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?

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!

My Love Affair with Yoga

Last week a fellow yogi asked me, “what brought you to yoga?”, and you know me, I just had to write about it :) It is interesting actually that I haven’t blogged about this one before as it is something I think about often.

Sometimes I wonder about other yogis and what their first experience with yoga was like. Was it mind blowing, or just so-so? I often hear stories about people whose first yoga class was a life changing experience, that they knew in the first few moments of class that they were destined to be yogis. They felt an immediate change in their mind and in their bodies. For many, it took only the first few breaths in down dog to know they were hooked for life. I didn't have an experience like that. For me, it was much more of a gradual relationship that I took my time getting into. The more stories I read about that “love-at-first-sight” experience with Yoga made me feel like I had missed out on something. I mean, sure I thought yoga was nice and all, but we were definitely friends first!

I was always very interested in fitness, nutrition and even holistic health, but yoga was not up there on the list for me when I first started. I attended my very first yoga class when I was around 18 years old. It was at a local YMCA and I was tagging along with my older sister. While I'm sure I thought it was nice and all, there were no sparks flying. I never thought to myself, this is what I have been looking for all my life. It was something to do that felt good and fit nice, but that’s about where it stopped. I took a few classes here and there when I could, but I definitely didn’t go out of my way to fit in into my schedule. I guess you could say yoga & I were causally dating.

 My relationship with yoga deepened over the next few years as I bounced around from studio to studio, trying out different teachers and different styles, deepening my knowledge of the practice. I became more and more invested, and what had once been mostly a physical routine for me started to become more spiritual. I had begun practicing yoga for one reason, and then it turned into something else completely. (Sound familiar?) I became more interested in the other aspects of a yogic lifestyle, not just the asanas. The yamas and the niyamas were of particular interest to me as I began to apply these social and moral codes to my every day life and not just to my mat practice. Throughout the years, yoga and I became closer and closer, and eventually evolved into the wonderful relationship we have today. I am happy to say that after many years of practice and study I now make my living as a full time yoga instructor. But I still consider myself to be first and foremost a student of yoga.
 
Sometimes I do wish that I had had that incredible feeling of love and attachment for yoga when we first met. Sometimes I don’t completely understand why I didn’t have that while others do. But I remind myself  that it doesn’t matter how we started out, what matters is where we are at now. I trust that it all happened the way it was meant to happen. Isn’t it true that the relationships we enter into slowly and take our time with are the ones that last? Maybe at 18, 19 and 20 years old I was not ready to invite yoga into my life the way I now have 12 years later. Maybe at that time, I was only meant to have a taste of what was yet to come. Now, I do feel that addiction to yoga. I get a rush from a great class or a really awesome inversion. I enjoy diving into yoga philosophy and learning how to apply the principals to my daily life. I crave the knowledge that I get from workshops and trainings, and I enjoy more than anything sharing that knowledge with the students who grace me with their presence during my weekly classes.

What, then, is your great love story with yoga? What brought you to the mat, and what keeps you coming back?

Beware of the Substitute Yoga Teacher!

Picture it: You’re psyched about attending your weekly Tuesday night yoga class and can’t wait to see what your favorite teacher has in store for you this week. You put on your yoga gear, head off to the gym or studio with a smile on your face, humming to yourself on the way, chanting a few Om’s to get in the mood. You have been looking forward to this all day look and your feeling good. Nothing can get you down! Until … you walk into the yoga room, and there, at the front of the room sitting in full lotus with a big bright smile is someone else, right where your yoga teacher is supposed to be. Your heart drops, your smile disappears, and suddenly the class you had been looking forward to all day has become the class you are now dreading and wish you hadn’t come to. Now you have to put up with a substitute yoga teacher.

As a yoga student and a yoga teacher I have experienced this from both sides. I know exactly how it feels to walk into class and discover your favorite teacher won’t be there that day. And I will admit, I usually feel like turning around and walking right out of the room. After all, I did come to class specifically for one teacher, it is their style of teaching that I am used to and their class that I want to take. But I also know how it feels to be that substitute teacher, helping out a fellow teacher friend or just trying to bring in a little extra cash flow by picking up a class here and there. And again, I will admit, there are times during those classes when I feel like turning around and walking right out of the room. I have been met with blank stares, disappointed faces, and occasionally the my-real-yoga-teacher-is-better-then-you-are attitude. It was a bit upsetting when I realized that as a student, these are the same exact looks that I myself have passed on to other teachers.

