, rather than falling into the season, here are a few yoga practices for your mind, body, and soul to regain and live in balance.

I.  Fall Yoga for the Mind:

It seems like nature knows best when it is time to conserve strength, slow down and restore during the fall, such as when plants and trees slow the process of growth, conserve CO2/O2 exchange, and preserve their energy towards their roots–their means of health and survival. This can be our mind’s reminder to slow down, breathe, reflect and go inward. One of the best and essential yoga practices for the mind is having a meditation practice that brings your intention inward and focuses on breath. Here are two meditation pranayama (breath) practices for finding fall balance for the mind:

• Bellows Breathing: Assume a comfortable sitting position with your back straight, shoulders relaxed away from the ears, palms lightly resting by your side, or on the thighs. Breathe in deeply through the nose filling the lungs completely, expanding the lower diaphragm all the way up into the chest, bringing into your mind any intention, gratitude, or dristi. Breathe out entire breath forcefully through the nose while contracting the stomach muscles quickly and rhythmically, expelling or letting go of any disempowering thoughts, tension, or stress. Keep contracting and relaxing the stomach muscles until the active exhalation and passive inhalation sounds like bellows, and reach a consistent, balanced, and equal force on the inhalation and exhalation.

Benefits: Purifies the lungs. Helps prevent and alleviate abdominal ailments.

• Alternate Nostril Breathing: In your comfortable seated position, close your eyes. Rest the index and middle fingers of your right hand on your eyebrow center. Close your right nostril with your thumb. Breathe in naturally through your left nostril and close it with your ring finger. Open your right nostril and breathe out gently. Breathe in through your right nostril, and then close it again with your thumb. Open the left nostril and breathe out. Repeat. Allow your inhales to bring positive rejuvenation for the present and future within the mind, and exhales to release negativity, sickness, pain, or tension from your past.

Benefits: Cleanses and purifies the breathing channels. Relieves lung ailments such as asthma, allergy, and chronic cold. Helps alleviate mental and emotional tension.

II.  Fall Yoga for the Body:

Nothing, not even the cold fall mornings and evenings, can take your breath and balance from your body with these three yoga asanas (postures) that will restore your health and balance in the body:

• Forward Bowing Pose: Sit on your heals with your toes bent. Bend forward, resting your palms on the floor. Raise your torso while straightening your arms and legs to form and up-side-down V. Breathe normally. Maintain straight legs and heavy long arms. Visualize the inhale rising though the arches of your feet, up the legs to the hips, and exhale allows the breath to spill over the back, spine, neck all the way down through the crown of the head.

Benefits: Energizing stretch for the entire body, including feet, ankles, hamstrings, spine, arms, and wrist joints. Increases circulation to the brain, relieving mental fatigue, and effectively relieves sinus congestion.

• Cobra: Lie on your stomach, with your palms resting below your shoulders and your chin resting on the floor. Breathing in, straighten your arms and lift your trunk. Breathe naturally in the position. Breathing out, lower your trunk and head.

Benefits: Encourages deep respiration, which in turn strengthens lungs and heart. Stretches spine, arms, neck, shoulders, chest, abdominal muscles, and hips.

• Fish Pose: Lie flat on your back with your legs straight. Raise your hips slightly and place your hands under, palms facing the floor, elbows and shoulders slightly rolled in under your torso. Relaxing any tension in the neck, keep your gaze straight ahead (not turning head side to side). Now, lift your hips bring your weight onto the elbows. As you arch your back roll on to and rest the crown of your head on the floor. Inhale and exhale filling and emptying the lungs completely; breathing in the new and out with the old. Come out of the pose by bringing your arms out and resting them by your side while resting the nape of your neck on the floor.

Benefits: Encourages deep breathing and exercises the chest muscles. Provides immediate relief from wheezing, asthmatic symptoms, and other respiratory ailments.

III.  Fall Yoga for the Soul:

If you are able to calm your mind with breath, heal your body with asanas, then your soul is the next step to completing your connection to balance and harmony within yourself so that you may reward and heal yourself and others too! With fall’s many tricks, holidays, and treats take this time of year to tap into pursuits that engage your mental activity, sensory perception, clarity of purpose, and bring joy, enthusiasm, and creativity into yours and others life.

This entry was written by kkeltner, posted on November 4, 2009 at 11:36 pm, filed under Fitness, Life is Fitness, Yoga and tagged Fitness, Karen Keltner, Outdoors, SOMA GET FIT, Yoga. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

VIDEO: The Scoop on Svaroopa® Yoga

Guest Post from Lauren Johanson of YourDailyThread.com

Check out my first podcast made especially for ydt and now on Soma Get Fit’s Blog! It’s the first time I have used iMovie since college so please suppress any Siskel and Ebert critiques and instead focus in on the star of the show – Trisha Gebhardt – who has introduced me to this unique form of yoga called Svaroopa® Yoga.

I couldn’t really wrap my head around what Svaroopa Yoga was until I tried it, so I really encourage you to give it a go too. Luckily for our ydt readers, Trisha is offering two FREE workshops to teach you newbies Svaroopa 101. Here are the details:

• Saturday, Feb. 28, 1:00 pm to 2:30pm at 144 N Kenmore Ave #4 Los Angeles, CA.
• Sunday, March 1, 1:00 to 2:30pm at 220 Pier Ave, Santa Monica, CA.
• Plus, you can view the regular Shanti Yoga (Trisha’s studio) schedule and prices here.

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With that said, you are ready to sit back, relax and enjoy the 3 minute show.

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If you cannot view video above, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knGTTiaaJaQ.

What is Svaroopa Yoga?
“Svaroopa® Yoga is a deeply therapeutic style of yoga that is highly approachable for the skeptical new student, and revolutionary for the seasoned yogi. It is radically different from any other style of yoga or exercise program. * With the use of props, precision alignments and hands-on adjustments the poses reach past the deceptive flexibility of the hip joints and release the tensions in the deepest muscles along the spine.” (from http://socalsvaroopa.com )

Svaroopa Yoga ® & Embodyment ® Are Registered Trademarks of STC, Used by Permission.

This entry was written by Soma Get Fit Guest Writer, posted on August 13, 2009 at 7:47 pm, filed under Yoga and tagged svaroopa yoga, therapeutic yoga. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.