Tag Archives: Yoga

Lessons in Yoga from the Cats

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You just never know where your next yoga inspiration will come from.  Beings you never expect can turn out to be impressive yogis with much to teach.  Let me introduce you to two:  Charlie and Rudy

I’ve learned many things about the practice of yoga from Charlie and Rudy, and I would like to share a few of them with you.

Focus – Charlie and Rudy have an amazing ability to focus, both in terms of the visual and their goals. They have their drishti DOWN!  Rudy can stare at a leaf in the yard for hours on end.  He never looks away and is not distracted by others entering or leaving the room.  He gazes, and breathes.  Do not try to play stare down with him. You will not win.  They can also focus on a goal with complete persistence.  Charlie will spend a full afternoon following a bug.  Whither the bug goes, she will go – regardless of difficulty (for self or others).  If Rudy wants someone to get out of bed and pet him, he will pursue that goal with the focus and drive of a world class athlete, meowing for hours on end if necessary.  All that is important in that time is that focus; they are fully able to…

Be in the moment – While they both can certainly work toward a goal, even so, they remain in the moment.  They do not let the past constrain their present.  They do not let worry or fear of the future impact the now.  If Charlie wants to stand on top of my work bag, does she fear, based on the past, that I will become annoyed?  No, she does not.  If Rudy would like to chew some baby’s breath in a flower arrangement, does he fret that it will make him vomit as it has approximately 43 times before?  I assure you that he doesn’t.  Worrying about the past or the future is not useful to them, and therefore they do not do it, which leads us to…

Let go of that which does not serve you – Charlie and Rudy are fully able to release what is not useful for them.  Rules about where to sit, or lay, or what to eat do not serve them, so they let go.  Hairballs do not serve them, so they let go.  Sometimes going to another room, or even another floor of the house, to pee does not serve them, so they let it go.  Their letting go even extends to their willingness to give of themselves…

Give a little of yourself to everyone you encounter – Yes, indeed, my cats are experts in this arena.  In each encounter, they hope to leave a little piece of themselves.  They do it so willingly, and so generously, that most everyone who comes into contact with them will walk away able to spread that little bit of them to other encounters.  Sometimes it’s a scratch; sometimes it’s drool;  but, most often it is the very hair of their bodies that they give with such abandon.  They make every effort to go beyond their physical limits with their selves…

Expand your reach and your flexibility – The asanas of yoga allow us to develop our reach and our flexibility, and my cats are truly inspirational in their devotion to the practice.  Stretching can occur at any moment of the day, in any location.  Charlie can often be found stretching over my keyboard or on top of the arm I am trying to write with.  Rudy stretches out across a bed, on the cat tree, over a window ledge.  Sometimes it’s a long and slow stretch, and sometimes it’s a quick stretch as they prepare for more movement.  They do not let little things like people’s legs get in the way of their stretching. Nor do they worry about the new furniture when they feel the urge to stretch up, up toward the sky, with legs and paws and claws fully extended, for a deep, luxurious, pleather destroying stretch.  And talk about flexible!  Can you see what you are doing when you clean your tail?  I think not.  Enough said.  While they certainly stretch and move, they are also not afraid to slow down…

Take rest – Charlie and Rudy understand that rest should be taken when the body and mind need it.  If rest is needed while you are in the kitchen, take it.  If rest is needed while you are in the bathroom, go right ahead.  If rest is needed while you are stepping over a loaf of bread laying on the counter, you should lay right down.  Middle of the doorway to the stairs?  Right on.  It doesn’t matter when or how long, either.  If you get up and still feel tired, lay back down.  If a day passes and you’ve done little but rest, Charlie and Rudy want you to know that it is perfectly ok.  There is no shame in resting.  In fact, be proud of your resting ability!

Yes, it is true.  My cats are yogis and I suspect that most others are too.  They are wise and experienced in the ways of the middle path and much can be learned from simply being in their lives.  We should all be honored that they grace us with their presence.

Namaste,

L

Eating Like a Yogi

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On a recent trip to Indiana, I ate some yummy things, but they probably weren’t the best things for me.   The trip, and the aftermath (stomach problems, a few extra pounds) has me thinking about food – and trying to think about thinking about it (meta-thinking?) in a more healthy way.

As many people who know me well know, I do not have a history of a healthy relationship with food.  At 44 now, I would say that I have been “eating disordered” for three decades plus.  The extent, type, and severity of the issue has changed over time.  There have been times when the label of anorexia fit; there have been times when it was probably more bulimia.  And, there have been times when it’s been more like your garden variety I-am-a-woman-and-have-to-be-size-X obsession.  There have been times when I’ve been overweight and times when I’ve been underweight.  I’m not proud of this history, but I’m not ashamed of it either (good thing, since I’m blogging about it).  It is what it is.  There isn’t any point in feeling bad about the past or in worrying about the causes, or fretting over how it will impact me in the future.  The task is to figure out a better relationship with food in each and every day.

I’ve also been a practicing vegetarian for going on 15 years, and a vegan for several (5? 6?).  While being vegan or vegetarian often correlates with a healthier way of eating, it’s not the dietary label or restrictions that produce the healthy eating.  In fact, a person can be a vegan and eat nothing but potato chips and popsicles.  Rather, I suspect that often people who elect to become vegetarian or vegan are also people who cultivate a more healthy relationship toward food.

In thinking about that healthy relationship to food, I have been considering the relationship of yoga, and the yogic way of life, to eating.  What does this mean?  Well, to me, the practice of yoga is much about doing what serves the body and mind (and through that, the larger universal).  Yoga teachers can often be heard to tell yoga students to focus their energy or their selection of poses on “that which serves you.”  So, I am trying to think about what serves me in my eating and relationship to food.

