Hurting My Back and Ditching My Ego

Ah, injuries. They teach us so much, don’t they?

Due to a recent back injury my asana practice has taken on a much gentler feel. I’ll spare you the details on what happened and save that for another post, perhaps one entitled Don’t be stupid and practice a forearm stand when you’re picnicking in a park, not warmed up and using a skinny tree as your wall.

I used to come into crow pose several times a day, just for the fun of it. I loved standing on my head, and no asana practice ever felt complete for me without a good inversion or arm balance of some sort. During class when a teacher would say “ok let’s come into handstand” or “move your mats to the wall” I would light up. I would hear angels singing!

Now, thanks to my aching back and my practice of ahimsa (causing no harm), every time I hear those words in class I cringe.

Great. Something else for me to sit out.

I haven’t had a good inversion in months. I think I might be going through some sort of inversion withdrawal. The worst part of it is that if I want to take a yoga class I have to watch other people doing the things that I’m not yet ready to come back to. It’s like waving candy in front of a kids face then telling them it isn’t good for them and snatching it away. I’m a kid crying in a candy store! I find myself sitting or lying on my mat looking around the room at all the flying pigeons feeling like less of a yogi. Embarrassed. Worrying that I might be judged.

What will everyone else in the class think of me? Do they think I’m sitting out because I can’t do it?

I feel like Elaine in that episode of Seinfeld when she is trapped in a packed subway car where all is silent but she is screaming in her head.

I CAN DO IT, I SWEAR!! I JUST HURT MY BACK!

Enter lesson number 22 that I have learned from this back injury: I have a great big ego and I need to ditch it.

When did yoga become all about what I can do in front of other people? When did I start putting on a show, and why do I care so much about what other people think of my practice? Yoga isn’t a competition … so where is this coming from?

It has been humbling, to say the least, to get on my mat and choose bridge pose when the yogis on neighboring mats are coming up into beautiful wheels. It has been a challenge for me to say, yes my back does hurt too much to sit for meditation so I am going to lie down even though everyone else in the room is sitting up. It is incredibly difficult not to bust out a crow pose when I am sitting on the floor playing with my puppy, even though that’s what I am used to doing. But these are my new challenges. There is always a new challenge presenting itself, and for the time being, this is mine.  If I want to advance in my yoga practice* then this is something I really need to work on; ditching the ego and recognizing that it isn’t about showing everyone the most challenging pose I can do. It is about listening to and honoring my body, each and every time I show up to practice.

*Please note; when I say “advance in yoga”, I do NOT mean the physical practice of yoga, the asanas. I am talking about the all day yoga. The 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year type yoga. The stuff that is happening in the mind and in the heart and in the way I treat myself and others and live my life. THAT yoga.*

So for the time being I have a good excuse for not coming into more challenging poses: Oh, I actually DO have a handstand practice but I’m recovering from a back injury so I’m not doing inversions right now. What about when my back heals? How do I continue to practice ego-ditchasana when I have no excuse to fall back on? What about a day when my body just doesn’t feel like coming up into wheel pose…will I still feel comfortable choosing bridge instead, or will I find myself pushing past my edge just for the glory of the pose and the recognition of my fellow yogis?

A few things I will have to keep reminding myself, injury or no injury:

My asana practice is for me and not the other yogis in the room. (Unless I am dedicating my practice to them in a generous and loving way!)

I need to acknowledge and accept where I am in my practice each and every day.

I need to listen to, and honor the message my body is sending me.

When I chose to come into challenging asanas, I am practicing them for my own experience and not for anyone else.

I recently heard a teacher say, “I am not my body, I am not my mind, I am something divine.” I LOVE this quote (and of course couldn’t help but immediately share it on facebook!) Throughout this injury I have had to constantly remind myself that I am not my body. What is happening with my physical body doesn’t define me, and it never will.

Well, now I’m off to get a massage for my aching back, prescribed by my doctor.

Huh … I guess there are a few benefits to an injury, aren’t there?

How has a physical injury limited your asana practice? What have you learned from it?

Backbends: It’s not really about the back.

So if backbends aren’t really about the back, what are they about?

The heart center.

