Yoga on the Porch
During the warm weather (most of the year here in Tennessee) we'll be offering Yoga on the Porch of our Dunmire Hollow Community Center. Classes start at 10 a.m. and go until 11 a.m. on Saturdays. Cost is $5 per person. If it's your first time, please come early to register. Phone me at 931 722-5096 if you're not sure if class will be held.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Best wishes to everyone for the coming year. This is a time to reflect on where we've been, and where we'd like to be going. Perhaps a time for setting goals, maybe a time to let go. Whatever your wish for the new year, I hope your heart's desire is fulfilled.

I have completed my training to be a certified yoga therapist, and am constantly in a process of learning how to be a better therapist as well as teacher. My students have taught me probably as much as I’ve taught them.More and more articles about the benefits of yoga are appearing in the popular press. And yoga is helpful to many people in many ways. But most yoga classes are offered to people whose general health is good. It doesn’t have to be perfect – most yoga teachers are conscious of physical conditions that would contraindicate certain asanas (poses). However, people who have a serious medical condition would do well to err on the side of safety and seek out a yoga therapist instead of a yoga class.

Yoga therapy is usually taught one-on-one or in small groups. It tends to be gentle and nurturing, although it can be challenging. There is a strong focus on bodily awareness and postural alignment. Yoga therapists are trained in Pranayama, or breath awareness, and also are able to teach basic meditation techniques so your mind and spirit can assist your body in returning to wholeness.

Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall, M.D., lists conditions that are improved by yoga, including anxiety, arthritis, back disorders, and also reviews scientific studies that have been carried out on the effectiveness of yoga as a therapy.

Yoga is never offered as a substitute for medical care. Usually yoga therapy is offered as part of a treatment regime, with the support of a physician, chiropractor, physical therapist and/or other medical personnel.

If you'd like to learn more, please feel free to contact me.

Your Heart's Desire

What is your heart’s desire? Why are you here? What is your purpose in life?

We get so busy doing that sometimes we forget why we’re doing what we do. Do our busy activities make our lives healthier or happier? Are they creating more happiness or blessings for others?

The new year is a good time to look at our activities and ask ourselves these and other questions. It’s a time to go off “automatic pilot” and maybe do some re-setting.

Here’s a lovely poem by David Whyte, sent by my teacher Mary Paffard, that has helped me think about what needs to be re-set – and stopped, and started – in my life.

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,

don't take the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step you don't want to take.

Start with

the ground

you know,

the pale ground

beneath your feet,

your own

way of starting

the conversation.

Start with your own

question,

give up on other

people's questions,

don't let them

smother something

simple.

To find

another's voice

follow

your own voice,

wait until

that voice

becomes a

private ear

listening

to another.

Start right now

take a small step

you can call your own

don't follow

someone else's

heroics, be humble

and focused,

start close in,

don't mistake

that other

for your own.

Start close in,

don't take the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step you don't want to take.

David Whyte

The Power of Silence

During a week-long Presence in Yoga retreat, I spoke very little – a big change for me. I joined other students and teachers from Oregon, California, Utah, Nebraska, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee at Gray Bear Retreat Center in Hohenwald for a week of yoga, meditation, great food, spring flowers – and silence.

I’m not used to silence. There is usually some background noise in my life – and too often it’s people talking on TV or radio. In silence, I get to hear the radio in my own head – and what a show it is.

Sometimes it’s more bloviated than Rush Limbaugh, more paranoid than Glen Beck, more judgmental than Pat Robertson. Often it reminds me of my many shortcomings and wrongdoings. Occasionally the radio in my head sings my praises. At times my mind's thoughts are angry, proud, envious, slothful, lustful, gluttonous – you name the negativity, it has run through the radio in my head.

My emotions follow my thoughts, and they’re expressed in my body. So my stomach may be tight with rage, aching with guilt, tender with sorrow. My throat and jaw stiffen with judgment – of others or of myself. My heart may feel closed and hard, or open and vulnerable.

So naturally, I prefer to avoid my own thought-producing, anxiety-producing radio. I’d rather be distracted.

It’s not easy to just listen – to the radio in my head, to the birds singing, to my teacher. I want to talk back. Being silent is hard!

But being silent was a way to know myself in new ways. Being silent was a way to do yoga in more expanded, more open ways. It was a way to hear the wonder of the woods with fresh ears and heart.

Thank you to our teacher Mary Paffard, whose words and poetry offered so much in the silence. Thank you, Diann and Adam and the staff at Gray Bear, my fellow yogis who give me so much, my wonderful husband, delightful students, and our own peaceful, blooming woods.

Pictures of the retreat are at http://picasaweb.google.com/nbyoga/PresenceInYogaRetreat#

Thank you for silence.

Tis Easier to Be Critical than Corect

One of my ex-father-in-law's favorite sayings came from Benjamin Disraeli: "Tis Easier to Be Critical than Correct."

His clever son made the saying even better in a sign he made for his father:

"Tis Easier to be Critical than Corect."

It really is easier to criticize others - and ourselves - than to present alternatives or work on improving our own yoga.

It's hard to put our ideas forward - it's easier to criticize ideas that others have.

It's hard to work on having firm abs - it's easier to criticize our less-than-perfect bellies.

As we look forward to spring, let's tend to our own garden - not critically, but with loving attention and appreciation for our mistakes as well as our triumphs.

Yoga for the New Year

January is a time of new beginnings - and my favorite newbie is right here - Keiya Grace Kino Harris, born to my son Jake and his wife Mariko in Portland, Oregon on January 11 at 7:35 a.m., 9 pounds 2 ounces! I was in Portland from Jan 5 and left on the red-eye the 11th, so only got a brief visit with the new baby. The real joy of this trip was seeing all the other grandchildren, and spending a couple of days taking care of precious Aiden while his parents were in the hospital. What a joy to be a grandparent!

Gentle beginning yoga classes start again on Tuesday, January 19th (delayed a week due to snow days) at the Wayne County Technology Center. Classes begin at 5 p.m. and go to 6:30. They're free, so if you've been curious about yoga, give us a try!

Wear comfortable clothing and bring a blanket. If you have questions, give me a call at 931 722-5096. Happy New Year!