The bottom line is no one likes change. We are creatures of habit and we like what we like. When we go to class expecting to see Miss X it’s going to be a bit of a shock to us when we see Mister Y instead. But let’s face it, change is all around us, everywhere we look. Our favorite authors don’t have anything knew out and we need to try someone else’s novel this month. Our favorite nail polish color is discontinued. Our favorite brand of food switched their ingredients and now it doesn’t taste the same at all! And our favorite yoga teacher is on vacation this week and we have a substitute instead. We can’t fight change and we certainly can’t stop it. We may as well embrace it and look for the good with everything that doesn’t happen exactly the way we were hoping. After all, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em right? Sulking at the site of a different teacher and scowling your way through your sun salutations is not going to result in a successful yoga class for you, so why do it? Instead, embrace this new and different situation, and take into consideration all the good that can come from a new teacher! After all, it isn’t permanent…so learn what you can while you can!

Each style of yoga is so different from the next, and the same goes for teachers. Some are very spiritual while others focus more on the physical asana practice. Some sing, some chant, some smile and laugh during class while others are very straight faced and strict. Some talk with a soothing gentle voice, others are loud and sharp. Some play music, others keep a quiet room. We all have our preferences, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a step outside of our comfort zone and enjoy what a new teacher has to offer us. As a student, I find that when I walk into that room and see a different teacher, the best thing I can possibly do is smile to myself and say, “ok, tonight will be a little bit different then I what I expected. Not better, not worse, just different.” All I can do is just let it go from there.  If I resolve to hate the class before it even begins, then I will undoubtedly hate it and the teacher, too! If I allow myself to be open to the possibility that this class may hold great things for me, then there is a good chance that I will actually enjoy it! Who knows, maybe this teacher will play music I haven’t heard before but really enjoy practicing to! Maybe he or she will introduce poses in a way I am not used to but find very helpful! By being open to the possibilities, I am allowing myself the opportunity to learn something new, enjoy meeting and practicing with a new teacher, and actually have fun! It is the difference between thinking “I like how Miss X explains this better…” and thinking “that’s a new way to explain it, I haven’t thought of it like that before.” Having two different takes on a pose, a theory or philosophy may shed some new light on something for you, causing you to look at it in a completely different way. In addition to learning something knew, being exposed to different teachers, even if not by choice, introduces us to different styles of yoga we may not have experienced before. We may actually find a style we never knew we liked! All of a sudden you could discover that while you never liked Iyengar classes before, this teacher presents the style in a softer way that you really enjoy! Or you may find that while you never liked vinyasa flow classes in the past, this teacher places a strong emphasis on alignment and you feel like you can really benefit from it! A lot of good can come out of change, and a lot of knowledge can come from a substitute yoga teacher, we just have to let our walls down first before we can experience it. Next time you walk into that room expecting Miss X and find Mister Y instead, take a breath, hold your smile on your face, and be open to the experience. You never know what the class could hold for you!

Every experience, no matter how different then what we were expecting, can yield some good, but we have to be open to it in order for that to happen. We have to allow it.

Embracing the change,

Pamela

Lighten Up!....It's Just Yoga!

When was the last time you smiled during your yoga practice?

Can't remember, can you? At some point it used to be fun, right? Think back to your first yoga class. Something about the class, the environment, or the teacher drew you in. Look at you; you have been practicing for so long now! It must have been fun at some point! And then somewhere along the way things changed. It turned into something you had to schedule and stick to, something rigid and serious. You feel guilty when you skip a practice (been there, done that! read here: guilty yogi link), you tighten the muscles in your face and grind your teeth when your in Warrior II and you become frustrated when you can't balance in tree pose for a full minute, and angry at your neighbor who can. The voices outside the yoga room stress you out because you can't concentrate and the sound of your neighboring yogis ujjayi breathing is so annoying! Rather then feeling calm and relaxed you walk out of class with a scowl and raised blood pressure. Where did it all go wrong, and how can we get that lighthearted, easy going fun feeling back in our practice?