“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” - Buddha

Think about how much time you spend closing off the heart center in any given day: driving to work in the morning your shoulders are hunched and your back is rounded. Sitting at a desk and typing on the computer, same thing. Eating your cereal, watching TV, talking on the phone.. the list goes on and on and so do the negative effects! From discomfort in the cervical spine and shoulders all the way down to your sacrum, the back suffers when we close the heart center. And that’s just on a physical level! Imagine what it does to you emotionally!

Backbends are meant for opening. Awakening. Energizing. Creating space. Unlocking the spirit within you. The physical benefits are endless, from stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system and counteracting bad posture to realigning the spine and help with digestion and kidney function. Emotionally speaking, back bends help to relieve stress and anxiety, build confidence, and reduce fear.

Why, then, do I feel so much discomfort when I am back bending?

Ah, good question. For many of us, when we back bend, we are, again, focusing on the wrong part of the body. Lets stop calling these poses backbends and call them what they really are; heart openers.

When you come into a heart opener the focus should be the front part of the body. Instead of bending the back, open the heart center. Instead of dropping the head back, focus on a long neck. Allow the front part of the hips and thighs to find length and a bit of stretch.

Here are a few links I have found with important information on backbending. Take a moment to check them out!

• I LOVE this list of tips complied on OM Gal’s blog.
• Are you a butt squeezer? You heard me! When you come into bridge pose or any other back bend, do you squeeze your butt muscles for support? That’s a no-no! Read why, here!
• Lastly, check out my blog post about backbends, er…heart openers I mean!.. where I offer some tips for two challenging asanas!

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Green Juice & Yoga

You may wonder why a post about green juice is making an appearance on my yoga blog. Trust me, it has it's place! Yoga isn't just about headstands and OMing (..if only I had a dollar for every time I said that!) Yoga is about being good to yourself in every possible way, and baby, green juice is as good as it gets! There are so many benefits to juicing your greens:

• You can drink so much more than you can eat! Take a look at this picture and tell me, would you be able to consume all of this in one sitting if you had to eat it? I sure couldn't. But if I juice it I can get it all down in 5 minutes with no problems! In addition to getting more produce by juicing it I am also able to get things that I normally wouldn't eat. Kale isn't exactly my favorite of the leafy greens and I certainly wouldn't be eating dandelion greens. I can't stand the taste and I think they smells funny too. I'm not very likely to pop those leafs into my mouth and chew. But I will gladly send some through my juicer (masking the taste with a little lemon, of course!) and drink, drink, drink!
• When you juice your veggies your body is able to absorb the nutrients faster then if you ate them. When you put the whole veggie into your mouth and chomp down, your sending lots of fiber through your digestive system which slows down the absorption of the nutrients. When you juice, all of those fabulous nutrients can travel to their final destination without any fiber getting in the way! This isn't to say that eating your veggies isn't important, too. But adding some green juice to your diet which is already rich in veggies is a super addition!
• You will feel great! Juicing makes me feel amazing. I don't know another way to describe it and I can't quite put my finger on what is better after I drink. I'm not sure if it is my energy level, my mood, my appearance, or all of the above! But I can tell you this; juicing has a positive effect on me! Aside from all the good it is doing for you, you will feel good just knowing that your providing the body with an amazing healthy drink!

My favorite green juice has a base of cucumber, celery and romaine, and then I add in some other goodies such as kale, dandelion greens, ginger and lemon. I know what your thinking ... that is a lot of greens! If you are new to juicing go easy on the dandelion greens and kale as they have strong tastes. Stick with the base ingredients to start as they aren't quite as strong and are easier to get down! When I first began juicing the thought, sight and taste of green juice left me feeling nauseous for hours! Fortunately, a fellow yogi gave me these three tips to follow and they worked like a charm!

1. Use lemon. Greens alone are too hard for me to handle. The taste can be a bit much! When I add lemon to my juice it cuts the strong taste of the green and makes it much more drinkable, even enjoyable! If this isn't enough, try adding an apple, too. Just remember, the more fruit you add the more sugar you are consuming and the point of green juice is to be good to your body, not flood it with a sugary substance! Stick to using just one piece of fruit when possible.
2. Use ice! There is nothing grosser then warm green juice. Yuck! Enough said.
3. Use a straw! The smell of green juice sometimes turns me off. It smells a bit like grass. Do you want to drink grass? No, I didn't think so. I would always smell it first then be hesitant to taste it because my olfactory senses were telling me to run for the hills! Using a straw means the taste hits my tongue before my nose has a chance to object!