In an example of how this unfolds in my life, today I wanted a handful of potato chips.  I really did.  But, I reminded myself to think about how eating that food does (or does not) serve me.  Would it serve me in the joy of the taste for that moment?  Possibly, yes.  But, probably not for a whole handful.  Would it serve me in the calories needed to provide fuel for the body and mind to function?  Yes.  Would it serve me in nutrients that keep the body healthy and mind sound?  No.  Would it serve me in healthy fats that are needed for the functioning of the brain, and regulation of hormones?  No.  Would it serve me in the fiber that the body requires to maintain a healthy digestive system?  Would it serve me in avoiding artery clogging cholesterol?  No.  Really, there are few ways that potato chips would serve me.  And sometimes, the fact that they bring joy in the the moment is enough.  Today, however, it wasn’t.  After considering what the taste was that I wanted/needed, I concluded that it was probably salt.  So, I had 1 chip and then with dinner, I had an ear of corn with sea salt.  It was delicious and serves my body in more ways.

I don’t always manage this type of reflective and mindful eating.  In fact, I probably manage it only a little more frequently than I don’t.  But, in each day it is my goal for eating right now.  And summer is an excellent time to work on this way of relating to food, because of the abundance of colorful (eye serving), tasty (mouth serving), and nutritious (health serving) fruits and vegetables that are readily available.

Maybe sometimes a popsicle will be what serves me (or a frozen fruit bar at least).  Perhaps other times, it will be a pretzel.  Now and then, it might even be a deep fried Oreo (ok, not really, those make me gag).  But, if I can mindfully approach food, and eat that which serves me, I hope that I can create for myself a healthier body/mind and a healthier relationship with eating.

Namaste,

L

You Got Some Candy in There?*

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I’ve believed in the mind/body connection for a long time.  It  makes emotional sense to me – when I feel better physically, my mood is better and when I feel better emotionally, my body feels better.  It makes philosophical sense to me – the human body/mind is a system; each part of the system affects and is affected by every other part.  It makes logical sense to me – the studies on the relationship between feelings of stress, production of Cortisol, and the immune system are pretty astounding.  So, when I heard my yoga teachers connecting the two, I wasn’t particularly resistant.  “If you believe you cannot do a pose, you will not be able to.”  Ok, yep, gotcha.  “Think of yourself in the pose and you can more easily get there.”  Okie dokie.  “Stop letting your mind get in your way.”  RIGHT!

But, when the various instructors I have had mentioned that some yoga poses, by creating an opening in an area of the body where emotions have been stored, can release a wave of emotional reaction, I just wasn’t getting it.  It wasn’t so much that I disagreed; I just didn’t feel it, so it wasn’t really making sense to me.  The only emotions I felt in yoga were happiness related to being there and doing the poses or frustration that I couldn’t.  That was pretty much it.  And then I started Yin.

The first class of yin that I went to, I pretty much spent the entire hour in a state of annoyance, so I wasn’t really considering how individual poses made me feel.  Over the next few sessions, as I found my way into more physical release in the poses, I was able to appreciate the differences in my state of mind.  After a few sessions, I began to notice that some poses made me feel a sense of panic.  At first it seemed that this was because they involved folding over, and I thought maybe I just wasn’t getting quite as much air – thus the panic feeling.  But, as the repertoire of poses increased along with my awareness of them, it became clear that it wasn’t the amount of folding, it was the extent and type of hip opening that was occurring.  Poses that really open my hips in a way that causes a stretch along the IT band area just make me feel panicked.  There is no logical reason for it.  I don’t fear that I’m actually going to hurt myself in Shoelace pose.  But, as soon as I move into it, I start to feel like I’m out of control.  There have been classes where I really was not sure that I could prevent myself from springing out of the pose and leaving the room due to the sense of panic and loss of control that arises.  What the heck?

Here is my armchair yogi interpretation of this.  I’m a person who likes to be orderly.  I don’t need everything to have a perfect logic fit (i.e. I’m ok with knowing that I love physics puzzles and also abstract painting, even though that may seem oppositional).  But, I like to have control of what is going on around me.  I’m getting better at dealing with uncertainty, and I would say that I have made some big strides in this over the last few years.  My friend Erica, who has seen me go from someone who could not stand camping because my kids might get dirty to someone who barely insists they bathe during several days of camping, would probably agree.  But, there are a lot of years in my past of trying to tightly control myself and my life.  Apparently, every time I felt a sense of panic or lack of control, I just “stuffed” it all into my hips.  Yep, they are packed full of panic – weird, huh?  So, now when I stretch and open them in that way, it seeps out and causes me to feel a little like I’m being deprived of all oxygen.

I would guess that not everyone is stuffing their lack of control into their hips.  Perhaps you have been putting your sadness in your abdominal muscles (yeah, unpack that idea!).  Maybe you have been putting your anger in your shoulders.  Maybe your hips have something else in them – fear or even joy.  The next time you feel an emotion arising unexpectedly that seems to be unconnected to what is going on at that moment, take some time to observe whats going on with your body.  What are you releasing?  Have you got some candy in there?

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* This post title refers to a joke between some of my “mom friends” and I.  Back when our children were toddlers, and in the phase where they just wouldn’t stop following mommy around for 2 minutes, we used to laugh about the things they would yell through the bathroom door when we were inside .  One of those included, “hey! You got some candy in there?”