Maybe we can take a cue from children. When do they get upset? When do they frown or cry? When do they tighten up all the muscles in their face, get annoyed or angry or mad at each other? When they aren't having fun! Kids are all about fun and they don't take things so seriously! Yesterday in my children's yoga class we were practicing pranayama, or breathing activities called blowing scarves. The children use lightweight colored scarves to see what they can do with their breath. They separated into pairs, and one of them would blow their scarf across their mat and the other would catch and blow it back. Somewhere during this activity two little girls realized just how much fun it was to see how fast they could blow the scarves to each other and it became a race to see who could blow it over faster. Their breath became short and shallow, their postures went to mush and they slowly went from using their breath to throwing the scarves to each other. They broke out into fits of hysterical laughter. My first instinct was to redirect them back to the original purpose of the game but then I stopped myself. Their little faces were lit up with enjoyment, their smiles were contagious and their laughter was adorable to hear. Where, I thought, is the harm in letting them have a few more moments of enjoyment from this new game they created? So I let them laugh it out for a few more minutes and then I collected the scarves and we moved on. Throughout the remainder of the class I took note of how often the kids smiled, to themselves, to each other and to me. I noticed how often they laughed, or started humming or singing out loud. I noticed how they made comments to each other during their poses like "look what I can do" and "wow that looks so cool!" I was much more aware of their energy and their enthusiasm for each and every pose or activity we started. It was honest, it was refreshing, and it was beautiful. And there is no reason why we cannot approach our practice with the same amount of vigor and umph! There is no reason why we shouldn’t be smiling during our vinyasa, or sharing a secret with our neighbor about a trick we use in side plank pose. We can laugh at ourselves when we fall out of tree pose and take the opportunity to tell our friend that their chaturanga rocked!

Next time you hit the mat, start with a smile. Take a moment to breath, be thankful that you can and are practicing, and let your enthusiasm for the practice fill the room. Let the joy of the practice replace any of the fear, concern, seriousness or rigidness we have attached to yoga. Move through your asanas with a sense of joy and happiness. Approach each pose as if it were something new and exciting and allow your child-like spirit to shine through! Of course, it is completely up to you how you proceed from this point forward. If you prefer you can continue to practice with a closed off heart and a scowl on your face, counting the minutes until you can roll up your mat and get out of there! Even though I sometimes forget myself, I do prefer to recognize that time spent on our mat all about having fun, and we should enjoy it as much as we can!

Need some help adding that umph to your practice? Check out these helpful tips: 

• Smile: Next time you catch yourself frowning during class, do something about it! Turn it into a smile and try your best to keep it on your face for the rest of your practice. You will notice a difference in your attitude and in your practice, I promise!
• Laugh: Feel free to laugh during class. Laugh at yourself, laugh at your neighbors, and laugh at your teacher (all in good spirit of course!) As soon as you release a little burst of joy the rest of the class will seem a lot more easy going! Next time you find yourself wobbling during tree pose or even falling right out of it, let out a good hearty laugh. Show yourself and others that you don't take it so seriously! If there is a teacher out there who discourages you from laughing in class, maybe he or she isn’t the right teacher for you anyway!
• Lead with the heart: Let the love and joy in your heart be the reason you practice. Allow yourself to find meaning in each practice and each asana. Dedicate your practice to someone you love. With every inhale and exhale think about all the things you have to be thankful for. When you put your heart into your practice it takes on a whole new meaning.
• Switch it up: Try a new style or a new class. Check out something that sounds interesting and exciting like acroyoga, ariel yoga or circus yoga. Try a class at a new studio or if you have the time and funds take a yoga retreat, near or far. If your short on time or funds, check out a new yoga dvd from the video store, library or look at your TV on demand! Make sure you’re looking for something that seems fun and appealing to you, something out of the norm. I suggest Shiva Rea fluid power or trans dance. This free flowing yoga dance is sure to open up your heart, bring a smile to your face and leave you feeling invigorated!