I hope you will give it a try and invite some fabulous green juice into your diet! I will be sure to post some of my favorite recipes soon! Happy juicing yogis!

Move More, Love More, Live More: Get a Dog.

Dogs are the perfect example of how to live like a yogi because they are the most natural yogis out there! Think about it! They live in the moment without any regrets from the past or fear for the future. They love unconditionally, even when you don’t have time to throw the ball. They find pleasure in the simplest of things.

Ever since bringing home our Pomeranian puppy, Kody, our lives have changed for the better. I think Kody is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Because of Kody, we move more, we love more and so therefore, we live more.

We brought Kody home during the October snowstorm of last year and while I would normally be hiding inside from the cold, I was, instead, outside running around with a tiny 5lb dog, trying to tire him out so I could rest! It was exhausting work, those early months of puppyhood, but I kept pointing out to my husband, we never moved so much during the winter before. It was normally a time for me to hibernate, but like it or not, I was outside moving and grooving!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much more love is in all of our lives now that Kody is around. Every morning when we wake up and every time we come in the front door Kody greets us with such excitement that we can’t help but grin from ear to ear. He is always bursting with love and cannot contain himself. If only we greeted all of our loved ones the way our dogs greet us!

One of the things I admire about life of a dog is the un-attachment. Kody can move so effortlessly from one thing to the next, pouring himself into everything that he does with all of his heart whether it’s scratching his ear or chewing on a toy! When its time to play outside he drops whatever he is doing and joins us for a game of catch, and when we come back in and give him a new toy to play with he is just as happy. I can’t tell you how many times I move on from one thing to another while still being stuck on something I did the day before!

And, oh! The freedom! Every time we approach a big open field, Kody gives me that look that says, oh please let me run around! He throws caution to the wind and takes off in a crazy sprint that ends up turning into wide circles around me since he is on a leash! He will run, and run, and run without any purpose what-so-ever and have the time of his life, whether I’m standing still or running with him. It is a wonderful reminder to stop taking things so seriously sometimes and just run with a big goofy grin and your hair blowing in the breeze! And when we come back home he settles in for a good rest because he knows he deserves it.

My dog is the best yogi out and there so I will aspire to be more like him. He has more yogic wisdom in his 11 months of life then I have acquired in 31 years. If you’re not moving, not loving, and not living, I suggest you get a dog.

BUT REMEMBER TO ADOPT, DON’T SHOP!!!

Attention Parents & Caregivers! See the pic below for an upcoming workshop where you can learn how to share your love of yoga with your kids!
*click the picture to enlarge*

Step by Step: Crow Pose (Bakasana) & Shoulder Squeezing Pose (Bhujapidasana)

Hi everyone! Get ready to feel UPLIFTED! Literally! With these step by step instructions you will find yourself lifting up into crow pose (bakasana) and shoulder squeezing pose (bhujapidasana).

BAKASANA - CROW POSE

 Step 1- Come into a squat on a yoga block with your arms between your knees, palms flat on the floor in front of you with a bend in your elbows. squeeze the knees into the shoulders and press the hands firmly into the floor. Make sure every finger pad & knuckle is rooted into the ground so that you are using your muscles instead of sinking weight into your wrists.

 Step 2 - Begin to shift more weight forward into your hands so that you can pick up one foot off of the block. Keep looking forward with the chin out of the chest. Continue to hug the knees in, squeezing the shoulders. Engage your core for support. Lifting up will be MUCH easier when your core is engaged and you hug the knees in.

Step 3 - Keep the core engaged, hug the knees in, and now lift the second foot up off of the block. Look forward so that you do not fall forward and remember to breathe!!




BHUJAPIDASANA - SHOULDER SQUEEZING POSE

 Step 1 - Place two blocks hip width apart behind your ankles. Come into a forward fold with bent knees. Take your arms through through legs and place your hands on the blocks behind you, fingers facing forward. Keep your knees bent and work towards getting your shoulders close to, or underneath the knees. Hug the knees into your arms.


Step 2 - Begin to bend the knees deeper, dropping the hips down towards the ground. Keep hugging the knees into arms as you come up onto the toes, and then lift one foot up off of the floor. Place that foot back on the floor and lift the other foot up. Keep looking forward and keep the core engaged for support.

