Category Archives: YIOM

Ideas for Kicking Up the Home Practice?

  By | ,
4 Comments

I love yoga (you might have guessed), and I used to have a good home practice.  But, then I started practicing more at the studio and home practice fell by the wayside.  I’m not really sure what it is.  I have a hard time getting started at home and then a hard time staying with it.  I’ll put it off to the point where it seems to late, or get started and then distract myself with laundry and chores.  I have a good place for it, or at least a large space, so that’s not the reason.  My basement was finished a year and a half ago, and there is a large open space in the back of the room where I have some yoga mats, blocks, and blankets.  Going down into the basement isn’t my favorite thing (but again, I don’t really know why, other than that it is a little chilly and it’s where the laundry lives), so  maybe that’s some of it, but it can’t be all of it.

I’m thinking about doing some things to perk up the basement space and seeing if that might help.  My husband, Derek, got me a very cool poster (http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Yoga-Posters_i314239_.htm)  from allposters.com for our anniversary, so I need to get a frame and put it on the wall.  Then, maybe a little table with some incense and some sort of music playing device.  And, maybe I need to finally get around to fixing up the sewing area down there, so I don’t distract myself from yoga by thinking “dang, that space looks like crap!”   I haven’t quite decided whether I need a desk or just to  cover the table and do something with the big metal file cabinet, but… see how I get distracted by it?!

What do you do to keep up your home practice?

The Face of Wonder

  By | ,
9 Comments

Last week, I had the opportunity to teach a “serious kids and parents” class at Yogawood.  I had expected that the “serious” tag and the description that went with it would bring pre-teens with an established practice, primarily, and had set up a relatively active and vigorous class with a theme of happiness (heart-opening and compassion).  As the time of the session approached, there was no one in the studio but me.  I had everything ready and at 7 ’till, I was refolding all the studio blankets.  At 4 ’till, the door opened and in walked a mother and child.  As I started getting them set up, another set came in, and then another.  Woohoo!  A class!  In all, there were four children between 8-11 and three mothers.  All of the children were pretty much brand new to yoga, so I scrapped  most of my plan – other than the theme and the warm-ups – and decided to concentrate on teaching basic sun salutations and then some “fun” poses.

It was such a great time.  The four children in the room paid such good attention and were amazing sports.  And the looks on their faces… wow!  When I would show them a somewhat complex pose, they would first look a little confused.  And then huge grins would break over their faces as they saw what the shape involved – grins that looked like a combination of “oh man, that’s cool” and “you have got to be kidding me, woman.”  Even when they were uncertain about actually doing a pose, they seemed pretty stoked on what the pose involved.  And they were willing.  We had so much fun checking out things like headstand, wild thing, wheel, and some bound twists.  As I helped them into poses, any hesitation was matched by enthusiasm and willingness to try.  And then when they got into the shapes.  I don’t think I will ever forget the face of one of the boys when he came up into headstand with an assist.  The grin was huge, amazed, sparkling.  Now the look was “Oh man! This is COOL! Look what I am DOING!”  So sweet. So good.  And they fell out of poses with good grace and a smile as well.

It was such a fabulous experience to watch them enjoy the practice.  They were so open to it and having such a good time.  Adults can sometimes get so serious about yoga, but these “serious kids” were having fun and enjoying what their bodies could do.  As more than one wise (wo)man has said, we can learn so much from children.

Seriously wonder-full!

L

The Diamond Cutter – This Month’s Book Giveaway

  By | ,
5 Comments

For my yoga book club this month, we read Michael Roach and Christie McNally’s The Diamond Cutter.  While I typically buy most books on Kindle, it worked out better for me to do this one in print, so I’m ready to pass it along to a lucky reader.

If you haven’t heard of the book before, the full title is The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life.  As stated by the authors, the book utilizes principles gleaned from an ancient Buddhist text to illuminate best practices for a successful career in business.

Since I have already posted some of my thoughts on the book over at The Yogawood Book Club, I won’t bore you with them again here.  I have to admit, it wasn’t my favorite, but it’s an interesting perspective and it gave me some food for thought (and some rather enthusiastic imaginary debates with the authors).  So, I’m ready to pass it along to you, faithful reader.  Just log in with a comment below and I’ll select a winner with a random number generator in one week.  Include your twitter handle, if you have one, and I’ll let you know if you have been picked.  If you don’t have or would rather not use your twitter ID and your post does not link to a profile that I can use to contact you, please do check back to see if you have been selected so that you can send .

Namaste!

L