The Guilty Yogi

Sometimes I feel like a bad yogi. A day or two goes by and I haven’t hit the mat once. There are days when I am running around non stop with work and errands and I just don’t have a minute to get my mat out. Other days I have all the time in the world but just don’t want to get my mat out. I miss one class, then another, and before you know it a week has gone by and I haven’t been to the studio at all. My mat is rolled up in the corner of the room, same as it was last week, and my yoga DVD’s sit untouched in a cabinet. Sound familiar? If you’re like me, when you skip a practice (or three!) you end up feeling guilty. You feel like a bad yogi. I tend to compare myself to other students or teachers who commit to a regular practice and make it look effortless. I see people progressing in their practice and think to myself, if I practiced every day I could do that, too. When this happens I begin to associate my practice with feelings of guilt, negativity and regret. Yuck. Who wants that??

This past Monday, after mentally scheduling all of the yoga classes I would attend for the week and then mentally erasing a few of them, I began to feel that familiar guilt creeping in. Just when I was about to let myself believe I wasn’t a good yogi, yet again, it hit me … I do do yoga every day! Maybe not through asana, the physical practice of yoga, but in a lot of other ways! Why do I judge my status as a yogi on my physical practice alone?

When it comes to yoga, we all tend to focus solely on the physical aspect. That’s western yoga for you! We forget that there are so many other parts that make up a yogic life! Let’s take the yamas and niyamas, for example. These are the internal and external guidelines of a yogic life, the dos and don’ts, if you will. The first yama, ahimsa, means causing no harm in thought, words, or action. For example, when I find a spider in my home I go to great lengths to catch him and bring him outside, even when he puts up a fight! But ahimsa for me goes much deeper than that. As a vegan, I make choices all day to not cause harm to other living beings. I don’t eat animals or their byproducts, I don’t purchase clothing made from animals and I don’t purchase products that are tested on animals. I don’t use or support the use of animals for sport, transportation, entertainment, or anything else that subjects them to a life that is anything less than they deserve. This is by no means an easy task, and I work hard at practicing ahimsa every day. Of course being a vegan or a vegetarian is not the only way to bring the practice of ahimsa into your life. Ahimsa can be practiced in the way we treat all other living beings, the way we treat ourselves, and the way we treat our planet.  Ahimsa means offering a smile instead of a scowl, recycling instead of throwing plastic and cardboard into the trash, catching that spider instead of squashing him when we can and taking care of our bodies and our minds.

Santosha is one of the niyamas, meaning to be content. This is one I struggle with, but none-the-less, I practice it daily. It isn’t easy to be happy with what you have all of the time, especially in a society where we are constantly bombarded with messages telling us to buy “more, more, more!”, and “bigger is better!” I like to remember that I am practicing Santosha every time I chose not to purchase something that I want but don’t really need, or when I chose to give something away to someone else. I am practicing santosha when I stop and take the time to be thankful and grateful for everything and everyone I have in my life. One way we can learn to be more content with what we have is to keep a gratitude journal, a log of all the things we have in life to be grateful for. Anytime you’re feeling a little greedy or perhaps unsatisfied with the people places or things you have in your life take a look through that journal and see all the multitudes of blessings you have!

Another part of yoga I practice daily is pranayama, or breath work. Being a student of yoga for many years, I have learned a lot about the breath. Once something I took for granted, my breath is something I am now very aware of. Throughout the day I practice several different types of pranayama, my favorite being alternate nostril breathing. This type of breath involves breathing in and out alternating nostrils. It calms and balances the minds, and can even help to relieve nausea and headaches. Sometimes I take a moment for alternate nostril breathing when I’m stopped at a red light, before I go to sleep at night, or any time that calls to me.  Even when I don’t have a specific breathing exercise in mind I always try to focus on deep belly breathing as opposed to short shallow breaths. Taking control of my breath, using it to become calm or to become energized, and just being aware of my breath are all ways I practice pranayama daily.

To my surprise, as I thought about the 8 limbs of yoga, I discovered that I actually do practice yoga quite frequently. Not just daily, but multiple times each day. Here I am beating myself up over not having a daily yoga practice, when really I do, I just don’t have a daily asana practice. And who says that a daily asana practice is required to be a good yogi, anyway? Don’t get me wrong, I love asana. When I stay away too long I begin to crave it. I am also always looking for little tricks to help me get into the habit of a more frequent physical practice (my most recent ideas coming in the next blog post!) I’m just pointing out that there is a lot more to yoga then a headstand and a triangle pose. In my opinion, a good yogi is someone who is aware of the different aspects that make up that yogic life (which I am) and who strives to live that yogic life, (which I do!) Good yogi? Check!