Step 3 - Pick up both feet from the floor and cross the ankles in front of you. Continue to hug the arms with the knees.





Keep in mind that with these two poses, and any other poses, you can stop at any step and work there until you are comfortable moving on. If you have never done these arm balances before remember to take your time & keep showing up to practice and before you know if you will be flying into bakasana and bhujapidasana!

Keep practicing yogis!!

Back Bending Tips

Hi everyone! As many of you already know from attending my classes, I like to add a challenge pose to each class that we break down and work on. The entire class is dedicated to that pose in many different ways: warming up the body properly, opening in the areas that will allow us to come into and hold our challenge pose, and working on the alignment necessary to come into the pose safely. As a way to provide all the yogis out there with take-home notes on the challenge pose of the week I am going to start posting them here. You will find a picture of the pose(s) being presented and the break down of how to do it, things to look out for, and key points to remember. As always, if you have any questions feel free to write me at info@PamelaNixon.com

This week are working on back bends. When you stop and think about it, we don't spend very much time in positions that cause us to arch backwards. We spend a lot of time bending over to pick things up, hunched over a desk or a computer, or curled up in a forward fold while we sleep. The position we put our body in can have a great effect on how we feel. When we are slouched forward with our shoulders dropping down and our chin tucked to our chest doesn't exactly make us feel cool, calm and confident, does it? Back bending, when done correctly, can can be very rejuvenating and energizing and have a positive effect on our emotions, our outlook and our state of mind! Think about what happens in a back bending pose: your chest and heart are lifted, your shoulders are back and you feel open and free!

This weeks back bend challenge poses are Natarajasana (king dancer pose) using a strap, and a variation of Ganda Bherundasana (formidable face poses) using blocks for support. Lets look at each one and break them down step by step!

Ganda Bherundasana

Step 1. Set your blocks up so they are shoulder width apart, then come into down dog with your finger tips behind the blocks.

Step 2. Shift forward into plank then lower to chaturanga with your shoulders resting on the blocks. Keep your core engaged and hips lifted slightly so there is no sinking in the low back. If your blocks are low enough your chin may rest on the floor. Do not put a lot of weight into the chin. Let the weight be in the hands and blocks.

Step 3. Walk your feet in towards your hands so your bottom is sticking up in the air like an inchworm. If your blocks are upright your chin will not reach the floor. If they are turned down and your chin is on the floor be careful not to sink weight into the chin which will put pressure on the cervical spine.

Step 4. Practice lifting one leg up into the air and hold here, then switch legs.

Step 5. When you feel ready you can take practice hops, or kick up so that both legs are extended up into the air. Keep pressing the hands down and avoid letting the elbows widen out to the side.






Natarajasana

Step 1: Make a large loop with your strap and place it in your right hand. Bend your right knee and place the strap around the right foot behind you. Rotate your elbow in, out, and up so that your holding the strap over your head and your elbow points forward. Hug the elbow in towards your ear.

Step 2: Reach the left arm up, bend the elbow and take hold of the strap in the left hand as well as the right. Both arms are bent, elbows are pointing forward. Hug the elbows in towards the ears and resist them falling out to the sides.

Step 3: Press the foot back into the strap, lift the knee a little higher away from the floor, walk the hands down the strap a little further. Keep repeating those 3 movements until you have found a comfortable place to stop. Tuck the tailbone to lengthen the curve in the low back and keep the elbows in. Keep pressing down through the left foot for balance. Feel the chest open and expand.



If you feel any discomfort in the low back during back bending, try tucking the tailbone a bit more so that you can relieve some pressure. If this doesn't help, back out of the pose a bit until you find a place that is comfortable for you. Your breath is a good indicator of whether or not you have gone too far. If your breath becomes agitated you may have gone too far. Be sure to work your way into back bends slowly so that you have the opportunity to recognize any messages your body is sending to you and always listen when your body says stop.

Awesome Playlist for a Super Happy Flow!

Hi everyone! It's been a while since my last post, but I wanted to share with you my playlist from today's vinyasa flow class. This mix is sure to get you in a good mode and get your body moving! You can't help but smile and feel good when flowing to these tunes!!

1. Life is Beautiful - Keb Mo
2. Hold Us Together - Matt Maher
3. Your Love - Keb Mo
4. If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out - Cat Stevens
5. Brighter Than the Sun - Colbie Caillat
6. The Sound of Sunshine - Michael Franti & Spearhead
7. I See Love - Keb Mo
8. Steer - Missy Higgins
9. Let Your Light Shine - Keb Mo
10. Love's Divine - Seal
11. Never Know - Jack Johnson
12. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
13. Live High - Jason Mraz
14. Have a Little Faith in Me - Anne Lise

Feel free to share your fave playlists!!

Baby Steps and a Healthy Diet

I recently went to the library and checked out the book Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr, a cancer survivor who turned to holistic treatments and a healthy diet to help her through her battle with cancer. Her story is remarkable (and can be viewed in her documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer, for anyone who is interested) and I couldn’t wait to get her newest book and read all about her nutrition suggestions. One of the reasons I love the book is because it is NOT written by a doctor or nutritionist, but rather a normal every day person who can share her own personal experience with changing from the standard American diet (A.K.A crap) to a very healthy, plant based diet. What are her credentials to write such a book, you may ask? Throughout the time she spent fighting her cancer and radically changing her diet she traveled to many places, read tons of research and was able to meet with and interview lots of well known doctors and dieticians. As a result of all of that work, she is able to share with us that knowledge in plain, easy to understand, and even humorous language. Within the book are short sections written by well known doctors such as Dean Ornish MD, and a foreword by Rory Freedman, co-author of the best selling book Skinny Bitch. The book itself is 230 pages long and packed with juicy info on pH levels, sugar (the legal drug), juicing, how meat isn’t really that awesome, supplements, and so much more!! Kris talks about how we need to take responsibility for the food we are eating, and I couldn’t agree more!

I have had the book for about a week now, and as a result of finding so much information to absorb, I am only ¼ of the way through it. After only the first chapter I began to panic. With every word I read I started thinking that my diet isn’t good enough. I started making mental lists of all the items I need to cut out and soooooo many items I will need to add. I began to question my choices at every snack and meal, analyzing my food and thinking to myself this isn’t healthy enough, or, eat this and it will surely kill me some day! I definitely got a little carried away, but with so much information on making healthy choices right in front of me, it was hard not to! The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just like anything else, if you want to make a change, baby steps work best. If I were to try to overhaul both mine and my husbands diets in a matter of days we would surely both revolt. Trying to make drastic changes in a short amount of time is a great way to set yourself up for a failure. Recognizing that it was best to take it slowly, one step at a time, I decided to reflect on my current diet and all of the changes that I have made to bring myself here today.

First of all, I stopped consuming the Standard American Diet (love how the acronym is S.A.D.) over ten years ago, so that was my first big step in the right direction. I did away with meat and most dairy long before I even knew the benefits of it. I don’t eat fast food of any kind, don’t drink soda or other soft drinks (except on a special occasion or maybe the one time a year I actually visit a bar) and I have never been a huge fan of coffee. OK, OK I did have a small addiction to Starbucks Vanilla Soy Lattés a while back but I have kicked that habit, I swear. While I hate smoothies, I do love juicing, I eat a good amount of fruits and veggies, and although I have recently reintroduced dairy back into my diet I only consume it every now and then. So when I stop and take a look at my diet I can tell myself I am already doing a good job. But there is always room for improvement, and this book has opened my eyes to things I didn’t know, and things I knew but wanted to pretend weren’t true. Sugar, for example, being a legal drug. This I was aware of but I liked to claim ignorance. I am a HUGE fan of sugar whether it is those yummy vegan cupcakes that my sister bakes or the awesome tofutti soy ice cream I can’t get enough of at $5 a pint. I’m reading a lot about what sugar actually does once it’s inside your body. Sure, it makes me and my mouth happy, but it turns out my blood and my organs are singing a different tune.

So how do you make changes to your diet without going broke, crazy or wanting to dive face first into a freshly baked batch of fudge brownies? I have decided to start with a list of 10 easy ways I can change my diet for the better, whether it be increasing something healthy I am already eating, reducing or eliminating something unhealthy I am eating, or simply finding a better alternative. I don’t have a complete list yet, but here is what I am working on so far.