So next time your feeling guilty over skipping a few practices, I invite you to consider all of the other ways you can, and do, invite yoga into your daily routines. While asana is an important part of yoga, don’t focus solely on the physical, but rather open up your eyes to the yoga your doing every day!

For more information on the 8 limbs of yoga, please visit: http://www.expressionsofspirit.com/yoga/eight-limbs.htm



Karma Yoga

How Can I Help? How Can I Serve?

Imagine how different our daily environment would be if everyone asked this of themselves before beginning their day? Instead of heading out into the world each morning thinking about ourselves and what we can achieve, what if we all got out bed with an attitude of selflessness, embarking on a mission to help everyone around us?

Karma Yoga is the yoga of selfless service. The idea is that our actions are performed for the greater good of others without concern for our own personal benefit. Karma yoga transforms our actions from being selfish and goal oriented to selfless and ego free. I am particularly fond of one line from the Wikipedia definition of karma yoga: “acting in accordance with ones duty (dharma) without consideration of personal self-centered desires, likes or dislikes.”

It is a beautiful idea in theory, but easier said than done, right? Forgoing attachment to the outcome of our actions, letting go of personal gain and performing for the benefit of others? At first thought it seems like a big task: changing the way you think and act towards everyone and everything around you? But when you stop and think about all the little ways you can put this into effect it seems a bit more feasible. Taking an extra minute to wish a loved one a good day before you leave the house in the morning. Stopping to hold the door for someone on the way out of a building. Donating a few hours on the weekend to volunteer at a food bank. Helping a neighbor shovel their driveway. What if we all shared a smile with a stranger in attempts to brighten their day? What if we offered a kind word to everyone we came into contact with so that they, in turn, may be inspired to offer a kind word to the next person?

But then, of course, there is the question we cannot ignore: Are there really selfless actions, or is everything we do for our own benefit? How can we be sure we are acting in the best interest of others and not ourselves? Perhaps you recall the Friends episode where Phoebe brings up this very question when Joey is hired to be a host on a PBS telethon. She states that telethons, along with most other seemingly good deeds, are really just “selfishness masquerading as good deeds.” Her reasoning behind this is that if an action makes you feel good inside, or benefits you in any way, then you are receiving benefits from your own action. Thus, it cannot be selfless. She then sets out on a mission to find a selfless act.

Well, if you want my opinion….I think that no matter what your intention is while performing an action and carrying out a duty, if the end result does good for someone or something else, it will make you feel good. If you have a heart, this is unavoidable. To say that because you feel good about it the action is actually a selfish one, is unfair. If you set out to do something good for someone else for the sole purpose of making yourself feel good, then yes, Phoebe would be correct in calling your action selfishness masquerading as a good deed. If you set out to help someone, or do something for the good of others and as a result you end up feeling good yourself… well, I call that a bonus.

Can you call yourself a karma yogi? When you wake up tomorrow morning, start you day by asking, "How can I help? How can I serve?" It is a journey we can embark upon together. One step at a time.

Warm up With Sun Salutations!

Staying inside, snuggled up on the couch with a cozy blanket and a cup of hot coco sounds like a great way to stay warm on a cold, snowy day like this. But that’s not the only way to keep warm! Why not warm up with some Sun Salutations?

Sun Salutations are known as surya namaskar in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. It consists of a series of 12 poses, or asanas, that flow continuously and are linked with the breath. Poses that involves extension or stretching are done on the inhale and poses that involve folding or contracting are done on the exhale.

Here is a helpful video from Yoga Journal that demonstrates how to do a beginner friendly sun salutation: Sun Salutations

It is important to note that there are many different styles of yoga, and each has its own variation of sun salutations. Regardless of which style you practice, the foundation remains the same, and learning the sequence of a basic sun salutation will help prepare you for other versions.

The benefits of Sun Salutations are endless! Here are just a few:

- Brings heat to the body, warming up the muscles – perfect for cold Jersey snow storms!

- Improve balance & coordination,

-Strengthens all the major muscle groups in the body.

-Improves posture

-Increases flexibility

- Stimulates cardiovascular system

- Oxygenates the blood and strengthens the heart.

-Relaxing, rejuvenating, and reduces stress.

Happy Saluting!

* Moving Surya Namaskar picture courtesy of www.yogasite.com *