1)     Start juicing daily. I have my eye on a super awesome juicer at William’s Sonoma. I am hoping by the end of the month to bring that baby home with me and start juicing for me and my husband on a daily basis. Luckily we live in close proximity to several lovely farms where we can buy fresh produce so I can support local farmers as well as eat organic. In Kris’s book she suggests a ratio of 3 veggies to 1 fruit. If you’re worried about wasting all that pulp, she also offers some suggestions for baking so you can put it to use! Or you can always throw it in your composter if you have one!

2)     Cut down on the sugar. This will probably be the toughest task for me when it comes to revamping my diet, so I have vowed to be patient with myself and consider each small sacrifice a step in the right direction. I’m not going to completely deprive myself of sugar because that would make me pretty sad. But I am definitely going to reconsider all of the sugary vegan treats I bring into our home and how often I am consuming them. One thing I never really do is try to find an alternative. When I am having a sugar craving I go right for the good stuff without looking for a healthier alternative such as nut butter on a rice cracker with raisins. While that doesn’t sound nearly as appealing as a tofutti ice cream cone, it just may be sweet enough to keep me out of the freezer for one night. And right about now, that’s all I can ask for!

3)     More raw veggies. I have always heard about the benefits of a raw diet but I have never really been interested in too much uncooked food. After reading a few pages on the importance of raw veggies however, I now understand that it’s important to get a few more uncooked veggies into my diet so I can get the vitamins and nutrients my body needs. Overcooking food strips it of its good stuff, so my plan is to get a few more uncooked veggies in throughout the day. Easy Peasy!

4)     More Legumes! I’m not a huge fan of beans. It’s the consistency……yuck. But there are some legumes that I do love, so I need to start working them into our meals more: split peas, lentils, chickpeas….all of these can be added to salads, soups, and many other dishes and are a great way to get important protein.

So as you can see these new goals aren’t going to break the back or my stride! If I focus on making some small changes over a period of time and think a little bit harder about the food that I’m putting in my mouth, I can continue taking steps in the right direction. If you’re having trouble with the idea of making yours and your families diets healthier, try making a list! Start with small, reachable goals that will allow you to see the changes and feel successful! As your diet moves in the right direction you can start adding more items to the list! And I strongly suggest that everyone run right out and pick up this book – even if only one of her suggestions makes its way into your lifestyle you will be so much better off because of it!

I’m going to eat some carrots and hummus now. J

No Yoga = blah blah blah. Yuck.

I am writing this blog post in a very agitated state. Due to a shoulder injury, a stomach bug and a bout of laziness I haven’t hit my mat in over a week. How do I feel, you may ask? Let me tell you: I feel grouchy. Angry. Stiff. Sore. Tired. Irritated. Lazy. Unproductive. I have been sleeping. Procrastinating. Complaining. Wasting time. Watching too much TV. Eating junk. The list goes on and on. This all around funky mood I am in has got me thinking about all the good things I feel when I make it to my mat regularly. Or even occasionally! That list is also endless. But allow me to share a few. When I practice yoga….

• My body feels well. My muscles, bones and joints feel strong and healthy.
• I feel inspired. I want to do more, be better, live healthier and share that with the people I love.
• My mind is a bit clearer. Just like everyone else I have tons of thoughts racing through my mind at any given moment: to-do lists, errands, meals to cook, places I have to go, etc. But when I make it to my mat on a regular basis it seems a little quieter up there, a little calmer.
• I am a lot happier. My mood is elevated and I’m sure it doesn’t go un-noticed. I can turn into a bit of a monster when my practice goes out the window.
• I am more patient with the people I love.
• I have a greater desire to help others.
• I feel more productive. There is nothing I like more then finishing an awesome yoga practice on a Saturday morning and realizing its only 10am.
• I have more energy.
• I complain a LOT less!
• TV is a lot less appealing when you are feeling good in your body and therefore I watch less. I would rather be moving!
• I have a desire to eat better. My vegetarian (mostly vegan) diet is pretty healthy as is, but at times I slip into a vicious sugar cycle where the more you eat the more you want! My practice gives me such a healthy feeling inside that I want to keep making healthy choices by eating more fruits & veggies!
• I write more. When my practice takes a hit … so does my blog! Without yoga I have less to share. When I practice regularly, I write regularly!

I could go on, but we would be here all day. I hope that reading a few of the benefits I feel from my yoga practice encourages you to begin or continue your own!